Coherence gets the window in this madcap and absolutely damned hilarious
episode. Haruto attempts to exorcise the school spirits in his neverending quest to lead
a normal life, but when the spirits all disappear on their own it’s up to him to get them
back. We’re introduced to more spirits of the school this time, these being the seven
wonders of the pool, including the amazing man-faced fish and his friends, the man-faced
sea cucumbers.
The one thing I appreciate about Haunted Junction is how, though things tend to get
wrapped up at the end of an episode, there isn’t necessarily a logical flow. It could be
that random elements were thrown together by the writers, hoping they’d hit on something
funny. Well, in this episode it works very well. Mutsumi’s Shouta complex leads to some
very funny scenes with poor little Nino, and Kazumi’s possessions (perhaps the least funny
running gag in the series) are innocuous.
The whole thing threatens to derail when we find out that a rift has opened to some
sort of demon world, threatening to destroy the world and…hey, wake up! Yeah, the
standard plot from any quarter-million shows and more boring Hentai than I could count on
all my appendages. They didn’t mention whether or not the demons were coming…for our
women!, but we can assume so. Luckily, the threat is dealt with before the end of the show,
so this won’t be a running theme throughout the series.
All in all, an above average episode with some brilliant laugh-out-loud moments (my
particular favorite was Haruto’s reaction to seeing the, ahem, exposed Hanako). You really
have to admire the show’s insistence on defusing any moment that even slightly portends
towards seriousness with something that is absolutely outre.
Rating :B-
