Summary – Kaoru receives a love letter from a girl – yet again, but despite Kaoru’s ojisan properties as a character, she wants to be confessed to by guys. In comparison, Shiho and Aoi get tons and tons of love letters everyday, so much so that their lockers are always full and they can’t even put their shoes in!
Then Shiho and Aoi go out on dates separately with 2 boys and Kaoru gets extremely jealous. Meanwhile, the chief of the bureau shows deep distrust toward the boys that Shiho and Aoi are dating, and the chief comes up with a plots to stop the date. He even sends out his personal troops and tries to stop the dates by force. Kaoru joins in the effort in the name of friendship and chaos ensues…
Thoughts – Zettai Karen Children is a show that’s obviously episodic, long, and seemingly aimed toward only kids. It has its own anime merit in that the characters are clearly define, often too clearly and simple, and the pace of the story isn’t too slow or too fast. No one is going to get confused watching this show.
For this episode, a basic theme is explored: jealousy. As we can see, in the end everything turns out all right for Kaoru and she’s even one-up over her friends in having a relationship with their mentor (loli-cons, don’t go there). Much like Sailor Moon, none of the girls except the main girl ever gets anywhere in love. Having an Otaku favorite (or hate-fest) seiyuu however, changes my perspective a little.
Kaoru is more closer to an average male Otaku except she’s not into Moe. She has similar taste as male Otaku and also, to Konata of Lucky Star. However, as we know, Kaoru and Konata are impossible character types for girls in real life or in other fictional works. These two characters were specifically created for Otaku tastes. In fact, one may think them as average Otaku.
The average Otaku faces a problem far more severely than other human beings and that problem is loneliness. The Otaku can often feel like, if not already is, on the edge of the society (I should know). It’s rather difficult for them to find friends and in some cases, keep them.
In this episode, Kaoru, being similar to an Otaku, is losing her friends to something that Otaku often have great trouble finding – love from the opposite sex. As someone with a possibly very small friend circle, she desperately tries to prevent the love of her friends and their dates from budding, in order to maintain her own friendship with them. As the end, however, her friends do not fall in love after all, and the 3 is back together. I believe that’s comforting for its truly intended audience – the average Otaku men. Because it’s easier for Otaku men to feel lonely and many Otaku men often stays in their fortress of solitude or the bat cave (again, I should know). It’s also harder for men, especially Otaku men, to find friends. As they watch this episode, and finding the trio’s back together and being closer than ever, the fear of the average Otaku of being left behind by friends is subsided.
Oh and, in real life? Men and women often do choose their new found love interest over their friends/mates/buddies/whatever. After all, screw friendship when you can get some, right?
Except in this case, thank God these are kids and we don’t have to worry about they killing each other out of jealousy.
The world is a bleak place indeed. XD
