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Apr 29 2006

Categories: anime, belldandy, episodic review
Tagged: belldandy

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Prelude to Hand in Hand mixed with La Verite 2 in a drunken 24 minutes.

In the manga, Chihiro welcomes everyone to Whirlwind after she opens the shop. Here, since they haven’t introduced Chihiro, the gang has been invited to Sayoko’s pad for a Christmas party. If Fujishima were still alive, blastphemous plots like and AM PM would have never been animated.

(I’m anxiously awaiting the first “OMFG YOU MORON HE’S NOT DEAD” comment.)

Since this is Sakoyo’s party, she has to be queen. She can’t let Belldandy usurp her in her own castle, can she? So she challenges Belldandy to a series of competitions to try to embarrass Belldandy… yep… you probably know where this is going. La Verite 2 all over again… Sayoko will be the Ryuka to Bell’s Mariel.

Sayoko sings something like Negai (ED for the first season) and gets a perfect ten out of ten. This competition is more rigged than the 2000 presidential election.

Belldandy sings Open Your Mind and gets a google out of ten from me. Finally, a goddess actually sings, and, well, Inoue Kikuko just fits a lot better than Yoko Ishida.

(Though they screw up this moment by having Otaki, Tamiya, and Sora mutter crap in the background, so I can’t even get a decent rip of Inoue Kikuko’s version. I just hope a Goddess Fantastic Club version of the song appears on the next OST.)

Bunny Girl Magician Belldandy? I’m FULLY awake now. Desperately needs (1) HDTV (2) Mikuru-run as her assistant fidgeting in the background with Haruhi staring down Kyon as he gawks at Bell.

(Between jyunanasaidesu’s Open Your Mind and the possiblity of Bell joining SOS, I’m enveloped in utter giddiness.)

I think only Air Gear has worse animation than ああっ女神さまっ ~それぞれの翼~ this season. Hell, Magical Pokan looks better. Huge shame, though I haven’t seen the bs-i widescreen version or whatever, but I just can’t imagine it being better than Haruhi, Black Lagoon, or even Ouren Host Club. Is it too soon for me to start petitioning Sunrise Gonzo Kyoto Animation to start remaking this series? It’s four episodes in, so it’s ripe for a remake. Overdue even.

Sayoko does her best Urd impression. I never understood Sayoko’s appeal… okay, she’s rich, she has a b, maybe c, cup, and she looks down at everyone. That’s pretty much La Verite‘s Ryuka, Rumble‘s Eri, Keroro‘s Momoka, Kage Kara‘s Airi, and a host of others. Though, with that same stats, Eri is much more lovable/adorable. That’s it. I’m drafting Eri in the first round for my bitchy, rich anime girl fantasy team next season.

Bell is just mopping the floor with Sayoko. I haven’t seen a competition so one-sided since AoMM’s Arika vs. Mai poll.

Isn’t this the same swimsuit that she wore back in the Campus Queen competition in season one. *sigh*

I’ve seen this swimsuit before too. OTL.

Sayoko “graciously” loses and offers Bell a toast to her victory. Of course, Sayoko intends to get Bell drunk and either (a) make Bell do embarrassing things (b) make Bell throw up (c) shizuru Bell or (d) all of the above.

(Note, from now on, this blog will refer to the anime character with a capital “S”. The verb will be lowercase.)

K1, though, has other thoughts on the matter. I don’t understand why you’d want to stop her, K1! Matsumaru would be overflowing Aka’s wine glass by now.

Though Bell doesn’t get drunk on alcohol. She’s immune, which is basically the opposite of any Asian girl. Or rather, Sayoko screws up the “fake shots” trick… you’re supposed to pour yourself water while getting the other person drunk.

Sayoko gets bombed again. And throws up again. I’m surprised that she doesn’t have a beer gut yet from how much she drinks.

Bell loses her cola virginity to Coke. Pepsi, RC, and Dr Pepper must be jealous as hell. For people who read the manga, yep, carbonated beverages get Bell drunk.

The side effect is that when Bell is drunk, she gives out wishes like a drunk stockbroker gives out twenties at a strip joint. Here, Sora does her “Look at my training bra-class breasts!” scene that was about 50x better done in the movie. She complains that she’s too small… so drunk Bell takes that literally and…

… grants her a literal wish. Poor K1 must feel like he’s trapped in a bad episode of Tsukuyomi.

The gang realizes that Bell is out-of-whack, only she’s left the building. Uh-oh.

Poor Skuld still hasn’t done much this season at all. I’m dying for more Adult Skuld. Though I’d settle for Skuld running away to Gaulderobe and train to become an otome.

Neko-con-megami!

Just an endless montage of Bell granting people’s wishes (though I wish they did this part with Bell in her bunny girl outfit), only screwing them up somehow. Unfortunately, due to the balance that must be kept between happiness and unhappiness, every good thing that Bell tries to do, K1 suffers a bit.

Mara ends up running into Bell and tries to think of a way to take advantage of Bell’s drunken state.

Bell offers herself to Mara, only to have Mara run away screaming like a typical anime male lead when confronted by a nakkid woman.

Mara asks Bell to star in her new movie, The Adventures of Belldandy-run Episode 00, only Bell forgot to bring the bunny girl outfit. OTL.

Mara thinks it’s a trick from Bell and runs away. Third time’s the charm. ^^

Meanwhile, K1 is desperately trying to find Bell and stop her from granting more wishes. Heroic effort.

He eventually finds Bell with the random girl who lost her balloon last episode… I’ll dub her “plot contrivance girl” from now on, and she gets a call from Urd (what are the odds?!?), and Urd explains what is happening to K1. Only Bell uses this time to escape and continue her montage.

(Dumb joke. She asks for a “suteki kare,” or wonderful boyfriend, and Belldandy grants her a “kare steakii”… or a well-done steak.)

Bell eventually ends up at the final boss, Aoshima, instead of random French guy in the manga. Aoshima, being a schemer, asks Bell to be with him to make him happy.

K1 shows up just in time and gives Aoshima the finger. Just the wrong one.

Gainax takes over animation chores at the twenty minute mark.

Of course, Bell responded to Aoshima with the classic, “That’s the one wish that I can’t grant since it’ll cause K1 unhappiness.”

The previews don’t indicate that the best part of Hand in Hand is occuring next. Grievious error as that’s one of the manga’s best stories… then again, Chihiro is a large part of the original story (she did pretty much resolve Bell and K1’s anxiety about his working by giving Bell a minimum wage job, which was the motivation behind Hand in Hand to begin with), and, well, Chihiro hasn’t even shown up yet. The flumoxxed storyline continues… and I’m not exactly thrilled about it.

Bell and K1 comtemplate life without Skuld, as she has left for Gaulderobe already. DO YOUR BEST, desho, Skuld!

Happy end. Like always.