July 11, 2012

Mysterious Girlfriend X Ep. 12

This was the perfect episode for this series. Funny, sensitive, and for once Tsubaki gets it right. There's a lot more we learn about Urabe, and it comes to a very nice ending.

The opening is hilarious. There is, of course, fallout from the stunt in the vacant classroom at Hoshinome Girls School, as Oka's fascination with and admiration for Urabe goes into overdrive. To start, she's brought out a piece of cardboard and a pair of scissors, wanting to see again her amazing move that shredded her cardboard robot costume. Urabe refuses, insisting it's not some kind of performance. But Oka still wants to talk about it, insinuating that it must be hard on poor Tsubaki, having seen her naked, he must be imagining her naked body all the time now. This embarrasses Urabe, but it's only the beginning, as Oka shows us evidence of what she was doing between the time Urabe stopped her from interfering and the time she pointed out Tsubaki's fallen blindfold. Apparently while she did have enough of a conscience to put down the camera when it looked like Hayakawa might be getting her taste into Tsubaki, once Urabe took over the situation, what's a nosy shutterbug to do? She pulls out the photo she took of Urabe sitting naked on the school desk, and tells her what a beautiful body she has. Urabe is scandalized, and tries to get the picture from Oka, who won't give it up. Finally Urabe jumps up from the bench, and gives Oka her first exposure to her infamous Panty-Scissors. The photo goes poof. And Oka instead of being properly full of fear, is amazed. Her fascination even extending to the point of lifting Urabe's skirt to look at how she'd stashed the scissors. Poor Urabe is totally stunned, unable to deal with the diminutive sex-obsessed powerhouse.

(And yes, Mr. Duck, you must watch this. It's the funniest two minutes in the entire series. Now how can I make Draft the default status?)

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"Do it again! Do it again!"
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"No."
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"Did you ever think that now that he's seen you naked, that's all he can think about?"
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"Gotcha!"
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"10,000 ¥ every week. A bargain, I assure you."
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"Damn!  I had no idea I was so hot!"
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"I should have snapped your neck when I had the chance!"
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"You wanted to see my "Special Attack" huh? Be careful what you wish for."
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"HASAMI CHOP!"
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"Omae wa mo kitte iru"
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"That was the only copy, right?"
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"That was so awesome! You keep scissors down there?!"

After the opening though, we see that Oka was at least right about one thing. Poor Tsubake can't get the vision of a naked Urabe out of his mind, and every time he's with her, he can't help but picture what she looks like under he clothes. Walking home from school with a continuous blush, he thinks about this and how painful it is to resist his urge to glomp her. Urabe picks up on his distress, and asks him, so of course, he denies everything. He should know better, because after she gives him his daily dose, she ask if she can try his. He panics and says no, but where would the story be if people respected other people's personal limits? Using the techniques of distraction she learned from Oka in that track and field episode, she points off into the distance making a shocked sound and he looks, and with her supreme speed, she dashes around him and pokes her finger where he doesn't want it. Unable to stop her, Tsubaki watches as she tests his saliva, and suddenly, she's aroused. She ask him why, and he runs off instead of answering her.

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"The obvious solution is to strip for her, but I can't. BD sales would tank!"
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"No! You only want mine when I'm in trouble!"
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"Look a kitty!" "What? It's a cliff."
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Not guilty behavior AT ALL!

The feeling lasts until she gets home, when she recalls the evil little thought-worm Oka planted in her mind at the opening - Tsubaki must be thinking of her naked all the time. "He really is perverted, isn't he?" she realizes.

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"Oh god, when I finally let him have me, I'm going to end up bedridden."

There is probably some kind of feedback going here. The next day at school, he actually starts hallucinating that he can see her naked....

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"She's not eating lunch. She must be pissed at Oka."
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"It's like X-ray vision that only works on cloth."
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"Nope, can't see through my arm."
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"They're so squishy."
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"Man, if I could find a way to market this...."

But after school, after her daily dose, he gets so light-headed and dizzy, he can't resist his compulsion to glomp onto her, with the inevitable result. (Interesting that her attack is a common enough thing that he knows to present her with a disposable target.)

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"Her lust combined with mine, it's too much to resist!"
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"Why are you looking at me like that?"
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Special Attack: Akira Grope!
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By vibrating her molecules at the right frequency, Urabe can pass through solid matter.
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I was gonna make a The Producers "Blue Blankie" ref, but even I didn't get it.

However, Urabe's impeccable aim is a little off, and she is utterly horrified as a tiny trickle of blood appears on Tsubaki's forehead. While Tsubaki thinks it's no big deal, Urabe is incredibly upset that she actually injured him, begging his forgiveness and insisting that she take him home and treat the wound so it doesn't scar.

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"No no no no!"
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"What? It's just a flesh wound."
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"You fool, that was the Hasami Shinken! In ten seconds, your head will explode, and nothing can stop it!"

At Urabe's apartment, she sends him to wait in her room while she gets the first aid supplies. As she gets them, she spies a picture on a table, and decides to engage in a little target practice, shredding the picture, but then, the curtain behind it falls to the floor as well (How's she going to explain that to her mom and dad, if they ever appear?). This failure of her power causes her some angst.

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If anyone can read these book titles, please let me know. I'm very curious.
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You are already... sick of Hokuto no Ken references.
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More impressive to me is that the flower remained undisturbed.

Tsubaki, meanwhile, sitting on the floor in Urabe's room is going through some angst of his own, simply from being there and remembering how he conducted himself on his last visit (episode 8). But again, he can't resist checking out her bed. The pillow is somewhat damp (which is pretty amazing considering it's probably been 8-10 hours since she got up), so of course he sniffs at it, and it smells sweet.

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Check out the light and the poster.  See what they did there!

Urabe comes in just then with the first aid kit, and as she's treating him, she explains that normally she's very accurate with her scissors, but today she hurt him, and she's very sorry. Tsubaki says it's nothing, but asks if there's any reason her aim is off. She replies that she had a strange dream, and that may be why. Tsubaki asks about it, but she doesn't reply so in a rare fit of honesty, he admits to checking out her pillow and asks if that's connected to her dream. She turns red and can't face him. But then, she offers him a taste, and when he takes it, he feels dizzy and sees her naked again. (He might not have figured it out, but it says to me that the strong vision he got that got him in this fix actually came from her imagining herself naked, which is one of the things that arouses her). Feeling the urge to hug her again, he tries to stagger out, but she insists that she finish dressing his wound. But when she stops him, he sees her naked again.

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"Hey, what happened to those panties I gave you?  Oh, right, they were clean."
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"You may feel a sting, but it's nothing compared to the guilt I feel."
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Side effects include hallucinations and a loss of voluntary motor control...

After the break, picking up where they left off, seeing Urabe naked, and not wanting to make the same mistake, he shoves her away, and she stumbles and falls on the bed. Realizing that was a bad reaction, he dashes towards her but plants a foot in the first aid kit and trips. Now about to fall on her, and knowing how bad that would be, he twists at the last moment and faceplants directly into her bedpost. This is not much of an improvement.

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"You are not a well man!  I mean, less so than usual!"
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"Vile Temptress...!"
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"... Back I say!"
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"What is it about my room that makes you get physical with me?"
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If only he'd thought of this before he jumped around after her.
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But instead, it's Target Urabe.
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Evasive maneuver fail.

Urabe is very concerned about his well-being, as she has been the whole time. As he explains that he changed course so as to not land on her, she gets up and hugs his face to her bosom and says that if he's about to get hurt, it's okay to throw himself on her. The moment over, she realizes she needs some ice for his forehead. (In this case, the HS sub makes more sense, because she says he got a lump on his forehead from the impact, while SD says "large scratch").

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"If it's a choice between hurting yourself or landing on me, I give you permission.  Just don't abuse it."

Finally finished with her ministrations, she sees Tsubaki off at the door, again apologizing for all the injuries she's caused him that day. Tsubaki brushes it off, but then asks her again about the dream. She admits that he was in it, but refuses to tell him any more. But I guess confession is good for the soul, because she tests her aim again, and the curtain behind it is spared this time. Laying back on her bed, she says that the odd feeling in her head went away after she hugged Tsubaki. Okay, substitute hugs for confession above.... She rolls over, and she smells the scent of her dream on the pillow, and admits that even though she chastises Tsubaki for being horny, she may be just as bad. Now I want to know what her dream was....

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"Gee, I had a swell time!  And next time, I promise not to forget my Safeword."
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"Do I have to keep hugging him now to keep my powers?"
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"The sick thing is, that's not drool..."

The encounter that evening surely fueled Tsubaki's dreams. He dreams that he's chasing Urabe down the alleys of the weird city that is the landscape of his dreams. She's dressed in a red bunny suit, and when he finally catches up with her, she's in the middle of a circus ring pounding out Mochi in the traditional manner, with a giant mallet and a hollowed out stump. (For those not conversant in Japanese folklore, the Japanese don't see a man in the moon, but the image of a rabbit pounding Mochi, which is made by hammering cooked rice until it's an even paste.) As she pounds, blobs of the paste escape and turn into wriggling chibi Urabe figures, and soon, there are enough to dance in rings around him, before they pile in on him smothering him (in the nicest way possible) with their enormous Mochi breasts.  He wakes up clutching his pillow and recalling how soft Urabe's breasts are.  I was thinking about that kid's joke about dreaming about eating a giant marshmallow and waking up to notice your pillow is gone.

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Ol' Hef has had a greater effect on Japanese Sexuality than even American.
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She's sexy, and she can cook!
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"Whee!"
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Ring around the Mochi...
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What a way to go.

That day at school, Ueno shows up sporting a bandage on his forehead too. Why? Because the day before, Oka insisted on cutting his bangs, and from the flashback, she wanted to do it Urabe-style, and it went very badly. Ueno asks about Tsubaki's head, and he merely says he fell. Ueno points out that the bandage looks a little old, and should be changed, but fortunately, he has a LOT of cut gauze. Why? Because in another flashback, Oka insisted on treating the wound, and had him hold up gauze while she attacked it with scissors, so he has a lot of scrap gauze. "I wonder where she got that idea?" Ueno ponders. Tsubaki declines.

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"Seriously dude, avoid girls with scissors."
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"This can't end well" is writ large on this.

Just then, one of the plain, nearly generic girls in the class, Suwano, comes up because she needs to take him to the teacher's lounge for something related to a career survey they're on the committee for. She notices his bandage is coming loose, and before he can stop her, she tears it off and replaces it with a band-aid she's got. Urabe isn't happy to witness this. Neither is Ueno, who's stuck with a double-handful of gauze clippings.

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"Don't act so surprised, there isn't a single person here who respects personal limits."
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Does not approve of modern Adhesive Plastic Strips.

In the hallway, Tsubaki demands the bandage back, much to Suwano's confusion.

Later, when Tsubaki meets Urabe on the bridge for the walk home, she notices that he's replaced the band-aid with the original gauze, and he says the sweetest thing in reply. He says that he thought it would heal faster with the bandage he got from her. She gave it to him because she cared, so he'll wear it as long as possible. (SD: "I'd wear it forever.")

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Actually, she's shocked at his lack of care for wound sterility.

So, when they get to the parting point and she gives him his daily dose, there's a quiet moment, and he hugs her. And after another few seconds, the poor conditioned boy freaks, afraid of another attack for hugging her. But she staves off his panic by saying that this time the hug was HER idea (And obviously the urge was transmitted by the pheromones in her saliva). It's a nice change. And every little bit of progress means that much more to him.

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#include jawstheme.mp3
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Awwww...
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Awwww again.
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Don't let this happen to you.  Special moments can be ruined by negative behavior conditioning.
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Clearly this is a skill she needs to work on as well.

Anyway, this was quite a sweet episode, lots of humor, some action, and a good resolution to the problem.

You know, the writing only took a long afternoon, but cutting down the screenshots and posting them took several evenings.  I culled 150 screenshots down to 75 this time.  I perhaps could have done it faster, but it's a draining process.  I wish there was a bulk uploading option.

Next episode is the last.  Then perhaps I'll upgrade some of the earlier reviews.

Posted by: Mauser at 02:55 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 2540 words, total size 24 kb.

July 04, 2012

Mysterious Girlfriend X Ep. 11

I really should have more faith in Urabe.  After all, she puts up with SO much of Tsubaki's idiocy.  On the other hand, the twists of events in this episode are so unbelievably improbable, with two girls battling naked for the affections of the boy who can't see them, it has to be some kind of fan service thing, along with BluRay bait.

I guess we got the bunny fur.

Anyway, I'm happy to be wrong, but I would have been happier if it had been a bit more serious.

Since this was a two-parter, we start with a recap.  Man, I could take some lessons in brevity there.

So, the Festival is running, stage is set, it's time to introduce the players.  We start with Tsubaki and Hayakawa wandering the halls, with Hayakawa making a big show of clinging tightly to Tsubaki's arm.  She explains over his objections that this is because she wants to make sure that if her ex sees them, he has to think they're REALLY close so he'll give up.  Tsubaki gives in.

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THIS dangerous robot is armed with Chekov's Bazooka.
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"Would you rather I cut off your circulation, or cut off your arm?"

Next up, Oka and Ueno.  Oka is having a lot of fun, but Ueno is just being dragged around.  Then she spots one classroom putting on a Maid Cafe and suggests they go in.  Ueno grunts an assent, but says he needs to hit the bathroom first.  When he gets back to the cafe, Oka is nowhere to be seen.  Until he takes his seat and discovers the maid serving his coffee is Oka.  Apparently they decided she was so cute, they let her borrow one of the uniforms.  She guides Ueno through several spit-takes, and then attracts the attention of a couple of guys with cameras, who ask her to pose.  This does Ueno's jealousy no good, and he storms off, thus removing an unnecessary piece from the endgame.  And to get Oka into the game, she spots the erstwhile couple through the window of the classroom, and simply MUST track them down (conveniently, with no time to change out of the maid uniform).

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"Maids, Why did it have to be Maids?"
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"Surprise!"
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"Twirl!"
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"I think it's little tight through here.  What do you think?"
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"Don't leave!  Man, I can't have any fun."
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"What a scandal!  Why couldn't I have set this up?"

So back to the unhappy couple.  Hayakawa drags Tsubaki upstairs to a disused part of the school, into an unused classroom.  So much for wanting to show him off to her ex, she reveals her other plan - get him alone, get him reminiscing, and get him back in love with her.  She's arranged a couple of desks the way they had them when they worked on the same committee (doing who knows what, looks like paperwork, and nobody else is around in the flashback).  Oka, doing her girl detective act, manages to track them down, but pauses outside the curtain over the door to listen in.  Specifically, Hayakawa gets him to remember a moment where he failed to get up the nerve to make a move on her, but she urges him that now, he has a chance, as she virtually throws herself at him.  Tsubaki, to his credit, says that no, he has a girlfriend, and he won't.  This doesn't go over well with her, desperate, she asks if that means his feelings for her back then are a lie because they have faded, and is all love destined to die?  She tears off her wig and throws it down cursing the unfairness of it all.

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"Welcome to my parlor...."
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"This is what you like, isn't it?  You pervert."
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"Scooby Doo, where are you?"
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Nothing creepy going on here in the flashback.  No sir.
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"Why you stop?  I am Disappoint."
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"If you want another shot, I'm Game, AND In Season."
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"Dammit!  I spent all this money on a wig and you still can't get it up for me?"
(Maybe I overdid it on the pans, but hey, she may be psycho, but she's cute.)

She makes one more desperate plea, taking his hand and bringing it up to her hair, saying that if he were her boyfriend, she'd grow it out again, just to be what he wanted.  Oka is scandalized.  Tsubaki again tells her that he's got a girlfriend.  At the end of her rope, she tries to tempt him with her saliva, although by "Tempt" I mean she demands he lick her wet finger.  She insists that if he must choose between her and his girlfriend, she wants it to be after he has at least tried hers.

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"I will be anything you want, just so you love me again..."
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"... now lick it, bitch!"

Perhaps it's the depth of her desperation, he agrees to sample it.  Oka can't bear to watch any more, she must do something!  She reaches for her camera.  Then in a sudden attack of conscience, decides that no, what she really needs to do is intervene.  But before she can make a move, she's grabbed from behind!  Who could possibly be in the tatty cardboard robot costume?

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"Yeah baby, lick it. Wait! What am I DOING?!"
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... and with a quick snap, Urabe made sure she never troubled them again.

The final piece is now on the chessboard.  Urabe, whose hobby is papercraft after all, is the one in the robot suit.  And just as she's about to enter, Tsubaki refuses Hayakawa's last attempt to get him (Good timing bro!).  Making her less-than-grand entrance, Urabe announces that they will proceed.  That to make certain of Tsubaki's feelings, she'll allow a test.  Blindfolding Tsubaki, she says that they will do rock-paper-scissors to determine whose saliva he tastes first.  She wins (with paper, naturally), and delivers to Tsubaki a dose that makes his nose bleed explosively.  This is conclusive.  Just from their bond and previous experience, Tsubaki knows it's Urabe, and that she's indulging her secret fetish, public nudity (except unlike an exhibitionist, she doesn't want to be seen.).  So she drops the pretense and with her scissors, from inside the costume, she cuts herself free.  I guess it's okay if Hayakawa and Oka see her nude - don't ask me to explain fetishes, they aren't always rational.  And don't ask me how I know this.

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Nobody ever said she was GOOD at it.
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"Stop complaining, the other option was a Garotte."
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Nasal Exsanguination.  It's not a pretty way to die.
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"Wait, if you're not wearing panties, WHERE did you have those scissors holstered?"
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Naked under her costume.

Below this point, there will be a lot of NSFW images.  So for once I'm going to use the More section.  I'm sure people won't mind that there will be a lot of images here....

more...

Posted by: Mauser at 07:26 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 2418 words, total size 24 kb.

June 25, 2012

Mysterious Girlfriend X Ep. 10

When a sadist is flogging the crap out of his victim, he might, for a moment, put down his whip and treat them with something soft, but this isn't mercy, it's to make the contrast even harsher for what's to come next.  While Episode 8 was hard to watch, Episode 9 was the caress of some bunny fur before the savage beating that is Episode 10.  Like a slow wall of lava coming down the Volcano, threatening to push you into the shark-infested sea.  You see inevitable disaster coming, no matter which path you take.

And of course, Tsubaki being Tsubaki, every wrong decision he makes only pushes him deeper into the jaws of the trap.  The poor sot, being destined to make the wrong choices by narrative necessity.

This was very difficult to watch.  I found myself stopping the player a lot.  I didn't want things to go the way they did, but I guess that says something when you're involved enough you want to characters to be happy, and this episode set things up for them to be anything but.

To start with, Tsubaki is being an idiot again at a bookstore buying some magazine that is featuring Imai Momoka, but that isn't the source of his problem this time.  That's waiting for him outside.  The short-haired girl is Hayakawa.  The same one who used to have waist-length hair and was Tsubaki's crush throughout middle school.  The one whose picture he used to carry around in his wallet, and whose picture he destroyed in the first episode to prove his love for Urabe.  He blew her off once before, but she's back.

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At first, Tsubaki didn't even recognize her with her hair cut short.  But she knew who he was, and wanted to talk to him.  Now, I can't write this from the point of view of not having watched the episode through, but I'll try to avoid jumping too far ahead.  She makes casual talk about their old friends, but she's actually pumping him for information.  Asking about Ueno and Nishida, for example, gets her to know about Ueno having a girlfriend, and allows her to go after her first real bit of intelligence, asking Tsubaki if he has a girlfriend too.  (Oddly, HS picks up on the name Nishida, while SD misses it, they also miss his use of the English "Nice body" to describe Oka).

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And if Nostalgia doesn't work, there's always Waterboarding.
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"Here, Diagonally."  "Pretty sneaky, Sis."

Of course, he denies it.  She flatters him by saying she was positive he did.  Why?  Because she knew he was so totally into her in Jr. High, but now he acts like he barely cares, as proven by the fact he didn't recognize her with her hair cut short.  This is a bit shocking to him, because he didn't think she knew about his crush.  And as they discuss it, she apparently didn't mind his creepy staring, because she was checking him out with a mirror in the lid of her pencil box.  He admits he was staring at her beautiful hair.  She teases him a little bit about it, making him uncomfortable. ("Did you want to touch it?")

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"'Do you have a girlfriend?' is NOT a probing question, really!"
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"I was sure you were SO into me, you'd recognize me with short hair.  Joke's on me, eh?"
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Whoa, Sepia-tone, that's some Serious reminiscing.

They adjourn from the playground to a bench nearby where she tells him that it makes her feel better to talk about the past, when she knew someone had a crush on her, because her boyfriend just dumped her (and there's only one reason why a woman will let a piece of information like that slip).  Tsubaki realizes that the breakup must be why she cut her hair - Okay, I don't get that, but it must be a Japanese thing.  Because talking about the past makes her feel better, Tsubaki says they can talk about it all she likes, and offers some rather creepy details about his obsession with her.  Upon telling her, he realizes what he did with a lost strand of hair sounds creepy, but she says it isn't, and confesses to a creepy bit of her own behavior - stealing a coffee mug that someone she liked used, and kissing the place where his lips drank from it.  (I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering if it was his in retrospect).  So she says she thinks this kind of behavior is normal, while Tsubaki thinks to himself that it definitely is not.

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Operation Rekindle is GO!
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"Humiliate myself to make you feel better?  Sure, that's who I am!"
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"Getting his hair and blood for the Ritual was the hard part."
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"Getting very creeped out here, and I've got a high threshold."
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"Look, I know you're a nice girl and would be a fine date for some Goth or maybe a serial killer."

But instead of finding an excuse to bug out, he continues to try to cheer her up, but at least he tries to shift back to the present, telling her that he can't believe any guy would dump such a nice and wonderful girl like he knew her to be when he had a crush on her.  She thanks him, then turns on the waterworks.  Making a woman cry is one of his weaknesses, but the mess she's made of herself is another one, including a drip of saliva running down her chin, and the poor conditioned boy can't help but react.  He is sorely tempted, and she starts asking him if they can see each other and keep talking from time to time.  He looks at the drool, and curiosity overwhelms his good sense (which as we know is very easily overwhelmed) and almost unbidden he utters that if he can taste her saliva, he will agree to continue meeting and talking.  Instantly he catches himself and swears it was just a bad joke.  But the fool gave her an In, and she would gladly do it in order to get what she wants - him.  So she pulls out a moistened finger (hmmm, Pink.) and offers him up a sample, and he is quite sorely tempted, but he remembers that this is his bond with Urabe, something that doing this might break, and he does the first sensible thing out of the whole encounter, he refuses her.  But he's still the loser here, because she uses this refusal to guilt-trip more information out of him, the fact that he DOES have a girlfriend, what they do, AND he gives her her name.

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Waitaminute.  Tsubaki thinks she's cuter like this?  Boy, you are one damaged unit.
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"Fool!  You won't be rid of me that easily.  That move only works for Ultraman!"
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Think of what you stand to lose.  Okay, maybe not the best motivator.

Advantage Hayakawa.  Having obtained the necessary intelligence, she cheerfully takes her leave.  He has the barest glimmer that something is up, but he has NO idea.

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Okay, we're done here.

Hayakawa, meanwhile goes home and integrates this new information into her fantasies of having him.  I would say that her fantasies have a rather dominant flair to them - like she could have made him do whatever she wanted in Jr. High, and she wants to recapture that opportunity.

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"On your knees, Slave!  I offer you degradation for your devotion."
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"I could have had him years ago.  What a waste of time."

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Is she hugging her, or crushing the life out of her?

After the break, we see Urabe walking by herself when she is intercepted by Hayakawa, who politely introduces herself, and is greeted with entirely appropriate skepticism by Urabe.  Urabe interrupts her spiel by saying "I know who you are."  But this doesn't deflect her one bit.  Starting with a base of flattery, and building on their commonality with Tsubaki, she tries to ingratiate herself to Urabe.  She gives Urabe a program book and Invitation to the Hoshinome Girls School 70th annual cultural festival (That's Hayakawa's elite school, an the reason she's not still a classmate of his), and then further sets the hook by telling her that Tsubaki is going to be there, and she might see something very interesting.  Can you say "Trap?"

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"It's not stalking unless we used to date."
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"Oh great..."
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"So I never dated your boyfriend, but I could have.  We have that in common."
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"Excellent Smithers."
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"It's a book about a different way of thinking."
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"S-s-scientology?"
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"Seriously, that book changed my life."
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"Anyway, come or you'll never know how I stole your boyfriend.  And I HATE Plan B."

So the next step is to bait the trap.  That night, Tsubaki comes running out of the house in the dark to rendezvous at nearby phone booth from which Hayakawa summoned him. (more suggestions of a pre-cell-phone era).  She is sporting a bruise on her left temple that she claims came from her ex-boyfriend wanting to get back together.  She called to enlist Tsubaki's help in a lame scheme to drive him off, Tsubaki must accompany her to the Hoshinome Girls School 70th annual cultural festival this Sunday so that he can see them together there and he will give up on her.  Tsubaki, as a Man and as a friend, agrees, but mentally he's apologizing to Urabe because he knows this looks bad, but he still hasn't gotten it through his thick head that hiding things from her and lying to her is the wrong way to handle things.

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Tsubaki Akira, Man of Action!
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"Gotta remember my lines...."
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The Big Reveal
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"Have I guilted you into acceding to my will yet?"
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"It's a strange way I have of saying 'Thank you for being my fool.'."

But he's not the only one lying.  After Hayakawa leaves him, having extracted his promise to be at the festival, pretending to be her boyfriend, she stops in a park and using the public faucet there, takes a moment to wash off the makeup she used to fake the bruise on her face.  If the bruise is fake, it calls into question the entire existence of the "Old boyfriend who dumped her."  One might even take support for that from the truthful statement that going to an all-girls school, she doesn't meet many guys who would be friends and could help her out.  Which is probably her motivation for the entire plot.

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Hayakawa is clearly a much more accomplished liar than Tsubaki.  This is amply demonstrated when Urabe tests him.  Hayakawa told her that he would be there, so she innocently asks him if he has any plans for Sunday.  He stammers out that he and Ueno are going to go shopping on Sunday.  She already knows this is a doubtful, but to her, Hayakawa is not a reliable source.  It doesn't matter, the next day Oka comes running up with a program for the Festival, telling her that she is making Ueno go with her to it.  (Urabe's reaction to the sight of the book is brief shock.  Blink and you miss it, but funny).  Oka has her role in the evil, suggesting that it could just be that Tsubaki got the dates wrong, OR he's lying.

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"Why am I not convinced?"
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"Not you too!"
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"Why not?  This book changed my life."
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"He could be lying to you."

No chance for a confrontation (Although logically there should be, since there's a trip home after this scene) because it's off to the Festival.   And this is where things push the creepy scale to 11.  The Festival involved cultural costumes, but Hayakawa's "Costume" is her middle school uniform, and a wig to restore her looks to how she was when Tsubaki was crushing on her, she thought it would be the best thing to wear "for him."

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"I'm throwing away everything for one act of gallantry, for a fake cause.  Yay me."
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"Holy Cosplay Batman!"
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"This book looked a lot more professional on the outside."
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"Mrs. Robinson?"
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Going all out to try to seduce him, aren't you? (Not a prefect De-pan, damned wind.)

Roll credits.  It may be the tenth episode, but it's the first two (or more) part plot in the series.

While there have been a lot of threats to Tsubaki and Urabe's relationship, they've all been internal, (mostly caused by Tsubaki) but this is the first time there is an external threat to their couplehood, and it looks serious.  It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion, and it's really hard on you if you're hoping they work it all out.

Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to be getting any bunny fur in Episode 11.

Posted by: Mauser at 04:06 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 2125 words, total size 19 kb.

June 17, 2012

Mysterious Girlfriend X Ep. 09

Ah, sweet relief. After the heaviness of the last episode, a lighter and more humorous story. The topics for the day are jealousy and possessiveness, and playing with your hair.

The story opens in Urabe's bedroom, where she gets up with a serious case of bed-head, and just goes to school that way. Just as Tsubaki is thinking what a mess she is, Oka comes up and tells her what a mess she is, and offers to fix her up.

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Look who sleeps nude
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Spoiling that image immediately.

A quick trip to some spare room, and some serious detangling later, Urabe emerges looking so different, the reaction is "Who's that girl? She's really cute!" Tsubaki is surprised that he can see her eyes, and Yajima runs up to tell her how great she looks. Oka pokes her head in to say she did it - one must get credit for one's meddling. (It's hard to see, but the front of her chair is off the ground from the pull of the brush.)

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"*grunt* you know, *oof* shaved heads are *argh* in Vogue too..."
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I can see!
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"I did this, pay attention to me!"

The whole day is different. With her hair out of her face, the guys in Gym running laps around the field where the girls are playing Vollyball start talking about how cute she is, and start talking about things like asking her out, which pisses off Tsubaki to no end. (Really, why not end the pretense? I've never known a good reason for it.)

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"Suddenly I like Weird Girls... and Vollyball."
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Frigging Multi-plane clouds.

On the way home, his jealousy over the attention she received comes to the surface. He asks if she's going to style her hair like that again. Her answer is totally passive, she doesn't much care. "It's like this because Oka did it, if she does it again tomorrow, it might look like this." (not an actual translation). Tsubaki asks that if it's possible, could she just go back to normal? She skewers him with a simple "Why?" He thinks to himself that he's worked so hard to see Urabe's face over time, and that to have it just exposed to everyone isn't right. Without actually saying anything, Urabe must have picked up on this, because she pulls out the hair ties and shakes out her hair. Then she asks him to give her his hands, which she places on her head and tells him to mess up her hair, forcefully. "There, back to normal." She says that if he doesn't like the other hairstyle, then she won't wear it. He decides that this is how he likes her hair, and she confesses that she actually kinda liked having him muss her hair.

(Too many shots, but I couldn't decide which ones to ditch)
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Deconstructing Beauty, and finding something more Real

The next day, Oka, the Mad Hair Stylist wants to strike again. After all, everyone loved her image change yesterday. Urabe refuses, twice, stunning Oka. But Oka is quick to try to ferret out the reason. She figures that Tsubaki didn't like it. Urabe denies it, but you have to watch those visual metaphors, like the water running in the outdoor sink suggesting the saliva transfer.... Oka says that Tsubaki DOES seem a little possessive, explaining that he doesn't want the other boys seeing her face. (What, Tsubaki's a Muslim now?) This conclusion hadn't occurred to Urabe, who is stunned enough that Oka can sample her reaction. And from this she has to ask, "When Tsubaki asked you to return your hair to normal, something happened with you two, didn't it?" Urabe's answer is non-specific enough to make Oka curious, leaving it at "Tsubaki did something that made me feel good." This of course really gets Oka going, so Urabe gets up and demonstrates, vigorously ruffling Oka's hair. This leaves her speechless.

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"Wanna do it again?"  "No."
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Utter Incomprehension.  Don't let this happen to you.
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"I bet you did something kinky."  Amazingly, it's still attached.
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Woody Allen... Sleeper... Orgasmatron... Google it.

On the way home from school this time following Ueno and Oka for once, Oka stops and demands that Ueno ruffle her hair. He, of course, has no idea what's going on, but he's not the one who makes decisions in their relationship. It also rather strikingly shows their size differences to me. When he's done, she's blissed out and her glasses are fogged. She concludes that Urabe was right about having your hair mussed by someone you like feeling good. "Those two sure do some interesting things." (HS translates interesting as "Kinky").

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"You want me to do what? In the street?"
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"Gort!  Klaatu Barada Nicto!  Klaatu Barada Nicto!"
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Amazingly, it's still attached. (Okay, I used that before.  Didn't want to do the Scooby Doo joke.)
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Can we do Barbarella next?
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"Hmmm, a new way of messing with people's heads."

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REALLY cute Eyecatch (full size)

After the break, we go to the roof of the school, where one enterprising fellow named Nakajima from the photography club is selling photos he snapped of Urabe's new hairstyle for ¥300 each. Most of the guys are interested and buy them. Tsubaki is livid. Ueno notices his fury, but doesn't understand it because he's not in on their relationship. Tsubaki brushes it off, but he keeps stewing about how Urabe belongs to him alone. Then it occurs to him that that is a really possessive way of thinking.

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"Full House"
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My first Horizontal de-pan.
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Well, what do you expect?  You've only got a crappy Polaroid.
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"Who, us?"

Nakajima calls over to Ueno and Tsubaki, asking if they want to buy any, Tsubaki is torn. As much as he hates the other guys having pictures of HIS girlfriend, he really wants some, but he doesn't want to have to pay someone else for pictures of HIS girlfriend. Ueno's rationale for not buying is much simpler - Oka. Then someone fatefully mentions that Urabe looks like one of the latest Idols, Imai Momoka.

Dun dun DAAAA!

Tsubaki, who reads Film Fan magazines all the time, apparently hasn't heard of this idol and is suddenly interested after hearing that she looks like his girlfriend. But then, she's only famous so far for doing a bottled water commercial.

That day after school, after parting with Urabe, Tsubaki diverts from going home and hits the bookstore first to pick up the Imai Momoka photo book. The dumbass would rather spend ¥3000 on pictures of a girl who looks like his girlfriend than a tenth of that for an actual picture. And to make matters worse, as he is buying it, Ueno catches him at it. This isn't an immediate disaster, since he doesn't know that he's seeing Urabe, but just wait.

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Actually, I only comment on all the wide pics because they run into the small ones otherwise.
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As you can see, that doesn't happen the other way.

Tsubaki is immediately up in his room to look at his new  porn  book. In his favor, he is comparing everything he looks at to Urabe, and usually she comes out on top, especially in the swimsuit pictures. (There are WAY too many pans of the book to do them all.) EXCEPT, there is one picture of the young idol smiling a big free and open smile, and Urabe never smiles like that. This becomes his favorite in the entire book, and he pronounces it a good buy.

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These two are clickable.
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Ever think YOU are the reason Urabe won't smile like this?
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A love of books will stay with you for a lifetime

The next day, while walking to school, Ueno and Oka are talking about how Nakajima was selling pictures of Urabe.  Oka teasingly asks him if he bought any, and he gives the right answer.  Then she asks about Tsubaki, and is surprised by the negative answer.  But Ueno offers that Urabe is probably his type, since he spotted him yesterday buying the Imai Momoka book - getting it exactly backwards.

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Hmmm, What sort of Deviltry can I use this for?

What follows is Oka's most thoughtless and potentially destructive act of meddling ever.  When she joins Urabe for lunch, she brings along a copy of the book (from wherever she got it), pulls Urabe's bangs from her face, and pronounces her Imai Momoka's double.  Like Tsubaki, Urabe has been blissfully ignorant of the Idol's existence, but Oka explains, AND says that Tsubaki just bought her photo collection - Ueno saw him buying it - and she's sure he bought it because she looks like you, Urabe.

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"Ignore the kid behind the dumpster, he wasn't popular anyway."
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"You're twins!"  "What about my twins?"

That afternoon, on the way back from school, after his dose, Urabe confronts him coolly about the photo book (amazing that he didn't pick up her emotions from the drool at that point).  She asks him if he has it, and he asks how she knew.  She asks if she really looks like the idol, and he says yes, and that the reason he bought it was because she looked like her.  She says that she wants to see it, and tells him to get it and bring it back, and they'll meet in the park.

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Busted.

In the park, she pages though the book, and not knowing how to read Urabe's mood - something he should learn as a survival tactic - he tries to share enthusiastically.  She closes the book and hands it back to him, and asks him, which picture is his favorite?  He holds up the picture of the big smile, and Urabe gets up and tells him to hold still.  NOW he figures out what's coming, and the scissors come out.  In seconds, the book is confetti.  "Tsubaki-kun, you're my boyfriend, so I don't think it's necessary for you to be attracted to an idol who looks like me." (SubDesu) "You're supposed to be my boyfriend, so you don't need to worship an Idol who looks like me." (HorribleSubs)

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"You know, they say when couples share Erotica, it can lead to better sex."
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"I'd love it if you tried THIS position."
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"No."  (I was going to have a great de-pan of her drawing her scissors, but she moved, dammit!)
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"I said we were going to be each-other's firsts.  You need to save your strength."

Relieved to be in one piece, Tsubaki comes to the conclusion that maybe Urabe is a little possessive as well.

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Amazingly, it's still attached.

Posted by: Mauser at 07:58 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 1762 words, total size 16 kb.

June 06, 2012

Mysterious Girlfriend X Ep. 08

Oh... my... god.

This episode TOTALLY went in a direction I didn't expect. Heart-wrenchingly so. And while in this blog I let go freely with the spoilers since it would be unreadable otherwise, I urge you to wait until you've watched it before you go any further.

Really.

Now for a long time, my criticism of Tsubaki is that he needs to grow a pair. Well, there's a problem when you suddenly obtain some and don't know how to handle them properly. Male urges are a powerful thing, and if you don't have a grip on them, they can send you to some very dark places. I have also had a revelation about Urabe. The reason she is such a calm and complete master of her reality is because she keeps that bubble of reality very, very small. This whole series has been slowly dragging her out of her comfort zone and leading her into unfamiliar territory, which is why she keeps such a death-grip on her progress. She also has so little context for this that her reactions seem off-kilter to the rest of us.

The episode opens in Tsubaki's surreal dream world, where Urabe has just offered to allow him to touch her breasts, and he gives them a bit of a honk. He is disturbed by this sensation because it persists in his hand after he awakens. He wonders if they feel in reality the way they felt in his dream, and feels guilty about obsessing about such things on a fine Sunday morning in Autumn. He realizes he needs to get out of the house to distract himself, but like a cheesy comedy movie, everywhere he goes he gets reminded of breasts, from the meat pies his sister is offering for breakfast to the bookstore he frequents, where he can't seem to avoid pictures of women.

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We all have dreams....
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"It's like Lady MacBeth, only I don't want to wash it."
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Is that Yakity Sax I hear in the distance?
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Backgrounds like this, just for a simple walk-through with one line of dialogue amaze me.

He gives up on the idea of the bookstore as a distraction, and wanders around. Eventually winding up at the place where he and Urabe part ways on the way home from school. He speculates that she must live in the direction she normally heads off in (a perfectly reasonable guess), and eventually he passes an apartment building and wonders if she lives in a place like that (getting into creepy premonition territory there), and no sooner has that thought crossed his mind than Urabe nearly plants her bike in the small of his back, asking why he's in front of her home (Ding! Freaky Coincidence Achieved.)

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Seems like it's been a year, but I never go past this point....
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♫... on the street where you live...♪
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"Where do I catch the #5 bus?"  "In the small of the back if you don't get off the street."

He's a bit thrown by this, and actually wants to get away, but she stops him, and invites him up for something to drink.

That fine Autumn morning is starting to turn dark and cloudy. Cue the ominous symbolism. (She also lives on the 10th floor. I'm not sure if that's supposed to mean something, but they do dwell on that for a moment).

She lets him into the (again darkened) apartment, and it is revealed that she's the only one home. She leads him to her room, which is unbelievably spartan, with no art or posters on the walls (Correction, by the head of her bed are a couple of UFO-related items). Although one clue that it IS hers is the book about Paper Art on the desk. She takes off her coat and BAM, he is faced with her figure in a very snug black sweater, leading to near flashbacks to his dream - his hand clenching on its own. While Urabe makes Coffee, he tries to distract himself with the contents of the room, and unfortunately latches on to her bed, taking in her scent from the bedding, where she catches him.

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Sproing!
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We've secretly replaced Mikoto's sweater kittens with tiger cubs, let's see if he notices the difference....
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"What happened to those panties I gave you?"  "They were clean."

It looks even more like rain. He thinks it's incredible luck that should it rain, he can shelter there.

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Urabe's intuitions are still strong, and she bluntly asks him if there's something on his mind. He just can't quite confess, even after he thinks this opportunity is a gift from God. I began to notice at this point the exasperated sigh she lets out each time she lets something like this slide.

The thunder rumbles. The sky turns black. Urabe gets up to turn on a light, and BOOM, lightning so loud she's startled and falls, right into Tsubaki's arms. His hand is around her waist, just a finger's width from realizing his dream....

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Boom...
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... there it is!
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... and the Scissors come out. She eyes him accusingly, asking him why he was trying to take advantage of the situation, and asking him again for a truthful answer about what is preoccupying him.

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In Three-D!

And FINALLY he answers her honestly. He tells her about his dream, that he touched her breast in his dream. And either pressing him, or genuinely intrigued, she asks him how it felt. He tells her everything, and mentally questions himself for being so blunt (It's a Japanese thing, I guess.)

Strangely, she puts down the scissors, and kneels on the floor before him. Perhaps it's her urge to experiment with her power. She snakes one hand up her sweater and fondles her own breast, then offers him a taste of her pheromone-laced saliva. The sensation is so much more real than the dream, it brings a tear to his eye. Although I wonder if the source is a sadness of hers. That isn't called, out, but it's my theory. She then says that he may actually touch her himself.

/images/mgx/MGX08Kneel.jpg?size=640x&q=95
Your Offer Intrigues me....
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Copping a feel by proxy... still better than the imagination.

Lightning illuminates the room.

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Igor! Now!  The Switch!

Tsubaki balks, something about "Didn't their feelings need to be in sync first?" (The translations are really different here, and as a matter of fact, the HorribleSubs encoding is extra dark), but she'll have none of it, having gone this far, she actually gives him to the count of three to do it. He does it on Three, apologizing as he reaches out and plants his paw on her breast. It is a revelation, he can feel her heart beating in her chest. He is so overcome by this, he does the unthinkable....

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Amateur....
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"Strangely, this is far less erotic than I was led to believe."

Tsubaki tackles Urabe to the floor. She reaches for her scissors on the floor, just barely in her grasp. As she fumbles with them, and begs him to stop, he sees her ear, and starts licking it. She drops the scissors and starts to cry, but all Tsubaki can see are her lips, and he leans forward to taste them....

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This is why she never let you hug her, you moron.
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"No means No" is clearly an America-only thing.
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For once, I wanted her to carry through on her threats.
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The ear was an odd choice.
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If this had gone forward, who knows what the Pheromones would have carried.
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This is your Girlfriend. This is your Girlfriend on Rape. Any Questions?

And then he sees her tears, and realizes that he has done this. That he got carried away and made her cry, and he feels horrible (as he should). He asks her if she's mad, and strangely she answers that she isn't. But he leaves her there laying on the floor, saying how sorry he is, and runs home in the pouring rain.

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"What have I done?!"
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Yeah, just leave her there. It's not like you can do anything else.
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I don't think "Gomen" really cuts it at this point.
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"Wait, that's it? I was all ready to close my eyes and think of England. And I've never even been to England!"

Afterwards, she pinches her own ear, and more tears flow. Apparently she's a crier. Maybe it's true that she didn't mind this so much. Doesn't make it right though.

/images/mgx/MGX08Tears2.jpg

But things never end conveniently. There's always a next day, and the next day is Monday, at School. The story skips what I can imagine is a terribly awkward morning sitting next to each other in class, and instead cuts to lunch with Urabe and Oka - actually, the end of lunch. After polishing off the last morsel, Urabe offers Oka a taste of her saliva, something so rare (at least to get voluntarily) that Oka enthusiastically takes it. Suddenly her body gets hot and face is so flushed that her glasses fog up. She has to ask if something happened between Urabe and Tsubaki, and Urabe admits something did happen the day before. Thinking about it, she says that she experienced a sensation she'd never felt before. Oka asks her specifically what happened, but Urabe declines to answer, and amazingly, Oka accepts that, but tells her that being in love will make one feel all kinds of new things, and it's normal. Urabe is curious, and asks Oka if she's been feeling different things since dating Ueno. And she admits its going slowly, and certainly nothing like the reaction she just had passed to her. Oka speculates that they have gotten even further along than she and Ueno have, and Urabe cuts the conversation short, and actually runs away. Oka's glasses fog up again, and she says that something VERY significant must have happened between them, and she reveals that she's kinda been in competition, thinking that she'd been ahead of them all this time.

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Zing!
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"Compared to this feeling, my sex life seems inadequate."
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"Sorry, I feel a very sudden need for some privacy."
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"Oh great, does this mean I'm going to start having rape ravishment fantasies now?"

Urabe, having run off, finds a narrow space between the buildings to hide. She reaches up into her hair and pinches her ear, flushing and panting as a result. It seems that her ear pushes a button with her, perhaps triggering a memory of her feelings at that moment before, which may not be what we assume.

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Finally it's back to class, and Tsubaki is sitting there during Chemistry, thinking about what happened and feeling like a total shit.

Cut now to their walk home, and he is abjectly apologizing. But she asks why. "Because I made you cry." "I told you I wasn't mad." At the end of their walk, as she's about to give him his daily dose, he refuses, saying he's not worthy. He insists that she slap him. He says it's not whether she's mad or not, but that he did something to make her cry. (So really, it's about him getting right in his own head.) She warns him that it will hurt, and clearly it does. But then she pulls back her hair and tells him to touch her ear, then to squeeze it. Her thighs clench together, she lets out a little gasp and starts tearing up. She says that ever since what happened, when she touches her ear, she cries. Her sensations have changed, and even in the face of his apology, she says she doesn't mind it, in fact, she kinda likes it. (She is an odd girl). But if what happened yesterday hurt him, she needs to know, and so she takes a sample from him. And she discovers that her slap really does hurt as her own cheek reddens. She insists that she has some responsibility for what happened, and while saying that relieves Tsubaki a little of his guilt, he still wishes she hadn't taken on the bruising from the slap, because that shouldn't happen to his girl. Those words clearly have an effect on her, and she quickly gives him his dose and runs off, while he flushes.

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"Really, you don't need the Wakizashi."
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Amazingly, it stays attached.
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It's a disturbing cross between pain and arousal.
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"Wow, I guess I don't hit like a girl."
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"Let's not do this again.  At least not before we invest in some Serious Leather."

It's hard to judge, from a number of angles, what exactly is going on in Urabe's head. Perhaps she wants to be "Taken" even though the time wasn't exactly right, and she was both aroused and saddened by the incident. It's true that she did have a grip on her scissors, and then let them go rather than slaughtering her boyfriend. I'd say there are cultural differences going on here, but considering that this is Urabe, I'm not even sure if any Japanese cultural norms apply, so her reactions are alien to me by at least two degrees of deviation. This episode has kicked their relationship way down the field, but almost broke it at the same time. The effect this will have on them in the future is yet to be known.  Maybe it will make them stronger, but at the cost of their innocence.

There's another metaphor in here aside from the weather that's not immediately apparent. On the way to Urabe's house, Tsubaki passes a park with shrubs that are in bloom. On the way back, in the pouring rain, the ferocity of the storm has knocked many of the petals to the ground, clearly symbolizing the damage that's been done.

Posted by: Mauser at 11:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 2287 words, total size 18 kb.

June 03, 2012

Mysterious Girlfriend X Ep. 07

As I mentioned before, it seems that a lot of these episodes tell two stories, although this time they're a little less clearly demarked. A little bird told me that this is already up to volume 4 of the Manga, and that the series may have an Anime Original ending. The upshot is some things are really compressed. So the two threads are, Urabe's talent for running and whether or not to join the track team, and the healing power of swimsuits.

Yes, that means there WILL be more de-pans below. If you wanna jump ahead, that's okay. I'll be here when you get back.

Our story opens in the girls gym class where they're doing speed trials, and Urabe is up against Yajima, the fastest girl on the track team, and the finish is really close. Oka, who was running the stop watch comes up to her and tells her how amazing the run was, and then Yajima comes up and tries to recruit her for the Track Team. Urabe, of course, isn't interested in joining any after-school clubs, but at least she is drafted for the relay at the school P.E. festival. What follows is one of the most awkward high-fives ever, and Urabe is left looking at her hand quizzically.

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On the way home, Tsubaki is commenting on this news about the Festival, he's very impressed (And of course, she isn't). This leads to him thinking about how athletic she is, in particular how fast she is with her "Panty Scissors". Urabe mentions how Yajima invited her to join the Track team, and Tsubaki is even more impressed and wants to know if she'll do it. In one of the sweet moments we occasionally get from Urabe, she says "I can't join. Because, if I join an after-school club I won't be able to walk home with you after school." Tsubaki is so touched by the sentiment that he tries to glomp onto her, which she dodges with her lightning speed. While she forcefully reminds him not to hug her without permission, he reflects on how her speed is proof of her excellent athleticism.

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What would you do, girls, faced with THIS?
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Later, at practice for the P.E. Festival, Oka pops up for her favorite hobby, meddling. As Urabe takes a break, Oka brings her some water, and probes her about why they're practicing during lunch, when normally she'd be sleeping on her desk, and isn't that tough on her? And then she pokes her about not joining track, but comes to the very odd conclusion that this is kind of sexy. Urabe is just as confused by this logic as I am, but Oka explains, rather lengthily that if she joined track, her legs could be trained to the point of winning regional meets, but "... these beautiful legs, Tsubaki-kun gets to hog them all to himself." And to emphasize her point, Oka starts stroking Urabe's thighs, much to her shock. (If Tsubaki had done it, he'd be a dead man). Oka further explains that she's sussed out that Urabe is doing all this just so she can walk home with Tsubaki. It's true, but the way Oka spins it (everything, really) shows how sex-obsessed she is. She blows Oka off by returning to practice, which Oka takes as confirmation of her theory.

/images/mgx/MGX07Fondle1.jpg /images/mgx/MGX07Fondle2.jpg
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"What is this? National Molest Urabe week?!"
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"Two words - Bad Touch."

We switch to Tsubaki, who is watching the practice from the classroom window. He is pleased to see that Urabe is running the "Anchor" of the relay, and the other girls seem to really appreciate her. Later, at home, after taking a bath, his sister tells him that she's just had his winter school uniform cleaned. During this exchange, she says two ominous things: First, she warns him to dry his hair after his bath or he'll catch a cold, and the second, after Tsubaki takes his Uniform to his room, is she reveals that she's had her old school uniform cleaned and remarkably, it still fits. If she weren't such a cipher, that might carry more meaning, but it can't bode well.

/images/mgx/MGX07Fuku.jpg?size=640x&q=95
Click to embiggen. A difficult de-pan, it was actually multi-plane!

Speaking of ominous, when Tsubaki goes to bed, he reflects on how it seems (to him anyway) that Urabe is getting closer ot Oka, and getting along with Yajima and the other runners. "I should be happy for her, but I feel like I'm gradually losing her." WTF! Aside from the question of just how much you've actually "Got", you already know you're stuck with her for whatever that's worth. I dunno, if that's what the "Average" high schooler is like in Japan, no wonder the birth rate is down.

Well, I guess Tsubaki was so concerned about sharing Urabe that he went to bed with wet hair, because he catches a super flu and is out of school, which gives Oka more ammo for meddling. While feeding Urabe some nummy-looking food (Looks like Tempura shrimp wrapped in Bacon, and we all know EVERYTHING is better with bacon) she discusses how the teacher said he'd be out for days, and what a shame it will be for him to miss the P.E. Festival. Then, she sets her next trap, "So, since he's your boyfriend, aren't you going to visit him?" Urabe innocently lets out the affirmative, and Oka goes in for the kill, talking about how Ueno had the flu a couple weeks ago, and what she did to help him get over it. Now I may have spoiled it above, but for viewers, she whispers it in Urabe's ear, and convinces her that the what-she-did helped him get well enough to come to school the next day.

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Four hours in a room-temperature Bento box... I'm SURE it's safe.
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"Okay, I admit my standards for 'Salacious' are a bit low."

Urabe shows up at Tsubaki's house, where she hasn't been since the first episode, and recycles the same excuse to get past his sister, lying about having his homework. Now, sometimes one line might be a giveaway. In this case, when Big Sis introduces Urabe to Akira's room, she sweetly says "Take your time" (or "Make yourself at home."). I wonder if she knows. Nevertheless, just like before, she plops down on his sickbed and confesses to lying about the homework. Tsubaki notices the similarity to the previous situation, but Urabe points out that this time he is really sick, not just lovesick, and she doubts that her saliva would cure him, but they try anyway. And Tsubaki suddenly has a strong impression of Summer, and feels a lot better, so she leaves.

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"Don't break him."
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It's Deja Vu all over again.

Urabe then returns to a darkened apartment, which makes me wonder if she lives alone, and reveals that the impression of summer her pheromones communicated was because under her coat she was wearing a Bikini.

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"Home again, Home again. Jiggedy Jig."
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Guess what happens if you click on this.

Now it's time for the festival (More data for the detective work, it's Fumidai High School). Oka is sitting with Urabe with the female participants, and she's snapping pictures of the goings-on. She comments that Tsubaki is there, and Urabe says that it's thanks to her, she took Oka's little story in mind and visited Tsubaki. Oka is, of course, hungry for all the salacious details, but fortunately for us, she flashes back on HER visit to her sick boyfriend.

/images/mgx/MGX07Festival1.jpg

Okay, while he may have had the flu, Ueno is a sick pup. Frequently there's a bit of voice play over the previews, usually that seems unrelated to the story, but a couple of episodes ago in one of those, Ueno is talking about wanting to see Oka in a bathing suit, but not wanting to go anywhere public, because he doesn't want to share that vision with anyone else. When Oka visits to cheer him up/help him out, That is the request he makes. Not for her to get him a book or tidy up, but "I wanna see you in your swimsuit." He expands, "I think if I can see you in a swimsuit - something I usually only see in the summer - I might get better." Manipulative little shit. When she just lets the silence run just a little too long, he breaks and says he is only kidding. That's when she says, "Is that all?" and says she'll be back in 40 minutes in her swimsuit.

/images/mgx/MGX07Oka1.jpg?size=640x&q=95
"Is that all?"

One sight of this and he's out of bed, ready to pounce her, but she puts her foot down and orders him back to bed, threatening to break up with him if he lays a finger on her. It's clear who wears the pants in that couple, even when she's wearing a bikini. She then takes the opportunity to blow his mind.

/images/mgx/MGX07Oka2.jpg?size=640x&q=95]
The pan started at her feet, but was interrupted by a reaction shot.
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George Romero's "Night of the Living Letch".
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"EEK, suddenly your hand is HUGE!"
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"It's just foreshortening, dumbass."
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"So, this is what you wanted?"
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"Who OWNS you baby?"
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I know this would make ME feel better.

Remembering this, Oka asks Urabe if she modeled her swimsuit for Tsubaki, but she says that while she wore it, she didn't show it to him. "Oka-san, even to help my sick boyfriend, I'd never do a swimsuit striptease for him." and that is an illustration of the difference in morals between the two. Oka, not getting it, decides to sneak a sample to find out what Urabe is feeling about the idea, but she gets stopped with a classic sword-catch. Only through subterfuge and the use of a brilliant diversionary tactic ("Look, a kitty!") does she get the desired sample. The answer, "Oh, you're shy., I thought you have a more complicated reason than that, but I guess you just had a 'normal' girlish reason." Oh, the insult! Calling Urabe normal!

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Denied!
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"Look! A Kitty!"

Then with a good-luck fondle to the thigh from Oka, it's off to the Relay Race. Tsubaki begins to get pissed about some of the guys making lewd comments about Urabe's legs, but once the baton gets to her, everyone is more amazed by her speed. The outcome is not in doubt (Although the staging sure is, since BOTH Yajima and Urabe have to pass everyone else in the race).

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Nice legs? Really? Okay.
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I've heard of "Upskirt" but "Upshirt"?
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"I will call you Marcie, if you will call me Sir."

After school that day, Tsubaki goes to his shoe locker, only to find that someone has stolen his nametag. He then meets up with Urabe for their walk home, and he talks about how he thinks she should join track, and that he feels like he's holding her back from what she could accomplish. She detects BS, and then suddenly offers her dose right then. He gets a big smile on his face, and she tells him that he was lying about wanting her to do well in Track. How can she tell? Because she knows why he's smiling uncontrollably, and she lifts her skirt to reveal Tsubaki's locker tag pasted on her thigh, marking it his. She upbraids him about lying to her to protect what he thinks she's feeling. She really would rather be with him in the afternoons than winning races. Cue another evaded hug, and she offers to race him to the place they part ways.

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Detagged.
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"Well, I thought it was a little early in our relationship for a Tattoo or a Brand..."
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"...but someday."

Posted by: Mauser at 10:24 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 1950 words, total size 15 kb.

May 19, 2012

Mysterious Girlfriend X Ep. 06

Oka is a horrible little Meddler, you know? But that's probably a good thing if it gives Tsubaki and Urabe's glacially-paced relationship a little shove.

We open with Tsubaki innocently reading magazines outside a bookstore when Oka ambushes him. Okay, ambush may be a strong word for "taps him on the shoulder", but if you remember from episode 4, she's got some kind of obsession with his relationship with Urabe, and he doesn't know she knows. Because of this, he is very surprised when, after he tells her he was buying clothes, she asks "For a date?" But she blasts right through his surprise and suggests that since it's the end of summer, and meeting up is so rare, they should go get some ice cream. Unsure of what he should do, he eventually lets her drag him along.

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"It's not stalking unless we used to date."
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"Come with me, I have to mess with your head."

At the parlor, she hands him his cone in a way that is very reminiscent of his daily ritual with Urabe. He gives voice to his uncertainty about being there, having ice cream alone with his best friend's girlfriend. She reassures him. "He trusts you. Kouhei-kun has nothing but good things to say about you when we're together. 'He may be average at sports and academics, but he's a nice guy.'." Tsubaki isn't entirely mollified by this, "Does that really count as a compliment?"  But then he does a double-take, "Kouhei-kun?" and the hook is set! "That's Ueno-kun's first name, didn't you know that?" Of course he does, but he's surprised that she calls him by his first name, and he asks if he calls her by her first name too. She reels him in by saying that not only does he, but he calls her "Ayu" (Short for Ayuko). Nicknames! It blows his mind! And now that's she's got him right where she wants him, it's time for the coup de grace. He suddenly imagines Urabe calling him "Akira-kun" but it just doesn't seem right to him. While he's lost in thought, Oka sneaks up to his ear and says, "Akira-kun!" and practically makes him jump out of his seat. He does get some of his ice cream on his nose, and while he's asking her why she did that, she teasingly wipes the ice cream from his nose with her finger, and licks it off, saying "Sweet" which is damned close to what he and Urabe do, but he doesn't catch it. But then she asks if he was fantasizing about "his crush" calling him by his first name. Of course he vehemently denies it, She just hums. Victory is hers.

/images/mgx/MGX06IceCream1.jpg
When the Planets align.  A larger version can be made available on demand....
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"It's not like I'm proposing a threesome.  At least not yet, and not with Ueno...."
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"Fish on!"
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Faceplant in 3...2...1....
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"I'm like that Tachi girl in Nana to Kaoru, just messing with the dynamic without really understanding it."

When I'm writing this, I tend to run both translations next to each other in an effort to sort out what the real meaning is between them. Usually they're close, but when they diverge, it can really be incredible. At the Parlor, Tsubaki is regarding Oka, and according to HorribleSubs, he thinks, "Man, she's as short as a grade school kid, but her boobs are huge!" SubDesu gets "Jeez, she has the face of a ten-year-old, ONLY her boobs belong to a woman!" Oka is talking at the time, so it's hard to sort out the words, but there, SubDesu gets credit for translating her line as well.  Still, this episode is a lot more divergent than most.

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"G-cups. Why do you ask?"

At school, Ueno is grousing about coming back to school. Tsubaki asks if he and Oka spoke yesterday, but after Ueno says no, Tsubaki dismisses his question about why. Ueno pokes at Tsubaki's sleeve, and notices a tan line, and asks if he went to the beach with some girl. He vehemently denies this, and then comes up with the story that he went with his sister. This is a bit of a continuity fail, since he wore a bathing suit the whole time they were at the beach last episode, his tan line wouldn't be at his shirt sleeve. Urabe is at her desk right next to them while he's denying he went to the beach with her, but if this bothers her, there's no indication.  I really don't get the whole "Secret Girlfriend" business.  After all, these kids are Seventeen, what is there to be embarrassed about? (I read that in a manga excerpt. There are at least 66 chapters existing of this.)  Oka also slipped by them without a word or any acknowledgement.  It's just weird.

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"Until he stops being an idiot, I'm fine with the denial."

Outside on the bench, Oka now tries to set her hook on Urabe.  She talks about running into Tsubaki yesterday, and their discussion over ice cream.  She tells her that it was about First names, and how she and Ueno-kun sometimes call each other by their first names, how Akira got all quiet, and she sneaked up on him and said "Akira-kun!" and he got ice cream on his face.  The amusing bit out of the way, she tries to set her hook, saying she believes Tsubaki was fantasizing about her calling him by his first name, and how fascinating he is.  Urabe isn't biting.  Spying an opportunity, Oka pokes her finger in Urabe's mouth and tries to pick up her feelings.  She suddenly finds herself blushing. "This must mean you were fantasizing about Tsubaki calling you by your first name."  She really pushes it, but Urabe will have none of it, and gets up telling her it's none of her business.  This fish got away.

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"Let me tell you a funny story about your Boyfriend."
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"heh, heh, heh."
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"I'm just poking my fingers into your relationship a little more literally this time."
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"Hmmm, so love tastes like Cola?"
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"You want to show me what you keep up your skirt? How exciting!"

But, to switch metaphors, the seeds have been planted.  On the way home, when Tsubaki and Urabe stop in the park, she falls asleep on the bench while he goes to get drinks (I swear, she's a Narcoleptic in addition to everything else). He tries to wake her, calling her (last) name, tapping the bench, even daring to shove her shoulders, but she is completely conked out - worse than in school. I suppose this emboldens him, because he leans close, and just to try it out, he whispers her first name into her ear.  She wakes, and he hopes she didn't actually hear him, because it feels like it's too soon, but considering her blush and that we can see both her eyes, I think she did. In fact, she's just about to ask him about it, but changes her mind. This lets him off Oka's hook. He almost blows it, interpreting her smile as permission, but then he catches himself, and is left very awkwardly trying to recover. I wish they'd cut it just before that, since it kinda ruins the moment.

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"Out cold.  What can I do that won't get me scissored?"
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"Oh Baby, say my name...."
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"Will you... say it again?"
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"Someday he'll grow a pair.  That's what I'm waiting for."

That night, Akira goes to bed thinking about the incident, and admits it feels too soon to call her Mikoto, but her smile was so cute, he dreams about taking her picture, and this leads to the second half of the story.  A lot of these episodes seem to run two stories together.  I'm not sure how short the manga chapters are, but each one seems to cover a specific topic in their growing relationship.  In this case, it's a story about a picture.

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You know, maybe he's NOT such a normal High School kid...

When he awakens, he knows what he must do, and digs out his "Bad Cat" Polaroid camera from the closet (Bad Cat being the fictional brand name that's on everything in this show from the soda cans to Urabe's beach skirt.).  That day, on the way home from school, he convinces her to let him take her picture.  But she refuses to smile for him, because doing so would be fake.  She leaves him standing there (in the road!) without a picture.

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The next day, waiting on the bridge where he usually meets up with Urabe, Tsubaki is surprised to be greeted by his old middle-school crush.  Now this is something I wish I'd covered better in the first episode write-up (I DO plan to go back and add pictures to it).  At the end of the first episode, Urabe was looking for some serious demonstration of commitment from Tsubaki to be her boyfriend, and not anything ordinary like the kiss he attempted to lay on her.  Suddenly he hits on it, and digs out his wallet.  In it he has a picture of this girl he had a crush on from Middle School.  He says that since he met her, he hadn't even thought about his old flame, and demonstrates his new commitment by tearing up the old photo.  And I tell you, that's one hell of a commitment!  Have you ever tried to tear up a Polaroid?  She has a disgustingly happy reaction.

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A great many unfortunate meetings occur on bridges.  One should avoid them.
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If only he'd have had the nerve, this could have been his.
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"It's not stalking until after you've broken up."

So Tsubaki is in a bad spot, waiting for his current secret girlfriend while his old flame shows up and is very friendly.  In fact, she wants to meet him for coffee.  She is very beautiful, and clearly from her uniform goes to an elite school, but our hero blows her off.  And good for him, because it turns out that Urabe was sitting against the end of the bridge so as to not interrupt his potentially disastrous decision.  As rare as any kind of expression is from her, it becomes clear that she was upset at what she saw, but Tsubaki reassures her that SHE is his girlfriend, and that's why he turned her down.  And then, in a scene I thought was incredibly poignant, he asks, "If I had gone to the cafe with Hayakawa, would you have been mad?" and she turns, with both her eyes showing, and he backpedals hard that it's just a hypothetical.  Eventually she breaks her silence by giving him his daily dose, and suddenly he starts crying. Urabe explains that she wouldn't have been angry, but very sad, and that those are the tears she would be shedding if he had gone off with her.  Tsubaki is deeply touched by this, and swears that even in the face of a girl he used to like, and who is, admittedly rather pretty, SHE is the one he loves.  She smiles.

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"I would have been very sad.  Six months later I would have had to kill you in your sleep."
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"Those are the tears I would have shed if you had gone with her."
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"I think I need to re-think this whole 'Pheromone Receptivity as the criteria for future mating' thing."

Then he blows it by asking her to freeze so he can take a picture of that smile.  She narrows her eyes at him but agrees.  He goes through the elaborate Japanese picture taking ritual, and at the last second, instead of smiling, she pulls down her eye and sticks out her tongue.  She offers that if he doesn't want the picture, she will gladly cut it up with her scissors.  But today is Tsubaki's day for great recoveries.  He says no, he'll keep it and treasure it always, and puts it in his wallet where he used to keep Hayakawa's picture.  Urabe has been feeling pretty hurt by this whole incident, and when this whole picture thing reared its head again, she was determined to be snarky and uncooperative, but Tsubaki's sincere affection, even when she's being a bit petty and cranky totally overcomes her.  Urabe has her unfortunate reaction that occurs whenever something makes her very very happy, off-screen, fortunately, and they continue on home.

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There's a name for this pose.  Really.
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"From Schmuck to Anti-Schmuck in less than a minute.  I actually feel kinda guilty now."

One thing I noticed while capping this section is they did a LOT of nice backgrounds, and a lot was done with the color of the light as the sun set.  There were at least half a dozen different backgrounds just on the Bridge conversation.  There may not be a lot of action sequences or space battles, but they did spend some money creating this.

Posted by: Mauser at 11:00 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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May 14, 2012

Mysterious Girlfriend X Ep. 05

Oh boy! A Beach episode! You all know how this goes. For some reason the whole gang gets together and goes to the beach, Hijinks Ensue, they do traditional things like smash a watermelon, and relax in Yukata while fireworks go off in the distance, having sorted out various relationship things before they get back to fighting in giant robots or whatever they were doing before, at least until the Onsen episode.

Not this time.

This series continues to be unconventional without making a big deal about it.

In the teaser, we see Urabe going for a swim on a deserted beach. It's not a big touristy public beach, and we find out later that this is actually out of sequence. But I have to say, The girl does have a commitment to going armed - something I like in a woman. She goes swimming with her scissors tucked into her bikini bottom.

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Hover over this and other large images to see if you can "Click to Embiggen"

One OP later, and it's not summer vacation yet. The segregated gym classes continue, with the boys practicing Soccer, and the girls doing Swimming. But even though the soccer field and the swimming pool are adjoining, they are blocked off by tall shrubs. The boys have come up with an inventive way of defeating this obstruction to their view by deliberately flubbing their kicks at the goal, sending the ball off into the trees, so that they have to go retrieve it. Getting a brief look at the girls and coming back, they report back to their fellows what they've seen, compiling a list of the girls' chest sizes.

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Seriously, he looks like Megane from Urusei Yatsura. "This one's for you, Chibi, Pamu!"

Ueno lucks out and catches a glimpse of Oka in her school swimsuit, and he's in heaven, reporting back "Very Big". Urabe is the only one not on the list (since she was swimming a lap at the time and clearly creaming every other girl).  When it's Tsubaki's turn, he catches a glimpse of her toweling off and flubs his kick. A shame, because he really really wanted to see her in a swimsuit. (Oka got a good look at her though. Depending on the translation, she either looks cute in a swimsuit, or she has cute armpits. My vocabulary and tiny Japanese dictionary fail me.)

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On the way home, eating popsicles (Let's NOT discuss the visual metaphor this time) and discussing the heat and swim classes, they stop briefly in the park. Tsubaki notices the drop of sweat on the nape of Urabe's neck, and then notices her smell. Very interested in that, he begins sniffing and gets a little TOO close, prompting a scissor attack that gets called due to rain.

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"What do you think you're doing?
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Waiting for the next Neko-Bus.

Taking shelter under a tree, when her spot is under a drip, Urabe leans close to Tsubaki, and he starts sniffing again (or else he's looking at her cleavage...). Now one big problem this couple seems to have is communication. In spite of the Pheromone thing, Urabe is a closed book most of the time, and Tsubaki is terribly terribly inhibited about expressing his feelings. I think though that her obstinateness is slowly training him to tell the truth slightly more often, but he's not very good it it. It's a Japanese thing I guess. He finally asks her if she's wearing perfume. She says she's never used the stuff and asks why he's asking. He says it's because she smells very nice today, and she sniffs herself and says, "It's just the smell of sweat. I'm sweaty right now."

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But then it really goes off script when she licks her forearm and remarks on how it's salty. Then she adds, it wipes out the other flavor, the flavor of the sea. But it does give Tsubaki a conversational In, and he asks her if she likes the sea. Finally we get a little background. She loves the sea, and goes to the ocean every summer, since she was little, and she loves swimming (which explains why she's such a fast swimmer). When she turns the question around on him, he gives a weak "I guess I like it" kind of response. So she offers him her arm to lick, so it might remind him of the ocean. He licks, and blam, white-out, followed by a vision of her in a white swimsuit.

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"Duuude, it's better than Mushrooms!"
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He's astonished that her sweat, as well as her saliva will show him the images in her head, but he also wonders if instead it was just his own fantasy. But for once he is infused with enough courage to stammer out a proposal that they go to the beach together during their summer break. And amazingly, after a long moment's consideration, she agrees.

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Yay!

But, when summer break comes around, it's like she's forgotten. She meets him daily for his dose, but doesn't stick around long enough for him to even say a word, until finally he's had enough and makes the bold move to grab her bike before she rides away, which shocks her incredibly. Shocked at himself, he manages to stammer out about their proposed date. But when he suggests tomorrow, she declines, saying that she's going away to visit her father's family. But there's a light at the end of the tunnel, she suggests next week, and on the spot he makes plans (way to think ahead, buster.) and so, next week they'll meet at the station and go to a nearby beach.

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Seriously, she freaked. Kudos to Ayako Yoshitani for getting it across.

Oh, as long as we're mentioning family, I should point out that Tsubaki lives alone in a house with his older sister. There hasn't been much reason to show her picture before, because so far she's had zero impact on the story. No mention has been made of their parents, she just acts like a surrogate mom, and doesn't even seem to have a job. But when Tsubaki comes home that day, she points out that he's grinning like an idiot. And he is.

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That night he starts dreaming about going to the beach with Urabe. In his dream they are running along the beach, and then she leaps into the air, becoming a mermaid (a topless one at that!).

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If someone can look up where Kazamidai Station is, we could locate where this series takes place. There's probably a nod to Railfans in here too. Anyway, on the appointed day, he rushes there to meet her. Much to his shock, she's already thoroughly tanned. Now personally, I like the look, but I understand that in Japan, the whitest possible skin is the sign of beauty, so Tsubaki is a bit thrown off by this. He asks "Y-your skin..." and she mentions that there's a beach near her dad's house and she went swimming and tanned yesterday. This probably refers to the opening scene. On the train he gives her a looking over and thinks to himself how new and unfamiliar it is to him to see her like this. She notices him staring and gives him the hairy eyeball, and he nervously laughs it off saying "Oh, nothing." Obviously training him in honest communication is going to take a while. I mean, seriously, she's told him about what a strong bond they have, but he is always afraid of how she might react to what he thinks.

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"It's this amazing new thing called a Tan."
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Upon arrival at the beach, he spends a brief time gawking at all the skimpy swimsuits, until Urabe arrives in hers, as seen in the preview last time. She looks really good so let me just spam you with screenshots for a bit. Tsubaki comes to the realization that it's not just "New" but "Naughty" to see her like that. Not entirely sure what he means by that....(HorribleSubs translates it as "Different" and "Hot". But the word is Ecchi, so who's to say.)

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I'd go with "Hot".
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Just... DAYMN!

Now the funny thing is, she suggests that they get something to eat before they swim. She says one needs energy to swim. So unlike the rule we have about waiting an hour before swimming after eating. So they trot over to the Yakisoba stand, where he overhears one girl demand her boyfriend buy her food, but his attempt to be chivalrous is cut off by Urabe's paying before he thinks to act. She is a little strange in her food choices, asking for hers with no meat or cabbage, but extra ginger. When he remarks on how strangely she ordered it, she's never heard this before. But to compound the strangeness, she says that normally she'd like it with some Mayo on it too. She feeds him a little (hey, wasn't that Ueno's dream?) and she ask if it's bad, and of course he says no. Wimp.

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"Snap!"
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Finally they go swimming. Not playing in the water, but full-bore freestyle through the water. Tsubaki begs her to stop because he can't keep up. She promises to slow down. Lucky boy, this gives him a chance to dive and take a look at her, although he wishes she'd ditch the skirt. However, gawking too long, he gets caught in a compromising position. "I thought your skirt has a really interesting pattern!" Nice save! She takes it honestly, and says she doesn't normally wear a skirt while swimming, but she accidentally got some unfortunate tan lines, and shows him. Cue the nosebleed.

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(Sorry for the color correction fail on this one)
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"Busted."
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"Where I'm from, the Camels are the size of Pekingese."
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This looks really bad...

On the train ride home, she tells him she had a lot of fun. She asks if he had fun too, and while he stammers, she sneaks in a finger to get a taste of him. (Clearly her boundary issues are one-way.) Cue the nosebleed again. She stares at him asking "Why is my nose bleeding?" And he has to admit that he got a nosebleed when he saw her scissor tan lines.

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Clearly he's not quite as good as her at transmitting images, since she has to ask why.

What comes next is pure evil "Tsubaki-kun, would you like to see my tan lines again?" He stammers out a yes grunt. "Next summer, when we go to the beach again, I'll show you."

Sorry this one is running behind. I have a lot of Pans to de-pan (and it looks like my color profiles don't match between machines). Episode 6 is already out, and it answers one of my big questions.

I have one other observation. I remember one blogger critiquing the old style of the show, but I think it's actually deliberate. I may be proven wrong in the future, but I think the throwback to old, almost Rumiko Takahashi/Urusei Yatsura character designs - minus the modern techniques like the textures and gradients - sets the show in the 80's, or maybe the '90's. The biggest clue to me? Nobody has a cell phone. That and in the next episode he's running around with a polaroid-type camera. (In the opposite direction, one of the action figures in his room is R. Dorothy Wayneright from Big O, but that could just be some kind of shout-out.) The "Expo '70" poster in his room isn't exactly proof. 1970 seems early. But Showa dating stops at 64.

Bonus Image, Click to Embiggen.
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Posted by: Mauser at 12:59 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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May 07, 2012

Deadman Wonderland Ep. 02

We open on Captain Makina's office, where she is studying the fuzzy footage of Ganta's superpowered save from being crushed by the chunk of building (in the shape of a giant ball and chain) the director's bombs tried to drop on him.  She's wondering if Ganta somehow responsible for the flash of light that blew the ball to bits.  She flashes back on the discussion she had with the Director about the plan to "Kill him in an accident" without really knowing why, or why the Director specifies that there won't be any followup attempts.  This strikes me as odd that there is some complicity here between the Director and the Captain, but she is definitely left out of the loop, which makes her curious as to why it was necessary to sacrifice three "Ordinary" inmates for one on death row.

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"Worm's-eye View security cams in a construction zone.  What will they think of next?"

Ganta, in his cell contemplates his situation while sorting through the contents of the supply bag he was given at orientation.  Flipping from his previous desire to die and get his sentence over with, NOW he's determined not to die in this place.

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"G-cups.  Why do you ask?"

Which apparently sends him to the Nurse's office where he gets his cut cheek plastered up, while the Nurse mentions to him that he should eat his "Candy" since he's on Death Row, and that his first dose should have been in his bag.  It wasn't.  At the end of the last episode, we saw the guy whom Makina slashed open in the infirmary toying with a piece of candy, which was obviously originally Ganta's.  Makina slashed him after he rammed Ganta "Accidentally" with a cart and "Helped" him recover the contents of his bag.  Apparently she knew he had palmed something, and yet, after that harsh punishment, apparently she never did recover that bit of stolen property.  JUST before the nurse is about to tell him what happens if he doesn't eat the candy, that fellow interrupts from his infirmary bed and says that maybe the candy "Fell out" when he bumped him.  The nurse never bothers to finish her sentence, and Ganta is left talking to the guy he thought he'd seen killed by the Captain, still under the impression that the Candy is just candy.  Paying attention doesn't seem to be one of Ganta's strong suits.

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"What am I in for?  I'm a pickpocket."

Seeing as that bitter tasting Candy is the price of another three day's life for a Death Row Inmate, it could be considered very valuable.  But as we see later on, the price is terribly inflated.

While chatting, Shiro suddenly pops in... from a vent in the ceiling (FINE security you've got there, Deadman Wonderland!)  Ever the happy-go-lucky prisoner, she suggests that Ganta enter the race, because it's got all these big giant toys and it should be fun.  Did I mention she's crazy?

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Crazy, but kinda cute.

The fellow, who's name has yet to be mentioned, explains that the "Dog Race Show" is one of the events put on for the crowds, and draws money for the prison.  The top prize is "100,000 Casts" - a Cast being the currency of the prison.  Ganta doesn't know any of this because he didn't bother to read the rule book in his bag.  This speaks poorly to his survival prospects, because prisoners must buy their own food, but on the positive side, those who earn a lot can significantly upgrade their provisions and accommodations (Including alcohol and tobacco), or even reduce their sentences!  Ah, now THERE'S a reform system designed to produce productive members of society!

The fact that Ganta hasn't eaten yet, and the prospect of "Sweet Bean Bread" being given to all entrants cements his determination to enter, not knowing what's ahead.  Shiro just wants to snack, so she cheers for the Sweet Bean Bread.  I'm sure I mentioned she's crazy.

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"All this for a cookie.  IMAGINE what I'd do for a Klondike Bar!"

As Ganta and Shiro head off to enter the race, we finally find out a lot more about the fellow with the cut chest.  His name is Takami Yoh.  Clearly he's got a lot of cast points, because his room is full of stuff, including a phone, which he is using to call the director (Who is named Tamaki, if I missed mentioning it before) to tell him that Ganta's entering the "Dog Race".  I guess being a stoolie pays well.

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"Oh, I get it, 'Jail Bird'!"

In the locker room, Takami surprises Ganta by being there when he looks up from reading the copiously illustrated rule book.  He finally tells Ganta his name, and tells him to "Call me Yoh."  It seems he's about to give Ganta something (maybe his Candy back?) when one of the prison toughs enters the locker room with a gang of thugs to intimidate the other racers into letting him win.  After the thugs beat up Yoh and Ganta, Shiro wanders into the middle of the locker room excitedly bearing the cookies and wanting to share with Ganta, blissfully unaware of what's going on, and stepping on the Tough's foot, who totally loses it and prepares to beat Shiro to death (for some reason, she reminds him of the actress he beat senseless which landed him in here in the first place.  Now, he was a super MMA champion before he lost it, but he should know better than to mix it up with the nutgirl, especially when she's got cookies!


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"Do you know what all these Carbs will do to my Ripped Body™?"  "Are Cookies Carbs?"

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"I hurt your foot?  Are you calling me fat?"

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"My, What big fists you have grandma!"

Fortunately Makina steps in and stops the fight before it happens (And slices the tough's shirt open.).  This allows her to talk tough too.  "You can come for my throat at any time, just be prepared to die."

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"Don't ask how I managed to secretly appear here between you all with a solid wall of lockers on either side of your little tableau.  It's Ninjitsu, or Continuity Fail.  I forget."

Yoh is conveniently evacuated on a stretcher, and you'll see why that's convenient for the stoolie shortly.

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"So, can I eat your cookie too?"

So, it's time to start the exciting race!

No!  It's time to flash back!

Ganta flashes back while at the starting gate to moments earlier, where he FINALLY reads about the slow acting poison they've been dosing him with through his collar (Slow acting until it acts very, very fast with down-to-the-second precision...), and the need to take the candy to live.  And the manual also says that one piece of candy costs 100,000 cast points.  So basically, he would have to win this "Dog Race Show" twice a week or die.  Continued existence costs 233,333 cast points a week, or 12,133,333 a year.  There doesn't seem to be a way to earn that much.  And that's forgetting meals and such.  Clearly, he's dead meat.

And yet we know there are a lot of folks on death row, yet none of them are in the race.  Hmmm.

And then, just before the race starts, we see Director Tamaki.  He sees Ganta on the camera and says to some online voice that Yoh was right about him being there.  Then, ominously, that he's going to set the obstacles to maximum danger, and that there should be a "Clean up crew" ready.  And even worse. "We'll put on a little show for our guests and those human rights groups."  Shiro might be crazy, but Tamaki is a psychopath - one with power, the worst kind.

So here's the course.  It looks benign enough, much like all of those Japanese obstacle course shows.  But there's a twist:

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"Now that Tokyo's been destroyed (but we don't talk about that) Blood Sport is the National Pastime!"

First of all, there's NO prize for second place.  Second, there's a hot girl starting the race.  Okay, I just threw that in there because there was no image for that first.

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"It's okay, I'm already deaf in my right ear anyway."

Third, the obstacles are deadly.  Swinging blades.

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And as Ganta sees several guys get splutched to bits, the others head for the sidelines, only to find they can't quit.  There are snipers in mascot suits dishing out headshots to anyone abandoning the race.  How they can aim in those things is anyone's guess.

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"Get a career in Corrections she said.  It's good money, she said...."

The crowd is eating it up, assuming it's only special effects, but even if it's not, they're convicted Felons, so who cares?  That's the kind of culture they've got going in this world.

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Next, the "Bungee Lottery" where if you pick the wrong rope, Splat!  So of course, Shiro can't wait to go!  Strangely, she got the long rope but landed safely anyway.  Hmmm, something ODD about that girl.

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"And a 9.6 from the East German judge...."

Next, a runway full of archers - in mascot suits.  I really have to wonder about all the guards working this affair.  And if you fall off the edge or into any of the holes in the bridge, it looks like electrocution!  The floor is a giant bug-zapper - For PEOPLE!

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No, Seriously.  This is real.  I'm not making it up.

Ganta is about to be strafed with arrows, but Shiro knocks him out of the way with a flying butt slam.  She's just being silly, completely unaware of the death all around them.  Even if I have mentioned it before, let me reiterate.  The girl is crazy.

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"Some people pay good money for this kind of treatment."

The thug makes it through the arrows by grabbing two of his gang and using them as human shields.  They are completely pincushioned.

Next, leaping from balloon to balloon.  But don't fall, because it's a pit full of low-hanging poison gas/acid mist.  Shiro again saves Ganta's butt by knocking him in the right direction with a flying leap.

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"Help me!  I'm Melting!  What a World!  What a World!"

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"In ANY other Context, this might be enjoyable. or illegal. I'm not sure which...."

Next, a Montage of death traps that Ganta barely escapes, but which Shiro dances through with nary a care.

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She's STILL cheering about the cookies, I kid you not.

Then, the final stage, inspired by "Don't break the ice" a grid of platforms that fall away one by one to reveal a pit of spikes.  Ganta, Shiro, and the thug are the only ones to make it this far, and the rules say, there can be only one.  Just before it starts, Ganta looks out at the packed stadium and wonders if this is what he would be watching if they'd come here on his class trip.  Briefly he imagines himself and Mimi there, but then the thug has to break his reverie.  Then the other rule, there's a ball you have to hold onto throughout the event.  You have to be holding it at the end to win.  Now, this doesn't quite make sense.  If there's only one person left, why bother with the ball?

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The panels drop at a furious pace.  That is until the thug gets close to Ganta and they have a conversation.  Don't ask me why.  Ganta suddenly gives up his fear and actually decks the guy with the ball (Which Shiro catches) and starts talking tough.  Although he's back to the whole "Kill me already" thing.  But hey, it's part of his character development.  First he was "I have to play by the rules if I want to survive" and now he's "If you're not going to kill me now, I'm playing by my own rules, dammit!"  How he comes to this revelation or what it actually means is utterly unclear.

Then, disaster, the panels under Shiro start to fall (Even though she's holding the ball).  Ganta is stuck in a precarious position on an isolated platform.  The thug makes a daring slide for a spot suddenly marked "Final" (What happened to all the other rules?) and splutches himself on the spikes.  Gravity apparently is funny, because he can make this move and land on the spikes before Shiro even reaches them.  But Ah, in spite of the previous image showing her falling into space, she actually manages to fall UP enough to hang by her knees from a platform!  How's that?

/images/dmwscreenshots/DMW2Shiro11.jpg /images/dmwscreenshots/DMW2Shiro12.jpg
Continuity anyone?

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Not that any of it did before, but at this point, the game REALLY makes no sense.

But now she has another shot at doom.  While Ganta finally notices she's bloodied from the events, and that she had actually been saving his ass all the way, the platform she's hanging from falls away and she tosses him the ball.  If he catches it and lets her die, he wins another three days of life.  Every other convict has died, by the way.  Will he do it?

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"I can see your house from here!"

Nope, gravity again fails to work properly, and he's able to reach down and grab her, losing the ball, losing the game, losing the 100,000 cast points, and well, he's got what, one day left now?

I went a bit overboard with the screencaps.  I could have loaded it up with even more cute shots of Shiro. But seriously, the whole thing is so frigging absurd, I had to convey it somehow.  Also, maybe it's the anime, or the Codec, but there must be an alpha channel lightening the top of the image, because getting a good De-Pan is tough.  But I'll leave you with a nice big one of Captain Makina.  As it is, both translations of the next Mysterious Girlfriend X are in, and I have to say, if I had one of those Top Rotation thingies, I'd be capping the hell out of that episode.

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"Captain Makina, Deus Ex to my friends."

Posted by: Mauser at 02:17 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 2345 words, total size 18 kb.

May 02, 2012

Mysterious Girlfriend X Ep. 04

Ever notice how it is with Superheroes that often it is the person without the powers who comes up with new and better ways for the hero to use them?  Well we get that with Oka this episode.

(I'm going to switch back to last names, since nobody seems to use them in the show, and it might be confusing if you're following along.)

Oka was virtually a non-entity last time out, but she is totally the center of events this time.  Remember that she is Tsubaki's best buddy Ueno's secret girlfriend.  In spite of being a little slip of a thing, behind that big Fuku bow, she's got quite the figure.  And the episode opens with Ueno and Tsubaki eating lunch, and Ueno's face twisted into a bizarre grin at the thought of the girls switching to their summer gym uniforms.  (This might be an error, because I seem to recall in the first episode, when Tsubaki passed out, the girls were in shorts and t-shirts, but then, it has been several months, but on the other hand, winter has not been depicted.  On the gripping hand, Ueno says that her development is a recent, er, development, hidden by her tracksuit.).

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Notice the texture.  Aside from the gradient highlights, this show also uses some fixed textures clipped by the outlines.  While this technique was abused to the point of unwatchability in The Count of Monte Cristo, here it's generally very subtle, and adds to the texture.

Enter Oka, bearing her bento, wrapped in a furoshiki (the most overused word in my first few Japanese classes all those years ago).  She commits the unpardonable sin of waking Urabe from her lunchtime face-down slumber, asking to eat lunch with her.  The response is pure Urabe, no polite words, just "I don't eat lunch" and "Don't wake me up when I'm napping."  It's just like when she blew off the welcoming committee in the first episode, but Oka will not be deterred for some reason, asking if she can still eat next to her if she promises not to wake her up.  "Do whatever you want," is the response from Urabe as she puts her face back down.  It's a trap, and the entire class stares at the bizarre tableau.

Oka, it turns out, is an excellent cook, and the smell of the food entices Urabe to allow Oka to give her a taste.  In fact, Oka ends up giving her a taste of everything, and Ueno is flaming with jealousy.  He wants his girlfriend to feed him like that.  The rest of the class is simply shocked.

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Continuity Win: At the first bite, Tsubaki and Ueno both dropped their food, and it's there on the desktop.

On the way home, Tsubaki asks if she and Oka are becoming friends, and Urabe fiercely denies this, although Tsubaki thinks it would be good for her to develop some female friends.  She, however, does not care.  "I don't need any friends.  After all, I have you for my boyfriend."  He has to admit to himself, he does like the sound of that.

A funny thing happens though with that day's daily dose, Tsubaki can taste a bit of lunch.  As they part, the camera pulls back far enough to reveal that they're being watched.

That night, Tsubaki's dreams are filled with Urabe feeding him bits of Tamago, including mouth to mouth.... In fact, he can still kind of taste it in the morning.

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This goes along with his regret that her serious nature will never have her smiling and telling him to "Say Ah" for her finger.

But now it's time for Gym, and much to Ueno's disappointment, the girls go outside to do Track, while the boys stay indoors to practice Judo.

Okay, Okay, I skipped the part where the girls are getting changed for gym (in one of the classrooms, must be a poor school), Urabe is shown disarming - so there's a panty shot there... and the other girls comment to Oka about how much she's filled out.

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Running relays, it's briefly obvious that Urabe is very fast, but she gets tripped accidentally by one of the other girls (who feels just terrible about it), however, it turns out that Oka is the class Health Representative, and she volunteers to take Urabe to the nurse's office.  When they get there, the Nurse is not in.

/images/mgx/MGXRelay1.jpg /images/mgx/MGXRelay2.jpg

Ah, alone at last, the forbidden love between two girls can bloom!  Ah... no.

Oka treats Urabe's knee (There are some interesting exchanges about the potential for a scar, in parallel with something happening between the boys.) then goes to the fridge where she gets a drink.  Urabe asks her if it's okay for her to do that, and Oka explains that since she's there so much, she keeps soda in the fridge.  She offers some to Urabe, who takes a swig, and then Oka takes it back.

You can guess what happens next, but you'd be wrong.

The first thing that happens is that Oka sits next to her and explains that she is very interested in becoming Urabe's friend.  Urabe rebuffs her, but Oka persists, saying that she'll always want to be her friend.  As she leaves the nurse's office though, THEN the big surprise happens.

Oka's knee is suddenly sporting the exact same wound as Urabe's.  (And for those of you keeping score of the visual metaphors, Urabe is suddenly showing an eye.  Oh, and did you notice the dripping water in the sink?).  Even Urabe is shocked.

I'd like to point out that in several spots it seems that Urabe is experimenting with her powers.  She even referred to Ogata as "an independent variable".  I speculate that this power of hers is at the root of why she self-isolates so much, but even more interesting is the idea that it might even be the reason for her school transfer.  In any case, sympathetic injury is something she has never encountered before, so what's a mildly sociopathic girl to do?  Confirm the hypothesis.  She cuts her palm, and induces Oka to taste her saliva, and again, the same wound appears on her.

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With that confirmation, she begins to explain what's happening to Oka, what she knows happens with her saliva, and how it works with people connected to her in some way.  Oka seizes on this connection to try to get Urabe to agree to her friendship, but Urabe says no, she's already got someone she shares that bond with.  Oka says "You mean Tsubaki?"  It was Oka on the bridge, and she explains how she saw them and became curious, and has been watching them for a while.  She's kind of interested in the both of them, but decided to approach Urabe because she's a girl, as going after her boyfriend would be problematic since she's seeing Ueno.  She asks if the same kind of thing happens with Tsubaki, and Urabe explains that things that happen with her body, and her feelings are communicated this way, and that she can get across her feelings without needing words.  But as she leaves the office, she says, "...I'm fulfilled by having just one person like that in my life.  You can be as interested in me as you like, but I don't need your friendship." (I get this by averaging the two translations.)  Then for an extra twist of the knife, she throws Oka's own words about women needing to avoid scarring at her with regard to her knee.

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"You made me bleed, are we friends now?"

That evening, on the way home, She gives Tsubaki his taste, and she suddenly realizes... "Are you hurt?" and Tsubaki is suddenly spontaneously injured on his hand and knee.  She apologizes for forgetting.  (Am I a bad person for wondering what effect she has on him during her period?)

The next day, Oka is shown preparing another delicious bento.  Ueno meets Tsubaki on the way to school and swears that he will get Oka to meet him outside for lunch so she can feed him.  Tsubaki reminds him that he's keeping their relationship secret, so he swears he will do it with telepathy.  Of course, this fails, but to add to his heartbreak, Oka follows Urabe out of the classroom.  Urabe has suddenly had lunchtime hunger pangs and left for the vending machines.

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"Why are you making that face at me?  Don't you know Telepathy is a myth?"

Oka confronts Urabe at the drinks machine.  She concentrates for a minute, and then SHE offers Urabe a wet finger, saying that this will tell her something about her relationship with Tsubaki. (Metaphor warning: watch the drops of condensation on Urabe's drink).  Urabe is shocked by what she gets from the pheromones, it's sweeter than anything she's ever tasted.  Oka explains that she concentrated on the memory of her first kiss, and so she knows that Urabe and Tsubaki haven't gotten that far yet.  (Quite the little detective, isn't she?)

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"Turnabout is fair play!"

THEN she offers to share lunch.  Urabe admits that eating her lunch the day before seems to have altered her body's rhythms, and Oka offers that even if they can't be friends, at least they can have a lunch-sharing relationship.

The boys go to get drinks, with Ueno bemoaning the failure of his "Connection" to Oka, and wondering where she went, when as they go through the breezeway, they spot Oka and Urabe sharing lunch on one of the benches.

/images/mgx/MGXSpotted.jpg

Looks like next week is an infamous "Beach" episode, but Urabe looks pretty good with a tan and a bikini.  Bonus De-panned shots below the cut (Click to embiggen). But to be evil, I'm going to throw in the rather disturbing interstitial pic from this episode too.  Muahaha!
more...

Posted by: Mauser at 01:43 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 1638 words, total size 11 kb.

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