I have to admit, I am enjoying this show a ton. Is the shojo genre finally returning after so many years of moe, dull humor, and comedy just about sex? This episode really hit the mark, it was very funny.
You can see a huge relationship blossom here between Livius and Nike. There was only one boob joke this whole entire episode about her being flat chested and they did it so tastefully. Space Dandy has an emphasis on boob jokes. That series still manages to be humorous because they chose to incorporate it into the main character’s ideals, a restaurant, and Dr. Gel’s key to unlocking the universe. In other words, these two series are alike in the way they handle the topic of sex. Space Dandy layers it on in many different forms through its plot. Soredemo knows that its an important topic, but because the main characters have only known each other for a little while its icing on the cake in maturing the two leads relationship. This episode handled this subject extraordinarily well.
Livius is a great counter to Nike. Originally, even after seeing episode two I felt like the death of the mother was extremely cliche. Given the amount of flashbacks we had last episode, it was really very draining! This episode did a complete turn around with my initial impression of that, threw it out the window, and gave off something entirely fresh!
The death of his mother elicited a whole new meaning for Livius this episode. How much he wants to protect someone. The love he is slowly finding in Nike is giving him a different strength we hadn’t seen before yet. It wasn’t until he defended Nike against those harsh words from the Duke that I realized this monumental change. The dialogue throughout that entire scene left me speechless. Up until now I haven’t seen a series at least in quite a while have a courteous interchange in banter. Not only did that scene illustrate this style very well, but for the majority of Livius and Nike’s couple scenes too! This left such a strong impact on the entire cast!
In regards to the manga, which I haven’t read a lot of it I would say that the writing for this adaptation here was spot on! I was pleasantly surprised with this episode, because I was thinking that this series wouldn’t be anything to write home about, I was wrong. Seriously this was one incredible episode! Although the animation was a bit off in a few scenes and the character’s facial expressions seemed stiff in a few areas, overall it was a nice presentation of the shojo genre. Something that I feel like has been long forgotten with romance anime series or even comedy series for that matter! I really hope that this series can keep up with the same stylistic forte this episode had! Much better than the previous two episodes!
OVERALL IMPRESSION: 9/10
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