Love Lab – 08

Riko’s gone girly!

I’ve been watching Sasameki Koto recently, since CrunchyRoll said they’re losing their license for it at the end of the month, and I’ve been really surprised at how much I like it. Now, I know that yuri has been mentioned in conjunction with Love Lab (and argued that it’s not) but if you’re looking for actual yuri and shoujo ai, you should definitely go watch Sasameki Koto (I’m rooting for you, Sumika!). But for now, let’s see how Riko, Maki, and the others are doing this week.

 Identity Crisis in the Student Council Room

Taking it WAY too far

Riko suffers from an identity crisis after finally learning that her nickname is “The Wild One” and deciding that she’s going to be more like Maki (who she laughed at for being the “Fuji Princess”). Good role model selection, Riko. At least her mother would be happy, but the problem is that she goes too far too fast, creeping everyone else out, and really making a fool of herself (including a sequence where she imitates every move Maki makes, leading Maki to contort into weird positions). But Maki finally breaks Riko by becoming Makio, which is a place that Riko’s just not going.

Just… no

The show also went a place that really shows it’s not American, at least: Maki (and Eno and Suzu) in blackface, because they got a question of “Are dark-skinned girls unpopular?” I don’t know if this part was funny or not, to be honest, because I was just boggled at how “wrong” it would be in just about any other country. I think it’s honestly still a lot wrong here, given Riko smacking Maki again.

Girly Riko really takes it to Sayo, mentally

Suzu also gets a little attention, since the other question is “What if I’m a little plump?” and she’s kind of taken on that mantle. Not that she actually is, as drawn, but she’s overly sensitive about it. And it does take Eno a little bit of scrambling to get her not worried about her bra size, too, but Maki tries to horn in on the flat-chested angst and gets smacked down quick.

What is the Newspaper Society After?

Itterasshai! Enjoy your date-o!

That’s really a question, isn’t it. This episode threw out multiple theories and they all got shot down. Nana-chan seems to think that it’s all to get their club status back, but Momo doesn’t seem to think that it’s that important. But then, Nana-chan also wants to get revenge on Sayo for (rightly) declining their request for too many funds, so Nana’s kind of all over the place, and forgets all of that when someone praises her photos. Plus, according to their advisor, they didn’t have any other active members anyway. The only thing that seems to be a lead is that they need to be reinstated as a club so that they can enter in an article contest. But even asking Momo about that, she says it’s not that important. In fact, Momo even asks if they want her to publish their love questions in her underground newspaper.

She’s really not interested in him

But the real crisis is for Sayo. Not only does she have to look at freaky girly Riko, but her “boyfriend” is actually coming to visit her, not that she wants him to, even threatening to ask him the other question they’ve gotten: “How do you tell a guy that you don’t want to be his girlfriend anymore?” But of course, Nana manages to capture the two of them together, and while they’re arguing, Sakagami-sensei, she of the highly-trafficked detention room, catches them, and puts Sayo through the ringer, finally getting her to admit that he’s her boyfriend, but that the rest of the Student Council didn’t know. Too bad they’ve got tea and cake to celebrate waiting for her.

Sayo takes the fall

Will Sayo stay quit from the Student Council? And how are they going to get out of this jam. The preview actually shows the guy in front of a group of teachers, so I’m guessing we’ll have an inquiry of sorts. My guess is that he’ll say all the ways that Sayo has put him off and that’ll help prove that he’s not really her boyfriend, just a guy who keeps being a stalker.

Girly Riko really took the cake this episode, tho, with that freaky walk, talking to flowers, saying the onomatopoeia out loud, and generally ticking everyone off. Thank goodness that didn’t last all episode. But now we have to wait until next weekend to find out the future of the Student Council!