Sunday 22 November 2009

Nyan Koi! - Episode 8

Within seconds of Nyan Koi's eighth episode beginning, Junpei has already managed to upset Kaede yet again - What on Earth is he up to this time?!


Naturally, we can't be left in such a state of confusion for long, and thus the episode backtracks from here to show us just how this embarrassing set of circumstances came about, and it probably goes without saying that a cat is involved. More specifically, Junpei finds himself being asked for help by a fat cat who is too unfit to catch any birds - Not the kind of thing you'd expect a human to be much good at training a cat in to be honest, but nonetheless Junpei tries his best... for a little while at least.

This training soon comes to an abrupt halt as his attentions are drawn by Mizuno, who is quite the fitness freak herself, and before he knows it Junpei is helping her out at the track team's boot camp, playing various sports and generally getting into shape. Fun times for Junpei as he gets to spend some quality time with the girl of his dreams, but all of this progress looks set to be ruined as the disgruntled and abandoned cat Micchi looks to take his revenge in a most effective fashion.

Once again, without doing anything spectacular Nyan Koi actually manages to make a really good showing of itself here - Even when it seems to be skimping on the animation budget on occasion it delights in providing its characters with some great lines which are delivered with such gusto and great comic timing that you can't help but laugh out loud. Add to that some great scenes (of course Micchi the cat got a training montage sequence, and of course Metal Gear was referenced for no particular reason other than it being genuinely funny) and you're left with that warm, contended feeling of a series that has worked through its potential shortcomings to deliver something genuinely enjoyable. While it's been a bit hit and miss at times, in all honesty this was probably one of the best episodes of Nyan Koi yet, and as long as it can keep serving up episodes of this ilk I imagine my respect for it will only grow.

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