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Wagnaria!!3
Episode 9

by Paul Jensen,

How would you rate episode 9 of
Wagnaria!!3 ?
Community score: 4.2

One of the few areas where Wagnaria!!3 has backed off compared to previous seasons is in its use of slapstick humor. Early episodes of the series featured Takanashi getting injured on a regular basis, and Satou bringing his wrath down upon Souma whenever the mood struck. It isn't the most complex or nuanced form of comedy, but the show was pretty good at it. Perhaps that's why I felt a brief rush of nostalgia when Inami finally got around to punching someone's lights out this week.

With love still hanging heavily in the air at the restaurant, Yamada decides to confront Otoo about the official rule against relationships between employees. The good news is that he already knows what's going on and doesn't have a problem with it, but the bad news is that apparently no one ever notices poor Otoo when he's standing right next to them. The masochistic Minegishi pays another visit to the restaurant to pester Takanashi, but arrives on the receiving end of a maximum strength punch from Inami. While the injury ultimately benefits everyone involved, there's still some ominous news to deliver: Takanashi's mother is coming home, a fact that appears to fill him with dread.

The subtleties of who does and who doesn't know about the various budding relationships at the restaurant make for some solid comedy here. Watching Taneshima miss the signs with Satou and Todoroki is good fun, and Yamada's indignation over the rule against office relationships comes to an amusingly abrupt halt when Otoo casually admits that he already knows everything. Now that they've finally been reunited, Otoo and his wife are more entertaining than either of them was alone. Otoo's efforts at keeping his wife from getting lost are worth a laugh simply because no one is surprised at how drastic they are, and we also get some decent sight gags out of the unintentionally stealthy couple. The new material allows the show to freshen its comedy up, and keeps it from returning to the same routines too often.

Minegishi is a bit too absurd for me to take seriously as a character, but he does at least give Inami and Takanashi a shove in the right direction. His visit after receiving Souma's report gets the ball rolling, but it's Inami's instinctive decision to punch his lights out that finally brings about a slight shift in her relationship with Takanashi. I like the distinction that Takanashi draws, partially because it actually makes sense: it's normal to lash out at a creepy guy who grabs your arm without warning, and the punch doesn't mean that Inami isn't able to keep her phobia in check. The observation also forces Takanashi to confront the fact that he's paying enough attention to Inami to recognize the difference, leading to a sweet and awkward moment between them. Then again, it's possible that I just like the scene because it's satisfying to watch Minegishi get clobbered.

Given how little we know about her, the impending introduction of Takanashi's mother is a wild card. This season has a good track record when it comes to estranged relatives, but it's possible that the matriarch of the Takanashi family is more effective as an unseen force of nature than she will be as a character. It's been fun to watch the cast occasionally drop ominous hints about her, and I'm not entirely sure the reveal will justify the buildup. The only obvious justification for bringing her in this late in the game will be if she can instigate some more progress in the show's existing storylines. Time will tell if it's worth bringing her out of the shadows, but the information we have so far gives the series a wide range of options for her actual personality.

As far as I can tell, Wagnaria!!3 is looking to replicate its success with the Yamada storyline by using a similar format with the Takanashi family. This episode lays the groundwork for a conflict, the new character should throw the restaurant back into total anarchy, and we'll hopefully get another satisfying resolution out of the ordeal. Until then, there's not much to do but sit back and enjoy the chaos.

Rating: B

Wagnaria!!3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Viewster.

Paul Jensen is a freelance writer and editor. You can follow more of his anime-related ramblings on Twitter.


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