Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi – 07

Making memories, Losing memories, Remembering memories…

Ryouko and Ryoushi go on a double date! We open with our resident nervous guy Ryoushi running fatefully, or rather fearfully towards a cutely dressed Ookami which leaves him speechless except of an ill timed and uncontrollable delivery of “Kawaii~” aaand then he gets hit in the face. Looks like a change in dress sense doesn’t do a thing for her spunky character aye Ryoushi ;D

We soon find out that their date is actually an answer request made by a sporting student and manly man Hanzaki Jin. He explains that his troubles start when someone begins sneaking into his home to cook and clean for him.

Sounds like someone let Otsuu-senpai loose on this guy… Anyway so he asks Otogi Bank for help with finding out who this person is in order to return the favour as he’s been gratefully accepting the meals they leave for him.

In answer, Ringo decides to leave stalker paraphernalia all over his apartment so they can finally find out who the cooking, cleaning culprit is.

Kuroko tells us that the result is a clear as day video footage of the phantom maid who is actually cute, younger girl named Jizou Ami who has a reputation of being ‘stiff necked’.

It turns out she’s a clean cut model student… if one were to ignore her daily stalkering habits of course, including rolling around while hugging the pillow of someone you like, on his bed, when he doesn’t know about it… Girl’s got mad creepy skills but she’s cute so I’m sure we’ll all forgive her 😛

The video continues to show her start up her cleaning routine which also includes perving on Jin the baseball ace’s dirty magazines and trying out a few poses of her own. Hmm, I don’t know about anyone else but Ringo’s starry eyed look makes me want to tell Ryouko to keep a closer eye on her loli roommate.

The following day, the no nonsense team decides to confront Ami directly about their stalkered… erm researched video footage. She replies with a lot of nervous sweat drops, some threatened shaking and finally with an acquiescing bow of the head. She explains that she’s indebted to Jin as he once lent her his umbrella on a rainy day and she’s only returning the favour Otsuu-style. She didn’t say that but… that’s what she’s doing! Mission complete? Not so!

The team then takes it upon themselves to set up a meeting between the two awkward characters with romantic Ringo leading the troops. The scan team translates their first conversation with Ami saying “I hold romantic affection for you,” to which Jin replies, “I see. I’m sorry but I don’t hold any romantic affection for you.” Accurate translation or not… those lines had me lololing. I mean… awkward much? Poor Ami. It’s like she’s a long lost relative of Ryoushi.

Luckily however, Jin has some sort of chivalrous thing going for him and replies that he’d like to return the housework favours for one of his own and just like that, Ringo manages to (literally) clap her hands together and set up a date between the two.

Kuroko reports that the couple would be too nervous to go on a date by themselves, which makes sense as they can’t quite seem to get the hang of being together so Ringo creates a double date situation by adding Ryouko and Ryoushi into the mix.

At first I wasn’t sure why they wouldn’t use the Tarou-Otohime couple to act as a ‘model’ for romantic inspiration but then I figured… no one really wants another couple like that running loose should they actually succeed in inspiring the new couple.

Ringo has full control of the double date situation as she’s handily attached an earpiece to Ryouko which she regularly delivers screeching messages into at will. The current mission is to help Jizou-senpai (did not know that Ami was actually older than them o.o;;) get over her nervousness which doesn’t seem like that tough a task considering this is the same girl who has a knack for breaking and entering. Entering at least… I don’t remember any breaking.

Ringo even manages to talk Ryouko into holding hands with Ryoushi as they try to look like a comfortable couple by telling her that it’s all part of the job. Lol. Narrator is like “Hold on, that’s like asking the absurd!” I don’t know if it’s the scriptwriter or the translator but the dialogue humour in this episode is right on the mark.

The next stop for the two couples are the cinemas where they apparently decide to watch some sort of romance drama which leaves the two girls in tears and opens up an opportunity for the guys to act all comforting and sensitive. I’m surprised Ryoushi didn’t get smacked in the face for trying to wipe Ryouko’s tears. He really is getting all the lucky breaks in this episode! Meanwhile Jin is acting like the perfect gentleman, taking care of Ami’s tears with his own handkerchief.

The date continues at the arcade with a nice romantic game of ‘let’s destroy some zombies’ which the Ryouko and Ryoushi couple clear with no problems. The senpai couple on the other hand end up looking like zombies themselves as they play with expressionless faces.

Afterwards, the foursome hit the aquariums where Ryoushi and Ryouko actually start looking like a couple, though Jin and Ami… do not. They choose to ignore the existence of what I’m sure are several dozens of pretty aquarium fish species to look at a basin of turtles on the floor :S

They group finally reaches the park to have their picnic when Ryouko suddenly excuses herself. Like any proper guy should do should his date dash off for no reason, Ryoushi follows at pace leaving Jin and Ami to take care of themselves. This severely disappoints Ringo who has taken to hiding behind some strategically placed bushes.

As it turns out, Ryouko’s quick exit was made so she could come to the rescue of a cute kitten which managed to get itself stuck up on a tree branch. The rescue goes imperfectly however and both Ryouko, Ryoushi and the cat end up in the shallow pond the tree branch was hanging over resulting in Ryouko losing consciousness as she hit her head on the pond floor.

I thought it was going to be a kiss-of-life situation 😉 but it looks like Ryoushi’s luck doesn’t carry him through that far 😛 Maybe next time. The big surprise actually comes in the next scene where Ryoushi finds out that Ryouko has lost her memory and now thinks she’s a thirteen year old middle school student without her older self’s tsundere tendencies.

Meanwhile in the world of awkward senpai, Jin and Ami are… being awkward. Ami is so nervous that she actually makes a call to Ringo who is still taking care of her behind-the-bush post. Ringo informs Ami that everything is going according to plan and that she should do her best with Jin.

A phone call from Ryoushi almost updates Ringo on the situation by the pond but instead of saying the word ‘amnesia’, all he could think of was ‘cute.’ Ryoushi then has to explain the situation to Ryouko, telling her that she’s actually 16 and in high school while filling her in on the job they’re currently in the middle of.

They almost head to the hospital but a certain growling tummy leads them to have a romantic picnic of their own instead which leads to what can be called Ryoushi’s idea of a pretty damn nice date with Ryouko’s cute side even though she’s the one dragging him along. Ringo calls to rage a bit about their absence but reports that somehow or other things worked out between Jin and Ami and Kuroko states we might get to find out why … if there’s time.

Ringo finally meets up with Ryouko and Ryoushi but as they get carried away discussing the situation, Ryouko runs off into the rain. Soon after, Hitsujikai the bastard makes an appearance and explains what happened between them when they were younger.

Ryouko, still traumatised by the event falls to her knees as Ryoushi defends her against the SOB’s slanderous words! For some reason he really does go all out at explaining the situation and even includes Ryouko’s side of the story.

Ryoushi tries an attack on him but fails which obviously shows that although he’s a bastard, Hitsujikai is still the leader of the Oni as Student Council President of Onigashiya and deserves some sort of whacked out respect in that sense. Ryoushi pretty much tells him to GTFO since he doesn’t care what happened in Ryouko’s past, he’ll still be there for her no matter what and on top of that he’s out to Hunt for Hitsujikai’s head.

Before the episode ends Hitsujikai spins some cryptic message about how he was actually lying about having eaten Ryouko. Either way he’s gearing up for a showdown against the Otogi bank members since they’re the only ones standing between him and Ryouko though I’m sure they’d rather put themselves in the line of fire than let her get hurt again. At least we know Ryoushi’s at least planning on being prepared.

The last few minutes of the episode shows Ryouko regaining her memories and delivering hearty smacks into people’s faces just to let him know she’s back. 

End Thoughts:

I’m not sure if it has anything to do with the fact that last week was mostly a humour-free episode but they’ve totally turned it up for episode 7. I thought the situation, dialogue and additional narrator/Kuroko remarks were nothing but on target humour throughout 90% of the show (Hitsujikai messes with the remaining 10%, way to go dude screwing up my averages and everything…)

Ami-senpai and Jin-senpai are hilarious and perfectly awkward enough to be one of those couples that meet in high school, end up getting married and have kids that end up being the leads of their own anime somewhere down the track. I liked how Ringo pretty much took charge of this particular request as she’s perfect for the job of romantic liaison.

The whole date atmosphere was totally enjoyable as well as they pretty much spent most of the episode building it up with a bit of a climax and a mix-match of feelings being brought forth at the end of the episode.
I found it unfortunate that the senpai’s story kind of just cut off to bring back Hitsujikai since I freaking hate that guy x9000 and sometimes wonder why Kuroko can’t just teleport big shards of metal into his black black heart. Anyway, so that part was pretty lame for me as it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth even though I’d been heartily enjoying the episode up to that point.

Even though that’s the case and my honest opinion of the guy is kill him off painfully and let it play endless eight style, I have to admit that adding him at the end of the episode is a nice play on audience emotion. Especially since the beginning of the episode kind of lulls you into a false sense of comfort before everything goes to hell and you’re reminded that no matter how cute/ spunky/ awesome Ryouko is that deep down she’s a girl with some pretty serious issues that she needs to battle it out with before she can heal.

Ryoushi again shows his fangs at the end of the episode which convinces me that he is in the middle of taking a level up in badass which is comforting. Ryouko is definitely going to need his help in dealing with Hitsujikai and it seems that as he is at this point, Ryoushi isn’t quite ready to take the win.

Episode Preview:

Instead of an episode preview we get more of a preview on the ‘life and times of Hanasaki Jin and Ami’ as they’re shown to be living the life of a married couple 😛 However, we do get the title for the next episode which is Ookami-san helps a mouse find a bride and pigs should be treated like this. Looks like another humour episode coming up but after this episode I won’t ignore the possibility of me feeling a sharp punch to the gut should Hitsujikai be allowed any screen time.

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