Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

[ Episode 05: The Famous Shooter ]

School’s out for summer! But wait a minute, didn’t the series begin with them ending summer? Yeah, time sure flies alright in this show. Now that the girls are currently out of school, we finally see them out and about enjoying their days out in the sun.

When it’s hot, it’s scorching, and what a place like Japan, you know it’s gonna get pretty damn warm it’d bake you medium rare. You’d get by nowhere without cooling yourself first. So with summer along, the summer festival comes to mind, and it’s a nice time to go. I’ve only went to one festival during the summer in Japan and it was pretty packed, unlike here. My friends wore yukata that they bought, just like the yukata the girls are wearing, and yeah, sashes are really hard to tie.

From the other corner comes the first appearance of Konata’s cousin Yui, a cop. Funny how a young looking woman herself mistakes the other girls as being Konata’s elders, setting Konata as the standard (in both age and height), as Kagami suggests not doing. Yui even believed Kuroi-sensei was one of Konata’s friends that hit womanhood early. But it’s not just Yui confused, Kuroi-sensei mistakes Yui for being single and befriends her like mad.

Shaved ice is a wonderful treat, and I know. I’ve tasted those before. Even Blue Hawaii! Pretty minty I’d say. I love how the girls are asking Miyuki again to inform them but actually doesn’t know, in which case, Tsukasa actually knows it all and tells all. A victory for her but a failure to the rest. Heheh.

One of the best scenes in this episode was Tsukasa’s sudden obsession with balsamic vinegar after watching TV. Oh man, that went wild. If there were ever a Chukasa 4koma, she’d be all over balsamic vinegar. Then comes Konata playing MMO. Kuroi-sensei logs on and she and Konata chat. Everything seems like a normal gaming chat log when Kuroi-sensei suddenly bugs Konata if she’s done her homework yet. Such hilarity. Even during summer, Konata can’t seem to catch a break. My last favorite scene this episode is the oh so splendid electric fan scene. Konata does it, Tsukasa does it, even Kagami does it! Who hasn’t tried that at least once? It’s fun!

For this episode’s Lucky Channel, Akira responds to a NEET’s postcard asking if she plays any MMOs. Based on the fact that she’s using a lot of terms that I don’t know, that’s pretty much a given. I’m not an MMO person since I don’t use computer for gaming but I can see why it would be addicting. WoW people ought to know that much. After a rather abrupt segment, karaoke box comes next and this time, Konata takes the mic again, and it’s a classic she sings. I’m sure most people should know about DBZ’s fantastic, memorable OP theme CHA-LA HEAD CHA-LA. A catchy tune if I may add.

Now I just wanted to first mention about something. It occurs to me that from this episode onwards, the director is now Takemoto Yasuhiro, replacing Yamamoto Yutaka. Back when this was announced, KyoAni vaguely stated on their website that Yamamoto simply wasn’t at the position to be director. From watchers’ feedback, they say that the change was good because starting from 5+ onwards, the series starting getting much much more interesting. I gotta say, that’s complete BS, in my opinion. Sure, the first few episodes were lacking a bit but I can’t say it was terrible. In fact, episode five felt very much the same. It probably wasn’t until episode six where things started picking up.

According to this entry from Canned Dogs, Yamamoto was apparently fired after getting a call at 11 pm but he doesn’t reveal exactly what the reason was. I still doubt it was anything about the episode direction. Let’s look at it this way. These episodes were made like, what, months and months before it aired? That being said, that would mean the following episodes after were made while Yamamoto was still appointed as the series director. It was only after episode four aired did he get the call. In fact, he was responsible for a few episode scripts and storyboards in the later episodes. There’s a whole state of controversy going on over this but for whatever reason, I can’t see how LS fits into the picture. It’s unfortunate that this even happened because the next Haruhi might not be the same without an ED as memorable as what he created. Not only that, but composer Kousaki Satoru is also out of KyoAni and is now with Yamamoto working on Kannagi. I seriously hope I’m not delving so much into this…