Aho Girl: Episode 5 (Review)

By: EyeSpyeAlexSummer is in full-swing over where I am on the east coast. Hot, humid days lead into less hot, still humid nights. What better way to escape the heat than by locking myself in my air-conditioned apartment and watching anime! Thankfully I have my weekly allotment of Aho Girl to keep me entertained. Missed my last review? Catch it here!The latest two episodes of Aho Girl provide us with our first two-parter of the series. It’s summer vacation, and Yoshiko is ready to play all day. Yoshiko kicks off the summer by seeing a movie with A-kun and his sister, Ruri. After both become extremely emotional, A-kun knocks them out and brings them home. Ruri believes that she dreamed the whole thing while completing her homework. Meanwhile, Yoshiko jumps to the obvious answer: she learned to teleport.Later on, Yoshiko learns that she’s won a contest to take her friends to a resort on the beach. She rounds up her friends (and the Moral President), the group goes shopping for swimsuits. While at the shop, Sayaka takes A-kun on a guilt trip, convincing him to come along on their trip. He begrudgingly agrees, and all seems well...until Yoshie shows up. Yoshie, worrying that the President will steal away A-kun from Yoshiko, has come to sabotage the President’s swimsuit. She defaces the bathing suit and is prepared to cut it up before A-kun steps in. Together, he and Ryuichi scare off Yoshie and head to the beach.While at the beach, the group enjoys typical activities: swimming, watermelon, giving your friends sand genitalia. Well, maybe the last one is less normal. To Yoshiko though, it is the perfect way to take attention away from the Moral President’s...endowments, so to speak. Endowments seem to be a hot topic, and later on while in the hot springs, the two discuss A-kun. As they try to sneak a peek, they are thwarted by a fully covered A-kun. Better luck next time ladies!An episode of Aho Girl wouldn’t be complete without a moment of wholesomeness. As Yoshiko leaves to visit her grandparents, she decides to leave her dog behind to spend time with A-kun. This way, neither will get lonely. Angry at first, A-kun soon realizes that the dog is intelligent, even more so than Yoshiko. The two enjoy a movie together, with the dog’s emotional range shining through. This human-dog bromance is interrupted when Yoshiko decides to return home early. As Yoshiko and her dog leave, he raises his paw in homage to the movie he and A-kun watched. A-kun realizes what we all already know: dogs are awesome.I wouldn’t consider an anime series to be complete without the typical beach episode. While Aho Girl did have some of the typical tropes (small bikinis, hot springs), it was done without feeling like fan service. Yoshiko’s innocence and stupidity transforms sexual moments into those of comedy. It’s hard to have drama or a tense moment when the main character thinks it’s amazing that male bodyparts change.Additionally, we had some character development which helps keep the show fresh. Thanks to Sayaka’s guilt trip, A-kun has come to realize he does like having friends. At least, he seems to prefer not being alone. His bonding time with his sister and Yoshiko’s dog, also shows he is caring. I am interested in seeing if he will admit he values Yoshiko’s friendship, or anyone else’s besides Sayaka. We’ll just have to keep watching to see!New episodes of Aho Girl air Tuesdays on Crunchyroll.[yasr_multiset setid=11]