I hate Mizuha and her whole horrible, annoying family. I hate them in situ – they’re antagonists so that at least is intended, I suppose. But most of all I hate them for the impact they have on the story. Any time they’re central Fumetsu no Anata e goes straight down a sinkhole of insipid plotquakes and unintentionally comic action scenes. They’re a symptom and not the disease, no denying that – it’s Ooima Yoshitoki’s writing that’s the real problem (that, and the fact that her editors apparently all went on strike after the first season’s material). But they do seem to be the most prominent one.

So Fumetsu has been on hiatus for a month thanks to the Olympics. But I can’t honestly say I was looking forward to having it back. And that’s after maybe the best 2-3 episode stretch since S1, though Episode 16 had already re-jumped the shark. You just knew where this was headed, and indeed it followed the predictable course. Mizuha (well, her Nokker) mugging for the camera, random weirdness all around. The school stuff was semi-unexpected at least, only in the sense that it wasn’t specifically telegraphed.

Tonari comes off looking good when it’s all Mizuha, which is remarkable in itself. By the time she’s done with zombie-Fushi he’s going to be running around school naked (his clothes don’t regenerate, just his flesh). Aiko emerges as a clear-headed decision maker here, which I suppose isn’t surprising as she was always the smart one in the family (I love Yuki’s bakayarocity, though). Back in the bunker one by one the human avatars in Mizuha’s family get picked off, and it’s the Nokker inside Itsuki that takes command.

Not that i cared much about any of this, but if we were supposed to feel sympathy for Mizuha, well…  Needless to say that’s a dry well. She’s annoying as fuck and cries more often than the sous chef in charge of onion prep. “Just die, already” is the apropos phrase here but alas, Fushi saves her yet again to annoy another day. The hope here – such as it is – is that this whole kerfuffle is resolved in the next two eps and we get a halfway-decent finale (Fumetsu does tend to do well with those) which returns the series to the reflective tone in which is excels.