we're finally notdotq anymore

And by shitty, I mean “WHERE BE THA KILLER LOLIS?!!!”

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, episodes one, five, and nine are utter crap. The first episodes of each the first three arcs are nigh unwatchable, clearly earning this show the title of “stupid”. Some faithfuls say that they’re present to introduce light-heartedness. Comedy. A little bad haremesque stuff. For contrast and shock.

… it’s not light-hearted. It’s not comedy. It’s not just a little bad. It’s mind-numbingly moronic. And this episode- the first episode of a new arc- is no different. So we have a water fight instead of a card game or an introduction to the classmates. But it’s the same damn thing, with Satoko yelling “WTF!!!” and Keiichi acting like the complete jackass that he is.

Now, let’s examine Rena, as she seems to be the focus of this arc, and people are mentioning her in the context that she might possibly turn out to be a wtfkillerloli.

First off, it’s obvious that Rena, much like the rest of the cast, and the main character of Fruits Basket, has serious issues. I consider myself superior to Rena for the simple reason that her issues do not stem from supernatural stalker gods. No, she’s traumatized by the divorce of her parents. And fuck the weak-willed, my parents’ divorce didn’t do jackshit to me other than perhaps make me a better person as I began to rely more heavily on my older brothers and less on senile oldfolk.

Another problem Rena has is that she’s too smart for her own good. It leads to Keiichi getting killed in Watanagashi-hen and it’ll lead to some else dying this arc as well- I’m not sure if this “quality” of Rena’s counts as her being a killer loli. Say that I’m a loli. And there’s a death penalty for pedophiles. I appeal to some pedophile and he gets caught lusting after me. He is killed. AM I A KILLER LOLI?!!

Next, we need to consider that Rena is REALLY lonely. She moved around a lot throughout her life. I’ve heard my mom’s stories about that kind of experience. Now, Rena has gone through a lot- a bad divorce, custody rulings (which are a bitch) and a variety of other things we can only guess at (but don’t involve the supernatural) and comes out of it all a bit… off. In the head. And maybe in the vagina, if her dad’s that kind of person. Or if her mom is that kind of person? I dunno.

From the episode itself, we see Rena yell a little, that being the greatest display of her “oyashiro-kei”. The last few times we saw her yell like that, we saw it from Keiichi’s point of view. It was normally followed with Keiichi freaking out or some such. As determined before, Keiichi is insane and thanks to power of suggestion and an over-active imagination, makes believe that Rena is acting psycho. She just yells a little.

And you know what? I’ve yelled a bit in my life time. Haven’t we all?

I think it’s time to flip WinD another one.

Their red effects on “USO DA!!!” were great for conveying the sensations Rena’s yell must have carried into Keiichi’s psyche. In the context of Rena getting a tad worked up in a coffee shop, they do not work AT ALL. Either WinD is just stupid, or they have completely misinterpreted the show (they probably read Jason’s blog- a downward spiral of misconceptions) and think that Rena’s yelling indicates OYASHIRO MODE. In which case they’re just stupid.

The most “mode”ish thing this episode was Rena going into her super-detective mode. Which is perfectly cool and reasonable. Rena has shown us before that she’s capable of making intelligent decisions (she maybe be the only one in the show with this capability) and I’m not scared at all of serious Rena.

Not much happens this episode. There’s not a whole lot to interpret. Rena’s the way she is, a bit disturbed and mostly normal, easily excitable but not about to whip out machetes or kalashnikovs from hammerspace or shit like that. Indeed, those who were saying shit like “quick to form judgements” with implications that something will change soon after 21… mmmmmmm no. Episode 22 gives no hint at Rena being a killer loli.

Now, the preview is a whole another matter. Kite correctly assessed that there is a bloody axe in the episode preview. What this means, no one knows, but keep in mind that we have absolutely no reason to believe that Rena kills anyone with it at this point.

I can’t believe I watched this episode at 2x.

Strawberry Panic is seriously more entertaining at this point.