Episode 9

High School Boys and Older Brothers and Sisters
Hidenori, Yoshitake and their respective siblings are at a park. Yoshitake’s sister grabs Yūsuke’s arm and announces that the two of them were dating. After a brief silence, all three boys yell in horror. Yoshitake shoves Yūsuke, asking him why he was acting surprised, and he responds that he’d never heard of it before either. Turning to Yoshitake’s sister, he asks her why she’d said that.

She tells him it's okay, since they were already friends. Yūsuke draws away from her screaming no. She then calls him selfish and a ‘herbivore male’, to which he responds that he doesn’t eat ‘poisoned meat’. At this point, the younger siblings intervene. Hidenori says he has no objection to it, since one should be free to love anyone (which Yūsuke doesn’t take well), but asks Yoshitake’s sister an important question – whether she’d really be willing to kiss Yūsuke.

The sister laughs as if hearing something absurd and says there’s no way she would, causing the three boys to stare at her in varying degrees of shock and disappointment. They huddle together and conclude that she’s out of her senses, perhaps due to desperation in not finding a boyfriend all summer. Yoshitake, clearly distressed, asks Yūsuke if he could do anything for her, saying that he didn’t want to see his own sister like this.

They decide that Yūsuke should find a friend of his to introduce her to. Looking through his contacts, however, he dismisses most of them on account of them being perverts. In the end, though, they decide that something’s better than nothing and Yūsuke calls up one friend. He greets him and gets straight to the point, telling him he could introduce him to a girl he knew.

The friend gets excited when he says she’s a high school senior, and is eager to meet her. He then asks Yūsuke if she’s cute. The three boys stop dead on hearing this question. After a pause, they turn in worry and look at Yoshitake’s sister, before frantically racking their brains. They have no idea what her face looks like.

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

High School Boys and Drop-Kicks
Hidenori, wearing casuals, is standing at a different-than-usual riverbank in the middle of the day. Looking around, he muses that he’d come to visit his maternal grandparents in the summer, but it was boring (albeit scenic) since the place was a remote one. Staring at the clear water, he suddenly hears someone shouting to him and turns around, only to see a girl flying straight at him. She kicks him straight in the back, and sends him crashing into the water as he yells ‘Tiro Finale!’.

Thrashing about, he eventually manages to stand up. He eyes the girl, who is short, tanned and has brown hair, and she looks back at him perplexed. After a short pause, she asks him who he is, and he angrily yells at her that that’s his line. Just then, a boy cycles up to the top of the bank. The girl starts when he addresses her as ‘Emi’ and asks what’s going on.

Later, on the bank, Hidenori learns that she mistook him for the other boy (her friend) and therefore kicked him. He wrings the water out of his shirt and says he’s not mad, but tells her to stand at the edge of the water. He then asks her friend to kick her in. The boy is taken aback and refuses, but Hidenori proclaims that there’s no forgiving those who kick others from behind. Facing Emi’s friend, he tells him he understood the situation and that he probably got kicked frequently by her, so he should get back at her.

Seeing him still indecisive, Hidenori grabs him by the collar and shoves him straight at Emi. The two tumble into the water. Emi sits up, annoyed, but stops in surprise on seeing her friend hunched over, sobbing. She asks him why he’s crying, and he responds that it was the first time anyone’s understood his situation that well. Walking into the water, Hidenori offers him a hand and a smile, and pulls him up. To Emi’s astonishment, he then gives him a warm hug. Turning around, Hidenori holds the boy’s hand and leads him out of the stream. Emi asks them where they’re going, but receives no answer. Looking at them, she tries to figure out what’s going on, and even wonders if it could be a ‘boy-meets-boy’ situation.

Intermission
An on-screen message says “Even though it was boy-meets-boy, this is not that kind of show”, followed by “If you’re an adult, you wonder these days why school summer breaks are so long”. Hidenori says that the show is brought to the viewers by the following sponsors with a ‘Zubabababan!’. Yoshitake follows through with another ‘Zubabababan!’.

High School Boys and the End of Summer
Emi is standing on a bridge at sunset, dressed in a red-and-yellow kimono. Looking out at the river, she recollects the summer gone by, and how she’d made a strange new friend in Hidenori. It started with her kicking him into a stream, but he ended up hanging out with her and her childhood friend (whose name is Kiyohiko). The three are shown hanging out and doing various activities together, and she reflects that he’s made the summer pretty fun. However, Hidenori would be leaving the next morning.

She sees Hidenori and Kiyohiko coming towards her, and scolds them for being late to the festival. Dipping into her purse, she fishes out some coins and tells Kiyohiko to go buy some juice for her. He points out that they’re supposed to be hurrying, but she insists and forces him to leave. Now alone with Hidenori, she blushes, because there’s something she wants to tell him before he leaves.

Emi tries to make small talk. Then, she gathers her nerves and asks Hidenori if he has a girlfriend. He says no, causing her even more nervousness. He then asks if there’s anything going on between her and Kiyohiko, startling her. She frantically tells him he’s just a friend, and he laughs, saying that it’s what he thought. Emi realizes she’s dangerously close now, and tries to spit it out. Just as she’s about to, Hidenori interrupts her.

He tells her he almost forgot something important. He then says his mother was actually estranged from the rest of her family, and he’s never been to a family gathering. For that reason, he had to visit his maternal grandparents on his own. Approaching Emi, he tells her he’d asked his grandmother… and the two of them were actually cousins.

Emi, totally distraught, can do nothing but stare at him. Later, she remarks that her summer got over without her being able to do anything.

High School Boys and Glasses
Motoharu, Mitsuo, Megane and Chapatsu are in the classroom, when Hidenori bursts in. Wearing his glasses on his head, he tells them anxiously that he’d lost them. Everyone but Mitsuo calls him careless and they ask him when he lost them. He says it was likely in the restroom where he’d come from. The five of them head there.

They all look around except for Mitsuo. After failing to find anything, Chapatsu asks Hidenori where he’d been before that, and he says he’d been to the vending machine on the first floor to get juice. Mitsuo, however, has seen the glasses on his head and is wondering all along as to what’s happening.

Near the vending machines, the four look around again and can’t find anything. Mitsuo thinks to himself that they obviously wouldn’t be able to, because the glasses were on his head. He wonders what’s going on, and surmises that the others are pulling a particular type of joke on Hidenori – in which they all know the truth and are pretending otherwise.

By this point, Hidenori tells the others that he’d been to the east wing before that. As they head there, Mitsuo walks behind them and notes that in such a setup, the timing of the punchline is crucial to the joke. Just then, however, Motoharu looks at Hidenori and pauses abruptly. He tells him that his glasses were on his head.

The three walking with him are all surprised, whereas Mitsuo is shell-shocked. He struggles to come to terms with the fact there was no joke, and that only he had noticed Hidenori’s glasses to begin with. Motoharu, Chapatsu and Megane chuckle at an embarrassed Hidenori, and Mitsuo inwardly screams at them for laughing undeservedly.

High School Boys and the Daily Lives of the Student Council
After school, North High’s student council is having a meeting in their room. The Vice President asks if there’s anything to report, and Karasawa reads out that the cafeteria was complaining about diners dropping drink cartons into the wrong slot. The VP asks if they needed to install new trash cans, but doesn’t write it down. Motoharu reads out the next item – the teachers want them to fix the PR brochure for being too hard to read.

The VP says they could just change the layout to whatever was needed and re-print it. He asks if there’s anything else, and Karasawa says that some teachers weren’t adhering to the double-sided printing rule. Irritated, the VP says point-blank that it’s not their concern. Motoharu then says that the baseball club was complaining about a broken mesh through which stray dogs were entering the grounds.

A bit more annoyed now, the VP says it requires a professional. Next, Karasawa says that new computers had been bought and their network needed setting up… at Central High. The VP finally snaps, and is aggrieved that they’re entertaining requests from another school.

Calming down, he says that the most important thing is that he’s hungry, and suggests that the team go somewhere to eat later. He asks them what they want, and Motoharu says katsudon, while Karasawa says Napolitan. The VP himself wants eel, but Motoharu says it’s too pricey. At this point, the president chimes in that a new ramen shop had opened up near the station. Interested, the VP asks the others what they think of ramen. Since nobody minds it, he writes it down on the board.

He says they’ve finally settled something, but Motoharu points out none of their real duties were settled. The VP prepares to get back on track, when someone opens the door. It’s a teacher, and he gestures for the VP to come over. He then whispers something to him, and the VP exclaims when he hears that there’s a possible scandal that needs putting down.

Turning around, he declares it an emergency. Motoharu and Karasawa immediately get up, and the trio march out, leaving the SCP behind amidst scattered chairs. He takes a long look around, and concludes that there was really no need for him to be there.

Transition scene: The SCP, seen working for once, tidies up the council room. He announces the show’s name.

High School Boys and Panties
Motoharu and the Vice President are working in the council room. The VP leans back and tells his friend that he’d recently seen gotten an unobstructed view of a girl’s panties on the stairs at the station. Motoharu asks him how it was, and is surprised to hear him say it was depressing. He goes on to say that he felt very guilty for doing it, and Motoharu remarks that he’s too prim.

The VP retorts that he should try it himself, and he says he doesn’t mind, because ‘panties are a symbol of happiness’ in his view. He then asks the VP how he planned to arrange for them, and the VP says he’d make a call. A half hour later, Ringo bursts into the council room, extremely happy about having been called by them to supposedly help them out. Inside, Motoharu and the VP (and the president, who’s somehow shown up as well) try to act nonchalant and tell her that their computer couldn’t connect to the internet somehow.

Overjoyed, Ringo calls them hopeless and sits down at the system, trying to figure out the problem. Thirty minutes later, she’s still struggling with it. Another thirty minutes pass, and she finally clues in to the fact that it isn’t even connected to the LAN cable. Calling the boys idiots, she asks them where their router is. Motoharu acts confused and says it might be the thing up above. Sure enough, the router is in position and attached upside-down on the ceiling, and a perplexed Ringo asks what it’s doing there.

The VP conveniently brings over a step-ladder, and Ringo steps up, stretching to try and fit the cable. After over an hour’s work of setup and execution, the boys finally crouch down to peer up her skirt. However, whatever they see ends up making their jaws drop, with the SCP looking mildly horrified.

They quickly back away, and Ringo asks them if it’s working after fitting the cable in. Motoharu says it is, and she walks to the door, remarking that they couldn’t be relying on others all the time. After they thank her profusely, she says goodbye, leaving Motoharu and the VP behind (the SCP has already left – as quickly as he arrived).

The VP asks Motoharu what he felt. Motoharu grins, before covering his face and groaning in agony. Dropping to his knees, he rues having tricked a foolish girl into seeing her underwear. Seeing his guilt, the VP says he now understood. An on-screen notice then informs the viewer that Motoharu then skipped school for three days. Coincidentally, the VP tells him he’s overreacting.

High School Boys and Wiring
Inside Central High, the North High student council members (except Karasawa) are helping them set up their network as requested. The president, sitting aside, remarks that he never thought they’d actually come there to help them. Telling him to get moving, the Vice President says that they had no choice, because Motoharu wanted to ease his conscience after what happened earlier. At this point, two Central High students – a boy and a girl – walk in. The girl praises the team for their work and asks how it’s coming along.

The VP tells her it’s getting done, but they should have hired a professional. Giving him a friendly (yet unwelcome) punch in the gut, she commends them again, but turns to the SCP and remarks that she couldn’t understand how they worked under that idiot. The SCP perceives this criticism as unjust, and the VP explains that it’s a long story. He says that despite his looks, he used to be a delinquent some time ago. The SCP, Motoharu and the girl all instinctively think that he looks like one even now, with the girl actually saying it aloud.

He continues, saying that the SCP invited him into the council, thereby helping him correct his behaviour. For that reason, he owes him a great deal, and considers him a father figure. This declaration freaks the SCP out, but he keeps it to himself. After a pause, the girl points to her fellow student and says that their vice president too used to be a delinquent, revealing the two to be the Central High council’s president and vice president respectively.

The CHVP is taken aback and doesn’t know what to say. As if prompting him, she repeats the claim, and he hastily agrees, adding that she helped straighten him out. Pushing it further, she asks him to recall what she said to him at the time. He stumbles and stutters that it was probably something along the lines of asking him to follow her. Seeing him well ill at ease, she calmly remarks that the whole story was a lie, shocking everyone. Angered, the CHVP silently curses his president.

The VP looks at them grimly. As the CHSCP says goodbye and starts to leave, he quickly crouches and pulls back a bite of wire on the floor, which catches her foot and makes her crash on to the floor. With the tables now turned, both vice presidents smirk in glee.

Ending Theme Song
“Ohisama” – by Amesaki Annainin

Archdemon
Main article: Chapter 51.3

Ten kids, including Rubber Shooter and a young Yanagin, are gathered inside an empty lot. Yanagin’s voice-over explains that the kids were unable to tolerate the Archdemon’s brutality and so matched her up with the school’s strongest. Yanagin had requested to join since she was tall and knew karate, but she was also looking to avenge her friend who had been badly hurt by the Archdemon.

The battle kicked off, and the kids are shown displaying their various fighting styles while charging in. Yanagin says she doesn’t remember much of what happened, but was woken up later by Rubber Shooter. Upon coming to and seeing the lot full of knocked-out kids, she asks in shock if they’d been defeated. Shooter tells her to look further on, and she sees the comatose body of the Archdemon as well. He tells her it’s a draw.

In the present, Yanagin holds up an old team photo as she recollects the story, and remarks that the Archdemon Habara slowly lost her brutality after the incident. She adds that she was chosen to keep watch over her since they lived close by. Ikushima, Takahiro and Karasawa are listening to her tale, with Habara standing a little further away. Ikushima says it’s a great story, while Takahiro is still coming to terms with its veracity.

Hearing a sniffle, the group sees that Habara’s crying softly. She too remarks it’s a nice story, and Yanagin apologizes, saying it was only a funny tale. Suddenly, Karasawa doubles over and throws up hard, shocking the others. Takahiro wonders if the trauma associated with Habara is reawakening in him. Habara continues to cry, knowing well that it’s not just a funny story.

Outro
A notice says that the next episode would feature “High School Boys and Bikes” and other sketches. Tadakuni’s voice is heard asking if Tadakuni had showed up in the episode at all. Hidenori says that the show is brought to the viewers by the following sponsors with a ‘Burorororon!’, and Yoshitake choruses with ‘Burorororon!’.

A second on-screen message says “Incidentally, Tadakuni didn’t turn up. We didn’t even notice.” It adds “The next episode is set in winter. Aren’t the seasons changing too fast?”

End Screen
The end screen features nine panels of Yoshitake in a 3x3 grid, with a different color map for each panel. Below is the send-off message “See You Next Week”.

Characters
In order of appearance:
 * Hidenori
 * Yūsuke
 * Yoshitake's older sister
 * Yoshitake
 * Emi
 * Kiyohiko
 * Chapatsu
 * Megane
 * Mitsuo
 * Motoharu
 * The Student Council President
 * Vice President
 * Karasawa
 * Ringo
 * Central High Vice President
 * Central High Student Council President
 * Archdemon Punitive Corps
 * Rubber Shooter
 * Yanagin
 * Habara
 * Ikushima
 * Takahiro

Trivia

 * Differences between the manga and anime:
 * The end scenes of the following shorts are manga-only:
 * High School Boys and Older Brothers and Sisters
 * High School Boys and the End of Summer - in which Emi shows her disappointment.
 * High School Boys and Wiring
 * In “Drop-Kicks”, Emi mistaking Hidenori for Kiyohiko makes more sense in the manga, where Hidenori and Kiyohiko both sport the same hairstyle. In the anime, their hairstyles are quite different.
 * In “HSGF: Archdemon”, the normal sketch title template is not used. Instead, a much larger and more menacing font style is chosen.
 * In this episode, Romi Park's credit changes from 'Rubber Shooter' to 'Shūichi'. This is because Shūichi is possibly the name of the Rubber Shooter who takes part in the battle (as indicated in the corresponding manga chapter).