Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

Warning: loads of screencaps

[ Original Visual and Animation: JK ]

So here it is! A bit overdue, but I make up the delays for these flurry of images I took without holding back. Okay, maybe not that’s not a good excuse but I’m putting this out, so let’s go over this spectacle OVA, which for some reason, they decided to have the initials stand for “original visual and animation” instead of “original video animation.”

The first segment is about Minami and her dog Cherry, the cute pup we’ve seen briefly in the series. I love how it starts off with Chihara Minori. It’s almost like she’s greeting us with a “good morning” as we start watching this. Miyuki comes over to share some cookies with Minami and asks Cherry to try some. “Cherry-chan mo tabemasu ka?” Indeed, Cherry goes straight towards Miyuki’s… well I think Cherry-chan got the wrong idea of what Miyuki was saying. Or maybe Cherry wasn’t listening, but still went for it. Eventually, Cherry is given a cookie but it’s buried right away…

Outside we see the other girls passing by. The Hiiragi sisters walk past, but Tsukasa seemed to have misplaced her cell phone somewhere. Nice to know they haven’t forgotten about Tsukasa and her beloved phone. I love how Patty insults Cherry, but she sounds so cute at the same time, saying stuff like “Baku inu!” or “Debu inu!” I think she said one other word that sounded extreme, or is it just me? Maguro… guess that means Cherry’s a girl after all. That “zetsubou shita!” that Patty suddenly shouted out was really hilarious too. Seems everyone loves Cherry, especially Yutaka, who sang “Cherry-chan, kawaii na” to the tune of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”

I remember Hiyori and Cherry weren’t exactly the best of friends, and it shows when Hiyori extends her hand out to her but Cherry slaps it and mauls her in a hilarious moment. Cherry sure is a strange dog. Poor Minami. First segment end.

RPG TIME! Interesting to note is that Kagami agreed to play the game with everyone was because she’s a fan of the author who worked on the screenplay for the anime tie-in of the game they’re playing. She’s most likely referring to Gatoh Shoji, author of FMP, which she clearly loves as we’ve seen. So the RPG is Tower of Druaga then.

Seeing the twins play the game is really something. Kagami heals Konata (<3) while Tsukasa... chomps on a bone of meat. Tsukasa knows how to get the laughter going. I love how she finally was able to chat with the rest, not used to these kind of things from the looks of it. Konata has the gang create a victory pose for their party which was Hare Hare Yukai's final pose. I laughed at the random guy though. Where'd he come from? Kuroi-sensei really needs to find herself a boyfriend really bad. She basically went WoW during Golden Week and leveled up by five.

One of the highlights of the OVA was Kagami’s dream, reminiscent to that of Cinderella, only her godmother turned out to be Konata in Yuki’s witch costume, the carriage was really lame, and they didn’t go to a ball, but a fighting tournament where Misao is the prince for some unknown reason.

But anyway, seeing the many great attires that Godmother Konata gave Kagami were awesome. A maid, miko, Tohsaka Rin, and finally, the amazing Hatsune Miku getup. The most hilarious moment is, of course, the magic words to make everything normal again. Kagami blurts it out, waking herself up, but Tsukasa hears it and promptly leaves to mail Konata. Oh man, the possibilities are pretty endless here, but I guess what everything was thinking was possibly “gattai” as the censored phrase.

Next up is the volleyball segment featuring Tsukasa. This was my favorite out of all of them as it was really moving, but also funny. Tsukasa always looked like the insecure type in this kind of situation, but seeing her giving it her all was a pleasure. It was really interesting to see Misao help Tsukasa out all the way just so she can be on the same pace as Kagami.

Konata blurted out a famous phrase from Haruhi when she played table tennis against Mikuru. “Super Ultra Miracle Eccentric Serve!” I bet Hirano Aya had fun with that nostalgic moment. Mikuru is really athletic after all, but she was a totally different person when she’s playing. She mentioned before she was the same with video games as well.

It was looking rather intense. I was kind of shocked that Kagami hit Tsukasa with a serve, though it wasn’t her fault, but seeing Tsukasa in tears left me feeling bad for her once again. The song playing in the background for about three seconds was Attack No. 1 no Uta, a cover performed by Tsukasa’s seiyuu, Fukuhara Kaori. You can hear the full version here:

With a little motivation from Misao, Tsukasa gets back up and gives it her all. Misao gives Tsukasa an opening for a spike shot but predictably, she fails and instead runs into the net instead. Pure gold moment there. Tsukasa may not have won that match and she may not have caught up to her sister but she’ll keep that spirit going and one day she will.

So next up is a segment about a school summer camping trip the girls went on. While hiking they somehow ended up lost on an uncharted trail. I think Konata did everyone a favor, reconfirming our belief that Miyuki is, indeed, the walking, talking Wikipedia. Hearing MiWiki-san was all that we needed.

The whole thing was probably one of the weakest points of the OVA, but it had its merits, like Tsukasa with astronomical knowledge (and getting scared shitless twice by Konata, no less) and the scary stories Konata was telling the girls. It kinda reminds me of the old show Are You Afraid of the Dark? where a group of kids gather around a campfire to tell a story. Once the story ends, they put out the fire and leave for the night. Now that I think about it, why was Kagami on the trip anyway? Some special thing involving anyone taking Kuroi-sensei’s course?

Afterwords comes a parody of Zetsubou, as if Patty’s line wasn’t enough. They even have similar scenes and make use of those screen note cards. I just love the seiyuu joke about the cat and the soul, referencing Katou Emiri’s role as Blair in Soul Eater. Shiraishi finally gets lines in this one, starting out with a pompous Geass line, but also a double entendre as it could also mean that the number of lines he has had since the OVA were… well, zero.

Shiraishi shows the girls frogs from Kerero Gunsou and then some weird delusion occurs or something. I… really don’t know what went on here. Was it a reference to something? Well, it definitely gave me a question mark in my head looking at the girls in frog costumes.

Luckily the OVA ends on an amazingly high note as Anizawa makes a special guest appearance in the RPG! He spots Konata aka Densetsu no Shoujo A and tries to sell his uber in-game items to her, but unfortunately for him, she’s apparently in sleep AFK. Laughter ensues.

In an unexpected but awesome twist, Lucky Channel returns in live action mode, as seiyuu Konno Hiromi as Akira and Shiraishi Minoru as… Shiraishi Minoru take the stage (or rooftop set). Hiromi bears a cosplay of Akira’s seifuku, but her hair color is still black and the do is long. On the other hand, Shiraishi appears out of the blue with the most hilarious getup plus fingerless gloves, shades and a wig, bearing some bling too. But what’s this, he even had a “Yaranaika?” tie, which had me laughing so hard and clapping my hands.

So the whole thing about “original visual and animation” is now cleared up. You have the animation with an original visual, that being the live Lucky Channel. That also applying to Shiraishi, as he takes form in the 2D and 3D worlds, which shocks Akira. CUE THE MUSIC! Ai wo Torimodose!! plays but Akira and Shiraishi are the vocalists, which also had me rolling. That was so awesome. Akira takes a break to have some water. Shiraishi is a little thirsty himself and calls the staff (sta-ffu~!), but he gets a hose spraying water in his face instead, haha! Good thing they took the mic out beforehand. It’s a shame we didn’t get the super idol in the OVA though. I’m kinda surprised Akira didn’t burst into a hellish rant like usual, but I guess for live-action it wasn’t needed, and very much a good choice too. Hiromi looked cute like that too. It looks like she’s going to try harder to get to the top, beyond the heavens. Uchoten!

+ Kagami’s obscure Cinderella story, Attack No. 1 Volleyball!, the many other references (Geass, Zetsubou, etc.), live-action Lucky Channel, Ai wo Torimodose!!
- Lack of Yui and Soujirou, first-year characters only present in first segment with little spotlight.

And there you have it. Overall, I really enjoyed this OVA a lot. Probably one of the best OVAs I’ve seen, no doubt. There’s plenty of fanservice for everyone. We got to see Kagamiku (and even Kagami Rin!), as much parodies and references as you’d expect in at least two episodes of the regular TV series. On the down side, I did feel that using different stories felt a bit strange, but maybe it’s because I was used to the linearity from the later half of the anime. Some segments were a bit beyond my comprehension too, like the last scene with the pet shop. I know the focus is usually on the main four girls but I do think the others could’ve gotten some more screentime. Konata’s family was surprising absent during the whole thing, and I was expecting at least one or two scenes of Yui’s road rage or drunkenness, or some more Kamen Rider Soujirou. While it does carry what we love about the series, I do think that it wasn’t as good as some of the TV episodes. Don’t get me wrong though, I would love more OVAs. I would love it more if a second season was greenlit. KyoAni sure seem to have a ton of projects that people expect from them. Get crackin’.