World Conquest Zvezda Plot - Episode 2

It's the morning after the decidedly crazy night before, but everything seems to have returned to normal for Asuta, meaning a day of school and what looks set to be another evening of worrying about where he's actually going to live, homeless as he is.

Such concerns are soon interrupted by what looks like a familiar face at the school gate - a face that he really didn't want to see again.  Despite his best efforts to make good his escape, Itsuka Shikabane isn't going to let her prey escape that easily, and before he knows it Jimon is dragged off to become part of Zvezda - something he could really do without, although conversely he has no qualms at the thought of them providing him with food.

Thus, Asuta is taken to the society's top secret headquarters (so top secret it has their name on the door), where he meets a number of weird and wonderful characters including a robot that speaks like a 56k modem and the little critters responsible for the monstrosity which surfaced in the opening episode.  At both the head of the dinner table and the organisation is, of course, Kate Hoshimiya, although it seems that Asuta has picked a bad day to swing by for dinner as it's Itsuka's turn to cook - an unforgettable experience so bad that it almost leads to the discovery of Zvezda headquarters by the society's arch-nemesis.

Having been left a little nonplussed by the opening episode of World Conquest Zvezda Plot, I was rather excited to see everything seemingly coming together nicely during the first half of this episode as it introduced some of its characters properly and seemed to start setting things up in an entertaining and competent fashion.  Sadly, the wheels seemed to fall off at the episode's midway point, leaving its second half feeling like a jumbled, disjointed and rushed mess that was as baffling as it was unfunny.  It's another unwelcome suggestion that this is a series that prioritises weirdness over telling a good or otherwise fun story, and I'm beginning to suspect that World Conquest Zvezda Plot could be showing signs of becoming the winter's big disappointment.  It's still early days though, and part of this episode showed promise, so I'd lvoe to be proven wrong.