Kyouran Kazoku Nikki - Episode 2

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki offered up some madcap, million miles an hour weirdness in its opening episode that won through on account of its bizarre plot rather than for its actual humour.

However, episode two of the series surprised me - After assembling such a bizarre and dysfunctional 'family', in episode two it goes on to play entirely against type. What I was expecting to be a series full of oddness and fighting between the various characters that made up this strange family borne from the 'children of Enka', instead what we got was a rather heart-warming show of this disparate family working as one and helping one another out in what you could almost call a 'serious' fashion. Of course, this proper plot line surrounding Yuuka and school bullying was bookended by Kyouka's decision to have a lavish wedding and a somewhat hilarious solution to Yuuka's problems at school to up the quote of weirdness suitably, with some extra points of interest for future episodes thrown in to boot.

In short - I liked this episode, if only for having the guts to go completely against any expectations of it by letting the assembled family act as just that - A real family. Whether this will actually hamper it further down the line I'm not sure, but between springing that surprise on me and actually providing some relatively amusing moments, I've been won over, for the time being at least. Oh, and Kyouran Kazoku Nikki is going to have to get my award for best opening song for the Spring anime too, it's suitably strange but I love it.