Natsu no Arashi! – 02 (And So It Begins)
夏のあらし！ Episode 02
(Summer Storm)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

It is a stormy day when a girl named ARASHIYAMA Sayoko (Arashi) comes to a cafe to ask for a job. The “master” of the place isn’t hiring but ends up hiring the girl anyway. Someday later, the boy Hajime arrives at the cafe and realizing this may be a pricey joint, he starts to leave. When Arashi greets him, Hajime changes his mind and has an iced coffee. At the bar, Hajime sees another boy named Jun who’s also a 1st-year junior high school student.

While Arashi is in the back, a large muscle-bound private detective arrives, having been tasked with taking Arashi back to her family. The detective shuts Master up by revealing he knows her. When Arashi comes out, the detective is going to take her but Hajime does a “Jump Kick” and knocks the man down. When the detective pulls a wooden sword to teach Hajime a lesson, he’s stopped by Arashi and decides to give up for the day.

Arashi thanks Hajime for helping her and when they are about to shake hands, there is a literal discharge of energy, telling Arashi that they are connected. She grabs Hajime and races outside. Running down the country lane, Hajime suddenly finds they are at the same place, yet not. He passes out and when he comes to, Arashi offers to escort him to his grandfather’s house. Along the way there, Hajime is amazed when Arashi literally flies up to rescue a cat and reveals that she is a ghost. Further, she’s decided that she’s going to live with Hajime and his grandfather agrees.

The the detective on her case, Master decides to fire Arashi. Hajime objects to this and agrees to a game of dice against Master. After Master flips the cup down on the counter, Hajime sees a pair of dice outside and thinks they’ve come out. So he makes his wager and loses as Master had planted those dice while the real ones remained inside. After losing his clothing, Hajime gives up and he and Arashi leave. Later, Master leaves, having conned Jun into becoming an employee of the store. The detective comes in and is told by Jun that Master has gone. The detective scoffs at the idea of this con woman being the true master of the place.

Meanwhile, Master has come upon Arashi and Hajime and overhears Arashi mention a treasure at the cafe. So when the detective shows up, she ends up challenging him to a race back to the cafe. The detective agrees but ends up getting pulled over by a motorcycle cop while Master, Hajime, and Arashi return to the cafe at normal speed. The detective had been set up to fall. Unfortunately for Master, the “treasure” turned out to be a box of old top toys, which had belonged to a boy Arashi knew when she was alive. As such, the box is buried again and Master weeps at not having a real treasure.

Thoughts/Review:

Well this time we get a proper introduction to Master, Arashi, Hajime, Jun, and the detective. I didn’t expect Arashi to turn out to be a ghost but if she is, then I guess that Kaja (pronounced “Kaya” as I’m told she’s a German girl which is why her name is not spelled as it sounds) must be as well, whenever she shows up. That still leaves the questions of what business Arashi has for her to remain on Earth and how she acquired her powers. I’m guessing this will all come to light over time. Then again, maybe not since I think I read that the manga is still ongoing in Japan.

As seen with the first episode, Hajime is the fun character and I expect we’ll have a few laughs thanks to him. His “Jump Kick” attack cracked me up, less for the attack but more for the result on the detective. Interesting how the Japanese used the actual English words “jump kick” for the attack name. Maybe they think using English is cool in such a situation, much as there are westerners who think that leaving the Japanese attack names untranslated is cool ^_^

Another fun character is Master. I can’t help but wonder if she ends up conning most of her employees to work for her. *lol* I like how this detective seems to know her well so that could provide for more amusement, especially if we get more events like those in the first episode or even her tricking him right into a traffic ticket. *lol*

There is a cameo of Tenma and Harima from School Rumble, which had been previously pointed out to me. Seeing them as I watched the anime cracked me up just the same. ^_^

Speaking of parodies, too back the motorcycle cop couldn’t have been a parody of NAKAJIMA Ken from You’re Under Arrest. Oh well.

So a fun episode to be sure. I look forward to seeing more.