Episode 8

The eighth episode of the anime.

High School Boys and Motoharu’s Older Sister
Motoharu and Mino are walking to school one morning. Mino calls out Motoharu’s name as if looking for him, and he responds that he’s right there. She then asks him if he’s ever gone ‘Zukyun!’. After a pause, he tells her he doesn’t even know what it means. Seeing her annoyed, he asks if it’s the sound of someone getting shot through the heart.

Mino says it isn’t and adds that it’s the sound of a heart getting pierced, causing Motoharu to remark that he was right. He wonders out loud why he had to discuss things like this with his sister. She tells him she’s never felt such an emotion, and wonders why. As if expecting her trademark question, he tells her they should have curry that night. Not allowing him to change the subject, she loudly asks him why she’d never felt it.

Exasperated, Motoharu tells her she makes fun of other people too much. He suggests that she should stop that, and try to close the distance between herself and others. A bit subdued, Mino asks him if it was really so. The two then walk past someone with a Shiba Inu on a leash. Mino can’t take her eyes off it as she walks by, and Motoharu slowly raises his hand. The dog makes eye contact with her at the last second, and overwhelmed by this, she experiences the ‘Zukyun!’ she was talking about.

Realizing that it was time to play the tsukkomi, Motoharu moves as if to strike her.

Opening Theme Song “Shiny Tale” – by Mix Speakers Inc.

High School Boys and Mitsuo’s Troubles
In a park at sunset, Mitsuo is sitting on a swing and Hidenori and Yoshitake are standing next to him. Yoshitake tells a downcast Mitsuo to cheer up, and Hidenori tells him it’s not that big a deal. He says nothing. Yoshitake adds that there’s nothing he could do about the situation now, and Hidenori suggests going to karaoke to improve his mood. Mitsuo declines, and slowly says he doesn’t know what to do anymore, leaving them silent.

Hidenori then says he personally felt it was a small matter. Yoshitake tells Mitsuo to cheer up, and says they’d be leaving. The two walk away, and Mitsuo is alone. He looks at the ground and remains on the swing. Minutes turn to hours, and the sun moves out of sight, but he doesn’t move. It becomes dark, and street lights turn on. Mitsuo now sits in a gloomy spot of light, still lonely and silent.

Suddenly, a leg appears behind him and kicks him hard in the back, sending him sprawling in the dirt. An enraged Yoshitake asks him how long he’s going to keep moping, and adds that it’s been four hours already. Hidenori adds that they’d been watching the whole time, and asks him just how he could keep at it that long, telling him to get over it already. Yoshitake says that it was strange to say it as a high-schooler himself, but he hated high-schoolers being this dramatic.

Turning away from them, Mitsuo looks despondently at the ground again and reminds them that his parents found his porn stash. With a quivering voice, he says it’s a huge deal, but they yell at him to just die.

Intermission
A notice says “Today is Hidenori’s birthday, but we don’t know what month or day it is”. This is followed by “We don’t even know Tadakuni’s last name, but it doesn’t bother us”. Yoshitake announces that the show should have been brought to the viewers by the following sponsors. Tadakuni, agitated, clarifies that it really is.

High School Boys and Manga
Hidenori is seated at his desk in his room, while Yoshitake is reading a book on the floor. Hidenori tells Yoshitake he’d been reading manga recently, and that all the stories involved kids around their age being thrown into intense battles. He says that in contrast, nothing seemed to happen in their lives, and he wondered whether it was okay that way. For that reason, he’s drawn a manga, and asks Yoshitake to read it, handing him a few sheets.

Yoshitake goes through the first couple, then points out that Hidenori’s overusing a type of gag. Hidenori interrupts and tells him to leave the personal attacks aside, and focus on the manga. Yoshitake doesn’t seem enthusiastic, and tells him he isn’t really fond of that genre, but Hidenori insists that he continue.

In response, Yoshitake says he doesn’t really get it. Interrupting again, Hidenori says he’ll have to be more specific than that. His friend sighs and points out one scene with punchlines as weird. He says that one character clearly punches the other in the face, and tells him it was a situation for the police to get involved.

Hidenori unconvincingly tries to defend himself by saying it’s a manga, but Yoshitake is adamant that it’s too weird. Offended, Hidenori smacks him across the face while yelling at him to shut it. He labels him unfit to understand his manga, and knees him in the nose. Telling him to scram, he then storms out of the room.

Yoshitake picks himself up slowly, with wet eyes and blood dripping from his nose. As if moved by his friend’s emotion, he cheers him on and vows to support him.

Transition scene: Many fights later, the duo’s faces are bloodied and swollen, but Yoshitake is still reading Hidenori’s manga. Struggling to speak, they mumble the show’s name.

High School Boys and Balconies
A high-school boy enters his balcony and calls out to the house opposite him. A girl from West High shows up in the opposite balcony, and he asks her to return his DVD. She says she hasn’t watched it yet, and he tells her to return it if she isn’t planning to. She protests that she would, and he says he’s sure she wouldn’t. This back-and-forth goes on, with Hidenori serving as a bystander on the street below. The boy is his classmate who was absent and he’d come to deliver some handouts, but he’s struck by jealousy seeing him practically living out a manga.

Hidenori trudges home, still jealous. That night, a girl is sitting alone in her room and studying, when a loud thud startles her. She runs to her balcony, and sees Hidenori climbing over the edge. Recognizing him as the guy next door, she asks him what’s wrong, still startled. He apologizes for disturbing her so late, then pauses before asking her to lend him a DVD. He adds that any one would do.

After a silence, she slowly points across to his balcony and asks if he’d jumped all the way across, saying that they were five meters apart. Disregarding this, Hidenori asks her for a DVD again. In a rather uncomfortable tone, she points out that they’d never really talked before, so it was too weird. Hidenori briefly looks disappointed, then perks up again. Pretending not to have heard anything she said, he asks for a DVD yet again.

The girl snaps and yells at him to get out. A huge thud is heard again.

Transition scene: Hidenori’s neighbor looks over her balcony to see him in an awkward position after falling and crash-landing in her yard. Dazed, he says the show’s name.

High School Boys and Convenience Stores
Hidenori is checking out at a convenience store. The cashier picks up one of his items to scan it, but the barcode reader keeps flashing an error for some reason, making him flustered. He keeps trying again, and a sympathetic Hidenori silently cheers him on, deciding that he wouldn’t mind waiting. To the cashier’s relief, he is then successfully able to scan Hidenori’s chewing gum and canned coffee, the total for which is 246 yen.

Hidenori holds out a 1000 yen note. The cashier takes it and pauses, then startles Hidenori by saying the change is 54 yen. He is about to correct him, when he suddenly notices that the line behind him had become full. Anxious all of a sudden, he wonders if he’ll cause the cashier to panic by correcting him now, thereby making it harder for him to deal with the line. Hidenori goes to the extent of worrying that he may even quit his job in despair.

He looks around for help and sees an older employee whom he assumes is the manager. Seeing the manager’s scary expression, he worries again that if he asked him for help, the cashier would be scolded and quit his job. To his relief, the manager opens up the line next to him and says he’d handle those customers. Hidenori prepares to correct the cashier at this juncture. However, the manager’s barcode fails as well, and he gets flustered. Hidenori notices the ‘Trainee’ badge he’s wearing just like the other cashier and collapses, exasperated that he wasn’t really the manager.

Transition scene: Tadakuni is later seen dealing with the same cashier, and (possibly having an issue with the change) being startled as well. He announces the show’s name.

High School Boys and Towers
Hidenori, Motoharu and Tadakuni’s younger sister are looking up at a tree. Hidenori asks the girl how it had happened, and wondered if something good had befallen her. It turns out her bag is stuck on a branch far up the tree. Motoharu remarks that she’s probably the excitable sort, and the sister turns red but doesn’t respond. He tells Hidenori that they’re stuck here only because he wanted to go to the convenience store. Hidenori says they have to try retrieving the bag now.

He prepares to climb on Tadakuni’s sister’s shoulders and warns her he’s heavy. She angrily asks him why she’s on the bottom, and he tells her it’s because he doesn’t want to hear her accusing him of looking up her skirt. Denying that she’d do that, she stands up anyway with him on her shoulders. However, even at full stretch, they’re nowhere close, and she smacks him hard across the face in irritation.

Motoharu then says he’ll join in. They try out a three-tier arrangement built on the previous one, with him now sitting on Hidenori’s shoulders. From the bottom, Tadakuni’s sister yells at them that it would fail, but they try regardless, and the boys are amazed when she actually succeeds with a lot of effort. However, Motoharu is just out of reach, and they lose balance and fall down.

The trio stares at the tree again. Hidenori says there’s no other go now, and Motoharu says they’ll throw stuff at it till it falls. Tadakuni’s sister doesn’t appear too confident, and is proven right moments later. The boys had chosen their own bags as projectiles, which are now also stuck up the tree. They gape at the tree sheepishly.

Transition scene: Hidenori and Motoharu stand to the side looking miffed, while Tadakuni’s sister presumably deals with the problem her own way. Motoharu says the show’s name.

High School Boys and Cakes
The trio are in Tadakuni’s room. For once, Yoshitake is the first to speak, as he asks Hidenori what he wants to do the most right then. He wonders why he’s being asked that, but ponders over it anyway. After a while, he says that just once, he’d really like to go all out and pee in his pants. Tadakuni appears very uncomfortable hearing this, and Yoshitake, also put off, asks if there’s anything else. A little let down, Hidenori answers that he’d like to eat an entire cake by himself, which gets Yoshitake excited.

A little later, a fancy cake is set before Hidenori, who is surprised and asks what’s happening. Yoshitake says it’s his birthday, so he should enjoy. Tearing up, Hidenori is impressed with the act they put up, and exclaims that he has great friends before biting into a piece However, he immediately doubles over and apologizes that he can’t handle sweet things. A rattled Yoshitake goes straight for his eyes, but Hidenori blocks him in the nick of time and tells him there’s something else he’s wanted to do.

He steps back and says it’s a pie fight. Yoshitake immediately hurls the entire cake into his face, and Tadakuni is relieved that it didn’t go to waste.

Transition scene: Hidenori sits alone on a bench with cake bits on his face. He says the show’s name.

High School Boys and Horoscopes
Main article: Chapter 52

Hidenori and Yoshitake are walking together. Yoshitake, reading the fortune-telling section in a magazine, tells Hidenori it was a terrible day for Virgos like them. He adds that they may even die, but Hidenori doesn’t believe in fortune-telling and tells him not to be stupid. Exactly then, a hornet lands on his mouth. The boys eye each other in silence.

Without warning, Hidenori starts walking towards Yoshitake, who backs away in alarm and asks him what he’s doing. He tries to fend him off, but Hidenori grabs his shoulders and presses him to the wall. He then rams his face into Yoshitake’s, squishing the bug between their mouths. As it falls dead, the two gather themselves together, with Yoshitake cursing Hidenori. He apologizes and says he panicked. The two then gasp in horror on seeing Motoharu walk by.

As he walks by, they tell him to wait and frantically try to explain things. Motoharu doesn’t stop and assures them he wouldn’t tell anyone. Walking behind him, they continue trying to clear it up. Motoharu then stops and fishes in his pocket. He turns around with 5000 yen, and this just confuses the two who yell and ask him why he’s paying them.

Motoharu tells them he’s glad that the bug was in between them, because now it wasn’t exactly a first kiss. The two glower at him, and Hidenori angrily tells him he should have just admitted that he understood the situation, taking him out with an elbow to the face.

Later, Yoshitake remarks that it might just be the worst day ever. Hidenori snaps and shouts at him that it was just a coincidence. Just then, another hornet lands on his mouth. He grabs Yoshitake again, who asks him with tears in his eyes why he’s approaching him. Suddenly, they notice that Karasawa is nearby.

Karasawa wordlessly reaches into his bag and brings out a can of bug spray. As he blasts them both with it, they conclude that fortune-telling was scary.

Transition scene: Later that day, Hidenori sits on a bench, nervously looking at the large number of pigeons flocking around him. He shakily says the show’s name.

High School Boys and 100
Motoharu is keeping a lookout at home for some kind of creature which he states is leagues above humans in almost all aspects but for concentration. He intends to lure it out by making it tired of waiting, and strike at that moment. Right then, he sees it moving towards him, yells in horror and sprays the floor with something. The creature is revealed to be a Chinese red-headed centipede.

Motoharu continues his monologue, saying that he used a freezing spray instead of insecticide. As he grimaces and picks up the insect with chopsticks, he states that this is because the insecticide would take 8 seconds to start working, in which time the centipede could hide itself. This would be a problem because it could either survive or die, and a dead centipede was said to attract other centipedes. On the other hand, the freezing spray would act in 3 seconds, and he could kill it outside.

He does exactly this in his garden and re-enters, trying to think of ways to expel all of them from the house. To determine the entry point, he walks around, knowing full well that they could enter even through 3 mm gaps. Motoharu speculates that the west window which opened to the forest is the most likely source, just as Mino opens it to get some air. Sighing, he notes that they shouldn’t open it completely in this season, or many would invade.

Turning around, Motoharu finds out it’s already happened, seeing three large centipedes crawling about. He screams in terror.

Ending Theme Song
“Ohisama” – by Amesaki Annainin

Theme Song
High School Girls are Funky Jingle

Ramen
Main article: Chapter 51.1

Several students are gathered inside Central High in front of the notice board, where the exam results have been pinned up. Yanagin appears behind Nago and congratulates her for getting first place. She continues, saying that she herself was second but that studying wasn’t her specialty. Yanagin warns her not to get too happy, and issues a challenge to Nago in a field at which she claims to excel – karate.

The two face off outdoors and moments later, Yanagin is keeling over after a devastating blow. She throws up multiple times and almost compliments her opponent’s strength, before catching herself and saying she didn’t feel anything. She then says that she had actually quit karate in middle school and that the field she actually excelled at is eating ramen.

Later, at a ramen store, she tells Nago the rules – whoever finishes the jumbo ramen first wins. Nago downs the entire bowl in a flash, leaving her opponent reeling. Severely wounded, Yanagin tries to avoid humiliation by admitting it was all part of a bigger plan, but Nago cuts her short and asks her whom she was supposed to be. Realising that Nago doesn’t even know her, Yanagin is in shock.

Transition scene: The HSGF trio’s silhouettes are shown posing, and their figures are seen shortly after, when the screen lights up. They loudly announce the show’s name together.

Skirts
Main article: Chapter 51.2

The trio are joined by Yanagin’s senior at their usual gathering place, and she remarks that their skirts are too long. Ikushima and Yanagin seem to agree somewhat, and Habara wears a defeated look when the senior says they should make them shorter. After they pull them up a little, Ikushima asks if it was enough and Yanagin says it looked manga-esque.

The senior turns around and chides them. Pulling her skirt up ridiculously high, she says that they should do it right and push societal limits. Ikushima immediately calls the look idiotic, but she and Yanagin follow suit. They ask for feedback, and Habara can only stare in shock when Yanagin’s senior herself says it’s stupid.

The senior then appears unconfident, reluctantly asking if her ideas were wrong after all. Yanagin reassures her and tells her to be confident. Ikushima then tells the others it was almost time for the joke – that Habara’s brother would see them like this on coming home. The senior brushes it aside, saying that he’s a nice guy who’d laugh it off if he saw their underwear. The others are aghast at this reaction, however.

As expected, Habara’s brother shows up, but he is unexpectedly with three of his friends from school, who all pause in shock when they see what’s going on. The three girls cover themselves and scream in embarrassment.

Outro
A notice says that next time, “High School Boys and Drop-kicks” would be seen, among other sketches. Hidenori announces that the next episode would feature the second summer vacation. Yoshitake says “Despite the show being brought to the viewers by the following sponsors…” and Tadakuni interrupts telling him he’d better be glad it was.

A second notice says that the next episode would uncover Habara’s past, before realizing that it’s the preview for the HSGF part. It adds that the uncensored centipede episode might make it to the BD and DVD versions.

End Screen
The end screen features eight panels of Yoshitake, with the send-off message “See You Next Week”.

Characters
In order of appearance:
 * Motoharu
 * Mino
 * Mitsuo
 * Hidenori
 * Yoshitake
 * Hidenori's classmate
 * Hidenori's classmate's neighbor
 * Hidenori's neighbor
 * Store employees
 * Tadakuni
 * Tadakuni's younger sister
 * Karasawa
 * Nago
 * Yanagin
 * Yanagin's senior
 * Ikushima
 * Habara

Trivia

 * Differences between the manga and anime:
 * The end scenes of the following shorts are manga-only:
 * High School Boys and Motoharu’s Older Sister
 * High School Boys and Mitsuo’s Troubles
 * High School Boys and 100
 * High School Boys and Balconies – the anime version is slightly different. Hidenori doesn’t fall off in the manga.
 * In 'Towers', the setting in the manga is in a children’s playground, but has been changed to a park in the anime. Also in the manga, the second tower isn’t shown falling down.
 * In “Cakes”, the manga states that Yoshitake and Tadakuni took an hour to arrange for the cake.
 * In 'Cakes', the calendar in Tadakuni’s room is briefly seen, and both months shown have 31 days, making them either Dec/Jan or Jul/Aug. Assuming the calendar is correct, and combined with the information that Hidenori is a Virgo, it places his birthday roughly in the last week of August. Incidentally, the calendar is not shown in the manga, so his birthday cannot be narrowed down using manga-only information.
 * Fake brands:
 * Yon Piece.png 'Manga', Yoshitake is once again seen reading 'Ganigani Magazine'.
 * In ‘Cakes’, ‘Yon Piece’ volume 6 reappears. However, the cover is different and the main character's top hat colour is now changed to black with a white sash.
 * In ‘Horoscopes’, Yoshitake is seen reading ‘DK magazine’.
 * The hornet species that perched on Hidenori in ‘Horoscopes’ is the Asian Giant Hornet. It is known for its dangerous sting and is responsible for 30-40 deaths per year in Japan.
 * The hornet has its own place on the Character Popularity Poll, at position 73 with 3 votes.
 * In “Balconies”, Hidenori's classmate and his neighbour resemble Karasawa and Habara respectively (as they do in the manga). However, the house designs don't match.
 * In “HSGF: Skirts”, Yanagin’s senior initially pulls up her skirt near her stomach. A few seconds later, however, it is shown at around chest level.