It was time to see how this show will resolve last week’s sudden dip into drama. Would it stay true to its comedy roots? Or would it delve still deeper into the abyss of Soumei’s past? I was prepared for it to take either tack, and I certainly found the one it chose entertaining.

I think we all know the answer to that first question is yes

Using the cliffhanger from last episode, even running the dramatic music over the normal title cut, was an effective way of concealing the episode’s first joke: an awkward pan of a Hiroshi naked below the waste. I was never in doubt, but I’m always glad to see this show hasn’t lost its ability to innovate.

The best assistants bring the best pants

Hiroshi revealing his rainbow-colored range of hair color powers was substantially funnier than I expected it to be. The lazy animation and voice acting imposed by the black hair power is cleverly game-breaking. The white hair power makes afros grow, which is really all that needs to be said. Still, my favorite joke in this direction was definitely how useless brown hair was. I mean, really, flight of a cockroach? You’re just asking to die to friendly fire. Or be forced to colonize mars.

Overall, I noticed a lot of the jokes in the first half actually fell flat, and it ended with a weaker bit of drama than the bit that got the ball rolling last episode. I’ve seen too many scenes where an anti-villain hesitates due to a memory of his tragic past, so that had very little impact. Still, it moved through the material quickly enough and kept rotating in new jokes; making it easy to follow and hard to get bored of.

The second half was a much smoother ride. It’s hard not to be when you incorporate that ever-reliable multitool, the love hexagon (or pentagon, really, since Kei was just there as a literal dead fish). From Noah’s awkward fantasies involving Yuuta to an actual road paved with banana peels, I found the whole thing to be a riot.

Nothing like a healthy respect for the classics

This episode didn’t live up to all of the expectations last week’s set up, but I can’t exactly hate a comedy for augmenting the tools in its proverbial joke arsenal, and it was ultimately an enjoyable ride.

By the by, expect a more vocal and detailed summary of my infatuation with this show and others in a podcast we recorded tonight. It’s in the editing phase now, and you’ll see it up before the week is over.