Tuesday 20 March 2012

Daily Lives of High School Boys - Episode 11

Papapipupepopa. Pipipopepapapo. Pipopopipapupepa.  Hey, if Daily Lives of High School Boys can start an episode like this, why can't I?

From those random beginnings, this week kicks off properly with a rather unique game of father-son catch, the reasons for which eventually become embarrassingly clear.  From there, we have another twist on the tales of our literature girl (who seems to have been usurped somewhat on this occasion) and an overly earnest game or two of "kick the can"... or, in its second instance, "kick the Gundam".


After a discussion on what makes a girl cute and what the ultimate form of that cuteness might be, the awkward decision of how to respond to a love letter in an all-girls school crops up and the power held by a girl when it comes to devastating a boy's psyche comes to light, even if the girl in question ultimately gets her comeuppance.  Finally, (and ignoring our funky high school girls for a moment) we witness the joys and frustrations of a close, long-standing friendship and the happiness and irritation (well, mostly irritation actually) that it brings.

Although it was short on laugh out loud moments, this week actually served up a pretty decent episode of Daily Lives of High School Boys that continually and consistently amused over and above delivering scatter-shot belly laughs - something which might not be to everyone's tastes but it worked for me, with just the right balance of real-life observations and the surreal (although I know it would annoy Hidenori no end to hear me call it such).  It's a solid reminder of what this series does well when it gets things right, and overall it continues to prove that Daily Lives of High School Boys is a cut above a lot of anime comedy even if it doesn't quite reach the dizzy heights of outright classic status.

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