Gakusen Toshi Asterisk – 02

Saya’s into overkill

Leaving last week, I sure wasn’t planning on continuing to cover Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, especially since I was planning to continue with Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry. But with the episode that Asterisk pulled out, I wanted to keep going on this one, at least for now.

Down Then Up

Just let them protect you, dumb kid.

I’ll be honest, tho: This episode didn’t exactly start out on the right foot. First the cold open was completely cliched: Back to the black and white tones to see a flashback of Ayato and Haruka, presumably after he got in trouble for using his abilities. And perhaps they meant for young Ayato’s declaration to be endearing, but instead of actually listening to the words that his sister was saying, that he should decide what he wants to do when he’s older and let the others protect him while he grows up, it just seems really lame that he just goes with the “I’m gonna protect you, too!” It was, in a word, stupid. Maybe it’s in character for a little kid, but that’s because little kids are stupid when it comes to thinking about the future. It’s as cliched and lame as they come.

The Loser Crew

And it didn’t get much better after the OP, as Ayato flashes back to the encounter between Julis and Loser McFail, because after we left off last week, he went and interjected himself in their altercation that, let’s be honest, Julis was in complete control of. But hey, Mr. Hero has to come over and get involved. And it would have gone worse, probably getting into a fight, except that Yabuki also comes over and films it, leading Loser’s lackeys, Fireplug and Bowl Cut, to advocate quitting while he’s behind. When they leave, the show rallies a bit, giving us more of Julis’ backstory: that she’s fighting for money, implying that her “Princess”-ness isn’t worth much, and that she has no friends, a fact that she acknowledges, but discounts as a reason she doesn’t have a partner for the Festa. Gosh, I think we can see where this is going, story-wise.

*mrowr! hiss hiss!*

Saved by the Blue-haired Loli

 

Yes, they were hiding in the fountain…

You’re probably wondering, given how bad I thought the first 6 minutes of this episode were (and that’s counting the 1.5 minute OP, cause I’m generous like that), why I’m reviewing it again? That’s because of Saya. Her introduction as the sleepy 幼なじみ(osananajimi), who conveniently missed school the day before so that they could stagger these introductions, brings the foil that Julis needs. Saya is one of those characters that has no budget for damns, so she doesn’t have any on stock to give. She gives better than she gets, tho, and is more than a match for Julis in verbal jousting. And she immediately starts giving Julis a hard time about liking Ayato. But both of them manage to hiss enough to scare off Claudia when they’re going to give Ayato a tour.

 

Oh, too bad

The tour was the best part of the episode, with Julis essentially giving Saya a tour of Julis’ life, including the quiet cafeteria where she won’t get bothered, and the places to go to lodge complaints. Then we get the old “I’ll go get us drinks!” to get Ayato out of the way (here’s a clue, genius: Take the girls WITH you when you go get drinks) so that we can get the mysterious attackers after Julis. Plus a discussion of Ayato’s strength, knocking Julis down a few pegs when Saya says “You’re about as strong as me, and you would have lost if he’d gone all out.” Then she shows that strength by blowing up the fountain, and the mystery attackers with a grenade launcher, complete with “kaboom” deadpan sound effects. And then finishes the scene out with “Oh, I don’t need undergarments yet..” Yeah, best character.

 

This is the *best* McFail did.

 

We also get some time with the formerly best character, as Claudia goes with Ayato to claim his Ogre Lux weapon. And who should show up to do the same but Loser McFail again. He even tries to use the same weapon that Ayato was after, the one that they think Haruka used. But of course he’s awful at it (because he’s a LOSER), almost dying and making it go berserk. But of course Ayato’s totally compatible with Ser Veresta. Because he has to be for the show.

The compatibility that we all want to see, tho, is with Claudia, who times getting out of the shower for when Ayato comes in her window at night at her behest. Hasn’t he learned his lesson on that? Or does he think he’s James Bond or something? Anyway, we’ve got three girls after Ayato now, and while Julis personality in isolation is a bit tiresome, she and Saya playing off each other work very well. And Claudia is being a bit interesting, although I am hoping that they aren’t playing her use of her sexuality as part of her ‘scheming’ and being a ‘bad’ girl. They could keep them separate, and I wish they would, but given the writing we’ve seen, I don’t have a lot of hope on that point.

“Oh hello, Mr. Bond…”