Ano Natsu de Matteru Episode 12 – Final

After last week’s episode, I began to think to myself how this could end, when I began to realize that the possibility of this show being a direct sequel to Onegai Teacher (which I had kind of discredited in my own mind) was insanely high.  And, in a way, it actually was.  Perhaps it was my own fault, but for some reason I was expecting everything to mesh together a lot more than it did, or at the very least Remon was Ichigo from Onegai.  After all, she looks almost exactly the same, and seems to know a lot about aliens.  However she claims that Ichika was the first alien that she’s ever met, which flies in the face of that theory, as well as the concept that she works for MIB.  After all, if you work for an organization that specializes in aliens, it would stand to reason that you would have probably met a few.  And for that matter, does that mean that both of these series are cannon with the Men in Black movies?

But the fact that this series is directly related to Onegai kind of excuses the fact that it rips off that series.  I still think that a larger effort could have been made to not have this show exactly like the original, but maybe the idea was to make this show an Onegai Teacher for the newer generation, while still allowing people who’ve seen the original to make connections and enjoy it.  In that sense, it kind of reminds me of Gunbuster and Diebuster (or Gunbuster 2 or Top wo Nerea 2 or whatever you want to call it), though I think Gainax did a much better job at connecting theirs than this series did.  However, even if you have seen the first series, there aren’t a whole lot of connections to make with this one.  Really, the only thing that are related with both of the series are the facts that they’re both in the same universe and they both have similar circumstances, only being related by the fact that one happened before the other.

This episode also finally accomplished what I had wanted it to be the entire time – a kind of nostalgia-themed show about enjoying the time you have together with your friends.  I think that if this show would have been more about them as friends instead of some sci-fi rom-com staring the two least interesting characters, then the scene where they’re watching the movie would have meant a lot more to me.  Maybe it’s because I’m finishing high school this year, and I literally have less than thirty days of real school left, but that part of the series actually got some genuine emotion from me.  Even since starting high school I’ve missed the summers of when I was a kid and had jack-shit to do except have fun and dump all of the knowledge I had acquired over the school year out of my head.  But maybe that’s just because I’m lazy and don’t want to do anything, especially not finish the scenten-

Anyway, as for Remon, I guess I can accept the ridiculous explanation they gave as to why she’s been so weird throughout the whole series, mainly because she’s such a fucking boss.  But really, that was pretty damn random, considering that this organization had never been mentioned, and also the fact that it kind of seems like a joke.  And am I really supposed to accept that Remon, who is as far as we know a 17/18 year old girl, has enough clout amongst MIB to call dozens of members to simply aid her with helping a friend?  I understand that it’s an organization focused around aliens, but the robots they attacked were just trying to save someone they assumed to be in danger, so does the MIB actually have to right to try to stop an issue that as this, seeing as how it doesn’t involve them at all?  No wait… now that I think about… HOW THE FUCK CAN THERE BE AN MIB IN JAPAN WHEN EARTH SUPPOSEDLY HAS NEVER BEEN VISITED BY ALIENS?!?!!?!?!?!  THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY GODDAMN SENSE!!!!!!!!  EARTH IS A CLASS F PLANET, BUT WE HAVE AN ORGAINZATION THAT IS BASICALLY THE PR DEPERATMENT OF HUMANS AND ALIENS?!?!?!?  WHAT IN THE EVERLIVING FUCK?!?!?!  ISN’T THE VERY EXISTENCE OF THAT FUCKING ORGANIZATION PROOF OF ALIEN CONTACT WITH EARTH?!?!?!!?!?!?!?

Okay, well, I’m sorry about getting angry there, but huge gaping plot holes like that piss the eternal hell out of me.  Yet even though that makes my blood boil with confusion, I guess I’ll forget it, because this series wasn’t all that bad.  It’s pretty damn generic, but I think most people could agree that they’d rather watch this than something like Zero no Tsukaima, Highschool DxD, or any other number of generic harem romance whatevers.  Maybe the relation to the original caused me to accept it a little more than I would have originally, but I still don’t feel like it would have been that terrible of a show even if it didn’t have that connection.

Ano Natsu de Matteru Episode 11 – Runaway

Let’s create a hypothetical scenario, hell, I’ll even use the same thing I used last week.  Say you go on a trip to another country, and while over there, you like it so much, you decide to live there.  You don’t tell you family, you don’t tell your friends, and when they call you you just ignore them.  Under these circumstances, would you be in any way surprised if one of your family members came to look for you?  If you answered “no”, then you and Ichika aren’t really on the same wavelength.

Call me crazy, but I happen to think that what Ichika did was rather selfish and rude.  When she decided to stay, I kind of assumed that either her family didn’t care about her, or she didn’t have one altogether.  However, neither of those are the case, as her sister cared enough about her to use up her vacation days to try to find her missing family member.  So imagine her surprise when she finds her sister completely unharmed living it up with her new boyfriend on some random planet.  I, for one, would be pretty upset at her.  But it’s not only that Ichika didn’t make any attempt to contact her obviously caring family, it’s that she even has to ask why her sister is there in the first place.  As if being family isn’t enough of a reason to try to find your missing sibling, how about that you supposedly sent out a rescue signal to your home planet and the drone they sent never returned.  How could they possibly think something bad happened to you?  And even after that, she’s surprised when her sister tells her that she can’t stay there.

Kaito’s idea is also equally as ludicrous as his girlfriend’s.  Perhaps it’s just because I don’t really care about them as a couple, and think they’re both incredibly boring, but it seems that they’re taking their relationship a little too seriously.  Ichika has pretty much decided to move away from her home to be with her boyfriend of all of three days, and we all know that high school relationships always work out in the end.  But in addition to that, Kaito is willing to move away from everyone he has ever known and the only family he has left to be with his girlfriend of all of three days.  I know people will claim that love causes you to take drastic measures, but surely there has to be some type of limit on how far you’ll go to be with your high school sweetheart.  Everyone else’s idea of helping Ichika find a way to stay is also kind of irresponsible.  They don’t even really consider how much trouble Ichika could potentially be in if she doesn’t cooperate and act like it’s no big deal at all.  But the way her sister put it, it seemed like a very big deal.  Granted, they did find a way to supposedly allow her to stay, but they didn’t have much regard for her safety the first time around.

Although Kanna made her big “Happy” claim last episode, that obviously didn’t last too long.  And like I assumed it would, her being around Kaito when he and Ichika are together felt terribly awkward, especially with her acting all jealous and embarrassed.  With Tetsuro’s acceptance of Mio’s feelings for him, it seems like she’s going to be the only one left out of this big love-fest.  Even if Ichika has to go back, which she probably won’t, it’s not as if Kaito is just going to get over her and start dating Kanna instantaneously.  So we’re looking at a pretty likely situation that the only two people who end up happy in the end are Tetsuro and Mio, which is completely fine by me.

So we only have one episode left and if it was up to me, the whole thing would revolve around Remon and what she really is.  There is absolutely no way that she is just some normal girl.  She was way to knowing and accepting of that alien technology, and she even did her little “fufufu” laugh when Kaito asked why a giant fucking robot arm was in the van that she inexplicably acquired.  They better have something cool for her big finale too.  The only real reasons I can think of her acting the way she does is either because she’s an alien, or she’s some kind of big alien enthusiast…. or she’s completely insane.  Any of them work guys, just don’t leave us with no explanation as to why she’s been acting so oddly throughout the entire show.

Ano Natsu de Matteru Episode 10 – Happy Ending?

Hey, look everybody!  It’s… kind of like Ano Hana, except no one’s dead or dressing up as said dead person.  But honestly, I’m glad to see this show beginning to pull away from the ho-hum rom-com it’s been for the past nine episodes.  But still, it seemed kind of stupid to present the faux happy ending for all of the characters as if all their problems could be solved by creating even more awkwardness among them. It seems like a giant orgy would be the best solution; everybody would probably get some of what they want.  And when is this show going to explain how Kaito knew Ichika was an alien?

So let’s go over this.  Tetsuro knows that Mio likes him, Kanna knows that Tetsuro likes her, and Kaito knows that Kanna likes him.  So how is that not going to be awkward as all hell?  They still have to make their movie together, and they still have to go to school with each other, so I don’t really see how their lives are going to be any easier now that they know they all have someone who likes and that they don’t like them back.  In most cases that causes a rift in friendship, unless we’re talking some hardcore bonds between the people.  I could kind of see it working for Kanna and Tetsuro (if they’ve really been friends as long as they say they have) but for everyone else, it looks like long roads of awkwardness ahead.  That is except for Remon, who couldn’t give less of a damn about anything, other than making sure all of those crazy kids have the proper protection while they have their fun.

Most of this episode centered around Kaito and Ichika being a couple, and everyone else angsting like it’s going out of style.  Kanna has literally been crying for days over Kaito, Tetsuro is mad at himself for not liking the hot nudist girl, and Remon is still breaking into peoples homes in hopes of getting some footage to push her movie up to that “XXX” rating.  Although Mio had one of her best parts in this episode.  She finally called out Tetsuro on being a jackass and inviting Ichika to be in their movie so Kaito would get together with her, so that Kanna would be free for the taking.  Although Tetsuro denies her claim, it was pretty obvious that was his idea all along, and telling Kaito that she liked him was his way of spurring his master plan into high gear.  In reality, none of this would have happened if he hadn’t been so determined to get Kaito together with someone other than Kanna, so I guess he gets credit for the plot of the whole series.  At least he realizes that what he did was retarded, and that it only screwed stuff up even more for her.  But hey, now you have a reason to get together with the hot nudist girl, so you should probably get on that.

So, we’re presented this bullshit happy ending where everything is supposed to be fine and dandy now that everyone know how everyone feels.  Well, that’s obviously not how this story is going to end, but if you say so, I’ll go along with it for the time being.  It’s probably all just a setup for the new plot device that we now have – Ichika’s sister.

And with her appearance, that pretty much seals the plot of the last two episodes of this show.  I imagine they’ll consist of her sister telling Ichika to come home and Ichika telling her sister that she wants to stay.  Repeat about ten times and you have the plot for the last arc.  I’m willing to bet that some bullshit something-or-other will require Ichika to return to her home planet, she’ll be sad about leaving her lame-ass generic boyfriend of almost three days and then she’ll probably return in some little epilogue scene.  But really, how did she think this was all going to play out?  If she was just going to earth for a trip, then wouldn’t she understand that someone would eventually come for her?  Not to mention, deciding to live on another planet is a pretty big fucking decision, that’s like if you went on a vacation to France and liked it so much, you decided to live there; you didn’t bring anything form home, you didn’t tell anyone you knew – you just decided to live there because you liked some hot French girl.  Someone would eventually find you, because you can’t just move to another country (or another planet) whenever you want.  I’m almost certain that her plant, being as advanced as it is, would have some type of regulations and procedures for movie to another planet.  But then again, Ichika is a stupid, stupid person, so maybe it all just slipped her mind.

Ano Natsu de Matteru Episode 9 – An Alien is Fine Too

Damn, Ano Natsu, you practically gave me that joke on a silver platter.  Okay, first and foremost, I have to say this about the alien reveal in this show: Bull-Fucking-Shit.  There is no way in hell anyone would ever react this way to a situation like this.  She finally tells them that she’s an alien, and all they can say is “Oh, that’s pretty cool, can we see your spaceship?”.  That’s- I don’t- how the… what the fuck is wrong with these people?  It makes sense for Remon to behave that way, but not everyone else in the show.  Someone you’ve known for months is a goddamn alien, and in case you were too busy crushing on each other form your entire lives to know, that isn’t really a very common thing here on planet Earth.  I’m sorry, but history proves that humans aren’t really that accepting of a species. And you’re telling me Kaito knew that she was an alien?  What the fuck, HOW?

What in the world does he mean that he knew?  He hasn’t done anything to suggest that he did, unlike Remon.  Now, I guess that would explain the plot hole of why he was completely unfazed by Rinon, and had no problems with fighting that alien bear, but it doesn’t explain how everyone else in the show was completely okay with Rinon and didn’t think that he was weird in the slightest.  But not only that, how did he know that if she didn’t remember her curing him the first three times?  Do I really care?  No, I don’t, because Kaito is still a shitty main character, with no real redeeming our outstanding qualities – at least noting that warrants two girls fighting for him.  And Kanna – for weeks I’ve been hoping this show would explain why she was so smitten with him, and it looks like they (kind of) answered that.  Apparently she loved him at first sight because he was smiling even though his parents were dead.  Yeah, sorry, but I’d rather not have a reason at all than a stupid one like that.

Now, as well as everyone accepted Ichika’s alien-ness, why is she acting like they all hate her for it?  Everyone was being completely accepting of her identity and Kaito was being very calm and understanding about it (though it could be because he’s just an idiot), but she acts like he told her he doesn’t want an alien living with him or something like that.  Of course this situation has forced her to think about returning home, but that seems kind of irresponsible on her part.  I’ve constantly asked about Kaito’s alien cancer, which hasn’t shown up since episode two, but hasn’t she kind of fucked him over with that?  If she leaves, and that stuff ever comes back, then he’s pretty much dead.  Maybe she’s completely cured it, but if it came back before doesn’t that mean it can come back again?

Anyway, all that stupid shit aside, we had a very happy ending this week didn’t we?  Kaito and Ichika have confessed their undying one month love for each other and everyone is going to live happily ever after… right?  No, sorry to say that there is almost no way that is going to happen, at least not wading thorough a river of other relationships and melodrama to get there.  Now, there are three episodes left, so obviously we aren’t just going to watch them tell each other how much they love each other for the next three weeks – something is going to get fucked up.  We still have everyone else’s plot lines to get through, and like Remon said, “Someone’s happiness means unhappiness for another”.  So through the next three episodes, we’re going to get to see all of these love-struck kids emotions get trampled on by each other, a lot more crying, and a lot more of searching for Ichika’s “special place” (as erotic as that sounds).  I don’t think it takes any stretch of the imagination to say that Ichika is probably going to have to end up leaving after everything is over, and possibly returning in some type of epilogue-thing.  The series is finally starting to feel a little bit more like Ano Hana, which I’m always fine with.  Hopefully I can take some pleasure from watching all these morons get shot through the heart over the next weeks and seeing if they can actually make this “meh” show emotional enough to somewhat salvage it.

Ano Natsu de Matteru Episode 8 – Alien Stuff!

Well, it’s about damn time we got to see something interesting happen in this show.  After eight episodes of Ichika’s being an alien having absolutely no ramifications to the plot, we finally get some sci-fi stuff.   Also, Kaito gets brought back to life for the second time in about a month.  Come on, couldn’t you have done everyone a favor and let that idiot bite the dust, Ichika?  Even with the introduction of the alien/sci fi elements, the one thing that this episode firmly cemented in my mind is this: I absolutely abhor Kaito.

I really cannot fathom what goes on in this idiotic persons mind.  “Hey, some crazy Pokemon reject is attacking the girl I have a crush on.  Instead of running away with her, how about I bum rush this ten foot tall neon-bear with a stick?”.  What the hell kind of thought process does this moron go through before making such stupid decisions?  For that matter, why the fuck would you try to kiss Ichika in front of the house where all your friends are staying too, is there really nowhere else you could think to try that?  But not only does this dipshit try to fight this alien rescue ranger that knocked him off the face of a mountain, he takes it even further.  After Ichika’s other alien thing from the episode swoops in and saves him, he jumps off of it to try to save her… again.  Now, this thing wasn’t a few feet in the air or anything, this was stories above the damn thing.  And what did this accomplish?  He plows the mini spaceship into the alien thing and dies… again.

I’m sorry, but I can have no sympathy for a character this idiotic.  Not only was he completely unfazed by Rinon, a flying pink teletubby, but he didn’t even bat an eye at this giant otherworldly being attacking Ichika.  What in the hell is wrong with this asshole’s mind?  Anybody else in the world would have been scared shitless by that thing, but brave Mr. Romance’s feelings are too great to let something as pathetic as a giant fucking alien stop him from showing off to the object of his desires.  Kaito sucks ass; he’s a genric harem lead douche who’s as dumb as a mentally handicapped goldfish.

But unfortunately to get to any of the alien stuff, you have to sit through some standard festival scene stuff, complete with eating a bunch of festival food, the test of courage and people treating yukata as if they’re the sexiest thing that has ever been conceived.  I know they’re pretty and everything, but I don’t really see how a girl covering every inch of her body in fabric translates to “sexy beyond belief” to people in anime.  Seeing Remon fuck with everybody was fun, but it seems like that’s the only thing pushing me going through the swamps of genricness that litters this show.  She finally has everyone’s feelings down, so now I can assume that she can begin her master plan of epic trolling.  Still, no explanation as to why she’s so uncaring about everything, but even she looked a little upset during that last scene.  Man, just don’t mess up the one good thing that you have going for you by giving her some half-baked reason for being so accepting of Ichika being a alien and so obviously trying to mess with her about it.

So now all we need is for Ichika to want to be gay for Mio (which would be awesome).  Oh yeah, there is some of the movie that they’re making in here too, but that doesn’t last too long.  Even Kaito, with all of his dipshitery, remarks about how off base their movie has gotten.  Isn’t this whole show supposed to be about making the damn movie, because that’s really what I signed up to see.  I don’t think that I was the only person sold on that idea either, because the PV’s sure as hell made it seem like it would be more of that and less of what it’s actually doing.  I’m sure that I’m not the only person who’d like to see more of that aspect of the series instead of the “Love Cycle” Remon illustrated for us.  Take Super 8 for example, I thought watching them make the movie was much more entertaining than the cliched Spielberg ET/Alien knockoff, and their movie at the end was fucking hilarious, probably the best part of the movie.  And how about American Movie?  I fucking love that movie.  Maybe I just like movies in general and love the process of making them, but that seems like a much better idea for a show than an alien rom-com.  But hey, at least now everyone knows that Ichika is an alien and some cool alien shit can happen right?

Ano Natsu de Matteru Episode 7 – Waiting for the Aliens

Man, the lives of these kids are just one big bowl of awkwardness aren’t they?  And the more this show goes on, the more I really want Kaito and Ichika to go die in a hole together, because they’re both so lame and forgettable.  Kaito is truly the cookie-cutter definition of a rom-com harem lead, and Ichika is just boring as shit.  But hey, at least she’s an alien… or at least I thought she was.  Honeslty, why do any of these girls like Kaito?  Kinoshita and the Rape Girl, who’s name I don’t recall, also both leave after being supposedly heartbroken.  I can kind of understand Kinoshita, but to the girl who was crying because Tetsuro didn’t let her rape him, go fuck yourself.  In reality, they only really served as a way to get Mio together with Tetsuro and Kaito together with Ichika.

The episode finishes of the beach arc, but unfortunately next week they’re going to a damn festival.  Again, how original.  Anway, most of this episode consists of Kaito and Ichika being stupid and lame, Remon getting Kanna drunk as shit, as well as Tetsuro continually getting harassed by that seemingly rape-minded girl from last week.  And goddamn, she sure was determined to catch Tetsuro, so much so she was willing to chase him into town from the beach.  Maybe some people don’t know this, but if you chase after someone and they continually run away form you in fear, then they probably don’t like you very much, especially if you’re a girl who’s pretty much throwing yourself at a boy – then he really doesn’t like you.  But as retarded as she is, she sure can read social cues fairly well, and she made a pretty intelligent observation about Mio, who, by the way, is a nudist.

First – hot.  Now onto everything else.  All my questions about her walking around naked in her house are answered, yet so many more have been created.  Exactly why does she need to be a nudist?  What does that add to the show, other than the obvious answer of fan-service.  That is seriously one of the weirdest plot devices to progress a relationship that I’ve seen in my entire life.  It’s supposed to give her a reason for being shy and somewhat withdrawn, but doesn’t that go against the very nature of nudism?  And for that matter, why would these parents raise her that way?  Now, I’ve never been a nudist, but it seems a little rude to force your child to follow along in such not-so-socially-acceptable (acts such as nudism) that could very likely have harsh social repercussions in their future.  I know nudism is supposed to be more about being natural and one with nature and shit, but in our modern world, you kind of have to wear clothes, so I don’t really see the point of it.  And she has to wear clothes to school and everywhere else she goes, and I’m assuming that her parents do as well, so does that mean that the only time that they’re naked is when they’re all at home together?  So do they just get home and throw off their clothes the moment they step in the house?  The dad walks by with his junk hanging out and greets his teenage daughter while she’s undressing by the front door?  I’m not gonna lie, that’s kind of weird.  But to each his own I suppose.

Other than Mio confessing to Tetsuro and being a fucking nudist, this episode was pretty meh.  But any scenes with Kaito and Ichika as expected to be bad so I can’t really complain too much.  Remon does attempt to apologize for that by getting Kanna drunk off of her ass and dressing her up like her own doll, but that can only balance out so much of Kaito and Ichika’s stupidity.  I mentioned before about how almost nothing in the series would be different if Ichika was just a foreigner, and by now no one can deny that fact.  There has seriously been no sci-fi stuff in the series since the first episode (and kind of the second), she has never used an ounce of her alien technology that she has in that bigass suitcase, other than to spy on Kaito and Tetsuro, and she’s an idoit.  Now, this wouldn’t annoy me so much if that element to the story hadn’t even been introduced in the first place.  Ichika has really got to be one of the most boring aliens ever in an anime, where the hell is Haruko when you need her?  But speaking of that, isn’t Ichika insanely strong?  Remember in the first episode when Kaito couldn’t even move the suitcase but she could carry it just fine?  Holy shit, maybe she is like Haruko, maybe she’ll pull a bass guitar out of that suitcase, put on a bunny suit and have a fight with a giant hand wearing a cowboy duster… but probably not.

However, at the end of this episode, there was a small suggestion that some alien stuff just might be coming.  After being squashed by the ass of the rapist girl, Rinon wakes up and starts flipping his shit for some reason.  At the end of the episode, he is seen standing by Remon, again flipping his shit as we cut to what I assume to be a spaceship flying though the sky.  That’s foreshadowing if it’s ever existed.  So hey, at least sci-fi stuff… might… be coming.  Oh, but not before we have some fun at the festival, that’s a lot more important.

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.

Ano Natsu de Matteru Episode 5 – This Seems Familiar

So finally, after four episodes school time teen angst, we move into (according to Kaito and Ichika) a summer that they would never forget.  Much like their school days, this summer is also filled with unrequited love and teenage emotions, except it happens while filming a movie.  Although this didn’t really feel too different from the huge four episode prologue type thing, that isn’t really a bad thing, because for all of it’s angsty teen subject matter, it’s still fairly enjoyable.  But it’d be a lot better if the two main characters would stop being such retards (thankfully we’ve got Tetsuro to help with that).  We also get Remon silently trolling Ichika and Kanna being a bitch.  Oh, and did you know, Kaito’s beehive cancer is cured now, because it sure as hell hasn’t bothered him in a while.

Kaito and Ichika are both idiots, there is no way you can disagree with this.  Exactly what in the hell does Kaito and all of the others think that Rinon is?  I mean, it’s already been established that he is stupid enough to think that Rinon is just some animal, but now everyone else is too?  Remon brings this thing out in public, in the middle of the day, and they still act like it’s a completely normal life form.  Speaking of that, how did Remon even get Rinon, and where was she keeping her this whole time?  That could probably be considered animal cruelty, that is, if Rinon was a fucking animal.  However, Ichika is equally stupid; how in the world does she know enough about the Japanese culture to pass exams there, yet not know enough to know that you don’t make pasta with soba noodles, or there is no such thing as chocolate curry?  And that whole conversation she had with Kaito about how he would react to a real alien would have probably been a little too suspicious for me, but of course, I’m not as dense as a two year old. Is Remon the only person who has a head on their shoulders?  Well, Tetsuro kind of knows what’s going on too, but is too obsessed with Kanna to notice that anything is up with Ichika.

Anyway, the first half of this episode is (finally) spent  on making their movie.  Although Remon said she’d handle the script, it’s very obvious that it’s really about Ichika and the real reason she said the script would be written each day is because she probably plans to make it about Ichika’s everyday life on earth.  God, does Ichika not think that this is strange at all?  They just happen to be making a movie about and alien girl landing in their town, she just happens to be playing the alien, and she just happens to be staying with Kaito?  Hmmm…. sound familiar Ichika?  Man, I really like it when the main characters are clueless to everything except how to breathe.  This segment is rather entertaining, not just because it was what I was expecting the first time I heard about this show, but because it’s a good break from all the love quadrangles and such.  It does quickly change back to the standard format of the show, with this episode dealing more with Kanna in particular.

Now, Kanna’s a nosy bitch, but at least she finally admits it.  She goes to his house on a rainy day, pretty much to make sure Kaito and Ichika aren’t having sex, and even asks Ichika when she’s going to be leaving.  But at least then she finally realizes how much of a jealous obnoxious bitch she’s being, and talks to Tetsuro, who came to find her because Mio told on her, about her feelings for Kaito.  Speaking of her, does she just not wear clothes when she’s home?  Both times they’ve shown her at her house she’s been completely nude, and I can’t really see some high school girl who walks around her home naked as a terribly shy person.  Anyway, I really hope they give her a reason for liking Kaito, because he doesn’t really seem like too amazing of a guy; he’s a complete idiot for one thing.  In most shows like this, they’d at least have a reason why the obvious second banana girl likes the lead, either because she’s his childhood friend, he did something for her that was really nice, or some other stupid shit like that.  It might not be very convincing, but at least it’s a reason.  At least Tetsuro kind of has a reason to like Kanna, as generic as it may be, but he’s not an asshole about it, he knows that she doesn’t feel that way so he shouldn’t force himself onto her, unlike what she’s doing with Kaito.

But we do get something somewhat unexpected this episode at least.  Although in most anime the girl with the crush on the main guy would never tell him, or at the very least wait until the last episode to tell him, Tetsuro decides to make things a little more interesting and spur the show along a little bit by confessing to Kaito for Kanna.  While that was kind of a douchey thing to do on his part, at least it gives us something to look forward to for next week.  So good for Tetusro, even though it’s entirely possible he’s just doing it to see if Kaito likes her, so he can either give up on her or pursue her more, at least it got something moving.  Hopefully Kaito doesn’t just blow it off and act all awkward for the entire next episode like Ichika did – the last thing this show needs is more awkward teen angst.

Hopefully next week Ichika will tell Kaito that she’s an alien, and the story will actually get a little more interesting form there.  It seems like she’s a little more open to the idea because of their conversation, but I don’t think she really has anything to be concerned over.   After all, we are talking about the guy who thinks Rinon is normal.  You know what, I bet when she tells him he assumes that she means an immigrant.  Makes sense right?  She’s a foreigner, she had nowhere to stay – she’s an illegal immigrant.  But seriously, why do the two main characters have to be such complete morons?  Kaito claims that he isn’t going to be able to survive the summer, just because Ichika’s boobs are going to be too distracting, he’s too retarded to think that Kanna likes her, and he thinks Rinon is an everyday animal.  I don’t really have a lot of hope for this guy, and I call bullshit on this guy knowing how to splice and edit 8mm film.  Is it too much to ask for a harem lead not to be a completely oblivious retard?