Telepathy Shoujo Ran - Episode 4

So far, each episode of Telepathy Shoujo Ran has elicited a rather different response to me. While episode one was rather "Ooooh", so episode two was a bit "Ughhhh" and episode three thankfully more "Ahhhhh". What strange, gutteral noise will episode four elicit from me?

Luckily, the answer is actually rather a good one. While the basics of this episode's plot are rather contrived, taking Ran, Rui and Midori's Golden Week holiday and plonking them on a trip with Ran's father that involved pickles and magical grass (no, not that 'magical' grass, before you ask), once you've moved past that point what follows is actually pretty fun and oddly intriguing. If I'm honest it's the kind of thing that could easily have been a plot from Scooby-Doo (which oddly enough I also mentioned in my summary of the last episode, so there's clearly a pattern developing here), but in a sense that's no bad thing; after all, you're hardly likely to be watching a series about telepathic middle school girls if you're searching for an anime packed to the rafters with realism.


Speaking of which, this is the first time we really get to see this series' telepathy angle used as a means of teamwork and major plot development, and to be honest it works really well. Sure, a fair amount of it could have been achieved with normal dialogue between characters and so on, but the whole secrecy of the two girl's communication adds an extra frisson to the proceedings. As long as they don't start wielding this power like some kind of sonic screwdriver to fix up all the plot holes each week, it could well add an interesting element to the series.

Overall then, I'm finding myself increasingly happy with the direction this series is heading, as it looks to carve itself a nice little niche for 'good, clean and adventure-laden fun'. It won't tax your brain very much at all, but makes for an enjoyable and undemanding watch at present.