 Any superhero outfit that has a built-in theme song player wins my vote - although in Dokkoida's case they really need to work on getting rid of that diaper look. With this batch of episodes, Suzuo finds out that being a superhero isn't a one-way ticket to untold riches (at least not with the company he's working for) - and by the end of the disc, you may just be wondering exactly what show you're watching, onii-chama...
5 - Mission: Allowance Increase!
Suzuo's beginning to feel that Kosuzu isn't paying him enough - particularly when he sees how his enemies & Neruloid Girl seem to have no shortage of spare cash on hand. Should a superhero really have so little money that he can't even afford a hamburger?! His attempts to persuade Kosuzu to give him a raise come to nothing, and her promises of a packed lunch to stop him having to worry about not having lunch money don't help either (who'd want to eat her cooking?). So what's a hero to do? Shamelessly exploit his superhero powers for profit, that's what...
6 - The Pool Cycle Race
Hot. Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. That's the only way to describe the weather in town, and it's certainly too hot to fight, as Dokkoida, Neruloid Girl & the rest of the gang find out - they've all turned up for battle, but nobody's in any real mood to get it on. By unanimous vote, battle is cancelled, in favour of a visit to the local swimming pool, instead. But taking this lot to the pool means two things, guaranteed: fanservice, and chaos...
7 - Kurika's Dream
Wish upon a falling star.. A passing meteor shower gives the Cosmos House residents that chance to make their wishes come true, and just in time for the fireworks festival, too. That said, Marronflower has a plan up his sleeve that could ruin the festival, but an explosive mishap leaves Kurika in a dream-world & able to live out her fantasy of living happily with the rest of the Cosmos House folk. As much as that's the life she wants to live, though, dreams aren't reality, and sooner or later she'll have to go back...
8 - Little Sister Love!
It seems that the girls at Cosmos House have been watching too many incest-laden doramas on television - suddenly everyone's seeing Kosuzu & Suzuo in a different light, while Kosuzu's beginning to wonder about Suzuo's intentions towards her. Given the dramatic tendencies of this lot, it doesn't take long before mountains are made out of molehills - especially after Kurinohana gives the girls a walkthrough of his latest incest-laden dating sim, Thirteen Sisters. Can Suzuo resist the advances of his new army of would-be sisters..?
Right. Episode 7 is different enough from the rest of the series that it deserves a special mention, so we'll get that out of the way first. Kurika is an unusual character, especially by this show's standards - she's shy and reserved in a world full of characters that are so over-the-top that no wall could contain them. That means that, under normal circumstances, she doesn't get any chance to shine as she's just outdone by anyone else who happens to be on-screen. How, then, do you give her a chance to be herself? By giving her an episode of her own, with the show's usual frenetics packed away in favour of something with the pacing of ARIA. While that means that it's completely out-of-keeping with the rest of the series, it's also a damned good episode, showing that Dokkoida does indeed have a heart.
Good as that episode is, though, there's better elsewhere on the disc. The other three episodes do the usual Dokkoida thang of playing to established ideas - how many times have you seen impoverished college students go begging for part-time jobs? Or a boy and his harem heading for the swimming pool? These are ideas that have been done 1,001 times before in many different shows, and Dokkoida puts its own spin on them in the first two episodes on the disc. They're far from earth-shattering, but perfectly enjoyable.
It was the final episode that really go me, though. I can remember back in 2002 when the series was first released in Japan, when Sister Princess (both eroge and anime) was also on the go and when Onegai Teacher was pulling in fanboys in droves - both shows dealt with 'forbidden' relationships (incest in SisPri, student-teacher in OneTei), and this episode picks up on that theme - and makes it work oh-so-much better than it should have by giving cameo roles to characters from both properties. A real top-priority idea, if I may say so - and made all the funnier by the way the Cosmos House characters deal with the Suzuo / Kosuzu relationship that only exists in their own fevered imaginations. Classic stuff.
Interestingly, the 'powered suit trials' and the Galaxy Federation Police which featured so much in volume one have pretty much been forgotten about (Mogumuggle - or whatever his name is - and his aide are seen just once, lying on the beach), in favour of other things, but in its way that's no bad thing. Instead, this volume gets to show that Dokkoida can actually do 'serious' when it needs to, while still pulling off the comedy as well as ever in the other episodes. A great show to watch when you need something that's guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, Dokkoida is well worth seeing.
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