Maekawa’s latest outfit, oh my – she’s just getting more and more adorable. I knew there was a reason I had sashimi for dinner tonight.

I have to sort of remind myself every time an episode of Denpa Onna starts that traditional assessments just won’t work – I need to remember I promised to stop caring whether it started to treat anything with an ounce of seriousness and just let the fluffy wash over me. And boy, I think this was a pretty good litmus test of an episode – if you like this show for what it is, this was paradise. If you have any reservations, I can only imagine you’d have been irritated beyond belief.

Of course for me, the big news is that I think – think, mind you – that Maekawa-san has decided to get into the game. Given her personality I just don’t think it’s possible for Maekawa to be remotely direct about such things – and her offhand, “Oh, we may as well exchange numbers too.” had the ring of falseness to it. As did her oh-so-casual invitation to play baseball. And the onigiri, and the extracted pledge to play again. I think she’s got Makoto-tan in the blood, now, and the war is on. Or, that could all be wishful thinking on my part because I adore her so damn much.

But by God, all of the damn characters in this series are on kawaii overload. The boys are cute. The 40 year-old Aunts are cute. And as for the girls… Even I have to admit that Erio was pretty freaking moe this week, and she didn’t even do anything all that zany. It was just her way of addressing Makoto when they were talking about stargazing, and her shy request to play baseball. And the way she swung the bat, and ran the bases with one strap falling down… I think I need an insulin shot.

If you wanted actual plot, it was during the second baseball game that you got a little bit of it. Out of the blue we have yet another new character – this time a mysterious ballplayer wearing a space suit with pink hearts on the front. This is obviously the astronaut girl we’ve all seen pics of, and to say she was introduced straight out of left field is literally true. What exactly her role in the events to come is, I can’t say – is this series going to go sci-fi on us after all, or is she another headcase like Erio?

For me, I was pretty content with the small core group we’ve already met – especially as we’re down to three eps to go and there’s no indication whatsoever of the show getting serious about telling us what the actual conflict driving the plot is, never mind solving it. Introducing a new character into that mix seems like a risky choice to me, but I guess it would be pointless to expect a traditional plot resolution from this series, which doesn’t seem too concerned with dramatic precedent. It will be what it will be, and whatever that is I expect it to be as unconventional as the rest of the series has been.