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Impressions:

Ah, another hilarious episode. Muteki Kanban Musume is definitely one of the funnier Animes I’ve watched. Too bad it’s coming to and end. With this series finishing and all the funny spring season ones wrapping up as well, I’ll have to find a good comedy in the autumn season. This episode, it was more than just visual jokes. Makiko’s disturbing acting as she tried a new way of scolding Miki was absolutely hilarious. I love disturbing things! It was the same with Kayahara… And – OMG – next episode Megumi is NOT in her bakers’ uniform!!! I wished Miki would wear some casual clothes too sometime, but this is just as good!

Summary:

As Makiko is calmly cooking ramen in the kitchen, Miki, Megumi and Kankuro are having a little free-for-all. However, when one of Megumi’s skewers is deflected into one of the restaurant’s glass wall panels, Makiko comes out and loses it. She kicks Miki into Megumi and Kankuro, toppling everyone over. Ohta comes and points out the fact that Makiko is the strongest out of all of them. Reluctantly, everyone agrees. Because of this new revelation, they decide to join forces and find a weakness in her to take her down. Ohta is not convinced that this is possible.

The three set up a small base on the bakery’s porch. After a short discussion which yielded no results as to what Makiko’s weakness might be, Megumi is forced to use her pet, Poemi. She is convinced that it will work, and the looks on Miki’s and Kankuro’s faces when they see this make the plan seem plausible.

However, it doesn’t work. The three let the animal into the restaurant, which turns out to be a deadly scorpion. However, Makiko finds nothing wrong with discovering a scorpion on the table and picks it up to toss in the soup she’s preparing. Megumi lunges to save her precious pet, but ends up getting stung. She is then taken to hospital. I presume the scorpion was not harmed.

Even though they are short one person now, Miki and Kankuro refuse to give up. This time, they prepare a meal for Makiko. The lunch consists of a large steamed bun and some dumplings. The plan is to disgust Makiko with the meal, as the bun is filled with hot chilli and the dumplings contain custard cream. BUT! It fails again. How typical. Makiko eats it all without too much trouble.

In the end, Kankuro gives up and decides to go on another training trip. Even though Miki is by herself now in this little escapade, she does not give up. She asks Ohta for help, who just happens to remember the time when something had appeared in the store and scared Makiko. Before he can say what got inside, Makiko pulls him into the store and desperately warns him not to reveal her secret. She explains that long ago, one of those things landed on her face. When Miki stupidly gives her presence away, Makiko whacks her out of hearing range. She tells Ohta that he can’t tell Miki what happened even at the cost of his life. But if he does, he will die, so it’s the same either way.

Once he is outside again, Miki drags him inside his own store, closes the rolling door and starts whipping. Kayahara sensei comes by and, hearing the whipping noises, thinks someone is being abused. However, when she pulls up the rolling doors, she sees Miki whipping Ohta’s mahou shoujo figurine. Miki’s excuse for doing this is that a full grown man – Ohta – is into such things, which she personally finds shameful. It seems that Kayahara sensei has similar views and quietly leaves without doing anything.

Even when Miki breaks the figurine through constant whipping, Ohta remains silent. Miki decides to search for all sorts of small animals to test on Makiko, as surely one of them must be her weakness. As she is doing this, Ohta tells Makiko about what her daughter did to him. She apologises for this, but then Miki shows up with a large sack of bugs. She is confident that she will win this next fight and tosses the sack of insects at her mother. She dodges all of this and punches Miki in the face. However, she has another sack, but before she can toss it, the bag rips and everything lands on her face. At this sight, Makiko falls silent and her expression tells Miki that her weakness is now on her face. She discerns that it must either be the worm, caterpillar or spider. When she taunts her mother about this, Makiko tells her that it is in fact her face that she’s disgusted of and gives her a whack on the head. This causes the spider to land on her own head, which is in fact the thing she is afraid of. However, this time she flicks it off and says it is nothing compared to Miki’s disgusting face.

And so, Makiko continues to reign supreme.

Another day, Makiko takes notice of a program on TV when she is cooking, which explains how to properly raise children. While this is happening, Miki picks a fight with a couple of punks on the street, but ends up spilling the ramen she’s meant to be delivering. By watching the program, Makiko learns that the worse the child behaves, the kinder the parent should be. When Miki returns to the restaurant with the empty ramen tin, prepared for another beating, Makiko starts acting nice and kind, with a smile that looks genuine. However, Miki does not believe she is her mother. She becomes frustrated, manages to keep her smile on. In the end, Miki leaves extremely disturbed and thinks she is being punished for misbehaving. She decides to behave from now on.

Back at the restaurant, Makiko explains her new strategy to Ohta, who decides to help her with this. She practices puns, but they all suck. Bad. Kayahara sensei comes and enquires about why Makiko is acting the way she is. She explains, but now that Ohta has heard the full story, he thinks the idea is crazy, as if Makiko didn’t discipline Miki properly, she’d turn out a lot worse than she is now. After more discussion, Kayahara expresses her opinion on the matter and suggests that Makiko pretend to be sick, as children with weak parents tend to be more responsible. They decide to try this idea.

Ohta goes to find Miki, who is beating up some more thugs. He tells her that Makiko has fainted and calls for her to return to the restaurant. When she does, Makiko (who is in her futon looking weak and all) reassures Miki that she will be fine after some rest, but she won’t be able to look after the store. Miki naturally tells her to leave everything to her. While at first it looks like she’s doing a good job with the customers by herself, it turns out that she has literally enslaved Kankuro, Megumi and Ohta into doing all the cooking. They start quarrelling, which leads to a fight inside the restaurant. While the customers watch with great interest, Makiko decides to take a peek at how Miki is doing. Seeing her display such violence, she reverts to her old way of disciplining and smashes Miki in the face.

Preview:

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