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I think we can say girls reading porn out loud is officially a trend in anime this season. Not that I’m complaining.
OP2: “Treasure!” 「オープニングテーマ」by IRIS
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The great Emiri Katou blew into Ben-To like a hurricane this week – Hurricana Shaga, in fact, complete with her own OP. Say what you will about the character Ayame Shaga, but that’s how you do an introduction. Shaga has many facets, it seems. She’s The Beauty by the Lake, a formidable – though no match for The Ice Witch – wolf in her own right. She’s You’s cousin, and there’s apparently a lot of history there that makes me wonder just what games those two were playing as kids. And she’s a bit of an ecchi queen herself, if her assault on Oshiroi’s breasts was anything to go by. Not that I’m complaining.
Of course it was pretty obvious Shaga was a sexually charged beast from her interactions with You. All that “how did we end up in the friend zone?” stuff was played for laughs, but clearly it meant something to her. Other than the fact that Shaga is half-Italian and a first-year (really?) high-schooler, we don’t know too much at this point. She certainly talks a big game, but when it comes to backing it up, I get the sense she’s a bit of a paper tiger. As mentioned she couldn’t match Yarizui in the trenches when it all went down (though she did fight hard) and when Ume came by to put the hurt on her for sexually harassing Oshiroi, she didn’t really put up much of a fight when she was dragged off to the bath. And when Ume turned the yuri tables on her, Shaga backed down pretty fast.
That Oshiroi’s novel is a hentai should certainly come as no surprise, based on what we’ve seen of her character so far. Turning the Ben-To wars into a porno somehow feels about right for this extremely strange series, but where we’re going next with the guy in the command center doing reconnaissance on the local wolves I have no idea. The surrealism level seems to be raised just about every week with this series though, so I’m sure whatever it is will be extremely absurd. It’s interesting to see that for all his uselessness against Ume and Shaga, You is getting pretty strong in the wolf department – he bested The Wizard himself some new random character for a prized tofu burger bento with maitake mushrooms in bean paste this week.
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Fencedude
October 31, 2011 at 1:36 amIf Ume cared, she'd probably dominate the Bento wars. But I'm guessing she has no particular interest in half-price Bento, if that bathroom is anything to go by.
Anyway, Shaga's amazing, and it almost feels like the real main character just showed up. Will be interesting to see what they do with her. She's the only one of the girls that Satou's actually seemed to have real sexual tension with. He clearly has no interest in Hana (even discounting the fact that pursuing her is tantamount to suicide) and he seems to see Sen as more of a comrade/leader. Though I know the cousin aspect is going to squick some people, it doesn't bother most Japanese, so I see no reason to get worked up over it.
And that was a hell of a fight, wasn't it? Love Ayame's chopstick-fu
Anonymous
October 31, 2011 at 2:41 amI don't think that guy is the Wizard. I don't remember the Wizard having piercings, and their eye colors are different (new guy:blue/gray, the Wizard has brown).
wendeego
October 31, 2011 at 3:00 amYeah the guy the protaganist took on this episode wasn't the Wizard. Who exactly he is hasn't been confirmed yet, though!
Shaga's pretty cool! It was very clever how the episode set her up as this unstoppable force (with her own OP and everything!) and then pulled the rug out from under her repeatedly. Little clever touches like that pretty much make this show.
admin
October 31, 2011 at 3:37 amHeh, my bad on the Wizard. can't beat the Wiz!
momogoldfish
October 31, 2011 at 5:09 amAlso sure Oshiroi was writing BL with You as uke…Also need some more time with Shaga, her personality still seems a bit too disjointed. Fighting scenes are still awesome though.
deafvader
October 31, 2011 at 11:04 amYou gets the girl.
You: Yes I did
Murkel
October 31, 2011 at 12:27 pmI especially liked how they made fun of anime cliches during Shaga's introduction.
And yeah, I share everyone's love for Shaga. This was probably the best episode so far.
Ulisses
November 1, 2011 at 1:15 amWow. Just…wow.
This episode was easily the best so far. It set a new standard for the episodes to come.
I am amazed on how good the new character is. Every scene was special with Shaga in it. It is so amusing to watch her different reactions on every character presented to us on the earlier episodes.
With her SSJ3 hair, princess face and highly spontaneous personality, Shaga will possibly become my favorite character of the season.
andallshallbewell
November 21, 2011 at 9:50 pmI loved all the Sega Saturn stuff at the start of the show. So accurate and so nice to see!