Episode 06 – “Welcome, My Friend”

The “harem” of the show sort of completes itself in this episode, but it’s more of a love web than anything else. Youto proposes that Tsukishi seduces his fake twin brother to get him away from her sister, but he doesn’t exactly think of the repercussions of this idea. It also turns out that one of the female Track members has some feelings for Tsukishi and threatens to kill Youto, calling him semen essentially (which I thought was hilarious for some reason). Man, the more I think about it, the more I find that insult to be pure genius.

Tsukishi also reveals the nature of the cat statue living in the warehouse. It houses a cat god (nekogami) that has the power to grant wishes. Unlike the one on the hill which followed a certain equivalent exchange rule, this one seems to act without any sort of required conservation principles. This allows Youto to unknowingly teleport Azusa from Okinawa to Tsukiko’s house. That’ll be something to explain to her friends.

We’re also entreated (?) to some graphic scenes of Youto tickling Azusa, as well as an odd food fight during dinner. In other series, this would just be mindless ecchi, but it feels different in Henneko. Sure, there’s a similar mindless mindset, but the way things play out makes it feel almost satirical. The slapstick nature of the scenes pokes fun at similar instances in other anime.

Despite his title, Youto is a surprisingly dignified male and rejects Tsukishi’s inexperienced advances onto his person. Even though she doesn’t know what she’s doing, Tsukishi tells him that she’ll doing anything to win. And by winning, she means to keep Tsukiko away from everyone else, but I feel like everyone loses in that scenario. Youto also chooses to be oblivious to Tsukiko’s feelings for him, in classic harem protagonist fashion. Maybe her lack of expression is just that convincing for him.

Well, towards the end, the shit hits the fan and the metaphorical fan totally blows the roof away when Tsukishi wishes for everything to go away. Fantastic. I guess the moral of this episode (and maybe the whole series) is be careful what you wish for?

B.W.