It is now time for me to do the penultimate write-up for the Cuties season, episode eleven. From the first couple seconds it is made clear that this is an original story by Kenjiro Hata, so no one is featured this time (and it will probably be that way for the finale too). With the promise of anime original material, let the write-up begin! (After the jump.)
The episode opens with the original story declaration I noted above and continues on to Hayate apparently talking about kissing with most of the girls and then the intro plays. (I'm not really sure what is going on, but it is a kind of exciting start. This is also the shortest pre-intro segment I can think of actually occurring.)
After the intro, Hayate is shown in a black and white world where the tanuki from CTMEOY tells him that he is in a dream. He then feels the tanuki to test if it is a dream and the tanuki tells him that soon the Kurotsubaki will cause him much misfortune. (How a broken Kurotsubaki is doing this I don't know.) Next, some sort of walking clock, with the voice of Shin, shows up and says he is happy to meet Hayate. Hayate responds by kicking him, probably freaked out by all the people speaking English for no reason in his dreams. The tanuki flies over to the clock and scolds Hayate for being mean and says they should be treated as mascots. He then calls them freaks and asks what they want. They say they have a favor to ask of him as he is woken up by his alarm clock. He wakes up and wonders what the dream was about. (It seems that Hayate's room has gained some furniture.) After a few hours, Maria tells Hayate to wake Nagi up and he tries and even picks her up, but the only response he gets is her muttering about mushrooms and two creepy creatures. He then asks Maria if Nagi was up late and Maria says that Nagi was, but she doesn't know how late as she fell asleep. Hayate then asks Maria if she has kissed anyone. Her only answer is fidgeting and asking why he asks, which Hayate takes as a negative answer. (He is correct, but that is a bit harsh just judging from her fidgeting.) He then mutters to himself that a kiss could never have happened, which angers Maria. At the apartments, Chiharu, Ayumu, Kayura, and Klaus are eating breakfast. (I'm impressed that you got an appearance Klaus.) Ayumu asks where Hina is and Klaus says she already left. Klaus then asks the girls if they want some of the "kisu" he got that morning. (I don't know what kisu is, but I can tell it threw off the girls.) Ayumu and Chiharu are a bit unnerved (or something) by the "kisu", so Klaus explains it is the name for a type of fish. (I didn't really catch what type of fish, but thank you Klaus for explaining what you have.) Kayura then explains that "kisu" also means kiss, which causes Ayumu and Chiharu to leave for school. Hayate is shown at the school thinking to himself that the dream is bunk, but decides to check it out by running into the student council room and asking for a kiss. (Hayate is heard screaming, but it isn't shown who was in the room. It probably was Hinagiku, but for all I know it could have been Aika and he is screaming in anguish over the fact that Aika has dirt on him now.) After his failure, Hayate is scolded by the tanuki for failing to get a kiss and the clock says the failure is surprising after they gave a dream of Hayate asking for a kiss to all the girls. Hayate then beats up the clock for being creepy and the tanuki says they are just trying to help. Now Hayate is shown butlering a tea party for Hina, Isumi, Saku, and the Three Amiga, in which the girls express surprise that they all had a dream of kissing Hayate. Hina and Izumi are embarrassed, Saku calls him a lover boy, and Isumi says that the situation is more dire than she thought. Risa doesn't get the importance that Isumi sees and says that if Hayate just needs to kiss someone, they can use Izumi. Everyone expresses surprise and Risa explains that Izumi is a "bitch" and a kiss or two means nothing. Miki agrees with this plan and says that she will film the kiss and upload it on the internet. Hayate expresses displeasure with the plan and Risa asks him if he doesn't want Izumi. Hayate asks what she is saying and Risa then decides that Hinagiku must be the one. Hayate and Hina are surprised and Hina thinks about it before becoming embarrassed. Hina is then shown in her room responding to dream Hayate trying to kiss her and wakes up a bit embarrassed. She goes to school and sits in the student council room wondering why she had that dream when Hayate runs in and asks her to kiss him. (I notice that the student council room has a celestial globe for some reason. Maybe they watch over the stars too.) Hina, surprised, pulls out Shirosakura and nearly stabs Hayate with the sword. (It seems that it was actually Hina earlier.) Hina gets Hayate to sit on the floor and explain why he asked. Hayate then thinks to himself that he was sure Hina would do it if he explained, but he isn't sure anymore. Hinagiku is angered by his silence and decides to let him explain at lunch so he can go to class. (I like how the sword is stuck in the desk the whole time.) Cut back to the tea party/lunch, where Miki objects to Risa's plan of using Hina and says that the kiss must be with someone who loves Hayate. Aika then shows up (yay, more Aika) and says that the love plan is not very good as Hayate is so flawed and nobody would fall for him. Kayura pops up in a bush and says that Aika is wrong and that there are people twisted enough to fall for Hayate. Somewhere else, Kaoru is shown asking Yukiji if she would like to have a meal with him later. Yukiji isn't impressed with food, so she asks him why she would do that and Kaoru responds by asking if she would go for drinks. (Good job Kaoru, you made it into an episode this season too.) Yukiji likes booze so she says yes to that question and says she wants fancy booze. Kaoru says no fancy booze and he will only buy if it isn't too expensive. Both he and Yukiji end up celebrating their luck by dancing around. A little ways away, Kayura is shown taking pictures of Kaoru and Yukiji with Chiharu standing around with Kayura and Hayate shown in the background. (So this occurred just before Hayate asked Hina for a kiss.) Kayura shows the picture as evidence for her argument and Hina seems surprised that Kaoru likes Yukiji, everyone else is surprised Hina didn't know. (Hina and Hayate are quite the pair in that regard.) In a bookstore in town, Kaoru is shown looking at an alcohol magazine. (He's probably planning ahead what Yukiji is limited to.) Chiharu shows up and tells Kaoru that she is buying a book that just came out when Kaoru asks what she is there for. Kaoru then heads out and Chiharu thinks about the dream she had while she looks at the book she came to buy. (Apparently she had the same dream as the others.) Back at the lunch, Hayate thinks about his own dream probably being true while Risa elaborates upon the Izumi kissing Hayate plan in the background. Hayate then tells the girls that he is leaving and Isumi tells Saku that they should leave too. Hayate returns to the dream world where he asks why a curse is coming from the Kurotsubaki as it was taken care of in Las Vegas and the clock says that something else is happening now. A doorbell rings and the tanuki goes to the door while Hayate tells the clock to remove the curse and the clock says that only Hayate can do that and tells him he doesn't have time to waste in dreams. Hayate then says he has been working hard and a scene with him fighting something while in female clothing is shown. The clock says that is the wrong type of thing and Hayate agrees.
Hayate is then shown (out of dream) running down the road and thinking that a simple kiss is going to be pretty hard to get as he sees himself as hard to love. Ayumu then comes up and begins talking to Hayate. Hayate is surprised as she should be in class, but she says that she couldn't concentrate after the dream that morning. She then notes, while running up to a dent in the side rail, that they are at the place they first met. (This is a really nice reference to earlier times, when things weren't so complicated and weird.) Hayate then thinks about it and remembers the confession he received from Ayumu back in January. He then wonders if her feelings have changed and considers asking Ayumu for a kiss. He is about to ask when Ayumu says she has a saying for him: If it's to help someone, there is no other choice. Hayate realizes that Ayumu had the kiss dream and is a bit thrown off as he sees his chance, but Ayumu is too intense which unnerves him. Hayate is still thinking when Fumi shows up to point out that Hayate and Ayumu are close so they must be about to kiss and Sharna says that that possibility need not be true. Hayate and Ayumu now part and Fumi seems angry that they didn't kiss. (I have to say that it was a combination of Ayumu and Fumi that doomed the kiss.) Hayate returns to the dream world and compiles a list of failed kisses. The tanuki asks if he ever kissed a girl before and he says he did in kindergarten as he writes "A-tan" on his failed list. It is shown that Alice used a stun gun on him when he tried to make a move on her. (Understandably, as she is six years old and he is sixteen. He would have to magically de-age himself before he would avoid becoming a sex offender by making moves on Alice.) Cut back to the dream where the tanuki calls him incompetent and the clock looks at the list which includes: Hinagiku, Ayumu, Maria, Alice, Ruka, and Chiharu. (Chiharu is a big surprise to me.) Ruka is shown rejecting him by leaving in a van and Chiharu (as Haru) is shown asking what he is thinking. (It seems that Hayate knows that Haru and Chiharu are the same person.) Hayate then asks the freaks why Maria didn't have the kiss dream. They say they were scared of Maria. Maria is shown watching the television where someone is interviewing Ruka about kissing which causes Maria to think about why Hayate was asking about kissing earlier. Hayate then walks in and asks where Nagi is and Maria says that she is still in bed, but she seems to be having a nice dream so Nagi can be scolded later. Hayate thinks about how the curse is real and something about a time limit when his thinking is interrupted by Maria getting close and asking if he is alright. Hayate says he is okay and her kind of surprise attack get Hayate to think that a surprise attack in the guise of an accident may be the best way to get a kiss from Maria. He begins his attack, but pulls out at the last second and pokes Maria's face instead while thinking how he can't force a kiss. Hayate then decides to go out for a bit and Maria thinks about how it has been a very strange day. Hayate is shown running and thinking that he needs a kiss soon. At a restaurant, Miki gives a speech about how a kiss needs love while Hinagiku fails to get a hold of Hayate and Ayumu thinks about how no one has seen him since some time. (She is probably thinking about lunch.) A while earlier, Hinagiku is shown walking home from school. A little before Hina gets home, Hayate's attempt on Alice is shown and Hayate leaves before Hinagiku gets back. Hina enters her room and contemplates Hayate's disappearance for awhile before reaching no conclusion. We cut back to Maria who watches Nagi who sleeps and makes comments about how the boss is tough, while Maria tries to call Hayate. (I don't really see how there is a curse on Nagi at this moment as she seems to be doing in her dream what she normally would do.) Maria then calls Hinagiku and tells her about what is happening with Nagi, which gets Hinagiku to thinking again. At an earlier time, Hina is shown asking Hayate what the kiss question is about. (Now we are back at the beginning of lunch.) Isumi and Saku (who seems to just be taking the day off) show up and Isumi says she feels an awkward presence. She then says that she has actually picked up an ominous presence with her hair and asks Hayate if anything weird has happened recently. He then tells her about his dream where he was threatened by a clock and tanuki. Isumi finds it odd, Saku asks if it really is odd, and Isumi says that if other people have had strange dreams then something ominous likely is going on. The Three Amiga then come up and say they had a kissing dream and Isumi observes that only troublesome people seem to be having weird dreams. Hayate then thinks to himself that things are more serious than he thought and thinks about the time limit, that he must get a kiss before midnight or else he will be separated from Nagi forever. He then asks what that means and the clock says he doesn't know. The doorbell rings and the tanuki complains as it flies up to the ceiling, pulls what seems to be a light cord and the walls of the dream room fall away, showing Nagi sitting playing games and asking for nourishment. The clock and tanuki then restate the conditions for breaking the curse and Hayate wakes up battling some sort of leaf pile thing that was shown earlier. It is revealed that the leaf pile thing is actually Yukiji and Hayate seems to have come up with a plan to take advantage of a drunk Yukiji for the kiss. (A weird plan and we still don't know where he got the clothes he's wearing. I like the background music though, reminds me of Professor Layton.) Cut to Nagi sleeping in her room with the moon high and then the word "intermission" appears on screen. (It appears that this is only the first half of the finale then.)
Afterward is the ending theme featuring Kayura vocally and essentially everybody visually. (Kayura shows up at the beginning and towards the end and the whole sequence looks like manga pages, so it is kind of Kayura's own end.)
This episode wasn't too bad, but I can't really comment on the quality of the story too much as it seems the next episode will finish this one. I have to say that the art quality is still pretty good, so that is one plus to the episode. The music work is also quite good in my opinion as it shows up at fitting times when no one is speaking or a monologue is happening. One quick comment on story though before I end my comments: the tension in the story really seems to be coming from the time skips, which could be bad or good depending on who you are, but at least the staff seems to have the timeline straight in their heads as references are made to help put the timeline together in chronological order.
This ends write-up eleven of Cuties. Look forward to the final write-up soon, probably on Wednesday, which will end this episode's story and the season. (There is no pre-given title as just a phone ringing is shown.)
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