“We must hurry!  Protect the urine!”

Aoharu X Kikanjuu – 02

I have to admit I got pretty bored by the latter stages of this ep of Aoharu X Kikanjuu.  I still quite like the visual style, but I don’t find any of the characters especially interesting and the execution of the first true survival games sequence was pretty uninspired.

All in all, the biggest issue with A x K at this point is that it’s fairly bland.  Frankly that’s a lot different than what I was expecting going in, but that’s on me – I just thought this material would have a darker edge to it.  I suppose it’s possible my interest level will pick up once the motivations of the characters are unraveled in greater detail – or I should say if they are, because it’s possible they’re simply as superficial as they seem to be so far.  We’ll see, but it’s looking like a probably drop at this point.

Shimoneta – 02

As many a LN has prompted me to repeat, there’s no damn way I’m typing out that whole damn title more than once.

This is one weird little series, but it’s pretty funny and even a little bit clever.  Yeah, there’s basically one joke here but there’s a certain gleeful intensity in the way Shimoneta keeps finding new ways to execute it that makes the show entertaining.  It’s a maxim of mine with shows like this that they have to trust the joke enough to play it out to its logical conclusion if they’re going to have a chance, and so far it sure looks like this one does.

I would say this week’s standout moments tended more towards the outrageous than the hilarious (where with the premiere it was the opposite) but at least there were plenty of them.  We had the little flashback of Tanukichi’s bathtime with his ero-terrorrist dad.  We had the whole extended dialogue on protein in boys’ urine.  And then all the random charts of boys penile and masturbatory statistics (all from SOX studies, mind you) peppering Blue Snow’s monologues.  For pure comedy I liked the manic sequence at the end with Tanukichi once again dressing as Blue Snow for another of Ayame’s terror plots best.

I’m still not sure how well this is going to hold up over a full cour, but little things like seeing Anna’s crazy side do help in that regard.  I’m not expecting touching character drama here but variety is going to be critical to keeping Shimoneta from staling quickly.  There’s at least one more crazy on the way (this girl – though she’s played by one of my least favorite seiyuu in Arai Satomi, I’m not too depressed because it looks like one of my most favorite will be joining the cast as well), and the social commentary might be sharp enough to give the series a little weight.