Pointless fanservice is pointleeeeess

I’m liking how school days is going so far. There’s a certain pleasure that I’m deriving from watching Itou fail miserably at dating, even if he is improving as we go along. But what’s even more satisfying the dramatic irony that comes from our knowledge of the dormant love triangle. Everything is just waiting to hit the fan, and what happens after that will determine whether school days gets filed under epic or generic melodrama.

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

Itou calls Katsura to talk about their plans for the next day, but is surprised when her sister, Kokoro, picks up instead. But not as surprised as Katsura herself, who wrestles her cell phone back and pushes her little sister out of the room so she can talk to Itou.

The next day at lunch break, Katsura apologizes for her sister, but Itou doesn’t seem to mind at all. Katsura is relieved but there’s more, Kokoro actually wants to meet him. Itou jumps at the opportunity, rather excited at the premise of going to Katsura’s house. Sekai tells him that he’s being way too eager, but is contradicted by Katsura, who says she doesn’t really mind.

When Katsura returns to the classroom from lunch, she’s confronted by the committee for the school festival and is told that she’s been neglecting her duties. The discussion derails when one of the girls suggest that it’s because she has a boyfriend, but Katou is not amused and reminds Katsura to take things more seriously in the future.

On the train ride home, Katsura is noticeably shaken by what happened after lunch, but doesn’t want to worry Itou so she keeps silent. Showing a little insecurity, Katsura asks if their relationship is real, if they’re really going out. The two hug, but when Katsura’s station comes up, she suddenly gets embarrassed and runs off. All the while the two are being spied on by one of Sekai’s close friends.

Yet another awkward situation, yet another call to the mediator in this struggling relationship. Sekai has a talk with Itou, telling him that he has to think carefully about the situation. Even if they are going out, it doesn’t mean Itou is free to grope Katsura anywhere and everywhere. Itou doesn’t really understand, but agrees to apologize to Katsura the next day.

Itou misses the opportunity to apologize to Katsura in the morning because she takes the bus instead of the train, probably too embarrassed to talk to Itou just yet. But everything is resolved at lunch when they meet up at their usual place and talk things out. As a bonus, Katsura invites Itou over to see her sister the coming Sunday.

Meanwhile, Sekai decides to sit this meeting out. As suggested by Setsuna, she eats lunch with her usual friends. The conversation starts off about Itou, as the girl who was spying on him and Katsura gives her reconnaissance report. Fortunately, the topic quickly changes over to what their class will be doing for the coming school festival.

That night, Setsuna drops in on Sekai at the family restaurant she works at for apparently no reason, but it’s obvious that it wasn’t for the food. After Sekai is done for the night, the two talk on their way home. The real reason Setsuna came was to confirm Sekai’s true feelings about Itou. A futile attempt as Sekai gives her the usual “There’s nothing between us, we’re just friends” response. Even though Setsuna can tell that’s not the case, she decides to leave it at that for now.

The weekend arrives and Itou anxiously makes his way to Katsura’s house. When he gets there he’s greeted by her energetic sister who immediately starts calling him ‘onii-chan’. The three spend the day playing together until Itou finally collapses from exhaustion. When they stop for a tea break, Kokoro innocently throws out the question of why Itou still calls Katsura by her last name, causing an awkward silence.

As Katsura walks Itou back to the train station, the two call each other by their given names for the first time, blush, and begin to feel that they’re really becoming a couple. At the train station, Katsura asks Itou to close his eyes, he does so expecting a kiss on the lips, but is surprised when Katsura gives him a peck on the cheek and runs off a blushing mess.

Later that night, Itou gives Sekai a play by play of how well things went. Despite their relationship progressing well, Itou notes that it’s really tiring to be going out with Katsura…

Thoughts

Lucky bastard, forget Katsura, he has a loli calling him onii-chan!

I think Itou has just unknowingly set in motion the chain reaction that will lead to massive amounts of drama. By telling Sekai, of all people, that going out with Katsura is really tiring, he’s given her the ray of hope that she needs to get in on the action.

I don’t think Itou made that comment with intention of implying that he’s sick of Katsura and doesn’t want to continue the relationship, it’s obvious from the events of that very day that he likes her a lot and is happy that their relationship is growing. I think what he meant was that it’s sometimes a lot of effort to deal with Katsura because her personality is so diverse, most of the time she’s shy and reserved, but at times she can step up and take the lead. After all, the two kisses that Itou and Katsura have shared so far have been initiated by her.

But girls are -REALLY- good at misunderstanding things. If School Days is going where I think/want it to be going, Sekai will probably interpret this as a sign that Itou thinks that going out with Katsura is more trouble than it’s worth. This might just give her the final push she needs to admit her own feelings and start acting on them. Something that really should have happened last week after she kissed Itou, but for some idiotic reason, he bought her story about kissing being a friendly gesture…

The episode itself was decent, I’m watching School Days under the assumption that everything is going to go to hell and eventually cause a BAD END. Under that assumption, they’re doing a fairly good job at slowly building up the relationships while setting them up for a crash and burn. The ItouXKatsura relationship is stumbling along, but heading in the right direction, but the foundations for its demise have been set with Sekai constantly being pressured by her friends (especially Setsuna) to just admit that she likes Itou. I can feel the shitstorm brewing, it’s imminent!

But what was up with the fanservice this episode? Not to say that I don’t like fanservice, but it has its place in series that are specifically designed for it, like Nagasarete Airantou or Umisho. In dramas such as School Days, pointless fanservice ends up as an annoying distraction.

Similar comment on Sekai’s work uniform, what kind of family restaurant has such a revealing waitress uniform. It can’t be comfortable to move around in that thing, and as it is a family restaurant, it’s not like they’re targeting otaku with meido fuku. Again, seems like another excuse to get some fanservice in, but in the context it’s really uncalled for.

In any case, it’s not so terrible that it kills the series, but I hope they keep it moderate, ie. no closeups on jiggling melon pan.

On a closing note, I think I’ve narrowed down why I hate Itou so much. It’s not so much the wussyness, after watching an infinity of harems I’ve been desensitized to that. It’s his voice! It’s so damn annoying, everything he says comes out as either apologetic or whiny. Thankfully his VA doesn’t have a lot of other key roles to his name, most of them being “male student #2″ or something along those lines.

Oh noes! Moonrunes. A thousand internets to anyone who would be so kind as to translate the two text messages in this episode.

~ Shirukii ~