Now now, don’t get any perverted ideas, you ecchis!
OH HAI I UPGRADED YOUR CROSSBOWS
Sleeping Dragon has turned into Napping Loli and I am overjoyed that Koihime Musou is on a refreshing upswing after two awful episodes! Thou canst readeth more with but a clicketh below…
All right, episode 06 still managed to work in Guan Yu’s ass crack and an attempt at a sponge bath, but at least it was delightfully void of licking, fingering, and anything else that makes me want to gnaw my curtains to shreds. Not that I’m against girl-on-girl foreplay, just don’t stuff it in my campy Three Kingdoms anime, got it? For the record, I could care less that the anime was inspired by an eroge. If Fate stay/night came out as decent entertainment after putting the porking and the honey pot juices on hold, Koihime Musou can do it too.
Anyways, I’ve been waiting for Zhuge Loliang to appear ever since I glanced her in the opening credits of the very first episode. There’s just something about transforming the intellectual juggernaut of an advisor who could outscheme opponents weeks in advance into a rosy-cheeked spirited blonde girl that makes me giggle uncontrollably. Not only that, but thanks to her, Koihime Musou was finally able to tear itself away from Guan Yu’s and Zhao Yun’s racks and focus its attention on Zhang Fei for a bit, who’d been relegated to the role of cutesy foible to the older girls’s plans thus far.
I know everyone’s holding their breath for the plot summary so here goes: after taking their leave of Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu, and Red Hare the courageous puppy, the three remaining Tigresses (Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun) continue their travels through a dark, foggy forest. Zhao Yun is upset that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei stole her last nema noodles during their previous meal and is giving them the silent treatment; this turns out to be disadvantageous when the girls get separated in the fog and Guan Yu, ever the moe klutz, falls down a pit and twists her ankle. No worries! Supa-strong Zhang Fei — all 75 pounds of her — carries her to the nearest remote mountainous village.
Said village is a retreat where Zhuge Loliang lives with her sensei, whose name is, uhm, Hua Tuo? Maybe Pang Tong? Sorry, my Japanese’s at the level where I can assert that I want to have dinner tonight at a restaurant, but beyond that it’s iffy. I do know she is a doctor, since she diagnoses Guan Yu’s twisted ankle and prescribes first a poultice, then when it fails to cure such an agonizing condition, an ointment made from a rare flower found in the nearby mountains. Zhuge Loliang volunteers to retrieve the herb, but Zhang Fei, who feels outclassed by the former’s cooking skill and cuteness, decides to follow her to steal the herb for herself to earn Guan Yu’s praise…
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Why I enjoy cute, modest, and hard-working “ganbare” girls so freaking much remains a mystery for the ages. Miyafuji from Strike Witches fit that bill perfectly, at least until her attention started wandering to her female colleagues’s breasts so often; Ranka from Frontier is another shining example of the type. Perhaps this has to do with the simplicity and honesty the stereotype embodies. Perhaps the beret or the oversized flowing ribbon have something to do with it too.
Episode 06 marks the official halfway point for Koihime Musou since the show is a mere 12 episodes long. Having blogged it every week for a month and a half, I’d be hard pressed to give it a failing grade, despite all the tits and Sapphism it threw at us in a handful of spastic attention-grabbing moments. Having said that, I am still worried about the show’s direction. Is episode 06 a return to the earlier campy trend that drew me in, or the eye of the yuri storm?
Pros so far
- It’s bloody Three Kingdoms, mate!
- Character design that can only be described as stimulating, in every possible understanding of the word.
- A healthy dose of self-depreciating and genre-poking humor.
- Did not pull a Strike Witches, i.e. make me stop watching in horror after the drastic fanservice turn (though it certainly skirted close).
Cons so far
- Cao Cao the carpet-muncher. Yiiiiikes.
- It’s the anime equivalent of candy: sweet, colorful, and not nutritious at all.
Net interest in the show remains positive, even though I’ll end up filing it in the same drawer as Kyouran Kazoku Nikki and other random shows that aim to be energetic, half-brained entertainment.
But hey. Just as in real life, what God took away in cranial capacity, He made up for in other areas.
- Mr. K
[...] with the yuri element in a way that gives me ulcers to this day. For more on Koihime Musou, do read this week’s post on episode 06. If you’re a fan of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and not easily put off by girl-on-girl [...]