Welcome back to another review! Hopefully, life is treating you well. Without further stalling, put on your yeehaw boots (I know you have a pair, hidden deep in your closet) cause we’re on our way to a duel on a fake desert!
I’m not sure if it’s possible to pick a favorite character from the cast, since each and every one of them has a special place in my heart and I love them for different reasons. I love Jupiter for how quirky he is and his tone fits the series’ ridiculousness perfectly. I think I’m equally enamored and disturbed by the idea of wanting a friend like him in real life. Currently, he’s duking it out with Mercury in a deserted area while Pluto and Shimoda are keeping an eye on them. You know, one of those moments where people say they are working but it 100% looks like it’s playtime. Jupiter has to design an animal that can use its bones as weapons so he tries to get his rib bones to immediately grow out of his body to stab a potential predator. Mars is the usual party pooper with her scientific facts; whatever Jupiter comes up with, she retaliates with why that’s not acceptable and the final result is far less cool than what Jupiter initially had in mind.
He hasn’t given up though, giving up is for the weak. Placing the spine and the ribs like it’s partially an exoskeleton solves the problem for now much to Mars’ dismay. Now it’s time to test its durability. Pluto lends his friend a helping hand by bringing in a cute lion to munch on the bones. Of course, when there’s movement in the joints they tend to be weak. They try to solve it by leaving the joints out and doubling the bones up. It’s a win for durability but with no rib movement, Jupiter faints due to difficulty in breathing. The team continues to draw inspiration from previous designs, Pluto’s frogs do well without ribs for example. If you lack something, just make up for it with something else, right? Frogs do cutaneous respiration and are full of determination but Jupiter is not fond of either option. He is dead set on making those cool ribs work, even if it means no teeth. Combining what he wants to see in his design with suggestions from his teammates, Jupiter finally earns his thumbs up with a turtle!
However, getting an OK for the design doesn’t stop these workaholics. They keep the updates coming with ways the turtle can hide its head or limbs and this leads to, to quote Jupiter, an acceptance frenzy. Although the client is happy with the design, the shell cannot be used as a weapon after all so Jupiter goes back to the slimy-skinned amphibian with an extendable rib cage idea.
In the second half, Shimoda is back at the office again, babysitt- I mean, to check up on the progress of the new project is going. Courting is nothing if one’s heart is not throbbing, and the connoisseur of the topic is no other than Neptune. Together with Shimoda, they visit the members’ rooms. Venus’ take on a heart-palpitating courtship is to flaunt feathers and sing, and when Neptune says that he needs a reference frame so that he can compare Venus’ performance, it’s poor Shimoda’s turn to provide the lesser performer so that Venus can stand out. Hence the teacher-bad student dancing combo is born, and their client is impressed!
The next stop is the heated rap battle between Mercury and Neptune, with Pluto as the judge. Looks like they still have energy and rivalry in them to keep the competitive spirit. Shimoda happily provides beats to the duo, a skill set I didn’t know angels should have. Turns out, they were trying to imitate the way frogs court by producing fast ribbit sounds and Pluto wanted to be swayed like a female frog. Although, in the end, it’s Mercury and Jupiter who had their heart stolen by the strong and kind Neptune, they learn a valuable life lesson that would leave shounen protagonists in shame and it also inspires Pluto to come up with a less violent courting method that still includes some show-off and muscles.
Shimoda and Neptune are back at the office and finally, it’s master’s time to shine. Neptune wishes to come up with a courting style for the seal and it’s so cute to see the animals he designed always give back by coming up with ways to update themselves! Out of the blue, the seals start inflating balloon-like parts on their faces, and the one who can inflate the reddish tissue becomes the winner. That was… yet another ‘how to unsee’ moment for me.
How was this week’s episode for you? Which of these animals or characters made your heart go kyuunn? Let me know in the comments and see you!
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