Sasami-san@Ganbaranai - Episode 3

If last week's instalment of Sasami-san@Ganbaranai wasn't enough for you, then fasten your seat belts for a whole lot more of the same in this week's episode.

Having introduced us to the concept of the divine god Amaterasu last week, this third episode in the series focuses more upon Sasami's family, revealing that she was raised at a shrine with the explicit purpose of becoming a vessel for Amaterasu; a job which requires special powers, constant training and hardships and the kind of consistent DNA which only comes from... well, incest basically.  Thus, not only is Kamiomi the brother of Sasami, he's also her slave and protector, and when Sasami decided enough was enough and went on the run from her family it was Kamiomi she opted to take with him.

As Sasami reaches further conclusions about her brother being Amaterasu's current carrier, so an emergency "alteration" appears in the form of a third arm upon Sasami's chest, who quickly informs Kamiomi of his sister's reports, in turn causing him to return to the family shrine to offer himself up as what is ostensibly a sacrifice so that Sasami can continue to live her own life.  This kind of thankless and selfless sacrifice is exactly what Sasami doesn't want from her brother, and thus she sets out to rescue him - something which proves relatively easy when you have the real Ammaterasu and her spin-offs in tow, and something which becomes easier still when it proves that your original theory was way off-base.

If nothing else, I have to hand it to Sasami-san@Ganbaranai for even bothering to explain away every aspect of its story - it could so easily have just left some of its concepts be and done with it, but instead it dots every "i" and crosses every "t" in the name of explaining its world.  However, that doesn't really prevent this episode from being the least entertaining of the series so far; shorn of his humour and absurd sense of fun for the most part, all we're really left with is a bunch of stuff happening accompanied by explanatory monologues of what's going on.  I can only assume that this episode takes us to the end of the first light novel in the series from which this anime is adapted, so I'm certainly curious to see what direction it takes next - I'm not ashamed to say that with its "serious business" seemingly resolved for the most part, I'm hoping for more absurd fripperies moving forward as that seem to be where both the series and SHAFT's presentation of it are best suited.