Kyouran Kazoku Nikki - Episode 5

Although I've really rather enjoyed Kyouran Kazoku Nikki up until now, episode five seems to be (for me at least) the point at which it has hit something of a wall with regards to its quality. Having moved from the rather soft centre of episodes two and three to the more expected crazy comedy last time around, episode five tries to blend the two to some extent, offering some madcap moments but with a very obvious streak of family love running through it.

Unfortunately, this seems to push the episode down the road of being a jack of all trades but master of none, as the sentimentality never really extends itself beyond frequent proclamations of protecting the 'family' and the comedy simply doesn't manage to be very funny. While episode four at least gave a me a few decent laughs, this instalment's detailing of the Midarezaki's honeymoon and the strange goings-on that naturally soon follow never raised much more than a brief smile here and there. It's almost like it was holding back for fear of overshadowing the sappy family stuff.

Although this particular arc is going to extend over at least one further episode, as a story it doesn't seem to have much going for in terms of comedic value or morality, existing as it appears to in a kind of story-writing cul-de-sac with no obvious way out apart from taking some heavily predictable and well-trodden road. Of course, one of the rules of writing a madcap series such as this is that there are no rules, so I'd be very happy to be proved wrong, but as of right now I think some richer ventures are required to showcase the undoubtedly rather likeable and appealing main characters a little better.