March 7, 2005
Kujibiki Unbalance OAV 1
“‘Futari no haato baransu…Kujibiki anbaransu!’ That particular part of the OP got stuck in my head way too easily.”
Yup, they really did make Kujibiki Unbalance into an OAV. This was… interesting to watch, to say the least. I must say that it was hard to find any Kujibiki Unbalance pictures on Google (or Genshiken pictures… heck, it was even hard to find Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien pictures). I sort of went into this series blind without any real expectations. I wonder if it shows…
A guy calls his sister to breakfast and not to touch the box by the door (which contains some weird mushrooms). The sister falls down the stairs in her undies, probably drunk by my estimation. He goes to school and meets his friend Mugio who picks up a magazine from a trash can saying to our protagonist that he will have good fortune and a wonderful encounter (foreshadowing?). Later at a ceremony, he sees his sister fall down once more (maybe she’s just clumsy and not an alcoholic). The famous Chairman (seen everywhere in Genshiken) is now introduced during this ceremony.
Later in the library, the guy is looking up mushrooms because his sister had acquired some earlier (the evil-looking ones in the box by the door). He meets a girl with a lot of knowledge about mushrooms… perhaps totally obsessed (a mushroom otaku?). She acts in this ridiculously cute manner and pretty much almost seduces the guy… unintentionally, although she seems more ditzy than… Paris Hilton-ish. And of course the guy is just awkward, not perverted in any real way.
Apparently at their school duties and positions are chosen by kujibiki (which means “drawing,” as in a contest). He is assigned to the kitchen and on the way the mushroom girl literally runs into him. She is introduced as Tokino, the chairman of their kitchen squad. The rest of the squad consists of Asagiri Komaki (treasurer), Tachibana Izumi (vice chairman), and our protagonist, who is introduced as Enomato Chihiro (secretary). (I’ll also make a note here that these are all girls except for Chihiro. I know, it’s sort of hard to tell with Izumi.)
A new girl who is being carried on the shoulders of her associates rudely interrupts them. She literally walks on them as they form a series of steps for her to get down. She is Kamishakujii Renko (who has the odd tendency to pass out). Renko has a vendetta against Tokino because she used to be number one in everything but one time Tokino took too long in the bathroom and Renko wet herself.
In any case, the Chairman (not Tokino) comes in and wants the two squads to compete in an Iron Chef-style competition using mushrooms. Tokino, being obsessed with mushrooms, caresses the mushrooms for some odd comedy. Renko is determined to defeat Tokino’s squad with her “conditioned” group of slaves… er, associates. She also has the ability to memorize anything for three seconds, which she uses to memorize some superior recipes. Tokino’s squad cooks simple because they are not masters. Chihiro accidentally feeds Tokino a mushroom, causing her to go on an eating binge. With only five minutes left and poison mushrooms left, they are in quite a pickle. Renko tries some last-minute sabotage but Izumi intervenes (earlier, she had done nothing at all to help).
Don’t feed the Tokino!
Then suddenly, Chihiro chases after the Chairman. She is Ricchan, who he knew years ago. Unfortunately, he is rejected and she says she doesn’t want anything to do with that past, though years ago she wanted him to be his bride.
The M1942 deserves better than that…
And so ends the first Kujibiki Unbalance OAV. I must say that it was rather silly. We’ve had a mushroom obsessed female protagonist, an Iron Chef competition, and potentially one of the weirdest opening songs ever. There’s not much plot to this OAV so far and there probably won’t be, since this was just a side story made for fans of Genshiken.
Futari no haato baransu…Kujibiki anbaransu!