Spring 2011 Anime

[A Black Falcon]

Softenni 10 - Worst episode of the series yet? The first part of this series is centered around a tasteless joke, and then the next part is moronic and insulting. Great. Too bad, this show had been pretty funny for a while.

For some details, the first part introduces a new girl who joins the team. She can see ghosts. Two years ago, her sister died on the way to a soft tennis match when she was hit by a car; her sister here was watching at the time. Um, that's by far the most serious thing mentioned in this show so far. That's not the bad part, though... that came next, when she said, apparently seriously, that at the time she thought that the tennis ball her sister was carrying would protect her from the oncoming truck, only to realize a moment later that it was too small, so her sister was killed.

WHAT? Who in the world thought that that was an appropriate joke to make... that's just wrong.

So, then they get her to join the team. Oh, the search for new members (they want a 6th so they can have three doubles pairs) was kind of amusing, they wear quite gaudy costumes and then run around chasing down everyone they can think of. The scene got old by the end of it, though. This just isn't a good episode. The characters then learn that the new girl's sister's ghost hasn't passed on and instead is in this girl's body, and occasionally possesses it. Her sister is very good at soft tennis and is very competitive, making her quite unlike the shy girl she normally is; when possessed her hair and teeth turn spiky. Yeah, kind of stupid but maybe amusing.

Then, the team learns that they have to pass their tests or they can't participate in matches, right after we are reminded that two of them are idiots who hate studying -- our MC got a 15 on her most recent test for instance, and one of the other girls gives a speech about how she only goes to school for the clubs and hates classes and studying. Um, great priorities there. But because they have to pass, the team decides to hold a study session... at the coach's apartment. Um, yeah.

Once there, the idiocy kicks into full gear again as, as soon as they see that the place is a mess, the girls all decide to clean it up for him. Most of the rest of the episode is taken up with this stupid and lame scene. As if people would actually do that? Yeah right. And it's not very funny either.

Then, they finally get around to studying. Yeah, trying to cram all of it the night before... good luck there. This is the best part of the episode, but it's still not above average. Somehow the two in trouble manage to pass... the powers of fiction helped them perhaps? :)

So yeah, overall, probably the worst episode of the series yet.