Aoharu x Kikanjuu Episode 9: That's What Makes Me Cool! - Bobble Reviews

Can I be frank about how I feel about this episode? Rather than delightfully obfuscating in my caustic yet sprightly playfulness? Alright. This is how I feel.

In this episode, it is revealed...that the entire first portion of this series, barring that one part of the first episode where we saw Hotaru's school, was a dream!!

Doesn't any classroom put its windows to the right of the main character?

No, just kidding (obviously) (sadly). And no, it's not the other way around. Hotaru is not dreaming up a school that never was in a sort of double dream reacharound. You did not dream up that pink girl. Because here she is telling Bubba Hotep to step off of deadly traumatic survival gun games.

I'M WITH YOU ALL THE WAfuck off.

You remember how last episode was so ultradark that it ushered in a new theme song? Well, here comes that gratuitous darkness again! And then peoples' hairs start waving in sudden, dramatic wind. The wind is weeping for the failure of your justice too, Ms. Tachibana.

It's getting a little too deep for me.

Well, what's the central problem here? That Hotaru California is sad that she let down her creepy adult gun-game friends? Yeah! So let's have a flashback to some gym class.

W-woah! This ain't just any gym class!

Unfortunately, we don't get to see Hotaru prove her worth in dodgeball with Prince Valiant over here. She just convinces her wimpy team to compete with a dramatic speech (or...one that's meant to be dramatic when we actually hear the whole thing later in the episode).

yeah im with you gurl

So then she gets determined and stages a race with Homey???

?????????????????

More baffling still is the mostly-unrelated inclusion of some distant hunk-on-hunk time between the two Nazis that our heroes lost against last episode.

Implying that he doesn't live here already.

hehehhehehehehheheh

Good, because it sure isn't here. *hehehhehehhehehe*

The comedy in this episode is probably the worst yet. This is the Aoharu Doldrums we're in, people. When one of your better jokes is "Green-Hair Uses Phone in the Morning," there's a problem. It doesn't help that the animation and pacing don't get a bump-up for comedic purposes.

See? I don't even know if this was funny anymore. Bad omens.

Back to the big fifty-meter dash! Hobby Horse is confused, but she does it anyway. She wins!

As the other girl does a literal Baywatch slow-mo run.

And the characters spout lines of "observational" comedy (it is not the same as explaining the joke).

Then things get heavy!?!?

*DOOM*

Never mind.

We go back to the speech, which now has added punch because we've been through so much this episode! Just kidding, it's about what everyone expected it to be. The punch is only mildly tangy.

"So like, try your best and hang ten, brah!"

Yay! Now that Pink has reminded Yellow of her prior determination to keep trying for the sake of appearances, Hotaru is back in the saddle! Could we have somehow skipped this episode, or at least messed around with it a little? No! It's so powerful! You don't understand!!

As if it wasn't vital enough, we get the romance that...I guess people were craving...but likely forgot about the possibility of it even happening after around five episodes?

And then right after this beautiful Photoshop filter moment Pink Hair runs away really fast. Jokes.

Don't date some chump who runs out on you. Get this dedicated twosome. You're worth more.

Most importantly of all things, however, is the fact that Hotaru has newfound determination to tell the team...

Important goals as always.

We close the episode with Matsuoka's film noir debut.
Made no less poignant by his distinctly Bobobo-esque facial features.