Tsuritama - Episode 2

As if Yuki didn't have enough to cope with due to his introverted demeanour and tendency to pull the most horrifying of faces when put under any kind of pressure, now he finds himself living with an overly exuberant and slightly crazy alien.

Worse still, we soon discover in this second episode of Tsuritama that Haru actually has a sister - who sister who demands that Yuki catch a particular fish will ensure that the Earth and humanity itself is saved.  Before he knows it, Yuki (along with Haru) are back begging the fishing "prince" Natsuki for lessons, helped along by the fact that the normally sullen fishing genius acts entirely differently when his little sister is around.

Given his reticence to act as a teacher for these two crazy classmates however, Natsuki isn't exactly the most accommodating of tutors, and even a shot from Haru's water pistol (which in turn gives us a glimpse of what it's capable of) isn't enough for Yuki to get the hang of tying the required not to attach bait to the line, which leads to him losing his chance to catch another fish at the all-important moment before running away in the face of Natsuki's criticism.  Still, it seems that Yuki has caught the fishing bug whether he likes it or not, and in the process he even begins to build (albeit every-so slightly) both his confidence and a friendship with Natsuki.  With another transfer student (and his duck) entering Yuki and Haru's class however, things look set to take some more strange turns sooner rather than later.

After feeling so apathetic towards its first episode for the most part, there are some interesting glimpses into the deeper story of Tsuritama this week from a character-centric point of view - Natsuki's family situation is obviously a cause of deep distress for him, while Yuki's grandmother seems to be keeping health issues from her grandson into the bargain.  These are but small fry in the lake of lunacy that this series is swimming in however, and I can't break away from the feeling that the series is trying to be zany and fill its character roster with oddballs simply because it can.  I can't say that this aspect of the series is particularly endearing to me at this stage - Yuki's neuroses are fine and work well enough, but Haru is intensely annoying and his sister feels like a somewhat pointless insert at this juncture.  If the show's weirder characters are fleshed out properly hopefully such issues may dissolve - on this occasion, I'm really hoping that my gut feeling about Tsuritama is proved wrong.