Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko

I read the most recently translated manga chapter, and found it quite interesting how different it was from the anime's depiction of the same events. The specific events are the same, but the order seems to be slightly different.

Episode 7:

• Azuki Azusa sure knows a lot about the types of car accidents... Oh wait, one of her part time jobs could explain that.
• Mayonnaise rice is damn delicious, I agree.
• Was wondering when the stalker shrine would show up. There was simply no way Steelie wouldn't have one.
• Yokodera seems to have a significant connection to the Tsutsukakushi mum.
• Nice bait-and-switch regarding the wish. Turns out the world wasn't being destroyed; it was the other way around, Tsukiko preserving a happy little bubble.
• Azuki Azusa is one kinky girl. (Side note: it's hard to not just call her Azusa. Yokodera keeps using her full name and it kinda stuck)
• That upside down rain scene was beautiful.
• Just when I was thinking that Yokodera was dense, Steelie goes ahead and proves to be denser. So dense that even official records can't get through her. Wow. Then she gets added to the harem, she goes in for a kiss, Azusa sees and kicks off the next wish-related fiasco. Should be fun.
• Greatest plot hook in this episode: There's something strange going on with Yokodera's memories. He couldn't remember Tsukiko, and he couldn't remember the flash flood (his reaction in that scene did not seem like he was just being forgetful/clueless).

edited 28th May '13 9:17:30 AM by fillerdude

Yes, odd.

Funny thing about this series is the characters in question KNOW that wishing to the Cat causes a lot of unintended consequences, then they go and do so again anyway. See Azusa's knee-jerk reaction at the end. You'd think that they'd learn, but nope!

One of those times a character has to be an idiot to get the plot moving. Though in this case it was bad because episode really did not need that stinger, it could have ended with Azuki Azusa seeing Tsukushi kiss Youto.

Huh, how interesting would it have been if if we didn't see Azusa make the wish? Like next episode a new character is introduced, we think it's the usual addition to the cast for more harem/comedy hijinks, but there's a conspicuous lack of Azusa, and then it's revealed that the new character is Azusa?

For some reason I keep thinking of a Zegapain scenario. Can't shake off the feeling that Tsukushi's "Even if you don't officially exist, I'll stand by you" is foreshadowing...

wow...the vice president...has quite a imagination....and some mouth...all those drill, diamond, i dont think i ever seen a (real) girl as perverted like that in my whole life....

have you guys?

Yes. Definitely yes.

Episode 8 and things are starting to get weird.

Strike that, they're starting to get downright trippy.

It might be a little rushed, but it might also be that the magic is causing narrative disruption.

...

I don't know. One thing is clear, and that's that the stone cat god is now in portable form and thus even more overpowered.

Rabbit, girl, little sister. A mystery.

When they come to analyze the remains of our universe they will probably find it fell apart under the weight off absurdity surrounding a certain perverted prince.

edited 2nd Jun '13 4:32:22 AM by UltimatelySubjective

Tsukushi is stil cuteness incarnate. "Every girl on this blue planet hates you. Once I get my growth spurt I win."

Interesting. Arilou, which subbing group do you support for this anime?

The one that releases first.

Ah. By the time I get to it, there's usually already several around. :/

Shuffle them around LOL. Although in my case I've gotten releases from only three groups, rori, gg, and Commie. But mostly the first two.

I dislike some of Commie's translation choices, so I try to avoid them. For this I've been supporting rori (because going with two different subbers for the same anime is weird)

It's either Eveyuu or Chihiro for me, both have late releases though.

Episode 8: Somewhat interested in how Emi is related to Azuki Azusa's wish but I'd rather just fawn over Tsukiko. "I will be the victorious one", pro pasta consumption, tennis analogy, deadpan kyaaa, "Before I go berserk for having my 'showing off my swimsuit' plan destroyed", etc.

Steelie continues to be impossibly dense and the Vice Prez is one dirty-minded gal.

edited 5th Jun '13 5:11:32 AM by fillerdude

Episode 9: Apparently, Yokodera wished for all this to happen. Suddenly, cat god took over Azuki Azusa's body. Then somehow kissing her solved everything. I am confused

edited 8th Jun '13 11:03:52 PM by MarquisDev

That was episode nine. Though I thought it was pretty straightforward myself. Except for the ending anyways.

Just like Pokemon, people make mistakes when they're confused. Perhaps you could explain why it was so straightforward for you?

They're both so great swimmers... Though staying underwater with that ring is mighty hard.

x2

I'll put it under a spoiler. Yokodera made a wish years ago but doesn't remember it. That's why the school changed and Emi returned. Azuki Azusa made her own wish which resulted in the cat possessing her but being dormant for the most part. I'm not sure about the rest of the ending though.

I like this kind of symbolism. The story of the allusion to the The Happy Prince is good in theory.

But I think this arc sort of convinced me that while this show is a decent ecchi harem romcom at its core, it struggles to manage underlying themes, multiple plot threads to the arc. It has trouble trying to be more than a harem comedy.

More subtle elaboration on the plot would have been good. Better allusion would have helped us understand it.

I am confused though, so I'll write out my thoughts (correct me if I'm wrong on any of this):

• The Emi is a complete fabrication. She has been created by the cat god (and locally retconned in) and given free use of the wishes to indirectly (trollish god!) realise an old wish of Yokodera's.
  • Yokodera's memories were messed with to insert her, but maybe there's more to it than that.
• I'm assuming that the rabbit was technically unrelated to all this, but perhaps it was inspiration for Emi. It also went missing for unrelated reasons.
  • I don't know why Yokodera thought Emi was his friend's younger sister.
• Azusa Wished to become someone else after shaking hands with Yokodera? She then became the cat god.
  • She probably wished to be someone else because she found it hard to face Yokodera?
  • She probably found it hard to fact Yokodera because of the kiss she saw.
• Interrupting the cat god cancelled the reversal at just the right moment to keep Emi?

Regarding The Happy Prince, is Tsukiko the Swallow? In the story, the swallow enacted every request that the prince had to benefit those around them, but at the cost of staying too late to migrate. The swallow died of cold and causing the prince to die of a broken heart. Of course Tsukiko is willing to help ot Yokodera at cost to herself. Is that what they're saying?

Also cat god is surprisingly... Like he has an agenda to fulfil that may actually benefit Yokodera?

I dunno. I like this direction, but not this execution. Is there time for another arc I wonder?

edited 9th Jun '13 12:47:35 AM by UltimatelySubjective

Execution was definitely messy, because the pacing is too fast. It lays down plot threads as fast as it resolves them.

I still love the little things however. Tsukiko's KABO KABO when swimming, the weird plant analogies Emi makes, etc.

I'll try to detail my thoughts in response to yours, US:

• I had another interpretation of Emi— she's a real person, simply turned into a plot device by the cat god, in order to fulfill Yokodera's wish. Note that the cat god said Yokodera's wish drew Emi to Japan.
  • Furthermore, doesn't it seem likely that Emi was the one who took Tsukiko's emotions? She got the 100% smile. She's also pointedly whimsical, her emotions very visible, the kind of thing Tsukiko wanted a facade for in the first place. Plus, it's shown that her cheerful persona is just a facade.
  • There's something going on with Yokodera's memories, but I doubt it's all because of Emi. He has trouble remembering stuff from ten years ago, too. Way before his memories would have to be tampered with in order to accommodate Emi.
• The significance of the missing rabbit is to serve as (an apparently ineffective) memory jolt to Youto about his first meeting with Emi.
  • Youto thought Emi was Ponta's younger sister because of Emi's wish last episode to "make it work out somehow".
• Azusa's wish to become someone else happened a couple of episodes back. The cat god seems to possess her whenever it deems appropriate.
  • Yes, because she saw Tsukushi kissing Youto, she thought that the person she is right now can't win Youto's heart yadda yadda.
• Chalking up the cancelling of the wish reversal to the mighty power of the kiss, to shake someone so deeply as to drive gods out of one's body. Or if you want to interpret it this way, Azusa only made the wish to become different so that she can get that special kind of attention from Yokodera, something which Yokodera's kiss granted and thus eliminating the reason for the wish, which might have caused Azuki Azusa to cancel the wish subconsciously.
• What I'm sure we're missing is why Yokodera wished for Tsukushi to go to Italy. As far as we know it was Tsukiko he met in the past. Indeed, generally, we need to know what's up with Youto's memories.

As for who the Swallow is, I think it's the cat god. It's the one granting the wishes, after all, plus it sounds rather sympathetic to the plight of the Swallow. Hentai Ouji as the prince making the requests, and the stony cat the one fulfilling them. This, oddly, does indicate that the Stony Cat wants to help Yokodera. Why? What if its entire purpose is to help out Yokodera?

New episode.

So I guess they've gone into the past? I have ideas of where this is going, but it's hard to phrase. Something to do with their parents.

Well, yeah. Time travel sounds interesting, but... Well, this show messed up a perfectly good god messing with your school plot and only seems to be able to handle about four people in a single mansion well. I can only hope time travel will be better, but I'm not all that optimistic considering it usually involves even more to keep track of.

And their relationships are all messed up too...

At least with time travel we'll get answers. Hopefully.