SHIMONETA: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist

Episode 8

Last episode SOX picked up runaway Kosuri as a tentative but enthusiastic new member, despite Tanukichi being a bit leery about it. This episode shows why he might have been justified in being leery, as Kosuri soon shows exactly how good she is – almost too good, in fact.

Kosuri shows how dedicated she is to the cause of dirty jokes by matching Ayame double-entendre-for-double-entendre when discussing plans to impact Zohsigaoka Academy, another top morality school, with the same kind of distribution of lewd materials done at Tokioka Academy. Her supremely devious streak comes out in her description to Tanukichi of how slickly she managed to infiltrate the new target's student council and learn all sorts of information about the school's layout and guard patrols; the way she effectively uses her charms to manipulate people is downright scary, to the point that Tanukichi questions how ethical it is to inflict emotional trauma on students in the name of their endeavors. (This is a curious and rather ironic statement, given how unethical SOX's own actions are, even if their methods and motives are a bit purer.) She is also sharp enough to pick up on something that Tanukichi may not yet realize himself: that as much as he adores Anna, he is actually starting to become attracted to Ayame. He further becomes leery when Kosuri indicates that she fully intends to supplant him at Blue Snow's side and reduce him to a mere plaything in the process. Where that goes in future episodes should be interesting to see.

Kosuri also quickly learns that she has some scary competition for being possessive of Tanukichi, though, as even he passing her off as his sister only barely saves her from Anna's yandere-powered wrath. And Anna is just progressively getting worse with every episode, too, as she seems utterly unable to contain or understand her lust, especially in his presence, which makes her promotion of new teams of prefects to hunt down lewd content also ironic. The final character from the closer, Oboro Tsukimigusa, enters the picture as the seemingly straight-laced new leader of the prefects, although her running gag is that some of her interpretations of what constitutes lewd objects is imaginatively warped, to the point that it backfires by giving others new ideas. Incongruously, though, she can also have her mind changed on what does and does not constitutes lewdness very easily; this falls flat as a joke and does not make much sense anyway.

More interesting from a storytelling perspective is Ayame's realization late in the episode that the way that they have been distributing erotic materials may actually be backfiring on them, too, as giving the students greater exposure to lewdness is also making it easier for them to recognize lewdness and alert the authorities. While the show continues to throw around all of the sexual references one could possibly want, the growing sense that what SOX is doing is a double-edged sword is what gives the series at least some semblance of depth. Whether or not the series can pull that off remains to be seen, as so far its attempts to play up that aspect have been rough. Still, it helps moderate a seeming trend away from the series' satirical underpinnings, one which has been making recent episodes look like the satire was just a set-up and the full-blown comedy aspect is more the real deal.

Rating: B-

SHIMONETA: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist is currently streaming on Funimation.com.