Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

[ Episode 2: Gyokuon Attack! ]

SUMMARY

It’s morning and Nagi already broke her staff. Nagi wants Jin to buy a new one, but instead of getting creepy looks from the lady at the register, he suggests an alternative using glue. Nagi finds two cute little kittens that she wants to keep to cuddle with and more, but Jin opposes. He ignores Nagi’s pleads for helping out the kittens. As Jin comes back from buying supplies, he finds Nagi’s wand magically and neatly glued to the center of the table. Nagi explains that she has a split personality so it was her other side’s fault, but Jin obviously sees it as a lie.

Jin’s childhood friend Tsugumi comes over to pay Jin a visit but before she can ring the bell, she can hear Jin and Nagi bickering from inside the house, Nagi promptly opening the door and noticing Tsugumi and her eyes widened. Jin panics and drags Nagi back into the house explaining that she’s troubling him by being here. As Jin tries to explain himself to Tsugumi, Nagi steps in and formally apologizes to Tsugumi, acting very polite and such, explaining that what she saw was unfortunately the other side of her, and also that her split personality came to be due to being in a strict family. Tsugumi falls for the act easily with Jin looking dumbfounded as ever. However, in the kitchen, Jin realizes that Nagi did have split personalities after all.

After Tsugumi leaves, Nagi watches TV and Jin continues to remove the staff from the table. He wonders just how it was able to stick perfectly in the center like that, to which Nagi informs Jin that while she was applying the glue, her hand slipped and it a perfect landing. The magnificence of it all made Nagi rofl to no end. Of course, this explanation totally blows Nagi’s cover. Her split personalities were, indeed, very much fake from the beginning.

Jin walks home from the store and finds the mother of the two kittens on the street dead. Jin rushes back home only to see Nagi spiritually sending the kittens “over the river,” only to then have Nagi collapse. The sight of Nagi’s performance stuns Jin. It was at that moment that Nagi really did show a different side of her. As Nagi rests, Jin fixes up the staff good as new. Just in time because Nagi is already awake and hungry.

Jin asks Nagi what exactly she did when he saw the kittens “entering” Nagi’s body. Nagi gets annoyed with the questions and gives attitude to Jin. A fight quickly ensues between the two and Nagi leaves. Nagi sees a bunch of kids hanging out at the shrine area and decides to join them, despite them calling her a weirdo. One of the kids is feeling very negative and wants to go home. Nagi notices an impurity clinging to his back, concluding that it’s the cause of the kid’s negativity. (Reminds me of Noise all of a sudden, with the creature being a frog, no less.) She attempts to exterminate the frog, but it quickly leaps away and clings onto one of the kids’ super ball.

Nagi chases after it but it’s too difficult for her alone. Knowing the impurity is coming after her, she leads it to an underpass, but even then she isn’t able to get the impurity. Jin comes in the nick of time to save her and helps her extinguish the frog. Jin carries Nagi on his back as they walk home. Jin is mad at Nagi but knowing the kind of person she is, he says he resigned himself because he’s using to dealing with such people, like his father. Jin carries Nagi all the way back home, the sun setting, and the kids still waiting to get their super ball back.

REVIEW

Overall, another well done episode. Though the pacing is still slow, it makes up for it in character development, as we delve a bit deeper into the minds of Nagi, Jin, and a teensy bit of Tsugumi.

Nagi was as much comical gold as before. Her impression of what Jin would say about her and breast milk was hilarious, even if that wasn’t really spot-on with Jin’s thought, it got me chuckling. Her split personality fiasco was definitely a major highlight too. She’s really good at acting, so maybe she could be an actress. Well, the OP certainly does show her as being a popular idol, so it certainly fits her image. Being a goddess, there just seems to be nothing she can’t do, except fight off impurities on her own. It amazes me to see that she’s actually more human than one would think. She plays the part just fine. For someone that only knew about TV for a day, Nagi already experienced the life of a couch potato, only she’s on the floor, but I just laughed when she scratched her left leg with her right foot.

The puns were really awesome this time around too. My favorite so far is definitely the noodles one. Mendou dakara men dou da? A goddess, yes, but a goddess that has a fascination for puns, my absolute forté. It just makes he love her more. That Dragon Ball reference was really something too. That wasn’t mentioned originally, but adding that reference was pretty funny, and I’d love to see more of that.

Tsugumi is great so far. She may be Jin’s childhood friend, but she’s really more mature than most childhood friends in other anime/manga. Definitely doesn’t look like the ditzy, clingy childhood friend type, but she still has the qualities for purity and cuteness to her. She obviously has interest in Jin, too, but how far would she go for him? I can’t wait to see more of her.

I seem to be liking Jin’s character more too. As I’ve said, he’s really refined and down to earth; not like those protagonists of dating sims and such. I can see why he was acting the way he was towards Nagi in scene where the two were arguing, but deep down, he’s a nice guy, and it shows when he came to help her out. How did he know where she was anyway? He may be serious, but he also has his funny moments. He always seems to be under pressure when Tsugumi is there, whether on the phone or at the door, but I guess he just doesn’t want her getting the wrong idea about him. And why was he still holding Nagi’s panties that time? I dunno, but I sure laughed.

Next episode looks like Nagi will be going to Jin’s school, so we get to see more Tsugumi, and some new characters too!