Special A - Episode 11

Thus far, Special A has been a little hit and miss as far as its content goes - Although it's never truly reached the heights of hilarity, it has at times at least amused and entertained enough to be a worthwhile watch, while other episodes have proved to be far more frustrating.

In terms of that particular scale, episode eleven of the series is one of the more watchable ones as things go - With Kei called away on business, Hikari ends up going on a date with Tadashi in order to help him get out of a marriage intereview. The whole forced date concept is admittedly a little cliched (particularly when you pair it with a bunch of her friends spying on her throughout), but Hikari as usual manages to be sweet enough to pull it off and make for a relatively enjoyable outing. Plus, was it just me or did I spot a little bit of fun being poked at ef - A Tale of Memories in there?


Given the content of this episode, it's almost a shame that the opportunity wasn't taken to create a proper love triangle between Hikari, Kei and Tadashi - Everything was in place for exactly that, but instead the whole issue of Hikari and Tadashi actually enjoying the time they spent together was avoided entirely, and I can't help but suspect it's because they're simply running out of time for some kind of Kei-Hikari related ending. I know love triangles are a big old cliche, be they outside of anime or within it, but it would have at least added an extra dimension to the blatant pairing on show here.

Overall then, this was actually a kind of fun episode of Special A in the grand scheme of things, despite retreading some very tired old ground. I'm starting to find myself hoping for a happy ending based almost solely on the fact that Hikari is so damn cute, and even Kei has proven to have his moments.