Chio's School Road

Episode 9

After the previous episode, I was hoping that Chio's School Road would come into this week firing on all cylinders. Instead, the series just kind of putters along here. Chio forgets to study for a test and ends up making a desperate prayer for divine intervention at a local temple. She does end up getting some unexpected assistance from Kushitori's homeless kabaddi trainer, but the relevance and value of that help are questionable at best. Later, Chio's wistful ode to a water pipe causes Manana to wonder if there's any romantic hope for her scatterbrained friend. Enter Andou, whose frequent and “coincidental” appearances look increasingly deliberate in Manana's eyes. Is romance brewing between Chio and the ex-biker? Considering their mutual idiocy, probably not.

Aside from a few mildly amusing moments, Chio's temple makeover is kind of underwhelming from a comedic standpoint. Many of the gags fall into an awkward middle ground where they lack the nuance to be clever but aren't far enough over the top to create humor through sheer absurdity. Where many of the best storylines in Chio's School Road start with ideas that feel unique to the series, this routine just comes across as the kind of generic fare that could be found in any comedy. As is often the case with this show's weaker material, it's the details that are the saving grace of this premise. Whether it's the variety of dumb-looking wigs on the table or the sudden shift in lighting during Chio's dance scene, many of the little side jokes end up being funnier than the makeover process itself. While that's certainly better than nothing, good seasoning can only do so much to improve a bland dish.

That same issue crops up in the episode's second half, where the central narrative of Chio and Manana constantly running into Andou is perhaps the least memorable part of the story. Once again, most of the laughs come from brief tangents and offhand references; Chio's obsession with the water pipe is both amusing and very much in-character, and throwing Chio's made-up face from the first half into Manana's grim vision of the future is a clever touch. Despite all that, Andou's futile attempts at winning Chio's affections are just too uninspired to leave any lasting impression. If the core joke is that all of his ideas are terrible, then the series needs to go all-in on making those ideas as laughably dumb as possible. By keeping Andou's schemes vaguely plausible, Chio's School Road loses the deliberate insanity that makes its better episodes worth watching.

Both of these segments illustrate an issue that has held the show back at several points throughout this season: there are just too many times where Chio's School Road doesn't make the most out of a decent premise. Whether the problem is a single bad decision detracting from an otherwise good storyline or simply a lack of good jokes, the series often feels too rough around the edges. The issues are rarely bad enough to derail an episode or even a scene, but so many of them seem like they could have been ironed out with an extra round of revisions to the script. While that may be an issue with the original manga rather than this adaptation, I can't help wondering how much funnier Chio's School Road might be if the writing were just a little more polished.

After last week's improvements, this episode is a step backward into blander territory. Neither half manages to capture the humor or energy of the show's best moments, and the episode in general just feels too ordinary. None of this material is particularly bad, but too little of it is particularly good. It just coasts along on the back of a few amusing moments, and that's not what a series like Chio's School Road should be doing. The characters' plans need to be bigger and dumber, and they need to unravel in a more spectacular fashion.

Rating: B-

Chio's School Road is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.