Kyouran Kazoku Nikki - Episode 23

I really hoped that last episode's story wasn't going to stretch out into a multi-episode arc, but after looking like it might keep itself down to a single instalment for much of the time it somehow managed to turn into just that.


So, we were left with an episode that began as "Invasion of the rejects from Spore's Creature Creator", and for a while there it looked as though this was going to be another decidedly poor showing from Kyouran Kazoku Nikki. Luckily, at that point the focus of all these problems, Gouyokuou, turned up, and the episode was saved. Sort of. This series really hasn't made me laugh anything like as much as I'm sure it would have liked to, but this episode managed to be an exception simply by the virtue of Gouyokuou's behaviour being damn funny - Handing out blank business cards, hitting his head to bemoan his stupidity and leaving a dent, 'drinking' before remembering he has no mouth, and then passing out his altered card complete with the job title "Manager of Space". Now there's a career path I wouldn't mind following.

Anyway, outside those laugh out loud moments, we also get an appearance from Gekka in her "deus ex machina" guise, and find that she is apparently the object of Gouyokuou's affections, which in turn lets us find out the past of everyone's favourite jellyfish. I have to confess that I don't give too much of a monkeys about her history, but I suppose at least it rounded off that little mystery (aside from why she spends her time these days as a jellyfish, that is).

I'm actually willing to forgive this episodes overall mediocrity simply on account of those aforementioned funny moments, so kudos to the script writers for finally making a character who is actually consistently funny. Indeed, if only he'd been part of the Midarazeki family from the very start, then the series might have done a better job of living up to its comic potential...