At the start of this episode, Minami borrows from Izumi a golf-themed isekai light novel titled “Genius Middle School Pro Golfer Transferred to Another World; Hole-in-one Showdown with the Demon King at the 18th Hole” (that title). You know you’ve watched too much anime when the concept of a pro golfer getting isekai’d doesn’t sound the least bit ludicrous. Hell, I’m surprised no one’s thought of it yet. I doubt this will actually happen but imagine if this episode is secretly a backdoor pilot for a gold-themed isekai. There’s actually clips of a presumed anime adaptation in the episode so who knows, maybe the production committee is testing some waters.
On a more serious note, Minami concludes from reading the light novel that she’s lacking a special technique to her golfing so she decides to develop one at the driving range. This catches the attention of the three old guys, who decide to show Minami their dream techniques inspired by media they enjoyed in their youth. This scene go down as one of my favorites in the entire show. For one, I really like the retro vibe. A lot of details and even entire frames are drawn as if they’re from an old school anime. There’s even a era appropriate theme song made just for this one scene. Seeing as the old guys are reliving their childhoods, these stylistic choices are perfect. My only nitpick is that the scene isn’t animated in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Second, there’s the obvious punchline where these men break a joint or two as they attempt their techniques, resulting in each of them getting sent to the hospital. And to add insult to injury, none of their techniques even work in the end. It may be the cliche joke to do with elderly characters but it nevertheless got me laughing for a good couple of minutes.
Despite seeing three friends fail miserably at executing a special technique, Minami continues to crack at developing one for herself with the help of Haruka and Ayaka. There’s a couple minutes of Minami practicing golf in general so I kind of was expecting her to not have a technique until the end of the episode. Surprisingly however, she does create one before the eye catch, the “Penguin Slider”. Basically, she swings at the ball so that it flies close to the ground, kind of like how a penguin slides across some ice. As for the name, it more or less comes from Minami’s penguin-themed headcover for her utility, nicknamed Penkichi.
For the rest of the episode, Ayaka sets up an augmented reality golf game for her and the others to play. Most of the missions in the game take the form of eccentric mini golf courses such as a desert made out of sugar and a cyberspace resembling Shibuya Crossing. From the second level onwards, the episode stops showing the real world and instead presents the game as if the girls are actually in it. That’s a perfectly fine stylistic choice but it is a little humorous how the episode ends without “transporting” the girls back. For all I know, they’re still stuck in the Matrix.
My favorite part about this segment is all the frustrating nonsense that appears to be a part of the game. For example, the sugar desert level has a bunch of ants that are programmed to steal a golf ball and move it into a hole in their ant hill. The only way the girls can clear the level is by wasting enough golf balls that it fills up the ant hill and the ants have no choice but to let the ball reach the actual hole in the course. It’s the kind of mechanic you could find in a sports game and it allows the show to offer creative obstacles for the girls that they wouldn’t otherwise encounter in their usual hangouts. This scenario also allows Minami to play on more even footing with her friends. Like, she still does the usual screwups but Haruka and Ayaka being better than her at golf kind of doesn’t matter as much this time when the game’s mechanics and RNG messes with them.
I’m not entirely sure if I buy Minami beating the final level with her new Penguin Slider technique. Like, is that actually a testament to her new skill level or does she simply manage to cheese the game? Still, I suppose the episode had to do something with the Penguin Slider after introducing it and given that Minami loves video games, it’s satisfying she’s the one who ultimately beats the game for everyone.
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