PaniPoni Dash! - 22: The Day Long Glory of Kinka's Bloom

Title:PaniPoni Dash!
Episode:22: The Day Long Glory of Kinka's Bloom
Synopsis
Himeko has lost something very precious to her, and if she doesn't find it something very bad is liable to happen. "Surprise Attack! The Homeroom Next Door" is a TV variety show segment which pays unexpected visits to schools to report on the quality of education in Japan. The crew shows up at the Peach Moon Academy, but the female reporter is so spooked by Jijii-sensei that they call off filming for the day. They will be back tommorrow, and the teachers agree that they must do something to make the school seem more interesting. For some reason, Becky seems unhappy at the idea of appearing on TV whereas the girls of her class are thrilled and analyse their chances of becoming overnight celebrities. Unfortunately, Rei cannot help concluding that "these kinds of messed-up personalities are not suitable for appearance on a television program". The girls conclude that Becky represents their best chance of making a good impression, but the next day she is nowhere to be found. They finally track her down, and each one does her best to persuade Becky to appear on TV, without much success. Media, it turns out, knows why Becky is reluctant to draw attention to herself...
Comments
This episode goes back to the original OP sequence, but with the theme song definitely sung by a different VA. After reading lines like "My scorching hot breath can turn tens of thousands of people to ash in the blink of an eye" I can only exclaim 'Oh God, this show is so whacked!!' I know I've said this countless times before, but part of the charm of PPD is that even if you don't get the Japanese cultural references, they are just so weird that you can't help laughing anyhow. It's hard to draw rational conclusions or make reasonable comparisons when dealing with such a far-out show, so how about I explain my choices of images below?

First (top) row: Himeko's daydream seems to be based on a dating-sim videogame. According to the detailed notes, her boyfriend is based on "Anthony" from "Candy Candy".

Second row left: gotta show the TV reporter at least once. She could have been a bit more tactful regarding Jijii-sensei; intentionally or not, he got her back, though. Right: a good deal of this episode is presented as a 3D videogame. I read that the outfit that produced PPD does a lot of video game work and took some liberties to reflect this--I'm certainly not complaining.

Third row left: As usual, characters occasionally go "chibi". Right: Why has Neko Kami turned gold, and why does he have a fast-food meal on his head?

Fourth row left: Mesousa deserves a frame. After he makes this comment Ichijou presents him with a dubious pet as a new "friend". Right: I thought I ought to show each of the usual girls at least once, and this frame gets the job done nicely.

Fifth row left: Rei's look was priceless and had to be included. Right: while Igarashi-sensei was showing off in front of the camera, her students were a bit more candid.

Sixth row left: I like the diagonal tilting of this frame. Right: If I remember correctly, the notes said this scene was a homage/parody of "The Soultaker".

Seventh row left: Gotta show Becky behaving in the bad mood she was in for most of the episode. Right: An interesting point of view, after Miyako tries to cheer becky up with a couple (bad) jokes.

And, of course, the usual Tarot (or whatever) cards. I attach these at the lower right corner so that they won't be overlapped by the "Most Reviewed" list, but this time around that wasn't a problem. There weren't all that many eyecatch frames in this particular episode. Nevertheless, I couldn't bring myself to trim the images I'd saved down to my target of twelve (plus the cards) and allowed myself fourteen instead. Hope you enjoy!

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