Kuragehime - Episode 6

After deciding upon his task of transforming the Amamizukan residents from nerds into beauties capable of taking on whatever normal life throws at them, this sixth episode begins with us seeing the final results of that transformation - and it has to be said that those results are pretty impressive.

With all of the residents dressed up, Kuranosuke takes them all out to a café to enjoy whatever refreshments they require; although it does take a while for them to warm to the place given their dislike of being out in public and their preference of their usual home comforts.  Still, the prospect of free food and drink paid for by Kuranosuke finally wins them round, while moving out to one of the establishment's terrace tables gives them all a fantastic view of the scenery to further seal the deal.  The trouble is, Tsukimi is looking rather too cute for her own good, causing Kuranosuke both confusion and consternation as he tries to figure out why he's so worked up about that fact - perhaps he isn't as bright when it comes to relationships as he likes to make out?

While all of this is going on, brother Shuu finds himself at the mercy of the manipulative Shouko Inari, who uses the return of his umbrella as a chance for him to take him out for a drink, spike said drink and then frame him into appearing as though he slept with her.  Despite this and her holding the upper hand overall, Shuu's reaction once he comes around isn't exactly what she was expecting - then again, she didn't know what we letter learn from the family's driver about just why the elder Koibuchi brother is all but allergic to women.  Just what Shuu is doing come the end of this episode, when he goes to see Tsukimi briefly, is lost on me somehow, but there's certainly no shortage of issues piling up for both of the Koibuchi siblings come the end of this instalment.

This episode might not have dazzled quite so much as previous instalments in terms of its multi-layered, character-driven story telling, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't a whole lot of fun.  Kuragehime might have simplified and narrowed its focus for large portions of this episode, but that didn't stop it from throwing out a couple of big revelations in the midst of entertaining us via both Shuu's predicament and the Amamizukan girl's night out, both of which were played out nigh-on perfectly in terms humour and making the most of the show's characters.  In short, it was enough to keep Kuragehime sitting pretty towards the top of the pile of "must watch" shows for this season.