夏のあらし！春夏冬中 Episode 03 Review
Summer Storm! Open for Business Ep. 03
Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chuu – 03

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Murata is on a stakeout and orders a ham and cheese sandwich from The Ark. Yayoi and Kanako misunderstand and Yayoi delivers a Rubik’s Cube instead. Murata is annoyed as he returns to The Ark, stating that providing energy to keep both Yayoi and Kanako alive is really taking it out of him. So, the group attempts to find a partner for Yayoi as Kanako has bonded with Murata. When Takeshi arrives, he appears to be the perfect candidate, so much so that Master decides to hit on him. As Yayoi talks to him, she gets flustered and her comrades aren’t helping. Going outside, Takeshi’s St. Bernard bounds toward her and to everyone’s amazement, bonds with Yayoi, allowing her to time travel and have a separate energy source from Kanako.

During a conversation about apples, salt, and Hajime’s being a science otaku, Arashi realizes she doesn’t remember this big experience of their first meeting that Hajime is so proud of. After consulting with the girls, Arashi decides to use the sleeping Hajime to take a trip back in time to when she first met Hajime. The Hajime from the past is frustrated about being haunted and determined to settle things scientifically, eventually determining that a black hole caused him to see the past and that he had to fall into a pit to make it seem that Arashi leapt 10-meters in the air. However, seeing future-Arashi makes him panic and flee which frustrates Arashi. In the end, Arashi gets him to calm down and Hajime decides that no matter what Arashi is, he accepts her and then confesses his love to her. This is all observed by their co-workers who also decided to time-trip into the past to see what this “big event” of Hajime’s was.

Thoughts/Review:

Meh. Bad old jokes from the first series don’t work any better here, even when modified such as Yayaoi’s and Kanako’s book story modified for preparing a ham and cheese sandwich. It wasn’t funnier even the salt guy getting cut off in mid sentence or reacted every time the word “salt” was said.

Despite seeing it come a mile away, I still laughed when Yayoi was found to be compatible with the St. Bernard. It was the setup and the ultimate payoff that made that laugh possible in my opinion.

Another “I saw that coming” moment was Master deciding to hit on Takeshi when everyone was trying to set Yayoi up with him. That still made me chuckle.

The final predictable moment was everyone else take a trip in time to see what had Hajime so excited about his first meeting with Arashi. Again though, I found it to be funny.

Plus one point for the E.T. parody. *lol* Completely unexpected and it brought a smile to my face.

Up until now, Hajime had always appeared to accept the fact that Arashi is a ghost. Now, this episode seems to have Hajime not truly believe he travels in time nor truly believe that Arashi is a ghost. This feels rather like a retcon to establish some sad ending to the anime (despite the fact that the manga is still ongoing). That aside, it was still funny seeing Hajime attempt to rationally explain the things he saw. I was also amused that Arashi felt compelled to address Hajime as “Yasaka-dono” to try to get his attention rather than her traditional “Hajime-chan.”

In the end, a rather enjoyable episode even if I’m not so keen on Hajime now experiencing all these things and not accepting that he’s traveling in time nor that Arashi is a ghost.