This episode picks up with Gali taking Marika to the best restaurant in town where they order two bowls of soy sauce ramen. Marika looks around the strange restaurant and asks Gali if he’s sure this is a real restaurant? Yes, of course Gali tells her, and we get introduced to the shop’s owner, Heinrich Hertz. Gali tells her that Heinrich studied electromagnetic waves in the past, but Marika says he just looks like a thug. Heinrich uses a machine to convert electromagnetic waves into bowls of megahertz ramen noodles for Marika and Gali, and we even see the stuffed plush Pet eating some noodles.
Gali loves the taste of his ramen noodles but Marika says while the ingredients are top notch all the different ingredients just interfere with each-other. When Heinrich overhears Marika’s comments he starts to get angry and goes back to his food machine and whips up a batch of special salt ramen for them, Gali loves this dish but Marika still thinks that its average, which angers Heinrich even further. So, Heinrich turns his machine to maximum frequency and creates his masterpiece for them. This time Marika says that this dish is the best so far, all the ingredients are in harmony with each-other and balanced, but she says that Madame Curie’s pasta is probably better.
Heinrich is all bummed out over losing, and Marika tells Gali that it’s time to leave. As Marika and Gali are walking out of the shop, Heinrich asks Marika for her name. She pauses for a second, and tells him that he can call her the wandering glutton, and a few seconds later Heinrich’s food machine explodes from the strain. Then Heinrich tells us that today’s lesson is that electromagnetic waves interfere with each-other, and Marika says that Madame Curie’s pasta is the best. Well, that’s all for this episode.
Well, Marika’s strange adventures in the town of Gali Hubble continues with a trip to a noodle shop ran by Heinrich Hertz, and I felt the way that they covered the principle of electromagnetic waves and interference was pretty funny. I thought that using ramen noodle dishes and their ingredients to demonstrate harmony or discordance was pretty good and different from anything I’ve seen in along time. Also, after several episodes I thought that Pet was just a stuffed plush doll that happened to move around but we also got to see that Pet likes to eat ramen noodles on occasion.
This episode begins with Gali trying to get Marika to chose a place to visit in town, Marika tells Gali that she wants to visit a butler cafe which he miss-hears her saying she wants to visit a sheep cafe. After that misunderstanding is worked out Marika hears the sounds of a hot guy, sending her heart all aflutter.
Marika’s heart starts pounding louder and louder and she sprouts wings on her back and flies off with Gali in hot pursuit. When Marika finally stops, she sees a very attractive young man sitting on a park bench reading a book, Gali tells Marika that the young man is named Newton and he’s a little bit strange. Gali tries to stop Marika from flying to Newton, but to no avail, Gali makes the comment that for someone who dresses so strangely she sure likes pretty boys, and Marika turns around and beats Gali with her parasol for that comment. Marika goes up to Newton and introduces herself to which Newton says that once again just like gravity his manly sexiness has attracted another young girl to him (major DB moment or a Hosaka moment).
Newton goes on to tell Marika that people with allure attract other people with allure and it’s called the universal law of attraction. He says that if he’s the Earth and women are the apples in the trees then when they fall they’re attracted to him. Just as Marika’s about to ask him a question (or the question) he interrupts her and says she’s not his type, he prefers women who wear red and are round like apples.
Poor Marika, she had her loli-goth heart broken, Gali says he warned her that Newton was strange but Marika is depressed that she lost to a apple. When Marika starts pouting, Gali tells her that now her face looks like an apple, Pet hands Marika her parasol and she drives Gali into the lake just like a golf ball. Marika and Pet hop into a boat and paddle out to where Gali is and Marika tells Gali that all this disappointment has made her hungry. So they paddle off into the distance with Gali telling Marika that he’ll get her something to eat, and Marika says OK as long as it’s not apples. Well, that’s all for this episode.
Well, it was pretty funny seeing the sometimes distant and serious loli-goth Marika fawning all over a guy, while Newton was quite the attractive pretty boy he was pretty much a DB almost rising to the level of Hosaka from Minami-ke.
Also see this video for more on the BD method.
The whole learning point of this episode was to teach Marika about Newton’s law of universal gravitation, but when Newton explains this law to Marika he substitutes allure for mass in his explanation. Overall, this cute but strange anime has got me hooked on following the adventures of Marika discovering the wonders that the town of Gali Hubble holds.
This episode begins with Azusa musing about the upcoming cultural festival, and she asks the girls what last years performance was like? Before Ritsu can give her an answer, Mio covers Ritsu’s mouth, but never fear Sawako made a DVD of the show and she plays it for Azusa.
While the girls are watching the recording of last years performance Nodoka walks in and tells them that they forgot to fill out the stage usage form, just like last year. While the girls are discussing what to call their band they agree to do some practicing and think about the name later. Just before they start practicing, Yui mentions that her guitar isn’t sounding good lately, so Azusa has a look at it and notices that the strings are rusting and the its neck is bent. She asks Yui if she’s taking care of it, and Yui says of course, I sleep with it, and dress it up. Azusa says no I didn’t mean it like that, you have to perform maintenance on it, Yui asks Sawako for help but she says to take it to a music shop, so all the girls head off to the music store.
Once they reach the store, Azusa and Yui head off to the counter and ask the guy to do a maintenance on Yui’s guitar, and when he looks at her guitar he calls it a vintage model even though it’s only a year old. As he’s cutting off Yui’s old guitar strings, Yui tells Azusa that her guitar is being deflowered, and when Azusa asks Yui why she chose that model all Yui says is that it was cute, Azusa thinks to herself that she has no idea what goes on inside Yui’s mind.
Once the maintenance is finished on Yui’s guitar it looks brand new, but Yui is shocked to find out that there’s a 5000 yen fee for the service, and she has no money on her. But, the day is saved once the employees find out that Yui is a friend of Mugi, so there’s no charge. Ritsu goes to fetch Mio who’s fawning over a selection of left handed instruments and when she tries to pull Mio back to the girls, Mio says she’s had enough and calls Ritsu stupid. Later, Yui says she has to leave to join Nodoka for tea and Mio asks to tag along with her, Yui says sure, no problem, and they leave, Ritsu looks upset at being left out.
While Mio, Yui, and Nodoka are having tea and chit chatting we see that Ritsu has brought Mugi and Azusa along as she spies on the other three. Then Ritsu gets up and just slams herself next to Mio and she thanks Yui and Nodoka for caring for Mio. Mio asks Ritsu what is she doing here, and Ritsu says she was in the area and she asks Mio if she has a problem with it?
The next day, at school, Mio is eating lunch with Nodoka when Ritsu comes and pulls her away to practice. In the clubroom, Ritsu starts messing with Mio, and Mio gets upset and yells and Ritsu, then Ritsu gets upset and say sorry for interrupting her lunch with Nodoka. As the tension between Ritsu and Mio approaches a snapping point Azusa puts on a set of cat ears to try and defuse the the ticking time-bomb, thankfully Azusa’s actions calms the situation down for now.
Once they begin practicing, Ritsu’s drumming is off and when the girls stop to get Ritsu back on track Ritsu says she doesn’t feel like playing and she leaves the room, Yui wants to go after her but Mio says to leave her alone. A few days have passed, and Ritsu has stopped showing up for practice leaving the girls to wonder what they should do? Sawako points to Mio and tells her that she needs to become Ritsu’s plaything for the sake of the club and their performance, or Ritsu will become wild and drift into heavy metal forever, Yui says just like you did when you got dumped. Mio says they have to practice without Ritsu anyway, it can’t be helped, Sawako says they need a replacement just in case, but Mugi gets upset and says they can’t replace Ritsu so they should just wait for her to return.
The next day, Mio is looking in Ritsu’s homeroom when Mugi and Yui walk up and tell her that she won’t find her there because she’s been absent. Ritsu is lying in bed sick when she hears Mio’s footsteps walking up her stairs and she tells Mio to come in even before Mio announces herself, Mio asks if she’s physic but Ritsu says that she just knows her footsteps. Well, Ritsu and Mio make up with each other, and Mio stays with Ritsu till she falls asleep, then the other girls stop by to see her.
The next day, Ritsu is fully healed and recharged, and everyone is ready to practice. But, the group gets interrupted by the student counsel president, she tells them they missed the deadline for the stage usage form, so their performance is a no-go, Nodoka begs for more time saying that the group leader was out sick, and the president says she’ll grant them one extra day because of Nodoka’s request. When they sit down to name the band everyone tosses out silly names that get rejected and when Sawako gets angry she grabs the sheets and writes a name down on the sheet, and when the girls see what she’s written they find it’s quite appropriate, Sawako has named the band “afterschool teatime”. Well, as the girls get motivated for their concert a small dark cloud begins to develop, Yui gives a little sneeze at the end of the episode. That’s all for this episode.
Well, this episode was quite interesting because for the first time in this series we got a little bit of girl strife going. While I originally thought that the separation of Mio and Ritsu would have been much harder or Mio it turns out that their classroom separation has been harder on Ritsu, and she’s not dealing with it in a good way. When we got the Mio and Ritsu back story we found out that they had been together almost as long as Yui and Nodoka. So, when the girls began their second year of school Mio was placed in a different class than Mugi, Yui, and Ritsu it was a much bigger deal for Mio, she had to make new acquittances such as Nodoka or become very lonely. I really didn’t expect Ritsu to become as bitchy to Mio for hanging out with Nodoka.
The Mio/Ritsu relationship is quite a bit more complicated than the Kagami/Konata that most people compare it to, Ritsu’s actions often serve to pull Mio out of her quiet shy shell, and Konata often tried to get Kagami to losen up but Konata never got mean or bitchy with Kagami. So, this means that in affect that Konata and Kagami are more complete stand alone characters than either Mio or Ritsu, Kagami while being reserved was never so reserved that she had a hard time making new friends or felt so insecure it could be a problem like I think Mio has. Konata and Kagami were also Bffs like Ritsu and Mio, but Konata was never so insecure with her friendship with Kagami that she would worry that she would lose Kagami if she hung out with other people. I think that Mio and Ritsu just might need some long term relationship counseling or it might end poorly for the both of them.
