夏のあらし！春夏冬中 Episode 11 Review
Summer Storm! Open for Business Ep. 11
Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chuu – 11

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Kaja sneaks into Jun’s room and shuts off her alarm so that she oversleeps. When Jun wakes up, she finds that she now has the body of an older teen girl and doesn’t know what to do. She attempts to find Kaja, hoping to avoid Hajime, when she runs into Arashi outside of Hakobune. She makes Arashi promise not to say anything and is introduced to the others as Jun’s older sister, Ryoko. Everyone assumes Ryoko is there for the surprise party they are throwing for Jun’s birthday and take the opportunity to grill Jun on Jun’s likes and dislikes. Jun learns a great deal about what her friends think of her.

Arashi teases Hajime for gushing so much over Ryoko’s beauty as it is decided that a pie-throwing event will be held for Jun since Kaja overhear Jun talking about it in her sleep. That evening, Hajime gather’s some “wild strawberries” (looking like raspberries) for a topping on Jun’s pie and when Jun has one, her body returns to normal. Arashi sends her home where Jun changes and returns to be “surprised” by this birthday party. She gets pounded with pies, which are kept from hitting the floor, and after the crusts are stacked, they all sit to eat.

Thoughts/Review:

A comedy series like this takes a great deal of liberties, but we suspend our disbelief just the same (the fact that Jun transformed into a teenaged body for starters). However, two glaring things screamed at me during this episode. First, why didn’t anyone mention Jun’s real older sister? Kaja has been living with Jun’s family and seemingly would have questioned why no mention of this “Ryoko-san.” Also, wouldn’t she have asked if Jun’s real older sister would be coming to the surprise party if “Ryoko-san” was going to be?

Second was the absence of Ryoko at the end of the day. After helping everyone set up for Jun’s party that she was apparently going to attend, why wouldn’t anyone question her whereabouts? It shouldn’t, but these kinds of things just bother me.
Still, on the whole I can’t say the episode was bad. SHAFT went out of their way to make Jun’s older teen body look pretty good. They also took the opportunity for a little fanservice. *_* It was amusing having the staff be so open about Jun when they didn’t know “Ryoko” was in fact Jun (well, Arashi knew but she wasn’t talking). The writers (whether Kobayashi-sensei or the anime staff) are now clearly establishing a Jun-Hajime pairing in the future after Arashi and the other ghosts are gone. Between Hajime’s gushing over “Ryoko’s” beauty and Jun’s blushing at it all (in between moments of irritation with Hajime), I couldn’t help but think that they’d end up together.

Why would anyone want pies thrown at them for their birthday? That was a bizarre wish to be sure. I wouldn’t want to eat those pies either afterward but I guess in Japan, they are taking the “waste not, want not” approach. ^_^;;;

So a pretty fun episode despite some plot holes and that never ending tedious “I read a book” short at the end.