So here’s some free advice for anyone who’s wondering about the best environment in which to write a blog post.  Having a flight in six hours and needing sleep, finding out your website’s admin panel is down and spending two hours with your host’s support trying to get it working, leaving for the airport at 530 AM only to find when you get there that your flight is delayed and you’re missing your connection, causing you to be four hours late getting home is not recommended.  I’d skip that and try something different.

So, bleary-eyed greeting from the terminal at Louis Armstrong International Airport.

If there’s ever a time when you need a series from the “soothing-healing” side of the ledger, this would be it – though I kind of wish now that I’d waited and watched this episode of Gakuen Babysitters this morning, when I really needed it.  It was another good one, as the series stays safely in its comfort zone of gently quirky humor while slowly expanding out its cast and thematic breadth.  The subject of romance is hardly the centerpiece of this series, but it certainly has to be woven into the fabric of any coming-of-age story.

The A-part this week is the story of Inui Hiroyuki (Hosoya Yoshimasa), a 2nd-year at Morinomiya.  He’s in love with Sawatori-sensei, who’s the mother of “poop machine” Midori-chan (who seems to be one of the most good-natured babies ever).  Problem is that Inui-kun believes that Sawatori-sensei’s husband is dead – when in fact he’s an archaeologist on a dig in Turkey and only “buried” in his work. Usaida-san is too amused by this misunderstanding to spill the beans, which very nearly leads to a disastrously scarring-for-life moment for Inui (though he dodges that bullet at the last).  And BTW, poor Kotarou – he’s patient to a fault.

This all gets Ryuuichi thinking about love – romantic love, that is.  He’s at the age where such concerns are normally asserting their dominance, but Ryuu has never felt the stirrings of love – and honestly, with as much as he now has to worry about who has time? It’s more subtle confirmation that Ryuu is very much not just aware that he’s missing out on a normal adolescence, but troubled by it.  It doesn’t seem like there’s anything percolating between he and Inomata-san (though Ushimari is worried) but the heart wants what it wants, so we’ll see where the story takes this theme.

Meanwhile, a feud is brewing between Taka and Kirin, who’s abandoned the super sentai game (any good one requires 5, so this is a problem – no Pink) in favor of studying to become a witch.  Despite the best peacemaking efforts of Kotarou (“No fight!”) this soon grows into open warfare, with Ryuu-kun caught in the middle.  Should “adults” allow kids to have their dreams, as Ryuu believes, or disabuse them and bring them back to reality as Hayato-kun says?  It’s an interesting question, perhaps more a matter of timing than anything else.

Ryuuichi eventually decides to do what he can to help Kirin “prove” to Taka that witches are real (though not with Inomata’s Salem Witch Trial tomes) but fate intervenes when she tries to take matters into her own hands.  I’m not sure if the takeaway is as simple as Ryuu thinks – “I should have told her the truth right away” – but it’s a harsh reminder that fantasy has its limits.  It’s also a harsh reminder that Usaida-san may not be an especially good babysitter – I mean, seriously, Man?  The napping on the job is one thing, but you really need to life your game when it comes to paying attention…