S.A - Special A ep.04

April 28, 2008 | 14 Comments

With an episode like this one, I often wonder what's the main story of this series. Does the series try to say that Hikari's obsession to defeat Kei is admirable? Or does it actually say, forget trying to defeat your childhood friend. Instead, you should hook up with him/her. If I remember correctly, Ouran Host Club also started the same way with Haruhi basically joining the club so she can pay the vase that she dropped. However, along the way we learned a bit more about each members of the club. Unfortunately there's no such thing in this series so far. It doesn't help that this episode is not funny at all. On a more positive side, I'm starting to like the ending. Between the OP and the ED, the later is a lot easier to listen to.

Episode 4

During a lunchtime picnic, Kei asks Hikari if she can come to his house since his father wants to see her. Hikari immediately agrees since she does like Kei's father. Akira, on the other hand, is not happy that Kei gets to hog Hikari so she forces Tadashi to come with her to accompany Hikari. Much to everyone's shock, Kei's father suddenly starts going kung-fu against Hikari, who manages to block him. Before he can do anything else, however, Kei has stomped his body to the floor. Both Hikari and his dad protest this treatment since they were just going to have martial arts sparring against each other. Kei, however, just gives them death glares. After this violent incident is over, everyone heads inside only to hear a woman telling someone that she's had enough and won't be someone's teacher again.

As it turns out, Kei's little brother, Sui, is as bratty as his brother and has caused nothing but stress for his private teacher. Hikari is pissed off to see the brat calling his teacher 'old hag' and in her rage, ends up breaking the door to Sui's room. Because she feels guilty about this, Hikari agrees to become Sui's tutor as a payment for it. This causes everyone in S.A to be concerned because Hikari is kind of....well, to put it mildly, suck as a teacher. Akira threatens Kei to teach his own brother since he's a good teacher but Kei just tells Hikari not to teach Sui since there's no point in teaching someone who doesn't want to learn. Hikari determine to proof that she can do it but eventually realizes that Sui really is a brat. Kei then appears to gloat before his father appears and begs him to accompany him in a company meeting.

The next day, Hikari tries to prove Sui that she can do better than Kei in catching dragonflies in the family's park. Unfortunately for her, while she manages to catch 56 butterflies, Kei manages to catch 57. Sui demands to know what happens with the lesson but Kei asks him if he has the willingness to learn. Sui is angry to hear this and tells Kei that he hates his brother and that Kei is just a robot wearing human skin. Oh if only that's true, this guy would have been much more fun. In order to have Sui be closer to his brother, Hikari devises a game for them. However, Sui refuses to play, claiming that no matter what Kei will win anyway. This is why he doesn't bother to study since he can't reach Kei's level no matter what he does. In response Kei tells him that he should do whatever he wants to do.

Sui is angry to hear this and so is Hikari so she ends up not talking to Kei the next day. Later on, she goes back to Kei's house and ends up playing staring into each other's eyes with Sui. Sui doesn't see the point in this since no matter what he does, his brother is a cold person. Hikari disagrees and points out that when she made Kei Onigiri, the guy was grateful and told her "Thank you". Yeah, but that's because he wants to get into your pants. Sui is receptive of this as well and asks Hikari if she likes Kei but Hikari lamely tells the boy that they are just rivals. Kei then interrupts the two and tells Hikari to leave Sui alone. Sui is upset to hear this in and runs away. Before Hikari can chase him, however, Kei tells her that he doesn't understand why people who don't want to do things are forced to do something.

He believes that doing so will just make these people unhappy. Kei knows that Sui's sadness is because of him. It's because he exists that Sui is compared to him. Hikari realizes that Kei actually means well but that doesn't mean that he's not annoying. Because of this she goes out to find Sui. When she finds him, however, he refuses to come and ends up pushing her against a railing. Hikari is okay but Sui feels guilty so he decides to carry Hikari on his back. Later on, however, Kei manages to find them since he was worried about Hikari. Upon seeing his brother looking pathetic and worried, Sui tells the truth. In response, Kei thanks Sui for doing his best to carry Hikari. In the aftermath, Hikari is about to teach Sui again but finds out that he now wants to learn from his brother because he luuuuurves his brother *shudders*.

Impression:

Much to my disappointment, this episode turns out to be Kei-centric. If that's not bad enough, Kei + his brother turn out to be lethal dose of annoying combo. These two are such douchebags that I don't understand what the author were thinking when she decided that Kei should be the main character. At least pervy Kogarashi from Kamen no Maid Guy is funny but Kei has little redeeming quality in him. And I think this is the main problem of Special A: despite its title, we actually don't see much of other Special A members. Most of the time they are just supporting characters who do their routines in the background. The series focus too heavily on Hikari and Kei and their competition even though they are the least fun characters in the series. Also, Hikari doesn't seem to interact with the other characters that much. I would like to see her having a talk either with the twins or Tadashi or Ryuu but that doesn't seem to be happening. The only other person she talks to apart from Kei is Akira, who doesn't get that much screentime either. I just wish there's an episiode where neither Hikari nor Kei are the main focus.

Next week: Everyone's favorite student council president is back.

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