Impression:

I guess that a hot springs trip was inevitable. We will probably get your standard theme episodes because this is a romance and they are trying to let the spirits enjoy life in Japan. The beach episode will hit us eventually. Not a lot happened in this episode. It was just everyone trying to get to the damn hot springs. Shidou and friends were on their way, but their van was kind of destroyed. The van had Reine and Touka in the front, Yoshino in the middle with some bags, and Shidou in the back. Shidou ends up patting Yoshino on the head and answering a bunch of her questions, while Touka is stuck in the front. Touka proceeded to stomp so hard that she busted through the floor of the van and collapsed the ground underneath them. What could make things worse? The AST decided to go to the same hot springs because their hot spring tour was cancelled and they only had time to hit up one place. Origami was against it until she found out Shidou was going and she decided to take pictures of him. Kotori’s group couldn’t let them mess with the trip, so they took all of those fake date buildings and used them as weapons. I guess that there are missiles everywhere. It got a little too sexual at times. The AST chicks were in their gear and there were some odd moments with noodle bondage. It was just more unnecessary than anything else. Shidou’s group ended up at a completely different hot spring because that damn Yoshinon puppet kept getting messed up. We ended up with a hot spring episode that lacked all of the antics that come with your average hot spring episode. Like I said, not a lot happened.

Something else that we don’t really have in America.

Current Opinion of the Show:

Forget what I said before because this is the kind of episode that kills your pacing. Unlike the usual hot spring episode that brings romantic development with it, we realy got nothing out of this episode. We found out that Touka throws tantrums, Yoshino cries when she loses Yoshinon, and the AST commander loves hot springs. The last thing was the only new bit of information and it really doesn’t matter in the long run. At least the introduction episodes gave us something. I hate it when I watch something and the first thing that comes to my mind when I am done is disappointment. We are already half way through this series as it stands and I really don’t know what they plan on doing. The opening tells us that the influx of new spirits is not done yet and that really bothers me. I don’t know what they plan on doing with the actual story in the second half.With the way that things are going, at least two of the final six episodes will be spent on that new girl. If you can assume that one of the four remaining episodes will flop like this one, then it gets scary. How much plot progression can occur in three episodes? I hate to repeat myself, not really, but I can’t stand it when a series treats its entire first season like an introduction. I almost hope that they don’t get a second season to teach them a lesson. Give us some real plot dammit. This series has some good potential as a romantic comedy, but they are blowing it. The story is really going nowhere fast and they are neglecting Origami when it comes to her interacting directly with Shidou. Oh well, I guess I can look forward to some romantic development, if that will ever really come.