Random Curiosity

Summary:
Mizuho remains the object of admiration of all the girls, with everyone stopping to greet him on his way to school. In class, he finds himself sitting next to the same girl who had passed him yesterday afternoon when he was headed to the dorms. This girl introduces herself as Jyuujyou Shion, and the two hit it off. Upon opening his pen case, Mizuho discovers a special giraffe eraser inside, courtesy of Mariya. He ends up trading this eraser with Shion for a normal one, and Shion takes the giraffe as a symbol of having gotten to known Mizuho, promising to treasure it. One of their classmates then comes to tell Mizuho about Kana, who’s come by to give him his boxed lunch. After Mizuho tells Shion of how he forgot to bring it and the two laugh about it, Shion makes a comment about how Mizuho’s mood seems completely different from yesterday. This causes her to suspect something with Mizuho, but she doesn’t pursue it any further because class is beginning.
Afterwards, Mizuho finally gets the courage to go into the girls’ restroom and rushes into a stall. As part of being a girl, he realizes that he’ll have to sit on the toilet from now on just in case something should happen. Emerging from the stall, Mizuho sees Shion coming in, and she tells him that his zipper is open. Mizuho panics and apologizes, only then to remember that he’s in a dress, not pants. Having realized that he’s tipped Shion off on his gender, Mizuho has no choice but to follow her outside, where she asks him if he’s a man. Mizuho’s subsequent inability to give her a straight answer confirms Shion’s suspicions. When Mariya then appears, Mizuho takes the chance to hide behind her. After Mariya figures out that Shion knows, Shion tells them not to worry because she’ll keep it a secret since she doesn’t think that Mizuho is a bad person. Mariya and Mizuho are able to breath a sight of relief, though Mariya then goes running into Shion’s arms complaining about being similar to Mizuho’s servant. The two go through a whole scene of making stuff up about him, but of course they’re just teasing him.
With someone else to help him, Mizuho starts spending a lot of time with Shion. When Shion joins Mizuho, Kana, Mariya, and Yukari for lunch, the other girls in the dining room start gushing over the Shion and Mizuho pair. In any case, Mariya and Shion are able to work together to help hide Mizuho while he changes to his gym clothes. Mariya then catches Mizuho looking at the other girls changing, so she decides on a breast rubbing punishment that Shion joins in on. Mizuho’s next mistake comes when he forgets that he’s supposed to be a girl and performs some impressive basketball moves. But instead of figuring it out, all the other girls just assume that Mizuho is really good at basketball and the rumors start spreading again. Seizing upon one of these rumors, Kana later asks Mizuho if she’s going to become the Elder. As Mariya explains it, the students elect an Elder (short for Elder Sister) who is a model student. Mizuho doesn’t think he’s right for it and instead suggests that Shion would be more appropriate, but that statement causes Shion to experience a sudden shift in mood.
She, Mariya, and Mizuho go to the rooftop where Shion admits that she isn’t qualified. It seems that she is repeating a year because she had been sick and was hospitalized. To Mizuho’s surprise, Mariya reveals that Shion was actually the Elder for last year. Shion feels that she wasn’t able to live up to everyone’s expectations because she was hospitalized soon after she was chosen as Elder. When Mizuho tries to apologize because he didn’t know, Shion is happy and thankful to receive those feelings. As they return from the roof, Mariya and Mizuho are stopped by the student council president Itsukushima Takako. Mariya and Takako start arguing about Mariya’s plan to have Mizuho be a candidate for the Elder position, with Takako’s point being that Mizuho is a recent transfer student who still isn’t familiar with the school. However, Mariya knows that if there is no one who wants to be the Elder, then the student council president gets the spot. Takako decides that there’s no point in arguing, but she does say that she’ll never approve of someone who just transferred over becoming the Elder. Mariya answers back by reminding Takako not to forget that it’s the students who get to decide. Takako ends up giving Mizuho a glare before she walks off, causing him to wonder what’s going to happen.

Alright, so let’s see, there is a model student who gets elected to an Elder position by the rest of the students. Gee, that sounds kinda like the Étoile. Then we have an older character in Shion who had been the previous Elder and happens to be in Mizuho’s class because she’s repeating a year. Her character thus reminds me quite a bit of Shizuma, but the difference here is that Shion is not quite as serious a character, as shown by this scene. Incidentally, Shion is voiced by Matsuki Miyu, who happened to be the voice actress for Hikari. So there are plenty of Strawberry Panic parallels here, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. And the reason I’m using Strawberry Panic as a comparison (instead of say, Marimite) is because it’s the most recent thing in memory that’s basically become the new benchmark for all-girls’-school yuri shows. Pseudo-yuri in this case.
But all that aside, I’m still really enjoying this show for the same reasons that I stated last week. It’s a fun and entertaining show with a horribly addictive ending song, at least for me.