A post wherein we consider the subjects of foxes and football, even if it isn’t the season for either….
If this show fails, it will be because the male lead (Kouta Oyamada, first-year student) is a total wimp. He’s a shrimp; a nice kid, but small, child-like, completely non-assertive, and not what you’d call “leading-man material.” He looks like Doug Flutie hanging out at the defensive linemens’ drills.
If this show succeeds, it will be because the first female lead (Chizuru Minamoto, second-year student) is a fox. Literally and figuratively. She is also permanently in season where Kouta in concerned, as she fell in love at first sight. Must have been his similar reaction to being caught in a rainstorm. (“Neat!”) She waits before school every morning and pounces — almost literally — on Kouta, who is just too embarrassed to enjoy it. If his head’s a football, she has no intent of letting it be stripped from between her very ample breasts.
NSFW below the fold.
From episode two. Yes, that’s the middle of the street. Touchdown! And touch everything else while you’re at it….
It’s become an issue, not just between them, but others; Kouta’s class rep, a killjoy by the name of Yuki Asahina (my, what a familiar sounding name), harangues Kouta like it’s his fault, and Minamoto’s younger (but more mature-acting, if slacker) brother is semi-annoyed by it.
The rest of the class, led by these two girls, blames Kouta for harassing Chizuru (eh?), or ignores it entirely (except when hit by the spillover). The secondary characters are quirky, and not stereotypical, which is a plus. (Why am I getting lesbian table-raper vibes from the one on the left?) There are also hints that there’s a deeper story; that Minamoto and her brother have enemies in the school, including a very menacing teacher. He does know what she is, and Nozomu too.
The show doesn’t plan to let the audience read the entire playbook up front; for instance the school has recently sustained some damage, and rubble is piled around one end — it’s not explained — in fact its not even mentioned, but at one point it’s hinted that Chizaru might have something to do with it. (She does later blow out a wall.) However, all this gets ignored in the 2nd episode when the 2nd female lead is introduced.
As for the relationship between the various leads — no time is wasted.
Chizuru is glomping him right after the opening credits, their first kiss is before the 12 minute mark; and soon after that she’s tackled him to the floor of the music room (“She.Could.Go. All.The.Way!” — and clearly intends to) when her brother interrupts them. He’s really upset, only partly about his sister going for the goal, but more because she’s revealed that she’s a fox spirit — seems she lost control and reverted to her natural form, where she has ears, a tail, and blond hair instead of black.
Aaaaaand you’re a shota who wants to steal his virginity.
Apparently, while he’s a wuss, Kouta really likes her, because she demonstrates that she can possess him, which is only possible “if his heart is open to her.” Also, her magic is amplified by the extent to which he loves her. (Hence the blown out wall.) In possessed form, Kouta ends up with fox whiskers, ears, and a tail also.
Apparently, he escapes her clutches, as in the 2nd episode she resorts to stealing a key to the boy’s dorm and sneaking into bed with him. Seriously, Kouta, there’s only one play to call here, unless puberty wasn’t anywhere in your playbook. And I suspect it wasn’t. But the wolf-girl DFC, Ezomori Nozomu, shows up, and she also falls for him instantly (if I’d known offering to pay for a a BBQ lunch could do that, I’d have spent much more time at Luther’s) There are a few more hints that something else is going on, and she’s involved in it somehow too.
Worst. Animated. Dogfight. EVER. We so needed KyoAni for this scene, to lovingly animate every scintillating droplet of sweat, and perfectly draw the light reflecting off their oily bodies in all its 24 fps glory —
Ahem. Excuse me. Where was I? Oh yeah… using a series of still shots was a travesty here. Nay, a crime. This is the show that deserved a late-night version, not Soul Eater. (Which, by the way, was far tamer than this show.)
Damn lack of KyoAni… we could have had Mikuru Asahina’s seiyuu squealing as she was grappled by Yuki Nagato. Wait, did I say that aloud? (Actually, I should check that, because not only does Nozomu look like Yuki, she talks almost like her too.)
Well, in the end, neither girl (nor Kouta) scores, but given the last picture, it’s sort of understandable. Well, explained, if not understandable. You see…
For the love of God, man, how can that vertical seam be straight???? Either you aren’t, or you really haven’t hit puberty, or you’re a trap!
Some spring training is clearly in order here. That is, spring training in the sense of my 11th grade English teacher who was fond of saying “Come spring, young men’s fancy turns to where young ladies’ has been all winter long.”
WRT rubble and the teacher, I wonder if they’re going to try to tell some sort of real story here? For instance, maybe there’s more of a reason why these two doggie girls are all over this shrimp than just “He smells nice”.
The first episode was told anachronistically, wasn’t it? The hole in the school building appears at the beginning of the episode, but only makes sense later after Chizuru-Kouta blow up the wall.
There were one or two time-slips that I just don’t get, and I’m not sure that the two damages are related. In one scene we can see that the entire end of the building’s top floor has been blown off, which is way more damage than one wall of one room could account for.
Also the teacher is bracing her Chizuru about “that incident” before she and Kouta meet in the music room. He and his clique want something from Chizuru. When Nozomu first arrives in town, she remarks that “his stench is all over the place,” with no clear reference for who “he” is — other than it’s clearly not Kouta, as she first encounters his scent near the BBQ shop.
I’m mildly intrigued by the possibility of a plot, but Kouta better start sounding older than Negi Springfield, and soon.
Edit: “I’m sorry, grandfather, but today I’m about to become a man,” does not cut it as a response to having a naked foxgirl land on you. I’m more inclined to think “appropriate” as the kid’s response to having the bunny-girl fly through his window and land on the bed in the climatic sequence* of Animal House. “Thank you, God!”
* (I just couldn’t bring myself to write “during the climax.”)
Okay, I was actually able to tolerate ep02… no, scratch that, I’ll be fair: I LIKED ep02. I wish (wolfgirl) I knew (wolfgirl) why (wolfgirl) I did (wolfgirl) like it (wolfgirl) but (wolfgirl) I did (wolfgirl).
It’s a puzzler, this show. ep03 just hit TokyoTosho, so we’ll find out soon enough if it carries on being watchable or not.
I’m betting on “not”, m’self, but you never (wolfgirl) know.
I have to admit, she was quite the character, especially when she started insulting Chizuru. With the exception of the still-frame (and maybe a bit too much steam obscuring things), that was a pretty good sequence.
Although the classroom bit where she shows up and tackles Kouta was pretty funny too — it’s the whole over-the-top assumption by the other girls in the class that it’s all Kouta’s fault (after all, he’s the Great Erotic King) for harassing Chizuru. I can’t help it; the whole thing comes across as a parody of modern sexual harassment zeitgiest in the U.S.
“Slutty Fox” is probably one of the best putdowns of all time… and best of all, she’s RIGHT. There’s no way Chizuru can really deny it.
It’s especially ironic considering that Chizaru at least wore a towel when she crashed the boy’s bath (that Kouta was conveniently alone in); Nozomu came in totally starkers. I was laughing at the whole “Pot, meet Kettle. Black!” aspect of it.
And after re-watching the first episode, I agree, the rubble was from the scene in the music room, which was told in flashback. Though it’s really hard to tell.
Note to anyone who hasn’t seen the show: there are three characters I haven’t introduced that are obviously mixed up in the plot-to-be; two other student/spirits, henchmen of the teacher, and Nozomu’s brother.
So far, better fanservice (and usually, animation) than Rosario + Vampire. Whether it’s a better plot than GSNK remains to be seen.