After a one-week Olympic break, Shoushimin Series returns both to the airwaves and LiA. It won the Patron Pick vote, which consisted of Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san, Shoushimin Series, Giji Harem, and Kami no Tou: Ouji no Kikan. To be honest I was expecting Alya-san to win, but it wasn’t even close – Shoushimin got over half the votes. I don’t have plans to cover any of the others at this point (Alya-san is probably the most likely), but as always I reserve the right to pop back in if events warrant.

As for this show, it remains pretty vexing. It’s perverse at the very least, showcasing Yonezawa’s trademark narrative peculiarity at its most singular. But it seems more ostentatious about it than Hyouka was, though whether that’s a function of the source or the adaptation I don’t know. Shoushimin Series has a bit of a pleased with itself quality which I find a little grating. Not so much so that it would be a deal-breaker as long as the rest of it held my interest. Whether that’s the case is still up in the air.

The bulk of this episode was Jougarou and Kengou sitting in a classroom solving the Sakagami mystery. More properly Jougarou solving and Kengo playing a minimal Watson role (mostly by supplying ratios for Jougarou to number crunch). Was this interesting? I guess sort of, though that’s very much in the eye of the beholder. Jougarou pieces together that Sakagami is going to a driving school far from his house, is almost certainly a first-year and thus 5/6 likely to be 15, and probably intent on using the license for nefarious purposes. And of course he winds up being right.

The comment about himself being a fox and Osanai being a wolf was interesting, in the sense that it continues to plant a seed of doubt about what’s going on here. I don’t think any of this is intended to be taken literally, but I’m not totally discounting it yet. If it’s metaphorical I really wanted to see Yuki metaphorically rip out someone’s windpipe. As it is she has to settle for getting a bunch of kids arrested for fraudulent use of licenses, including Sakagami-kun, and she feels sort of bad about it.

In the final analysis it sounds as if the pair of them might be giving up on this whole “ordinary” thing, whatever it actually is. To thine own canine be true? At the very least Jougarou suggests the possibility, though Yuki seems less keen. Then at the cake shop another case gets randomly tossed in their lap, as an angry woman throws a glass of water on her husband (or fiancee or boyfriend), dousing Yuki in the process. And I guess for a wolf, that’s a call to revenge. I’m kind of where I was two weeks ago – curious about where this weird thing is going, without yet feeling really invested in it.