Medaka Box Abnormal - Episode 6

Following the trials and tribulations of recent episodes, a trip to the zoo seems to be exactly what Medaka Kurokami and company needs.

Then again, this is hardly a "trip" to the zoo, and rather the group stumbling across a makeshift zoo within the walls of the Flask Plan - while Medaka and Kikaijima clash over whether or not the animals or cute, more sinister goings on are afoot, and this time around it's Akune who finds himself in the spotlight as we stumble across Naze, the current mastermind of the Flask Plan as it stands, and her friend and experimental cyborg Koga.

In the midst of this latest battle, we endure flashbacks aplenty, explaining Akune's former role as the "Destroyer" and the its cause and effect relationship which resulted with Medaka herself during middle school, and Koga's place as the world's most normal girl until her encounter with the decidedly abnormal Naze turned her into what she is today - a mean, lean (and busty) fighting machine.  Separated from his friends, Akune isn't beyond showing some of the techniques that he still holds back from his time as the Destroyer, but is it enough to beat a genius and her cyborg sidekick?  Maybe not, but perhaps the appearance of Maguro out of the blue can even those odds...

To be honest, this week's Medaka Box was a little too heavy on its flashbacks, but then again it still continues to almost religiously adapt the original manga in that sense.  I'm not sure that Akune needed that much time to fill in his back story, to the point where it does begin to detract from and water down some of the stronger characters within the series upon their débuts within the show in animated form - interesting times are ahead however, and if this series is going to break out and do more than the bare minimum in adapting its source material the coming episodes will be the time to do it.  My hopes aren't high (in spite on some well-played moments of comedy this week), but stranger things have happened...