Level E - Episode 2

With its extra-terrestrial credentials well and truly established, Level E's opener ended with a glimpse of the true form of the alien being around which it centres.  Or perhaps not, as the case may be.

In fact, this hideous alien is little more than the pet of our blonde-haired friend, who still frankly doesn't have a clue about who or what he is.  What we do know however is that it isn't just humans searching for him any more, with some of his own race reaching the planet's surface to join the hunt for what is increasingly looking like a rather important person... or non-person, I suppose I should say.

The next thing we know, the ever-astute next door neighbour Miho Edogawa joins Yukitaka in helping to shelter our crash-landed extra-terrestrial - not a bad individual to have "on your team" given her father's position and her reliable if rather oddball nature when it comes to all things alien.  Then again, even her knowledge proves to be little help when said alien decides to sneak out and go for a shopping spree in town on his own - a decision that does far more than simply rack up a big credit card bill.  By the time this prince's handlers (because yes, he is royalty after all) catch up on him it appears that we have a major galactic incident on our hands, and one which only looks likely to get worse by the time we reach next week's episode.

All I can really say about Level E at this point in time is that it's having a riot with its premise - as per the first episode, the dynamic between the major characters works wonderfully, even more so now that Miho is added to that roster, while the way this episode playfully and casually throws in a number of alien races disguised as humans asks an easy frisson to proceedings with nary an apologetic shrug of its shoulders that none of it really makes any sense.  Put simply, this is practically an anime equivalent of Men in Black - a comparison that really isn't a bad thing at all given the fun factor available to such a concept.  It's the word "fun" that really sums up this outing - it won't astound you or break new ground, yet its really quite enjoyable to just kick back and watch.