Rumiko Takahashi amps up the confusion and Yuji Moriyama amps up the carnage.
This episode hinges around two main points. But first there is a manic chase.
What comedy anime shows nowadays are putting in such kinetic chase scenes? At least what I’m watching seems to depend more on dialogue and stage timing, rather than comedy that could only work as cartoons. Keroro? Shin-Chan? Is that it? Certainly doesn’t seem to be the shows that get talked about.
Anyway, once the chase is done, Asuka, Ataru and Mendou are put in chains for their own safety and we can get on with the episode’s plot.
The first point is Asuka’s confusion about men in general. While she eventually learns to not be afraid of her brother, that in turn leads to Ataru, Mendou and Lum worrying that she has a brother-complex. Which she sort of does, but it’s borne more out of ignorance than actual love. Her entire understanding of relationships and gender are reliant on what other people tell her. Which is hard when her initial reference point for men is Ataru Moroboshi.
The second point is that Ryoko decides to declare war on the Mizunokoji estate in order to end her brother’s engagment (in the hope she’ll be engaged to Ton-chan), bringing with her the deadly secret weapon – Octopussy (this is something added to the anime). This leads to a massive battle, and lots of stuff blowing up real good. Finally Ryoko unleashes Octopussy, which turns out to be a BGC-style power armour. Without the bonus of actually working well.
This all ends with everything blowing up, and Ryoko pulling her brother from the rubble. The punchline is that when Asuka hears Ryoko call Mendou “big brother”, she suddenly stops being afraid of him – after all he’s a big brother just like Tobimaro!
While I’m preferring Toshiki Inoue’s scripts, both this and the previous episode benefit from the strong visuals of Moriyama and Dokite.
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Screenplay: Shigeru Yanagawa
Storyboard: Yuji Moriyama
Director: Iku Suzuki
Animation Director: Yuji Moriyama