Hooray! It seemed to be increasingly unlikely, but we finally have an episode where Nao and Iroha do something other than stalk Shuusuke! It only took what, five episodes? With Nao able to do something other than slobber over her brother’s patheticness, the humor took a turn for the better.

Speaking of how pathetic Shuusuke is, I didn’t think it was possible, but he managed to outdo even himself at the beginning of this episode. Crying on his knees in front of a girl because of bad grades? If Nao were there she would have died from a nosebleed.

Nao and Iroha also ended their apparent truce this episode, which I still can’t figure out why they started. The dynamics of the entire show are much more interesting when they aren’t getting along. With Kondou in the mix it is even better. Her interests are becoming more and more unusual. It seems like Kondou is leaving, so Nao and Iroha will need to carry the show without her. This might end up being a good thing, as Nao is the most interesting character in my opinion and she’s been pushed to the side ever since Kondou’s appearance.

The jokes this episode were generally pretty good, but not great. None of the jokes really stood out, except for the AGE president’s cameo in Shuusuke’s dream and Kondou’s interest in men’s nipples. And the latter was more disturbing than funny.

In which the A.G.E. goes on a shopping trip, followed by the usual suspects.

This episode entertained me much more than it should have. Shuusuke, Nao and Iroha’s characters are really getting stale at this point. Shuusuke hasn’t done anything recently aside from stare at black pantyhose and look pathetic, and Nao and Iroha haven’t done anything except stalk Shuusuke together. It’s pretty unbelievable that he hasn’t noticed them, but even more, it’s just so old. Can’t they do something else? Why don’t they have some other form of interaction with Shuusuke except stalking him from a distance? And why do Iroha and Nao get along now in the first place?

With that aside, this epsiode really focused on the other members of the A.G.E., and in this aspect it was entertaining. The president in particular has been a consistently enjoyable character. His revelation about his history with the cat was especially funny, as were the club member’s insinuations about each other.

Still, this show really needs to figure out what it wants to do with Nao and Iroha. They do have a lot of potential as characters (especially Nao), and it’s tough to see them completely wasted and relegated as stalkers who make the same jokes over and over again, either enjoying Shuusuke’s patheticness or fondling themselves.

In which Nao and Iroha begin the counteroffensive against Kondou. This episode mostly fell flat for me. I think the main issue is that the jokes are getting old and being repeated over and over again. Yes, we realize Iroha is a stalker. Yes, we realize Nao is also a stalker and a pervert. It was funny the first few times (in some cases, it still is, like the scene where they both thought how scary the other one is) but it can only remain funny for episode after episode if they intersperse it with something else. And there isn’t really much there – in addition to the lack of jokes, the entire plot for this episode consisted of more of Nao and Iroha stalking Shuusuke, followed by getting in bed with Shuusuke, followed by stalking Shuusuke, followed by more stalking of Shuusuke with brief BL interludes.

A few of the jokes were mildly amusing- I liked the Monster reference, the saleswomen’s smirk, the brief background hijack by Nao’s friends, and Shuusuke’s BL fantasies with the club president. But they were few and far between. I think the main problem is that all Shuusuke did this episode was let himself be lead around by Kondou to look at her stockings. When he actually takes some initiative the show is much more entertaining.

Additionally, Nao and Iroha’s unholy alliance makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Why are they getting along so well? Sure, they’re both crazy stalkers, but you’d think that would be a cause of conflict and not friendship… And why does Kondou not seem to be at all surprised to see two girls wrapped around Shuusuke in his bed? These characters just don’t make any sense to me…

I guess the big leading question for the next episode is what kind of affection Kondou has for Shuusuke. I have no idea, but I doubt it’s anything wholesome.

This episode was an enormous improvement over the past two. We have a new character Kondou who is into BL magazines, runs into Shuusuke in the middle of the night, exchanges magazines and blackmails him into becoming her pet. By far the best part about this episode were the reactions of Shuusuke and Nao though – Shuusuke begging Kondou not to tell his sister because she would disown him. As Nao is watching and drooling about her brother becoming Kondou’s pet. And later when she pieces together the BL magazine and then worries that he would get into that was the perfect setup, I thought she was serious, until she broke down rolling around laughing on the floor and then began drooling over what Shuusuke would look like buying a magazine.

Nao certainly drives the humor in this show, but Shuusuke is starting to get his time in the sun too. The scene with the AGE’s meeting to plan a counterattack against Mr. X was funny as well, as was Kondou’s letter she stuck on his back and Shuusuke’s unknowing counterplot. Shuusuke’s delusions were entertaining as well.

My main complaint though is still Iroha – she doesn’t really contribute much and is more of a one joke pony. I mean, we get that she’s a stalker already, can’t she do something else? And why does she suddenly seem somewhat friendly with Nao? Didn’t they hate each other before and were just acting friendly?

This is what I feared that this show would end up as. Pointless fanservice while using the same jokes over and over again which are by now getting old. It was the obligatory beach episode so hopefully it will pick up again after this… but still… what was the point?

The entire episode basically consists of Iroha and Nao abusing Shuusuke at the beach and Nao’s two friends making horrified faces at them. I’ll admit their faces were pretty funny… but that was about all that was funny.

And Shuusuke’s dreams were honestly just dumb, not funny at all. I can see that they were setting it up for him to kiss the guy, but it definitely wasn’t worth all the time they wasted on it. I really hope that next week we can have something new instead of constant fighting between Nao and Iroha.