Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

[ Episode 17: At the Base of the Sun ]

So it’s Konata’s birthday, and she finally is at the age of adulthood. Now she can buy all the eroge she wants. But wait, she’s been playing dating sims forever hasn’t she? She still hasn’t changed a bit, even if she’s 18 now. Still a child at heart, but we love Konata for her antics anyway. The family was preparing a nice party for her at home but she was already having one down at work. Haha, all that effort. BTW, nice use of a “24″ parody there.

While the girls discuss what future careers they will have, Konata’s choices are rather anime-influenced, yet again, with danchou being the first choice. Kagami wonders if she has any talents at all. Konata responds by commenting that she can name all the Pokémon, which is really really amazing. Would that mean all four generations or what? I wonder if she can name them all in order too. Not to brag here, but even I can name the first 151 in order, and I know the 2nd generation too, just… not in order.

I really like Kagami’s interest in light novels, but it’s kinda hard to believe Konata doesn’t bother with them. Is it because there’s too much text? There are some illustrations in between but I rather think that light novels have great stories. After all, nowadays most anime are adapted from light novels more than manga. Plus, some anime, like Lucky☆Star itself, got a light novel after the anime. Hell, Konata loves Haruhi, so shouldn’t she be interested in the novels? That is where the charm is (and a good source of material while waiting God knows… how long for the new season). If there’s an anime for it, Konata will gladly watch it, so no light novels for her. Can you say for sure that it’ll stick to the novels accordingly though, Konata?

Kagami was having a bad day all over. The part about making little mistakes when you’re worked up is too true. Eating Tsukasa’s cookies sure relieved her of the stress, but unfortunately, new stress appeared and Kagami suddenly gained some weight.

While Yutaka is on the phone, we finally see the bodyless cat Nyamo from the eyecatches! That’s a pretty cute plushie if I ever saw one. Apparently it’s supposed to be a self portrait of the creator, Yoshimizu Kagami. So are we supposed to find the author/artist of this wonderful series as lax and sleepy?

The second half is where this episode truly shines, and is one of my favorite scenes in the series. Matsuri pesters the girls about forgetting to pick up ingredients for dinner. Kagami goes out of her way going to buy some stuff to make for dinner. After realizing they went out of their way for the family, there’s much appreciation towards each other now, from Kagami traveling to a farther supermarket to get all the ingredients to Matsuri appreciating Kagami for bringing them to her so she could cook for the family and also asking for a good recipe to share with them. So it’s not just Kagami that’s the stubborn one of the family, eh? Seriously, you gotta love this family.

Anizawa makes a special guest appearance on Lucky Channel, which he calls weak much to Akira’s annoyance. He claims that an anime is not well received unless you pick out the right production to the show, instead of the scripts or seiyuu and the like, which I actually agree on, but the Tenchou wants more effort out of everything and put more passion into it all. I don’t really follow, but if it’ll help Shiraishi gain back his colors, anything’s good.

The ED returns to Shiraishi as he now takes his own rendition of Motteke! Sailor Fuku. Ai mai sunshine? And a lot more weird transitions too, but anyways, interesting choice.