Natsu no Arashi - Episode 21

Natsu no Arashi has been missing the target more often than Emile Heskey of late, so can it turn things around with its twenty-first episode? Err, no, to be quite honest.

This latest instalment brings us to a swelteringly hot day at the Hakobune café, and after yet another predictable instalment of Kanako and Yayoi getting an order completely wrong on account of the latter's forgetfulness, we go on a hunt for the remote control needed to operate the café's air conditioning. Just like any modern building, naturally there are myriad remote controls lying around, bringing us a mildly amusing sequence involving trying them all with varying results.


This need for the correct remote control becomes all the more important as we see the heat beginning to get to Arashi, with (according to Kaya) potentially devastating results. As Arashi takes leave of her senses, so we somehow randomly end up in some underground cavern underneath Hakobune, which only serves to make her condition worse in the long run, before the gang return to the café just in time to find the correct remote... or do they?

While I have to admit I laughed at the ending to this episode (for a couple of reasons that I won't spoil, it's one of those things you have to see for yourself), that doesn't really paper over the fact that this was another daft yet largely uninspiring episode that acts as further proof that this series has simply run out of ideas - I'm all for randomness in anime, but it helps if it's funny, and this instalment of Natsu no Arashi was found largely wanting in that category. Certainly, it doesn't look like there's much room left for the series to carve out anything of note for itself during its remaining episodes, but once again I'm left sat here hoping that next week will prove me wrong.