Oh boy.....so I had to give this show at least one more go because I heard this was the "it gets better episode" and in my eternal curiosity I have to follow up on those sorts of things. I don't know....something about it was definitely a hint more competent (perhaps to do with something actually kind of happening that could launch the plot in some sort of direction at the end) in that I actually got what the whole point of things was this time, but the comedy that typically takes up the first half of these things is still just absolutely brutal for me to sit through.
It really just a lot of the same kind of stuff I've seen in other Key Anime with the slapstick, overlays, and random moments of loudness that just seem to be saying "come on this is funny right? Laugh at me please". Sorry, but I just can't do it, those bits are just not funny to me at all. Especially when the same exact gag was repeated three times in the span of about 5 minutes with the chair rocketing off into the ceiling followed by a replay with that song accompanying it. The first time it was barely funny, the second time I thought I skipped the scene back a little by mistake, the third time was just greeted by a grimace and long sigh on my part. Quit wasting time already Jun-kun. If you want to do some extra comedy it helps to have more than a handful of gags that you rehash in all of your stories. This sentiment goes exponentially for gags that you keep running into the ground in the same episode of one particular show. And hanging a lampshade on it with dialogue like
that doesn't make it any better, that just kind of tells me that you know you are being cheap on the comedy and just trying to gimmick it up and turn it into an in-joke when really your still just being lazy. If you have the time to recognize that the comedy is going to come across as still then why not use it to remedy the problem.
Anyway I think the only two gags that really got me (and unfortunately they were quick ones) were the bit at the beginning where Otanashi was imagining some huge epic battle and Yuri broke the fantasy by bluntly declaring that it was just an exam. Nice, subtle, not imminently desperate for laughs....this is the kind of stuff that works for me. The other was the bit where they were trying not to immediately upset Tenshi before the test was over. Again stuff that factors into the plot of the episode that's played tongue in cheek. More of that and less random slapstick violence and screaming please. And on that note just **** Yuri as a character and the biggest source for most of that stuff. Everytime she's doing something in a scene I know my teeth are probably going to be set on edge by the end of it. Talk about an unintentional weak link.
So after 14 minutes of the err...comedy (it felt more like 40 really) we get to the plan actually succeeding and Tenshi's reputation getting tarnished and the revelations about her possible true nature. Now somehow I'm hoping against hope that this means I don't have to watch another one of those insufferable concert scenes that seem to be cropping up in just about every show taking place in a school these days. This bit I still don't understand the point of and am starting to think I never will, but who knows.
Anyway there's not a whole lot about this episode that I can that I found any better than the previous ones and honestly it still feels pretty messy, but at least no longer like it's completely lacking in any sort of direction. Since Tenshi is at this point the only character not to have annoyed me at some point this episode I am at least a little curious to find out what her deal is (though I am also interested in her because signs have been pointing to her potentially being the key to the series that will make or break the whole thing depending on her development), but at the same time praying that I don't have to sit through 14 minutes of screwball comedy antics before I can get to the interesting parts next episode. To bad like a lot of things in this show the preview is kind of gimmicky and doesn't really act as much of a preview at all. And I thought Generator Gawl's previews were cryptic when they showed them at our University Anime Club back in 2003....yeesh.