“The obfuscation episode”
Seriously, this episode was irritatingly brilliant at muddying the waters. We’ve gotten some exposition in every episode this month, so I guess this was payback time. But there was a few things that did become clear:
– Ruka is now a girl. (S)He was wearing the same uniform as Mayushi. At least for that timeline – for all we know the later changes might have caused Ruka’s mail to never get sent, and turned him back to a boy.
– The shit has seriously started to hit the fan
– Okarin is an idiot
I mean, seriously – why the hell would you agree to let Feyris-nyan send a text using the phone microwave (name subject to change) without knowing what it was? Clearly it was something pretty major – as it appears to have either brought her father back from the dead or at least back from being absent. Given that her family is apparently the “Akiha” Clan, owners of all the land around Akihabara and responsible for the explosion of moe culture there, that’s an ever bigger deal.
And indeed, after that text it appears the worst possible thing has happened. The bastards – they’ve de-otakufied Akiba! No Toranoana? This is catastrophic indeed – having to go all the way to Nakano Broadway for a doujin? Christina finally used the words “butterfly effect” this week – the audience has been thinking it for a while but it appears that Okarin is only now beginning to grasp the sheer magnitude of the danger he’s playing with. Every change begets more changes – even the smaller ones – and when you do something huge like change a gender or return a lost father, the changes are huge. And it appears that every time a change is made, the IBN 5100 is getting more and more removed from Okarin’s grasp.
The idiocy is catching. Not only did Daru blab about the time machine to Feyris in the first place, he also sent a text – on his own, apparently – to himself to buy a limited edition before it sold out. This is a frightening trend – the temptation to use the time machine grows with each use, and it becomes easier and easier to talk themselves into using it.
As ugly as things are getting, there was still time for a little humor – most of it, as usual, coming from the banter between Okarin and Christina. He catches her on the phone at the beginning, crying over something and having a heated conversation – but she won’t way with who or what about. Meanwhile we also learn that she’s a 2channer – do the secrets never end with this girl? Daru and Mayushi both her their relationship figured out, at least – she and Okarin are hot for each other, big-time.
