Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi – 09

Family Matters…~

Powerful Genie Guy!

Determined Young Girl!

The Magic Lamp that brings them together?!

As we predicted, this episode is all about Ringo, her past life and how she came to be living on her own in Otogibana City. We get a little bit of foreshadowing to begin with as Ringo dreams she’s been granted a wish by the genie of the lamp, Aladdin style and she wishes to make up with an important person.

Kuronarrator delivers us to an unfamiliar house in the following scene which happens to be the residence of Shirayuki Himeno-san, first place in the Miss Otogi Academy Contest and older sister to seven younger siblings. Ryouko and Ryoushi are on babysitting duty while Ringo prefers to stalker Himeno-oneechan and watch as she comes home from her part-time job.

The seven younger siblings are actually pretty cute kids if you don’t count the fact that they’re beating up on Ryoushi-turned-pony. He should be careful… they’re like dogs and can smell fear!

Himeno is warmly welcomed home and the kids offer to help her out with the household chores. She seems like a pretty happy person even though she has so many younger siblings to look after, plus she has to hold down a part-time job as well as go to school. I guess it could be the fact that she’s really, really, really good looking. *does Zoolander pose*

Ryouko and Ryoushi apologetically explain to Himeno that Ringo couldn’t help look after the kids as she was busy with something else (stalkering).

At the usual Otogi bank meeting, Alice-senpai reports that though Himeno-senpai could enter university easily due to her high grades, her financial situation most likely made her decide to get a job straight after high school.

The team wonders if Ringo ever made it to Himeno-senpai’s place to help out but Ryouko responds in the negative and says she’ll try and convince her to come next time around. Ryoushi wonders what the heck is up with Ringo and Himeno-senpai to begin with and winds up going with Ryouko to their dorm room to offer his help to Ringo.

Ringo feels that Ryoushi is acting somewhat too cool for his character and decides to stare him down just to check if its really him. This is of course followed by some true Ryoushi-style cowering.

After that Ringo has no problems sharing her past with her friends, though it turns out to actually be a pretty troubled one. Ringo explains that she had a good relationship with her mother who played a large part in how she turned out. But one day her mother takes them to a large mansion to “have an important talk with someone.”

Loving Mama or Evil Step-mother?

Oneeeee-chaaaan~~

A lonely Ringo who is left alone in the mansion then meets a nice onee-chan to play with. This girl, a cute blonde turns out to be Himeno-senpai. Unfortunately when Ringo’s mother finishes her important talk, Himeno-senpai leaves the mansion with her mother and Ringo begins to live in the masion with hers…

Will I ever see you again?

If you’re a good girl.

Ringo finds out a little later that Himeno-senpai was actually her half sister and the important talk was about the divorce of Himeno-san’s parents. The guilty Ringo then moved out of the awkward mansion and starting living on her own.

Onee-chan turned grown-up Himeno-senpai

Ryouko and Ryoushi understand her feelings but suggest she be more honest with herself. Ryouko gives her a ticket to the Pools from the President who’s taking Himeno-senpai and the kids out for a day.

The Girls coming out to play…

The rest of Otogi Bank comes along to help babysit and Tarou-senpai and Otohime waste no time in teaching them all sorts of things they shouldn’t know while Majo traumatises one of them with a ride on sea-horse lookalike.

…makes a good day for the Guys

Alice takes care of the younger sisters who waste no time analyzing the love lives or lack thereof of their babysitters

Love still hurts…

Ryoushi and Ryouko have some usual fun of their own with Himeno and a younger brother but an accident in one of the pools leaves Himeno needing CPR. Ringo finally comes out of stalker mode and returns to girl kissing … I mean… giving CPR mode to save her onee-chan’s life.

I’ll save you onee-chan.

Himeno comes to and the two of them finally get a chance to talk thanks to a little more pushing from Ryouko. Himeno explains how she doesn’t hold hard feelings against Ringo for what happened as none of it was her fault. She also thanks her for being a nice younger sister and introduces her to the rest of the family.

The next day, Ringo goes to the perverted Principal guy to ask for an early payment of a wish she’s meant to receive after working for Otogi Bank for three years. She eventually gets him to … agree and gains a special scholarship for her sister to be able to go to University while still being able to take care of her younger siblings. Aww <3

Princess Ryouko

After the credits roll on we get treated to Ryouko’s nice dream featuring a princely Ryoushi who wakes up his princess with a…

Prince Ryoushi?!

Thinking about the title at the end of the episode gave me warm feelings…

End Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this particular episode as it was a perfect balance of everything; story, humour, character reveal. There was even that fanservice shot of Momo-chan-senpai… and her boobs who took care of Himeno-senpai’s part time job for the day.

Big  flashbacks in the middle of episodes usually bore me to bits but this time it was important enough to have a proper purpose so I didn’t mind it being there. All in all, at the end of it I find myself feeling rather calm like I just saw something nice happen to someone who deserved it lol.

Even though Ringo got her closure and it looks like Himeno is going to get a happy ending, I would have preferred seeing something that says they’re going to continue having a close relationship as sisters. Ringo isn’t related to the younger siblings but it would still be nice for Himeno to have some help around the house… Or maybe Himeno should get married to the President or something and just add to the Otogi Bank family lol. I hope Alice won’t turn into some sort of evil step sister though!

Ryouko and Ryoushi were pretty much put on the back burner again for this episode as Ringo and the new characters take the lead but we knew that was coming anyway. It’ll be cool if Ringo and Ryoushi get something to bite into next episode however, I’d like to see Ryoushi go into serious manly fight mode again. It seems like it’s been ages since he’s had any time to shine and after the Ryouko punches I’d say his manly ego could be at a pretty serious low 😛

On another note, I spent most of the episode wondering if Himeno was voiced by Mugi’s Kotobuki Minako but yeah… I was wrong 😛 It’s actually Fukui Yukari who also plays High School of the Dead’s Shizuka and Yakumo’s friend Sara from School Rumble. However, Kotobuki Minako did play last episode’s annoying little kid – Chuutaro. Did any one pick that up? I sure didn’t but I think I must have tuned him out ;p

The character of Himeno seems like one of those people that can be easily annoying since she’s pretty much perfect in every way. That said, I found myself really liking her… especially after seeing how she treats her siblings, including Ringo. She could have had a huge chip on her shoulder and blamed all of her life problems on Ringo if she wanted to and Ringo would have felt guilty enough to take that on but instead she keeps a positive outlook and does the best she can. My cold cold heart was warmed! ;_;

Preview:

Next episode we can look forward to… something awesome! ^^; It’s called Ookami-san and the Otogi Bank’s Longest Day and to be quite honest that gives absolutely nothing away lol. I wish they’d give me a little more to talk about in the preview. The image is of a cool looking (catguy?) and a cute girl. So yes! … Um… Look forward to it!