Meganebu Episode 9
What They Say:
Souma Akira is a glasses-wearing high school student at the rural Himalaya Third Technical School. He loves glasses more than anyone and is proud to wear his own. Along with Hachimine Takuma, Minabe Yukiya, Kamatani Mitsuki, and Kimata Hayato – four other boys with glasses who have joined (or, perhaps, were forced to join) the club born of Akira’s greatest ambition – the members of “The Glasses Club” share sweat, laughter, tears, and the occasional explosion(!) as they pour their undying passion into their eye-wear.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
When you look at the nature of the cast here, it’s not a surprise that some of them are going to be a bit obsessive about some things. Such is the case with a character like Mitsuki who has a real case of serious attention when it comes to the club president as he’s got numerous pictures of him and even has them numbered in his head in order to enjoy them all. Mitsuki and Hayato are both coping differently with their elder club members going off to Okinawa on a school trip as Hayato is looking to have a lot of fun while Mitsuki is just lamenting the loss of his friend(s). The two aren’t exactly ideally suited to spend time together in a way with their different natures, but often that’s where the fun comes in.
Watching Akira along with Takuma and Yukiya off in Okinawa does have its moments early on, especially as they place glasses on various things for photo opportunities that are certainly comical. Being in Okinawa also allows for some shirtless moments for the young men, which will delight many to be sure, especially since their goal is to do a sea walk with specialty suits that allows them to wear their glasses underwater and experience the ocean in a great way. It’s one of those utterly beautiful moments that adds in the silliness of the glasses in a good way that actually works. Even if the glasses is a motivator, it still gets them to do something fun that you should do on a trip like that. And it also of course allows for the boys to strut with just swimsuits on and that always makes an impression on a segment of the audience here.
The show does a decent balance between the two groups since we get the Okinawa boys out of range from cell service for awhile and that means Mitsuki and Hayato have to get by without them. And those three on the school trip end up stranded on an island for awhile which just makes their situation comically worse. Spending time with Mitsuki and Hayato is actually more fun than I expected since it does touch upon the fact that their seniors are going to be leaving them at some point sooner rather than later and because there’s such a loving respect and admiration for them, neither of them are going to handle it well, though for different reasons. So giving everyone some time apart lets that surface nicely and to be put to the side towards the end since everyone does come back from the trip and it’s business as usual.
In Summary:
Meganebu certainly hasn’t done much for me lately with what it’s doing with the characters, though it’s tried to change things up with the introduction of the student council. With this episode, we get two different arcs going on that separates the cast for a bit and that definitely helps. Giving us some time with the younger members shows some of their struggles while with the older boys we get to see them just having fun and silliness happening while out and out in Okinawa. The show gives us some decent character time here and it worked better than I expected, but it’s also tamer in a lot of ways as it goes through a rather predictable story concept. And it’s not quite as visually standout as past episodes have been, though it has its moments.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.