Sunday 11 October 2009

Natsu no Arashi - Episode 15

Following on from last week's beach episode, the end of that particular instalment took the gang to a hot springs, and it is here that we reside for the duration of Natsu no Arashi's fifteenth episode, thus filling another well-used anime cliche for the season.

Of course, the whole hot springs environment is only ever going to cause even more problems for Jun, particularly seeing as it was already decidedly that he'd be sharing a room with Hajime, and needless to say the entire event is pretty much disaster after disaster for her as she continues to try and hide her gender from him as set piece after set piece threatens to blow her secret wide open. Wait, those last few words sounded like a terrible double entendre, didn't they?


To be honest, it's becoming increasingly alarming to me that Hajime hasn't figured out Jun's secret by now, he seems to have groped or seen her naked often enough by now to have her figure permanently burned into his retina, and I have to confess that I really do think it's time to put an end to this particular part of the series now - It's run its course, they've done everything they could possibly do with it, and in my mind (and without having read the manga) it's the perfect time to come clean and see how Hajime and Jun's relationship evolves from there. Will this happen? Goodness knows.

That said, I did enjoy this episode again even if it wasn't to the same degree as the last instalment - There were a few good lines once again, there was some mahjong action that would make even Saki worry, I got a kick out of the School Rumble cameos as always, and Arashi's monologue about her never having loved and Jun's reaction to it was actually a little moving. In fact, Jun has now become a seriously interesting character in terms of her relationship with Hajime - Another reason I'd like to see it moved on to a friendship or relationship on a proper footing, rather than the constant need to hide her secret.

Oh, and how great are both the opening and ending title sequences for this series? Once again, my SHAFT fanboy meter is threatening to go off the scale if I'm not careful.

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