Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho 06
I’ll be beginning my reviews of Umisho with episode 6. This particular episode continues the pace and absurd sensuality of the others. Amazingly, for a fan-service based anime, Umisho shines in it’s ability to seem fresh with every episode without resorting to attempts at real plot material.
The episode begins as Amuro’s house is finally rebuilt. As she makes her way to school, bubbling with enthusiasm as usual, she meets Maaya Nanako, famous backstroke champion and model. Maaya and Amuro get to know each other through arrogance and misunderstanding until Kaname arrives and Maaya reveals, to Kaname’s distress, that she was his childhood friend, or at least she sees it that way.
Naturally, Maaya joins the swim team and her extreme arrogance and narcissism doesn’t sit well with several of the girls. The men, however, are easily “persuaded” to help her get a private changing room because she refuses to change with more developed women. An amusing Geass parody highlights Maaya’s seduction of the men, excluding Kaname, who tries to maintain his composure as the males buckle under the pheromones.
Renovating the men’s changing room to suit Kaname was not the most clever idea and the whole structure collapses after a long scene in which Maki and Mirei “test” the changing room upon Amuro’s insistance. Much slavering followed by a frantic escape ensues.
Soon thereafter, the boys and girls have a race for possession of the remaining changing room. Vice Captain Momoko is not amused by the antics of her swimmers after explaining why the pool looks like a demolition site to the school administration and quickly breaks up the battle. She talks down Maaya, who proceeds to leave the swim team despite an attempt at innocent persuasion by Amuro.
Thoughts: Another excellent episode here. If you enjoyed the first episode of Umisho, you’ll like them all, the series continues to serve up exactly what it presented from the beginning. Of course, that it fan-service and amusing situational comedy. The new character, Maaya, invites a classic harem structure to the anime, but, judging from the consistency of the previous episodes, the writers have a good shot at keeping it fresh. Umisho has never been about being original, it’s much more about the atmosphere and the interactions of genuinely well-written comedy archetypes.
