Sexual connotations gone to 11.
Last week on Denki-Gai no Honya-san, an overdue cleanup and a government inspection of ero-books leads to a ‘Sommelier’ party, where Sommelier picks out the perfect manga for the public, regardless of their genres and tastes. Later, the mangaka Sensei realizes she has a deadline coming up, so Umio and Hiotan elect themselves to help her complete it.
Summary of Denki-Gai no Honya-San Episode 2
- The opening launch night of the last volume of a popular manga makes the entire staff of Umanohone work to the bone…except Director, who chooses to order everyone around. But to celebrate their hard work, Sensei takes them all to a family restaurant, where Sommelier suddenly realizes he has a massive crush on Fu Girl. Later, the local variety competition takes place; 10,000 yen up for grabs. Outnumbered and outmatched by cheating teams and numerous games that make the Umanohone team weak to the knees, Sensei chickens out, only to return in the final game…as her own team.
My take
- The show is showing its colours now; even though many many shows take the otaku culture and make fun of themselves, but a show set in an otaku story makes it all the more different, I think. The jokes seem more…blasé, and predictable at some points.
- I mean, I used to watch a crapload of comedy shows, but a good few of them had genuine story. So I don’t know why somewhere in my little head tells me to take this show seriously? I mean, moe girls with zombie fetishes and photography equipment, lazy guys who just film everything all the time, eyeless guys who know everything, and Umio and Sensei (who are already one of those implied couples, by the way). So with the lines, jokes, scenes, and story hitting you within minutes of each other, the show acts more like it was an adaptation of a 4-koma rather than an actual manga.
Baldness runs in the family of anonymity.
- Not complaining, although from this point, the show is choosing to take otakuness by the ankles by waving it around as a parody, not unlike Lucky Star. Some of the jokes did make me cringe, especially when it came to the local competition. Faceless bald guys bullying and torturing the young girls of Umanohone……the phrase ‘not-my-cup-of-tea’ could be applicable, but I hate that phrase, so I’ll just say that, in my opinion, there’s a line. Or maybe it’s just me, and I just need to lighten up and watch more nonsensical sex joke shows.
- But this was Fu Girl’s show. The minuscule 16-year-old who loves…zombies. As Hiotan has her weakness of all things sexual, Fu Girl’s weakness is zombies. Okay, so weakness is too negative; fetish is possibly a better word. This ‘fetish’ did help in the competition after all. But I can’t quite see the Fu Girl x Sommelier pairing. Of course, the fan-fiction writers will tear the two apart, not to mention the various doujins (with Director and Kameko filming their dates/kisses, of course).
- And there was me thinking I’d like every single character; Director and Kameko have already annoyed me, Director especially. Now I haven’t read the manga so I can’t comment why he (and Kameko) have to record and photograph every single thing they see, whether it be ordinary, silly, lewd or just plain boring. Maybe I was wrong after all, and there is no such thing as a show where every character is likable. But I won’t ever give up at this stage. I know better humor will come our way…correction…I hope better humor will come our way. Surely this adaptation of the manga (which, as I said, should really have been a 4-koma instead) will use the power of parody and present better jokes in the future. But I maybe should lighten up and not take comedy too seriously.
- Still can’t quite understand those apples in the opening theme…
