Thursday 10 May 2012

Medaka Box - Episode 6

Having kicked off (or rather, splashed off) its latest story arc last week, we return to complete the inter-club aquatic meet for the latest outing of Medaka Box, with a fair old wedge of cash on the table for the winner.

With two events down, next up is an underwater three-legged race - with Medaka sitting out this particular event to try and make things a little fairer, it's left up to Hitoyoshi and Akune to do the business; something they look surprisingly capable of doing despite their complete lack of teamwork.  This is, of course, reckoning without the all-powerful swimming team who have a decidedly dangerous but ultimately successful technique up their sleeve to ease them to victory.


Thus, it all comes down to the final event - an underwater cavalry battle, with the added spice of points being awarded based upon the current rank of the team you snatch it from.  Although the swimming club are all set to take a tactical approach to matters, Medaka's preaching manages to goad them, and in particular Kikaijima, into a head-to-head battle with the student council.  Even here it seems as if our trio of swimmers have an obvious advantage, but never reckon without Medaka's ability to pull off the most ludicrous of manoeuvres to save the day and prevent the swimming team from gaining victory.  Despite this, even Medaka is powerless to stop the eventual (and decidedly sneaky) winner of the day, while her throwing away her own money on school matter sees her pressed into adding another member to look after the financial side of the student council.

After complaining thoroughly about last week's episode, I will admit to at least some level of improvement in this week's Medaka Box - given how utterly lifeless episode five was this isn't really difficult, but at least the show managed to muster up some energy and interesting twists (no matter how ludicrous) to make things a little more entertaining this time around.  Does that suddenly make this a good series?  Goodness no; there's still little to make me want to recommend it to anyone, but at this point in the game simply not boring me to tears is an improvement worth noting, and this week's instalment is the first to succeed in that for a few weeks.

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