Sora no Manimani episode 2

I must admit I was having some doubts about Sora no Manimani. As I’ve learned from doing first impressions posts, first episodes can be very misleading (Kemeko and 07 Ghost being 2 examples of fantastic first episodes only to be later dropped in disgust). Plus this season has been a bit of a disappointment in a few cases. Umineko is just poorly done, Canaan lacks substance, Bones seemed to have forgotten to make a worthwhile story while focusing on making believable earthquakes and Endless Eight is still endless.

Sora no Manimani, on the other hand, only improved with this episode and has easily the greatest minor character of the year!

I'm afraid this is the closest this episode gets to proper fanservice

So in this episode we get introduced to the last(?) new member of the astronomy club, Hime. Her nickname, Drift, comes from a band full of people who all have giant Afro’s. Yeah, I was a bit confused by that one too. I wasn’t sure if expanding Saku’s harem would be a good idea but since he’s totally oblivious to the matter (as is Mihoshi I suppose) it works fantastically. However I think there is a person who knows whats going on.

Welcome to the Genshik..*bleargh*

Asides from being totally awesome, my reason for thinking he knows what’s going on is because it was he who felt it necessary to point out to Hime that Saku and Mihoshi aren’t going out. There’s more to this guy than the anemic attitude. He is unfailingly loyal to the club members and puts himself out of his way to help their new member. He is a true leader and the only reason he’s not in the Ouran Host Club is because they thought he would take all the women for himself.

Go on Hime, you know you want to

Asides from being absolutely hilarious, this episode improved drastically on the more serious side of things. The star-gazing scene was very well done and the music fitted the scene well too (running out of superlatives here…). One thing that looks like it will creep up again is the issue of Mihoshi’s parents. There was that little pause before she answered that showed there is more to her than just random glomping.

Now here was something I hadn’t realised. The Big Dipper is the WRONG WAY ROUND! This spurred me on to try expand my star-gazing knowledge (which is totally non-existent BTW) because I was under the belief that the star consolations must switch must flip in different parts of the globe. The Internet, however, turned out to be rather no help and only gave me names like Ursa Minor, Ursa Major and Ursaring so I had to try rely on logic, never a good idea. So obviously stars change place over the course of the year, but does that mean they flip over the year? And are they in different positions in different parts of the world on the same day? Maybe is was a bad idea to blog Manimani, I have no idea about Astronomy…

Ultra-cool special effects! *insert hyperspace joke here*

Now since I’ve taken far too many screenshots to fit in a normal post, I’m just gonna slap a bunch of them here and throw out some wise-crack comments. Feel free to chuckle away.

Chiyo-chans bad hair day

Mi-chans audition for Umineko. Was turned away because she wasn't ebul enough

Hime's audition for Umineko. Turned away because she was too ebul...wait this is Umineko, thats not possible...

Couldn't be further from the truth...

Are you sure this Polyjuice Potion will work?

The club president is definitely peeking there

And finally, an image that is funny enough without a caption