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Impressions:

Muteki Kanban Musume seems to be losing its edge – for me at least. Most of the jokes and moments that are meant to be funny have been used before – some overused so much that it’s become boring. Miki getting going agro on others has been overused, as well as her getting pounded by her mother. I wish some sort of storyline would develop before the end of the series, as even something remotely interesting will enhance the series greatly. I don’t usually watch comedy that’s nothing but mindless fun – which Muteki Kanban Musume sort of is. The reason I watched it was because it was one of the funniest Anime I’ve ever seen, and the comedy I watch from last season – School Rumble ni Gakki, had lost its hilarity for plot – which is a good thing, though I always want a good comedy to just sit back and enjoy a few laughs. Muteki Kanban Musume allowed me to do that, but now it’s gotten old and unless it finds something interesting to animate, or if it is able to come up with new jokes, my interest in it will greatly drop. However, for better or worse, I tend to watch Anime that have been downgraded, such as the Bleach fillers, so I can say I will definitely watch this series until the end. All that crap I said earlier are just some thoughts to occupy you, who is reading this very sentence right now. With all that said – hopefully this series will get better (argh what a crap closing statement! My English teacher would scream at me…)

Summary:

After a meal of ramen at Makiko’s shop, one of the customers lets slip that he eats bread for breakfast in front of Miki. She aggressively pinches the man’s nose with chopsticks and demands to know where he got the bread. He says he bought it from the bakery across the street – Megumi’s shop – wrong answer! As Miki is about to punish the man for talking about the bakery in her shop, her mother approaches her from behind. We all know what happens next … Miki gets another pounding, though this time not as brutal as it seems her only injury is a bump on the head.

A little later, the man from before and his friend talk about the excellent service they get from the bakery and Megumi’s wondrous smile. They (including Miki) find out that everyone in the shop shares the same views. Miki of course gets pissed at hearing her mortal enemy be praised like this.

The next morning, Miki starts advertising the restaurant outside to try and sway those who ate bread for breakfast to eat ramen instead. She acts a bit forceful, which catches Makiko’s attention, who then slams her into the ground with a flying kick. In the span of two seconds when which Miki was attacked, Megumi’s bakery somehow started overflowing with customers! This of course makes Miki even more angry. She explains to Ohta, who is admiring Megumi’s success, that the girl is a completely different person on the inside. She may be sweet and nice on the exterior, but her true nature is vengeful and malevolent. With this said, she decides to ruin Megumi’s business by revealing her true self.

Later in the day, Miki takes some time off from work to visit Megumi’s shop. Upon sighting her arch nemesis, Megumi whips out her skewers, but Miki is too fast and holds them down with a pair of tongs. Miki demands that Megumi lower her weapon as she is a customer. Megumi does not comply, until a customer comes in and she is forced to stow them away. She buys a large amount of bread and sits down in the bakery to eat, in order to distract Megumi, hopefully making her accidentally reveal her spiteful nature. When she tries one of the breads though, she finds it to be extremely tasty. Megumi quickly analyses the locations of each customer and where they’re facing. When they all look away, she takes the chance and flings a skewer at the unsuspecting Miki who is enjoying the bread, but unfortunately misses. Shortly after this first miss, Megumi tries again, but this time Miki is ready and had even set up a trap. Megumi apparently doesn’t notice the man behind Miki and shoots a skewer anyway. Miki dodges quite easily, but it was very lucky for Miki to not have hit the man’s head. In gets lodged in the bread shelf right beside the man. Miki thinks she’s won, but the man turns the whole thing around by complimenting Megumi on her skills, as the skewer had actually killed a fly.

After the customer leaves, Miki asks Megumi for a free coffee as she’s heard that she treats many of her customers. Megumi has no choice but to comply, but intentionally makes the coffee salty. Miki makes a big fuss to grab everyone’s attention, but Megumi responds by crying and making everyone pity her. Miki’s second try – failure! Unable to take this anymore, Miki finally decides to resort to violence. Before she can start a fight though, Makiko comes in looking for her. Miki, who is not supposed to be skipping work, quickly hides under a table and signals for Megumi to not reveal her location. Surprisingly, Megumi doesn’t tell Makiko where her daughter is, but it turns out that Megumi just wants to tease Miki for a bit. She says she needs to move the furniture around a bit and pushes the table against the wall. She can’t come out as she’ll get caught by her mother, and so is forced to endure being squashed for a bit.

At night, Miki has returned to the restaurant and is fuming over her failure at ruining Megumi’s business. She is telling Ohta all this, which prompts him to point out the fact that Megumi only turns nasty at her. All discussion ceases though, as the arrival of Miki’s mother signifies doom … muahahaha!

The next day, Megumi is getting a lot of customers early in the day as usual, though at noon, they stop coming and go to Miki’s shop instead. Megumi doesn’t understand why this happens and decides to go and investigate. She goes to the ramen shop as a customer and orders fried rice. Miki just has to stir things up and pours some sort of poisonous blue powder on it. Megumi is not stupid and demands to know what it is. Miki claims it’s pepper, but a fly lands on it and immediately dies. Miki obviously isn’t very good at these things…

After being asked, Megumi explains to Miki that she has come to find out exactly why the shop thrives so much. She can find no explanation initially, as she states that she is cuter than Miki and the store is dirtier than her own. Miki calls her mother and tells her that Miki just said their shop was dirty, but Makiko beats up Miki for allowing the place to get dirty in the first place. All around, people start whispering about her display of power. When Miki brings Megumi another plate of poisoned food and stirs things up again, she gets another whack to the face. Once again, people start whispering about how ‘it happened again’, referring to Makiko using her fists again. Ohta comes in with a delivery, and seeing Megumi, approaches her to say hi. He sees the fried rice, and noting how hungry he is, takes a spoonful of it. His face goes blue and suddenly he needs to go to the toilet. Makiko takes a bite from the rice as well, but the poison doesn’t affect her at all. However, she does discover that it’s been poisoned and takes her anger out on Miki again. With that, the whispering escalates to general chatter.

Everyone is about to leave, when suddenly Kankuro open the door. All the customers are delighted to see him and sit down again, ordering more food (they don’t know Kankuro personally; they just know that whenever he comes, it’s to challenge Miki). Kankuro approaches Miki and shows his trademark challenge letter. With all eyes on him, Kankuro reveals that he had managed to heal eight broken ribs in one night. When he charges at Miki, Makiko bars his way and tells Miki to go make a delivery. Everyone is disheartened, but someone yells out that the greatest enemy has come – Toshiyuki! Sure enough, the fearsome mutt dog is bounding on the dirt road toward the shop with Wakana desperately trying to stop him. Everyone gathers at the entrance to see the fight, but Makiko’s presence halts the dog in mid-air. It seems no one is brave enough to stand up to her. With nothing else to watch, the customers leave. In the end, Megumi does realise that the reason why Miki’s shop is so successful is because everyone enjoys watching her fight. Megumi plans to stop the fighting so that people stop going to Miki’s shop. Before that though, she decides to toss Kankuro in the river…

Preview:

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