To Heart 2 - Episode 6 (Ruuuuuuuuuuuuu)

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And so it's back to everyone's other eroge harem show (technically), To Heart 2.

In episode 6 we find, as usual, the introduction of a new character. This time it's pink-haired Ruuko , who makes her appearance in typical sickly-girl fashion by passing out in front of the main character Taka-kun.

As usual, our protagonist with nothing better to do takes her out for a meal in the park, where there is no time in wasted in hinting she is not quite normal. Insert head-knuckle.

Ruuko spreads across many tropes in her episode, proving to be a foreigner (an alien, for that matter), a transfer student, a cat lover, one of them cutesy third-person speakers, and quite clearly the role of the mysterious girl. Come to think of it I've watched the full episode and I don't know her first name or why she's here.

She says about coming to observe the planet U and all the Us within it (I wonder if this will be elaborated on) but that's about the only line that gives her much backstory. She does some supernatural neato stuff like pwning a tree in order to save Meow that cat, though.

This episode is remarkably more continuous than many of the other episodes in that you
see more than one girl throughout the episode.

For example, Konomi shows up to spout a real naive line about karma and stuff. I see
this as a bit of characterization and find it cute how childish Konomi still is.

And then she goes away and we get a lot of Yuuji, who deserves more screen time being
tortured by Tama-nee, who appears for 5 seconds in this episode to do just that. Library/class rep girl who's name I've already forgotten plays a role in this episode by staring at Taka a lot, usually because of the weirdness of the transfer student from the 3rd planet in the 47th whatever that hangs around Taka. Also, she plays an overenthusiastic role in finding a seat for Ruuko, which as expected would be right next to Taka. Amusingness ensues as Ru shows a blatant disregard for social patterns on earth. Maybe a bit predictable but amusing.


Everyone's favorite blackmailer Karin shows up suitably excited by the oddness of the mysterious transfer student and sends Taka out on a recon (stalker) mission. It seems the 'you groped me, guilt guilt' gag will never get old, although I must say that I laughed at how fond Karin sounded when she recollected the scene.

Of note here is that "this and that" is supposedly Japanese for whatever innuendo you can come up with that means 'sex'. Certainly Karin is stretching the truth a bit and any day now she might end up claiming to bear Taka's child.

Also, how come nobody ever questions if Karin's devices actually work? I was a bit suspicious, at least.

The drawing scene was a bit odd as for some reason, although everyone was rushing to the roof see Ruuko's strange art on the school grounds, when Taka finally got to her there was no one up there. Lazy artists or short attention span; you decide.

Also, those drawings smacked of Haruhi, but nowadays what doesn't?

Not sure of the relation of the cat to Ruuko yet (if there's anything out of the ordinary), but the cat was an amusing plothole as Taka pulled the 'there's no way it could show up' card to produce the cat out of nowhere. This led to Taka's flagrant ignorance of animal abuse rules and the subsequent Kanon stunt the cat pulls by jumping over the fence.

Unfortunately, there was no truck and no human kitsune here.

All in all this episode wasn't horribly exciting and I found myself wishing for more Lucky Star or TokiMemo subs throughout the episode but I can't really call this a waste of time. To Heart 2 is a good series for those who like fluff, as it's not horribly complex nor emotional, just sort of happy happy.

I appreciate the sudden influx of supernatural with Karin and Ruuko, but I'm hoping that some sort of explanation or connection behind all this U-Foe stuff is waiting in the wings, rather than "Karin likes UFOs. See, there's one! Yay, Karin!"

But, yay Karin!

Next time on TH2: More Konomi, which appears rather early for a repeat of a character as the focus of an episode. I'm still waiting for the gamer twins who appear in the opening... also, since it's a stargazing event I can probably expect a lot of Karin along the way too, with maybe a bit of Ruuko. We'll see.

-CCY