| Doki Doki School Hours #5 |
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| Tuesday, 16 January 2007 | |
 Another series down, as Doki Doki School Hours meanders into the sunset with another batch of OVA episodes. Between helping a demon hunter, paying a visit to the future, and dealing with the threat of the Birds of Bankruptcy, you'd think Mika-sensei would have her hands full, but there's always time for a wedding interview...17 - Beast Buster Ekaterina Nagare A.K.A Iincho Only one girl can protect humanity against the demons who would otherwise feed upon them: gun-toting heroine Ekaterina Nagare, also known as "Iincho". When a group of people are captured by demons and held hostage in the abandoned ruins of Okitsu High, it's up to Iincho - with a little help from Mika-sensei and Kitagawa - to save the day. But will they be able to beat their way through the evil Tominaga-san's seemingly endless stream of beasts...?   18 - SF Magical Period Drama Doki Doki Version: The Okitsu Millennium Battle! Mika-sensei falls down the stairs... and into a wasteland where apparently the school once stood. The first person she sees is "No Holds Barred Tominaga", who immediately launches a magical attack on her. Somehow, she's been moved 1000 years forward in time - and yet the people she's meeting and the argument they're fighting over are strangely familiar...   19 - The Culture Festival Operation It's culture festival time again, and this year, the kids are fed up with doing plays - not that that stops Seki from putting himself forward as the lead role for Cinderella, or Kudo from pitching for the sequel to the previous year's Snow White (Snow White 2: The Elopement of Lust, where he and Suetake... well, you know...). Cue a duel between the two rival princesses to see whose play will get to the stage. While they're doing that, the rest of the class settle on running a rice ball stand, with the large, plump Mika Ball being just one of over 100 varieties on offer. Only problem is, the competition in the catering department is rather stiff, and rare bankruptcy cuckoos seem to be gathering around the stall...   20 - The Small One Departs Okitsu Mika's mom's beginning to think it's time her daughter found herself a man and settled down - especially since one of her uncles has offered to arrange some marriage interviews for her. Mika's initially not interested, but when Matsumoto-sensei points out that wedding interviews are usually held at posh restaurants or hotels, suddenly she's interested. The closer her first meeting gets, though, the more confused Mika gets about whether she wants to go through with it or not. When Kitagawa hears about the interview, though, she automatically assumes Mika will be leaving once her wedding is arranged, and starts spreading the word...   Poor Tominaga's getting the wrong end of the deal here, being cast as one of the baddies in two of the fantasy episodes here. Iincho's episode is really DDSH doing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, although as slayerettes go Mika leaves a lot to be desired. It's a fun little episode, though, with each of the gang being cast as a demonic beast of some sort (like Kobayashi, the beast of diet temptation) to be beaten on the way to confronting the most beastly of all, Tominaga. Good stuff. Episodes 18 & 19 are less successful. The future episode is very bland, with not an awful lot happening (although Mika as the evil Empress was a nice touch) while I've pretty much had my fill of culture festival episodes lately, so these two stories just passed me by. They're not bad, as such - just nothing special. The final episode of the series is also the most serious so far, with very little in the way of comedy - Mika's departure would obviously be no laughing matter. When it comes to trying to persuade Mika not to leave, Kitagawa in particular is depressed at the prospect, Tominaga thinks they should stay out of Mika's personal affairs, with the rest of the class hovering somewhere in between. Of course, the series wasn't about to have anything other than a happy ending so Mika's still there come the final bell - and the reasons behind that are typical Mika. Doki Doki School Hours has been something of a mixed bag. I love the characters and their quirks, but they're also very one-dimensional, one-gag personalities. Depending on what mood you're in when you put the disc in, that can wear thin quite quickly, unless you just watch an episode at a time. The humour is very direct so you're unlikley not to catch the gags, while having a school setting means all the usual high-school bases are well-covered - and that's possibly the biggest problem. If this was the first high-school comedy you had seen, it would probably stick in your mind as a good example of the genre. Otherwise, it's competent but not outstanding, enjoyable but not outrageously funny. Think Azumanga Daioh on tranquilisers. At full price (around US$125 for the set), I wouldn't bother, but a good online discount would bring it into a more worthwhile price bracket. I've enjoyed it, but Doki Doki School Hours isn't going to be for everyone.  |
