Meganebu! - 02

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The second episode of Meganebu! proves that an anime doesn’t need an overly complicated plot to have meaningful characters that fans will care about.

Meganebu! is clearly going to keep the X-ray glasses as a running plot point, which is fine.  I know there are fans out there who take issue with their goal of wanting to create glasses that will let them see through women’s clothing, but here’s the thing: this is a goal they will likely never accomplish.  On top of that, the point of the show isn’t the Glasses Club accomplishing their goal.  The point is to illustrate the relationship between the members of the club.

And so far, those relationships are being highlighted really well.  The first half of this episode focuses on how Hayato came to the Glasses Club and on why he wears fake glasses in the first place.  There’s also some focus on the little rivalry between Hayato and Mitsuki, the latter asserting that the former shouldn’t be part of the club since he only wears fake glasses.  I wonder how serious the whole family tree thing was, or if it was something the upperclassmen came up with on the fly.

The second half of the episode focuses on how Yukiya and Akira met each other.  Apparently, Yukiya was bullied as a kid for supposedly being a bad luck charm.  Akira met him one day after he’d been bullied and laughed with him about being clumsy.  (It’s hard to put into brief words how that exchange works in the show, so watch it if you want to get the full impact of this scene.)

The two halves of this episode are united by Akira.  The anecdotes about each of these characters’ pasts serve to show how Akira brings people together and doesn’t judge people.  He allows Hayato into the Glasses Club despite the fact that he wears fake glasses, and he becomes friends with Yukiya despite the fact that other kids their age think he’s bad luck.  And this is obviously why he’s the president of the Glasses Club.

(There are no episode previews for this anime, but there's a short segment at the end of each episode that has some silly glasses-related information. So I'll include images from those with each episode review.)

Meganebu! Episode 2 Post-credits Segment

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