life line by line

The anime spawned from another great anime, Genshiken. Kujibiki Unbalance, which I think is currently being spawned into an three part OVA series, follows the life of Chihiro Enomoto as he enters his first HS years and the weird mis-adventures he has following the school’s traditions. From what I could figure out, seems like the student council is elected not by popular vote but by various contests that pits students of groups of four against one another to win. And what’s worse is it’s mandatory, so it makes for one heck of an orientation day as an freshman if anything else. Strange enough? Add in an unique cast of characters, weird challenges, aliens, and the military and one is in for one heck of a ride as Kujibki Unbalance is something definitely different from the norm.

The story opens up, oddly enough, with an young girl walking through a mostly bare forest. Dragging along an stuffed teddy bear, we have no clue where she is heading to but can tell she’s very sad. Just when you think nothing is about to happen, the young girl reaches her destination: an young boy whose features we cannot make out. She suddenly breaks down, and starts to run towards the mysterious boy….

Cue OP that makes absolutely no sense but is way cute nonetheless. Now the scene changes to an usual one in most high school comedy/drama as the main character Chihiro is getting ready for another day of school. Nothing too different from the norm, including the hungover-sounding-lingerie-wearing older sister Shinobu Enomoto as she falls (literally) down the stairs as Chihiro is about to leave. Only strange thing is the camera shot of some strange looking mushrooms that actually become important later down the episode.

Chihiro meets up with, I assume, long time friend Mugio Rokuhara as he just finishes up reading that day’s horoscopes. Greeting Chihiro with “Happy Fortune,” the two go on their merry way to school (apparently based on the horoscope Mugio read, today is Chihiro’s lucky day. HINT HINT: foreshadowing LOL). Anyway, all the first years are gathered up for announcements and lo-and-beholdm Chihiro’s older sister is a teacher too! An very cute one at that (glasses!), whom seem to have a personality switch as her voice is very high pitched compared to the “deep” drunkard one from the morning. She introduces the Chairman and steps off the stage… only to do a repeat performance of this morning (tuck and roll!). Eventually the Chairman makes her way up, and one notices some distinct features: A) looks hot XD B) has this weird big helmet thingie, that actually works for her C) insanely long blond hair… just like the little girl in the beginning (HINT HINT). I’m not sure what she actually says, but the only thing I could think of the whole time during her scene was her going “VICTORY!” and getting the crowd going. Dunno… it’s random but that was just my impression. After her little speech, everyone is dismissed and head to their homerooms.

Homeroom there is very little fanfare, other than that Mugio and Chihiro are in the same class and that their HR teacher already memorized everyone’s names. The two head off to the courtyard(?), where they remark about their impressions about the school and whatnot. Just looking at the scene, one cannot help but think potential yaoi moment…. or maybe it’s just me. Before any yaoi action could happen, Chihiro *just happened* to remember he needed to look up what that weird mushroom is that we saw earlier in the episode. Leaving an very disappointed Mugio, Chihiro heads off to the school’s HUGE library. How he ever found that book on mushrooms is beyond me, but anyway, as he’s trying to figure out what mushroom is what a girl appears out of nowhere spouting out various information about mushrooms. The new girl, Tokino Akiyama, apparently has an thing for mushrooms and knows everything about them. Stuff happens, very sex-innuendo like and at the end Chihiro gets a budding crush on Tokino.

Scene changes to everyone back in the auditorium, drawing numbers out of this huge arse metal case. Kasumi Kisaragi, girl with long black hair and probably an swordwoman, explains what is going on but I didn’t get all of it. From what I can figure, the school election system is a tad different from most schools as they have 4-on-4 battles/contests to determine who the next group of student elects will be. Totally random, but mandatory and odds are will pit friend and foe alike. Chihiro, in typical geeky-boy-in-love-struck fashion, thinks back to his encounter with Tokino and almost blanks when his turn to get an number comes. Interesting scene where the Chairwoman blushes as he passes by (of course Chihiro never notices). Some back and forth small talk between Lisa Hanby (blond girl with freckles), the Chairwoman, and Kasumi that I didn’t get (once again ^_^; ). Switching back to Chihiro, we find out he’s in group 27 while Mugio is in 508 but before they talk anymore everyone is called to go to their assigned groups.

Chihiro races to find the right room, and eventually does… only to be head-smashed by someone else. And what do you know, it’s Tokino! Out of nowhere she suddenly gets in Chihiro’s personal space and just when we think he’ll get some loving action we find out she was just checking to make sure the mushroom book she dropped was okay. HA! Serves Chihiro right to think he was going to get some so early! Anyway, the door to the room the two were about to go into opens up and they meet another girl… actually, two. There they all figure out they’re on the same team and introduce themselves. The tomboyish looking green haired girl is Izumi Tachibana while the pink haired scraf wearing one is Komaki Asagiri. There’s also a part where the number thingie they got determined who’s who (i.e. President, Vice-President, etc) and as much as I can figure follows: Tokino is the “leader,” Izumi is VP, Komaki I’m not sure, and the same with Chihiro though I have a feeling he’ll be doing the odd jobs. Before any more bonding or an possible foursome can happen, the challenging team arrives. Leading the pack is Renko Kamishakujii, an typical Iinchou type character except for two things: A) she totally hates Tokino for some reason B) alpha male/female of her group (aka bossy like no tomorrow). There’s some yelling and shouting via Renko at Tokino, whom doesn’t seem to be bothered (nor understand why Renko hates her) before the battle starts (interesting that the current student council group of Lisa, Kasumi, and the Chairwoman watches over their battle).

The battle? Iron chef style with an time limit and an main ingredient. The main ingredient? MUSHROOMS. Loads and loads of various types of mushrooms. The Iron Chef battle starts and the two teams are going at it like crazy! Renko’s team has one guy using a laptop to determine which mushrooms are the best while Chihiro’s team has Mushroom-Crazed Tokino to lead them. The dishes being created vary from the two teams: Renko’s “special ability” to speed read and memorize everything (for a limited time) allows her team to cook up some fancy dishes while Chihiro’s team stick to the basis simple stuff. All seems to go well through the half-way point… until Chihiro accidentially feeds Tokino an mushroom (in a too way perverted view/angle)! In a blink of an eye, she eats up the rest of the dishes they made, much to everyone else’s charging. Komaki informs Chihiro something about Tokino and mushrooms, but it’s still after the fact. Renko is laughing her head off at her team’s automatic win… until Chihiro and the rest realize they only have one option left: use that weird brain-looking mushroom from before! Via Tokino we find out it’s edible… if made right else can be very poisonous! Left with no choice, Komaki and Chihiro get started with only less than 30 mins left. Renko will not have none of this, and gets the two guys on her team to stop them at all cost! In comes Izumi, who was basically sitting in the background doing nothing before, providing physical defense and offense via mahjong tiles while the others work on their dish. Small funny battle scene of flying mahjong tiles and various kitchen utensils in the background while the food is being made. BTW Izumi totally rocked as she finally got her screentime action! Anyway, time comes to an end and the judging starts. Renko’s team has like five or so different dishes while Chihiro’s team stuck it out with only one dish….

The Chairwoman judges Renko’s team’s food first. Then judges Chihiro’s team… well, about to until Kasumi stops her asking the team if it’s actually save for the Chairwoman to eat their dish. Before anything else happens, the Chairwoman samples their food anyway…. and the final results? Tokino’s team wins! Renko, of course, is totally pissed and ask for an explanation. They say something but really didn’t get it other than it was Renko’s team’s lost either way. Just as Lisa, Kasumi, and the Chairwoman leave and pass Chihiro the Chairwoman mutters “thanks for the food” (argh, totally forgot what the japanese word/spelling was again). Somehow, this surprises Chihiro and makes him chase after her. Catching up to her, he realizes and ask if she’s actually Ritsuko Kubel Kettenkrad, his old childhood friend. She confirms it, stating she has been back for a few years but reasoned she didn’t need to contact him or anything. Ritsuko leaves to catch up to the other two leaving Chihiro shocked, confused, and a little hurt….

… flashback to the young girl and boy we saw at the beginning of the episode. The girl ask the boy if she stops crying, woule he take her as his bride. The young boy, in typical japanese anime childhood friends style, agrees while conforming the girl. We see that the young boy is Chihiro and obviously, the young girl is none other than Ritsuko.

And that my friends, ends the episode. Pretty much most of the important parts were already shown in various episodes of Genshiken but it was still very enjoyable to watch nonetheless. Kujibiki Unbalance is not your average high school love-comedy-drama series, as the unqiue election system brings about something new and refreshing to the genre. The typical, “I’ll be your bride in the future” childhood promise was bound to be presented but it’s intriguing how the promise affects the two later on. Chihiro still seems like your typical “loser” geeky male protagonist but it’s Ritsuko that’s totally different from the norm. From the looks of the episode, and the various discussions from Genshiken, Ritsuko took her promise to the extreme and became an emotionally sterile “cold” young woman in her attempts to stop crying all together. For some reason, I found that pretty cool. Maybe because that kind of change we don’t see much when one is involved with that blasted childhood marriage promise, or simply because Saeko Chiba rocks when she uses her voice in the deeper tones (i.e. Natsuki from Mai-HiME).

While on the topic of seiyuus, Kujibiki Unbalance delivers with such talents as Ayako Kawasumi (uses Chikane Himemiya type voice as Kasumi Kisaragi), Saeko Chiba (mentioned above), Yukari Tamura (usual voice as Komaki Asagiri), Ikue Ohtani (she made the episode as Renko Kamishakujii), Kana Ueda (as Lisa Hanby, not too many lines but still happy she’s in this anime), and Kenichi Suzumura (Shinn from GSD and Shiki from Tsukihime voicing Mugio Rokuhara). With such a great vocal cast, I seriously doubt this series will do much wrong.

The visuals…. they’re very clean and very cute to look at. Not exactly the most detailed or human looking (Tokino has some wide-ass hips IMO), but sort of has this SD quality to them. All the designs are pretty distinct, so no way one will confuse an character for another. Probably my favorite character designs has to go hands down to Ritsuko (holy SH*T! That’s a big helmet) and Izumi (works that tomboyish thing well)! Honorable mention to Shinobu Enomoto, Chihiro’s older sister with an split personality (I think). Uber cute with the glasses and sexy without

I doubt know how well Kujibiki Unbalance will do, but I think it’ll get a decent following. First you got the fans of Genshiken who will be dying to see more of the anime the cast always talk about. Second, with such all-star seiyuus voicing some the characters there’ll bound to be people who’ll want to watch. Third, the unique plot that’s way different from the usual high school setting anime should peak a fews interest. Finally, with such cute character designs I have faith it’ll draw in some males no problem. I know I’m one of ‘em