"Summer Training Camp Meetings Are A Battlefield"
Oh man I'm so slow; I only just realized every girl represents a season. I even know those kanji, dammit!
For all intents and purposes, this episode was an exercise in
wish fulfillment. Of course, that's hardly news for a series like this, but the focus has now visibly shifted from an unspoken alliance among the girls to true and open hostilities over Eita. To be honest, I think I preferred things the way they were before. It was more interesting to see the tensions between all these rivals play out as undercurrents rather than
actual fights, which are now mostly stimulated by Ai's presence (though Chiwa is opposing Masuzu more strongly now as well). It also seems really unnatural to me that all these girls would try to take Eita from under Masuzu's watchful eye that obviously, or that they wouldn't feel some guilt at doing so. Don't they take his feelings into consideration? After all,
everyone but Masuzu and Eita themselves think that they're dating for real, so isn't it kind of horrible to be all over someone else's boyfriend (or girlfriend, for that matter)?
Of course, that really doesn't mean anything in a harem; in the first place, Eita is not awesome enough to have
four girls tripping over themselves for him, nice guy though he is. He proves himself rather spineless as well, since he can't just say no to the ravenous foursome even when he has (arguably) no real interest in any of them. Still, I realize these are moot points. If I'm going to criticize
Oreshura specifically for these traits, I'd have to criticize every harem series ever made, and I'm not going to do that right now. What matters is, was this episode interesting despite knowing all this? I'd argue both yes and no. As to the no, I'd point out that all that really happened is that the Maiden's Club went out shopping and forced Eita to indulge them all equally, each using her chance to
entice him or the viewer with her particular brand of appeal. Sure, it was chock full of all sorts of fanservice, which must have been nice for some viewers, but for me this was boring territory I've seen covered hundreds of times before.
So then, what about the yes? Well, that's obvious if you've been following my reactions to this series as a whole:
Masuzu is the yes. I don't think I've ever seen a harem where the main girl is so often referred to as a bitch, and while I'd normally hate to see a girl being downplayed like that, there are times when you just need to use a word like that, and Masuzu fits the bill. Still, that part of her personality was downplayed here somewhat, and we didn't really get to see her fight back the way a girlfriend
should by inherent right. For me, though, the most curious part of all this was the fact that she
feels left out of the group, something that new inclusions always feel when intruding into an established set of friendships. It's never nice to be the new friend amongst the old, and Masuzu certainly feels the outcast among the other girls, even if they aren't the ones who knew each other all that time. Worse for her,
Eita's aunt suddenly destroys her justification for monopolizing Eita, forcing out into the open the fake nature of the relationship she's slowly been cultivating to her advantage. Way to go, Saeko, for ruining the chances of my favorite girl.
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