Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi - Episode 8

As something of a "two for the price of one" affair, the main body of Ookami-san's eighth episode is sandwiched between a faux movie starring Morino, Ryouko and Ringo (and how, in the case of the latter two...) as they do battle against three "pigs" with a predilection for Twister and ending sentences stupidly. As per usual, it's the narrator who makes the whole thing just that bit more amusing and worthwhile... well, that and Ryouko and Ringo towards the end of this brief aside in a moment that will doubtless fire the imagination of numerous doujinshi authors.


Away from all of that, the main thrust of this episode's story is a job for the Otogi Bank requested by one Chuutarou Nezumi - A young old heir to a housing conglomerate and an all-round slightly annoying rich kid, who is trying to stick to the family tradition of having a marriage arranged by the time he turns twelve. Thus, the Otogi Bank as agreed to help him try and find a suitable bride.

This is a pretty tough ask as it is, and although Chuutarou himself seems easily pleased with pretty much any girl pointed out to him (hmm, I've already used up my John Terry joke quota for today, haven't I?) his butler (whose first name is Sebastian naturally) invariably finds some kind of hidden problem to these otherwise wonderful girls, normally managing to insult them in the process. It seems that even the girls of Toradora and To Aru Kagaku no Railgun aren't good enough for this particular heir, much to the relief of otaku everywhere no doubt.


Of course, in true fairy tale style Chuutarou's perfect girl ends up having been right in front of him all along, and they all live happily ever after and so on, although not before all of the spurned girls demand their share of cake from an increasingly hard up Otogi Bank president.

While part of me is disappointed that we've gone another episode without any further opportunity to delve deeper in Ryouko's character and her relationship with Morino, this episode was pretty amusing without being spectacular, and somehow managed to keep going even when the conversation delved into the subject of breasts for quite some time. If nothing else, this series does at least keep ticking over thanks to the narrator's quips and the odd decent one-liners or moments of dialogue when an episode could otherwise make it falter. Despite my hopes that this series isn't dead and buried in the pile labelled "mediocre" just yet, it certainly isn't going to gain itself classic status.