Natsu no Arashi - Episode 18

As slightly random episodes of anime go, this eighteenth episode of Natsu no Arashi is certainly up there with the best of them, even for a series about time travelling ghosts that hasn't exactly been averse to throwing curveballs previously.

In essence, the entire episode is a one-shot joke with more than a passing nod to the magical girl anime genre, which comes about after Kanako suffers from a bout of blurred vision. The answer to her problem seems obvious - let her borrow a pair of glasses. What nobody was expecting is that such a turn of events would turn into some kind of magnificent magical girl. Naturally, the reserved Kanako is none too keen on this revelation and so the glasses are quickly removed, but impressed by what they've seen the rest of the crew come up with ever more ingenious ways of forcing a pair of glasses upon the hapless Kanako.


And that, basically, is that - Yes, the random nature of the whole thing and the magical girl parody made me smile the first time (and the "pass the salt" guy seems to be getting some of the best bits comic titbits of late), but there really wasn't enough material here to fill up another fifteen minutes or so, and the whole thing became rather tiring pretty quickly. Who thought this series would manage to produce an episode that left me wishing for more of Jun's gender dilemmas? That's quite a feat in itself, and this must certainly rank up there as amongst the more forgettable episodes of the occasionally (too occasionally you could say) excellent Natsu no Arashi.