Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru - Episode 4

I make no secret of rather liking Hotori Arashiyama and her irrepressible character within Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, but while she still has plenty to say and do in this fourth episode her teacher Mr. Moriaki manages to steal the show too, if only on occasion.

This episode begins with Arashiyama in a good mood on account of a TV love horoscope talking of a fated encounter with the person you love... mind you, she did have to channel surf through countless other programmes to find it.  Anyway, it appears as though the horoscope is correct on this occasion, as Hotori does indeed end up with a fated encounter with Mr. Moriaki, in the form of an additional after-school lesson as she runs the risk of flunking maths and having to retake a grade entirely.

From here, we get a lot more focus on Natsuhiko Moriaki himself, from rumours about how he turned away a student who fell in love with him by responding to her love letter with a simple formula (of course, Hotori has a smart-ass formula of her own to combat that with), through to a magnificent moment where he sees Pi formed from the milk in his coffee and onward to his entirely over-zealous concerns about whether or not he ends up sitting in the staff room's faulty chair in front of Hotori.

This certainly wasn't as funny an episode as last week's instalment, but despite that it still managed to raise a fair few laughs - despite the fact that I share Hotori's mathematical ineptitude, the maths-based jokes were all genuinely funny, and Arashiyama's incredibly stupidity (which sometimes seems to wrap around into genius) still seems to be a long, long way from getting old.  I have to admit I wasn't expecting anything much from this series when it started airing, but it's really won me over as something of a surprise hit - it looks as though SHAFT have got two solid comedies on their hands this season.