Poor little Seitarou isn’t being taken seriously by cell 13, with our inmates constantly screwing around with him and poking fun at him, calling him “pretty boy” and such. Hajime reassures him to try harder, be it by personal strength or physical strength, but decides to help him out with dealing with our four inmates by giving him a couple of pointers. The solution? Play to their weaknesses: women, food, anime, lack of team effort, and it all seems to work… to an extent. He, in a sense, becomes their errand boy. A new inmate is coming, and per the Warden’s orders, he is to be put in cell 13; this new inmate is also en expert jail-breaker, could it be the murder convict? Actually, no, it’s a shinobi, more commonly referred to as a ninja – Tsukumo, inmate number 99 – and our three non-Japanese convicts are marking the hell out over their new cellmate. And what was he arrested for? Trespassing. He’s also heard about Jyugo and his amazing prison-escape skills, and challenges him to a duel – who is the better jailbreaker? Like in the first episode, their escape route is filled with booby traps – changed locks, electroshock floors, and even Hajime himself, hiding behind a wall. For Tsukumo, though, he uses this chance meeting of inmates and guard to use his a couple of his ninjutsus, all to zero avail. One such ninjutsu involved spreading spikes and leaves around the vicinity… but only around himself. He’ll be transferred to cell 11 in the morning.
The next morning, Deputy Yamato barges in, on horseback, to bring our inmates some decorations for their cell – New Year’s Eve is always cause for celebration, and for our three non-Japanese convicts, it’s cause for more weebing out. As is tradition, there’s going to be a lot of cleaning to do, and in the Warden’s office, Hajime and – again, real name – Monkey are handling those duties. Cue the Warden going gaga over Hajime, going as far as catching a bead of his sweat, because bodily fluids are sexy, I guess. And to close out the episode, something’s a-brewing in the jail, to celebrate the new year – a tournament is coming, to see who’s the best of the best in the whole joint. But for now, let’s all enjoy the sounds of the new year being rung in, and may we all only hope that the real 2017 will be a LOT better than this awful year.
Nothing like a little light-hearted fun to pass the time. As far as story progression goes, nothing overly important happened in this week’s episode, it was just a self-contained day-in-the-life episode. But still a pretty fun episode, by all accounts. We got the full checklist of gags – the visual cues, Jyugo playing the straight man in their routine, the Warden continuing to hold back her earthly desires for Hajime, and more of Hajime being a hardass. To note, Tsukumo the ninja? Kind of a crappy ninja. Sure, he’s got the poses down, but everything else is very sub-par. Also, his hair reminded me of Kallen from Code Geass, with its red shade and its pointed tips. As for the Warden’s continued hunger and desire for Hajime, the whole thing with her grabbing a bead of his sweat that’s falling down? That’s a little too much, right there. That’s like Anna from Shimoneta-level territory crazy in love. One last note before I wrap things up, Funimation’s fall simul-dub schedule has been released, and two of the shows I am covering – Nanbaka and Yuri!!! On ICE – are among those getting dubbed. I will not be covering either of them, so I will have no real opinion on the dub cast, writing, directing, and so on. That is, unless J. Michael Tatum is picked to direct Yuri. Then I’ll have a field day with it.
Nanbaka is available on Crunchyroll as a weekly simulcast, Tuesdays at 3:30pm EDT. An English simulcast dub will be available from Funimation, starting November 5. Additional screencaps are available here.