Funny but bland. This is an atypical episode of DLMAD in that Techno isn’t a disruptive and controlling S.O.B. Or at least he doesn’t seem to be…
Techno hasn’t come to school for three days, and despite herself Hitomi is getting worried about him. But finally she decides to enjoy her freedom and go out with her friends. Lickety-split, Techno shows up, grabs her bag, and makes her walk home with him. On the way home he protects the complaining Hitomi against thugs and construction sites and dung beetles, all the while being…nice. Of course, this can’t last, and Techno reveals to Daisy he doesn’t have long to live.
After Hitomi’s truculence with Techno in the previous episode (in the form of slapping the jerk!) we would expect this next episode to play off that comeuppance, but the three-day disappearance and sudden socialization of Techno throw a wrench in that. So what we get here is an episode of Techno being nice and Hitomi not trusting it. It’s pretty one-note and dull, and seems to go on for awhile.
Sometimes I think Don’t Leave Me Alone, Daisy would have been perfect if told in a Urusei Yatsura format – roughly ten minutes per story, rather than full half-hours for each plot. We get the point pretty quick that there’s something weird with Techno, and the resolution takes WAY too long.
The best parts of this episode, I guess, were the throwaway gags. A comment about the equipment that Techno used on Hitomi in the previous episode gives her friends the impression that she is very “experienced,” and Sayori’s long explanations (to herself, apparently) of her techniques for killing Techno are pretty funny. I liked that Hitomi wasn’t surprised by the eventual discovery that the nice (spoiler) Techno was a robot. Powers of deductive reasoning aren’t that common in characters in comedies. But in the final estimation, the best that can be said for this episode is that it was about half-an-hour long.
Rating :C+
