Given the nature of the folks behind Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE! LOVE!, you had to figure they were going to try and up the ante from the first season, as wild as it was.  And full credit – they’ve succeeded.  This cour is more fourth-wall breaking, more self-referential, more shameless, and definitely even sillier.  As I said last week I think the equation for this show is pretty simple – if you liked the first season you’re probably going to like this one even more.  If you didn’t…

The Beppu twins, Akihiko and Haruhiko, are definitely the antagonists at the center of Love! Love!.  And the main characters for about eight and a half minutes, as our heroes point out.  And the alien familiar behind these two – the green squirrel – is apparently named Dadacha.  And not just a squirrel either, Dadacha is a flying squirrel – which somehow seems appropriate for a pair of twins who make the student council seem like modest and self-effacing lads.  The “Sun and the Moon” (even their metaphoric names are pompous) erect a giant mansion (Atsushi mistakes it for a love hotel, which gives Yumoto an excuse to show off how innocent he is) across from the Hakone bathhouse, and proceed to turn most of the student body into their “apes”.

Foremost among the apes this week is a ludicrous popinjay of a student (did we ever get his name?) who’s created a complex web of delusions of grandeur around himself (and including himself) which makes him both a target of derision among his classmates and a perfect test subject for the Beppu twins.  In surely the most outrageous scene of the episode (well – the tofu curd battle was pretty out there too) – Dadacha introduces them as “Vepp!” (in Engrish) and they proceed to do a musical number for their new slave.  I don’t think there’s another series out there who’d even have the notion to enact such a scene, never mind the nerve to actually do it.

Speaking of which (heh) there’s that curd scene – where the popinjay turns into a tofu monster and proceeds to spew first soybeans, and then mushy pot dregs all over the Boi-bu.  I’ve always liked tofu, but after that display I’m not so sure. In general terms I think we’re seeing the premise of the first season repeat itself, so if you’re hung up on plot details (I think you’re watching the wrong show if you are) I suppose there the danger of this season seeming repetitive.  But the difference is, I think everything is turned up to “11” here – it’s the first season on an overdose of caffeine and special mushrooms.  And really, if that isn’t what we’re watching Binan Koukou for, I really do think we’re watching the wrong show.