Shameful Otaku Secret!

Otoha

Really? You’re really going to do this to us? I only started watching H2O in earnest because I was couch-bound with the flu and had nothing else to watch (yes, I know, Shigufumi, but hindsight is 20/20), and it hasn’t really struck me since. Like I said, I don’t hate it. I just haven’t found a great reason to get attached to it either. Takuma’s a decent protagonist but kind of flat, and the two main girls aren’t exactly brimming with personality either. But now, just when I start to think I can handle sticking with this show until the end, they whip out a bizarrely random but mostly unfunny self-parody episode. Why kill what little flow you had up until now?

Something is wrong.

Story

Well, there isn’t much of one here. Takuma wakes up one morning to find that Hotaru and Hayami are his sisters, and his uncle is his “mother” aka a cross-dressing vehicle for typically Japanese homophobia.

Very wrong.

I mean this within the context of the show, but also on multiple other levels.

School turns out to be no better, with Otoha appearing as a both a transfer student from the spirit world and his fiancee; and Yui as “Magical Farm Girl Yui,” who plans to turn the school into a farm. Otoha herself transforms into a magical girl and we get some half-baked Sailor Moon parody action for a while. The halfway point has a new, fake OP, and I must admit I had a chuckle. Other parodies (some I caught and some I didn’t) wind their way through this wholly random and spastic excuse for sweat beads and fanservice as Takuma is forced to whack people with the nearest object until he can make sense of the world again (Best line, as he smacks Hamaji: “When you came out of the closet it was shocking, but it moved my heart a little!”).

Nope. Still wrong.

In the end, the entire debacle was actually last week’s storybook brought to life by Otoha, which I don’t consider a spoiler because it’s barely important. There is one other major development that takes place in the final minutes as reality comes back together, and it’s kind of sad but I have very little emotional attachment to this show to begin with.

What We’ve Learned

Not much: this whole thing seems conceived as some kind of break or respite from regular progress, or at least an explosion of fanservice.

Thankfully, all television anime scriptwriters aren’t this predictable.

However, we see a major character supposedly bowing out for good, so our one development is a biggie. What’s this going to do for the plot? I’m guessing Takuma’s time with eyesight is going to be running out soon, but I don’t know what else.

We also learned that someone both wrote and recorded a “Magical Girl Otoha” theme for this episode. I have pity, I do. But like I said, it was my one real laugh.

And most importantly, we learned that the beach episode wasn’t the worst this show could do.

Thoughts

Like a trip to visit dying Uncle Bobo in the clown hospital, a bittersweet end to a random-ass experience.

There hasn’t been a major push in any particular direction, so I really don’t understand what’s supposed to be developing or what’s supposed to be driving me to watch the show anymore. That mysterious carrot on a stick is farther away and smaller looking than ever. And for a show with such thin developments to suddenly drop in a sidestep like this when every other series is making great strides, I hope they have something in mind.

Hotaru

Am I really watching this show? At this point in a season, it’s pretty easy with a time investment of less than 3 hours to catch up with something, and that’s the problem. I guess I have no excuse not to watch H2O.

Story

Just to recap, H2O in general concerns young Hirose Takuma, who’s moved out to the country to recover from a mysterious illness that left him blind. You know how I feel about mysterious illness, but whatever. A spirit girl who only he can see, Otoha, kisses him on the forehead and suddenly he can see — but she tells him it’s temporary. Bothered by the tomfoolery and bullshittery in this tiny village, kindly city boy Takuma goes about setting things right between the disenfranchised residents. He’s already brought homeless Hayami from a world of constant beatings at the hands of her classmates to the star seamstress of their junior high.

But the real story now appears to revolve around Hinata, whose mean-ass grandfather has done more to her in his quest to retain power than just force her to stay away from Hayami. I’d spoil it if I mentioned in too much detail, and it’s my unofficial policy not to talk about big drama-bombs until the next week when it’s time to not spoil another drama-bomb. Let’s just say, though, that it concerns her late sister.

What We’ve Learned

If you’re just dropping into this thing, there are surprises all over the place. While I easily deduced at least the general idea of what Hayami’s back story was going to be, and why the village hated her, these developments were a little more unexpected. Most notable is not the apparent main thrust of the week’s story, but the sketchbook that proves Otoha is not a figment of Takuma’s imagination — rather, she’s a figment of Hinata’s. Interesting. It’s very much the standard incidental supernatural element that tends to tie these kinds of shows together, though.

General Impressions

I don’t hate this show. The characters are not horrible, although some are really thin and most don’t act especially like kids. Takuma’s got a long way to go before he’ll win the Okazaki Good-Deed-Doer award, but he’s fairly likable (if drawn way too effeminately) and acts from pretty reasonable motivations.

Episode 4, I believe it was — the obligatory beach episode — creeped me out, not because of cross-dressing but because of fan “service.” I was waiting nervously from minute one for such an episode, though, so I guess I have myself to blame. A show focusing on protagonists of this age has infinite potential to creep me out to begin with, and that’s without little-sister panty shots.

However, I’m digressing into something that rarely enters into the show as a whole, which is pleasantly drawn (especially backgrounds) and forgettably written, but not too insulting. Propped up next to this season’s other dramas Clannad and (my current favorite show) True Tears, it looks pretty anemic but it seems like it’s going to be able to pass me by without offending my sensibilities too much, and the rural setting is a nice change of pace. Incidentally, the old three-episode litmus test was made for shows like this.

So give it a shot if you’re looking for something else to watch, it’s still not too late to catch up pretty easily. The light but nevertheless constantly-dangling mysteries provide the carrot on a stick that keeps you watching through some weak character interaction, but it should be a tasty enough carrot to keep drama fans entertained.