Scariest episode of the season.  For any series.

I’m not sure why anyone would be, but if you were someone who wanted to see what Binan Koukou – and Hakone Yumoto – would be like with the limiters removed, then this was definitely the episode for you.  And it wasn’t a pretty sight.  This escalation has been a growing trend in Season 2, with restraint going out the window and the focus seemingly shifting to simply trying to up the ante in every element of this series’ particular stylistic repertoire.  But it’s never been more clear that Yokote and Takamatsu know exactly what they’re doing (and what they’re spoofing).

Yumoto all hopped-up on endorphins and capsicum?  Yeah, that sounds like a great idea – what could possibly go wrong?  That’s exactly VEPPer’s latest plan to give Yumoto his just desserts – literally.  we’ve jumped ahead from New Year’s to Valentine’s Day, and the Boueibu has been systematically ignoring VEPPer since their shocking announcement.  En-chan cuts right to the heart of the matter – unlike the Seitoukai, these boys have no interest in ruling the world.  No, everything is personal with them – they’re just a couple of rather pitiable brats starved for love and attention.  And they’ve made Gora-san the focus of their obsession, which really means Yumoto is the focus of their obsession.

Yumoto on the endorphin rush from hell is pretty much what you’d expect.  And it’s quite the spectacle – not even the other club members can bring themselves to watch it (when they’re not too busy anyway trying to avoid being the target of it).  Takamatsu really spares no gory detail here – he cranks it up to eleven and just keeps right on cranking.  And he spares us no detail in calling attention to the silliness of the Beppu brothers – even the Boueibu being perplexed at their theme song.  But at least they get two transformation sequences in one episode.

I think the part where I lost it was when Yumoto unveiled his “sprinkling of love” to deal with the masses of chocolate VEPPer had turned their apes into.  Things got so bad for them that they were actually preparing to take the fight to Yumoto themselves – but we never got to see their special move because he cuddled them into submission first.  Only An-chan’s love (again, cranked up way past eleven) is able to bring Yumoto back down to his normal over-the-top self, but I suppose the twins are going to show off their true powers sooner or later.