Kao ni Denai Kashiwada-san to Kao ni Deru Oota-kun – 03
The smartphone in school thing always amuses me, as I’ve never seen a Japanese junior high school where phones were allowed on school grounds. But it makes for a good gag, so I assume it’s just a conceit a lot of series play along with. Oniwarada-sensei (Miyake Kenta gets a lot lighter material to work with than in his other fall series) get a lot of play this week. He’s the classic hard-ass teacher middle schoolers can’t stand. He does learn a very valuable lesson here – nothing makes people listen to you more than showing you can make them laugh. Unfortunately he doesn’t learn the corresponding lesson – you can either be funny or you can’t.
No question Kao ni Denai Kashiwada-san to Kao ni Deru Oota-kun is quite consciously playing with tropes using its own spin. The gag here does run the risk of getting repetitive, but so far those twists are enough to prevent that. The “LIME” thing was pretty standard but taking things from Oniwarada’s perspective was a nice turn. He sees Kashiwada as a savior and Oota as his nemesis (“That piercing!”). But eventually he starts to lean on Oota-kun as a means of breaking up the tension in class (which I’ve seen teachers do for sure).
The whole Tabuchi business was, as expected, kind of a miss and the less said the better. That’s a cliche without a requisite twist. But then we get a genuine reimagining as Oota and Kashiwada are locked in the storage room. All the expected boxes are checked, right down to the misunderstanding trope when they get rescued. But the dynamic between the two of them is what makes this work – it’s pretty darn cute.
I think the main takeaway this week is that being a poker face isn’t the huge life hack Oota (and Tabuchi) think it is. Kashiwada is, in fact, isolated largely because of it. If kids can’t see what you’re feeling, they’re usually going to assume you’re not feeling anything and back off. So in a sense Oota and Kashiwada have a symbiotic relationship, especially for her – not only is he helping her be more expressive but he’s gotten her into his social group. I also like the fact that she’s so open about liking him (she even tried to get his answer on LIME), which is pretty refreshing for a middle school romcom.
Toujima Tanzaburou wa Kamen Rider ni Naritai – 03
It’s a long time into the distant and hazy past now. But I still remember the Samurai Flamenco experience very well, because it was a pretty unique one in my anime journey. That was a series that pulled a huge bait-and-switch, after several episodes transitioning from what looked like a character story about disappointment, diminished expectations, and Japan’s lost generation into an extremely unhinged fantasy. It was a turn that absolutely did not work for me, and worked just fine for a lot of other people.
Samurenco was always a series that Toujima Tanzaburou wa Kamen Rider ni Naritai called to mind given the themes it’s covered, so this twist doesn’t come as nearly as big a surprise this time. My initial reaction is the same as it was then – I think the original story is the more interesting one. Adults living out a childhood fantasy, and an exploration of the dangers psychological and otherwise of that – full of potential for sure. More interesting than another tokusatsu crossover show which caulks over those issues and leads with the arrested development corps having been right all along.
But the devil is in the details I suppose, and execution is everything. Samurai Flamenco resolutely failed to pull it off (for me) but that’s not to say Toujima Tanzaburou can’t. And the truth is, even after the twist I found this episode robustly entertaining. Its full-throated embrace of the crazy was effective, and the fact that pretty much every character is at least a few cards short of a full deck gives the whole experience a heady unpredictability. Shocker is real? Sure, why not. For Toujima, Shocker being real is like a gift from Heaven – a validation of all his dysfunctions. Yuriko – despite more thoroughly immersing herself in the illusion – has more reservations about all this. You sense he always believed the fantasy was real, and she was just embracing the fantasy.
The restaurant manager with the wild backstory (what happened to the brother?), his yandere girlfriend who turns out to be in Shocker herself, Asano-kun fantasizing about blackmailing Yuriko into schtupping him – the crazy just keeps on coming here. I get the feeling that the strategy is just to stay in sixth gear all the way, which is a risky way to go but could be quite the wild ride if the series can pull it off. For now I’m shaking off the Samurenco PTSD and staying on-board, but I wouldn’t even begin to guess whether this is going to work for an entire season.
