Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru - Episode 10

Although it's book-ended by a decidedly normal (albeit convoluted) prayer by Sanada, it's fair to say that this tenth episode of Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru is anything but normally; following in the footsteps of the second half of last week's instalment, you could say.

Episode ten begins with some intriguing local news of some decidedly odd circular holes that have appeared out of nowhere that seem to be anything but man-made - of course, such a weird event gets television coverage aplenty, although we don't get to find out how many of them would have filled the Albert Hall sadly.  Given her love of mystery, you might expect Hotori to be over-joyed at such an odd occurrence to get her wannabe detective teeth into, but rather surprisingly she seems positively morose, and becomes even more so when she encounters Kon's excitement about these holes.  Just what's bugging her exactly?  Being responsible for said holes, in short, as the story drifts entirely into the realms of the surreal courtesy of a gun, teleporting aliens doing battle, and a device that can reconstruct anything that's broken.  Oh, and ice cream too.

If that isn't enough to remind you that this show isn't always grounded in reality, the second half of this episode goes a bit The Sixth Sense by following a ghost who it seems the heavens have forsaken, as he wanders the earth unable to communicate with other humans, while often catching the eye of passing animals.  It turns out that the old geezer in question is none other than café owner Uki's deceased husband, which brings us some potentially touching moments than mostly fall away into gags with varying degrees of success.

This is probably going to make me sound boring and overly serious, but I think I prefer it when Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru keeps its feet on the ground - I'm all for the occasional flight of fancy, and I realise this is in keeping with the original manga, but to be honest these odd and mysterious tangents really aren't all that funny, and they certainly don't compare to the entertainment value that comes from Arashiyama and company just goofing around in their normal, everyday lives.  That said, the thought of Hotori being the first point of contact for an alien race does amuse me somewhat, and Hotori with a laser gun both amuses and alarms me even more, but that's about the only real laugh I got out of this particular episode.  Can we get back to normality next week please?