Mayo Chiki – Episode 2

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Preview:

Summary:

Kinjirou and Subaru go out on a date in order to help Kinjirou overcome his gynophobia. Kanade has given Kinjirou a piece of paper with a sheep (tsuji) on it that will allow Kinjirou to give Subaru one command. Subaru changes from her butler outfit to a dress and lets down her hair. The two go to the arcade where Kinjirou wins Subaru a sheep plushie from a crane machine. Towards the end of the “date”  Subaru and Kinjirou sit down in a park and Kinjirou reveals to Subaru that the cause of his gynophobia is his mother and sister.  His mother is the famous pro wrestler Sakamachi Akemi and she used to practice her moves on Kinjirou and so does his sister. Since then it’s been his defense mechanism to have a nose bleed when girls touch him because his mother and sister usually stopped beating on him when he had a nose bleed because the didn’t want blood stains in the house.

Kanade starts the 2nd part of the date and has Subaru blow in Kinjirou’s ear. Kinjirou is able to avoid getting a nose bleed and Kanade tells Kinjirou that he can use the piece of paper to order Subaru. Subaru accepts the paper, but is obviously bothered by it. So Kinjirou just orders to imitate a sheep’s “meeah”. Subaru is about to retaliate for the order but before she can, Kinjirou is dropped kicked by Kureha. Kureha beleives that Kinjirou is on a date with Subaru because of the rumors that Kinjirou likes gusy. Kureha beleives is just cross-dressing, and tries to kick Subaru but Subaru easily evades the kick and kicks Kureha; sending her crying home.

The next day at school, physical exams take place. Kinjirou keeps worrying about Subaru’s secret getting found out so he keeps offering to take “her” measurements with everyone starting to believe that Kinjirou is interested in guys. During Lunch Subaru and Kinjirou eat lunch together, and Subaru comments it the first time she’s eaten lunch with a friend. Kinjirou comments they should start calling each other by their name and tells her she can call him “Jirou”. Subaru is hesitant at first, but starts to warm up to calling him Jirou and falls asleep on him. Kanade shows up and comments that if Subaru is asleep it means she’s not nervous, as she’s always nervous about her secret being found out. At home, Kureha asks Kinjirou if he’s going out with Subaru and after he refutes it she tells Kinjirou that has fallen for Subaru.

Opinions:

Man I was really surprised to find out that Yuka Iguchi does Subaru’s voice. When she does that deep voice, it sounds nothing like how she normally sounds. It’s the first time I heard her with any other voice than the one she uses for Index. This episode marks the start of Kinjirou and Subaru getting closer together, and hopefully that means we’ll be able to hear a confession or at least an intent to confess from someone this season. I’m interested in Subaru’s character, but I’m even more interested in Kanade’s since there seems to be some hidden depth there. For one thing she seems to have a one-sided relationship with Subaru; it’s implied that they were much closer than a master/servant in the past, but there seems to be some distance between them now. Hopefully we’ll hear more about that next episode. Mayo Chiki probably seems like your standard Love/Comedy but I can say that they’re not doing it wrong and I’m interested to see more of the series.