Ano Natsu de Matteru Episode 6 – New Players

You know, even though this show is a just huge teen-romance-drama thing, I can honestly say that I still like it.  Even though it still has a lot of annoying elements in it, the overall package is enough to allow me to overlook those certain shortcomings.  In this episode, we get more of everything; more Remon, more relationships, and even more characters.

Since the basic premise of this episode was a typical “We’re going to the beach” set-up, my expectations weren’t that high to begin with.  Jesus, older sisters in this show are really irresponsible aren’t they?  First, Kaito’s sister leaves him alone with a hot older girl in his house, and now Tetsuro’s sister pretty much says “You, Kaito, and all those hot girls go stay in a condo on the beach by yourself”.  Besides, what could that possibly lead to?  Although they do a lot of standard beach anime stuff, such being completely awestruck when they see girls in bikinis, and playing volleyball and such, Remon quickly gets everyone down to business of making their movie.  Two new characters also join our already confusing love octagon: Kinoshita, Kaito’s freind from elementary school, and Arisawa, Kinoshita’s friend who takes an unhealthy attraction to Tetsuro.  I’m not really sure, why this show felt the need to add anymore characters, especially since the show is now halfway through, but at the end they didn’t seem as forced as I first thought they would be.  Even if Arisawa existed for the sole purpose of raping Tetsuro, Kinoshita kind of had a purpose.  At least she gave something Kanna and Ichika to team up about.  Apparently when girls encounter a new threat, they put aside their differences to weed out the new threat and then go back to dueling each other.  Exactly why is Kaito being punished for simply knowing an attractive girl?  Who knows, it’s anime, girls are crazy enough anyway.

Oddly enough, Mio, who’s pretty much sat in the background the first five episodes gets some development as well.  And apparently, she likes Tetsuro… I guess.  That really didn’t make too much sense to me; in all the time she’s spent with him, she’s never insinuated that she has feelings for him, and has always tried to help him deal with his relationship with Kanna, but when nympho girl comes into the picture, she gets all flustered and embarrassed.  So, does that mean, she’d behave the same way if Kanna ever did anything with Tetsuro?  It seems like she’s her relationship with Tetsuro is similar to his with Kanna, in that, they both sense that the object of their desire doesn’t like them, so they’re not pursuing it any further.  Well, at least now we have two sensible people, or rather, a sensible guy and a sensible closet nudist.  Thank GOD that was finally (kind of) explained, because her constant unexplained nudity was really irking me.  Now, if that’s not a plot device for fan service, I don’t know what is.  But just because you feel that you have to sleep naked does that mean you have to go commando too?

Kaito and Ichika continue to be idiots, and for the most part, boring.  Is it just me, or does it seem that everyone else in this show is far more interesting than the obvious romantic interests?  Kaito still suffers from bland harem MC syndrome, and it still confuses me why so many people are smitten with him, especially a girl that he hasn’t seen in years.  He’s kind of an ass to Kinoshita too; he’s constantly telling her to leave him alone and to get away from him, though that may just be his survival instincts kicking in, because he can probably feel that Ichika and Kanna want to go yandere on his ass.  Ichika’s retarded self later contemplates how to handle Kaito’s indecisiveness, and pretty much says “If I had sex with him, then I would win” but doesn’t for some undisclosed reason, or at least that’s what I got out of it.  Maybe she meant some crazy alien technology, but judging by how she got embarrassed about it, I’ll assume the later.

The episode moved along fairly quickly, but that last minute or so, where Tetsuro’s getting raped, Mio’s exposing herself, Ichika and Kanna are running through the jungle, and Kaito is making a hot girl cry was pretty damn good.  Everything was built up pretty good, even if Ichika and Kanna’s motives were to stop Kaito and Kinoshita from having sex.  Really?  Do you really think that indecisive little generic-ass MC would ever do something like that?  Even if he did, it’s his own business, leave him alone and let him do what he wants.  Who in the world would have sex in a jungle when you have a house on the beach near you anyway, why in God’s name would you stop there?  Anyway, everyone is caught in extremely awkward situations, making thousands of gay babies, and Remon epically stands on a cliff.

Remon also returns in full force this episode to continue to push everything along and keep things in her life interesting.  Even though she probably had every single thing that she wanted to happen planned out in her mind, as soon as Kinoshita came along, she decided that such an opportunity was too good to pass up, and instantly reworked her entire trollish scheme, God love her.  Also, form the preview, it seems as if she’s going to get some people drunk again.  She’s still ridiculously enigmatic and doesn’t show even a slight sign of her own motives, but that’s part of what makes her so awesome.  Perhaps she’s deliberately spurring everyone’s relationship on so they don’t spend their youth wallowing in teenage angst and unrequited love.  Or maybe she’s just doing it for the lulz.