Tai-Ari deshita. Ojousama wa Kakutou Game nante Shinai Ep.04 - Japan Evo Competition?!

Episode 4 of Tai-Ari deshita: Ojousama wa Kakutou Game nante Shinai drifts away from the usual focus on fighting games to instead show a bit more backstory on why each of the four heroines started playing. This works as a setup for the competitions to come.

Aya is a natural; she played with other kids when she was young, but she quickly became too strong, making the others dislike playing with her. That’s understandable, to be honest, being a punching bag isn't fun, but this caused a trauma in her that remains even now. Yuu’s interest is simply due to her having male siblings and being influenced at home, which is quite normal.

The mood when she started saying 'I don't want to study!'. I understand you Mio, nobody wants to! Society is unfair and unjust!

Tamaki and Yuu are confirmed to be a yuri couple to be honest at this point, they are already getting closer. Want to see more!

The real surprise comes from Mio; apparently, she has loved games since she was young. However, societal pressure forced her to focus on school, but she never gave in to that pressure and chose to do nothing, even when called upon by the teachers for the poor academic results.

This escalated until her mother put a lock on her gaming PC and gave her two choices: either attend a school of her choosing or fight her. Of course, Mio chose to fight, but she was utterly defeated by her karate-master mother and forced to enroll at Kuromi Girls Academy, where games are prohibited.

Now, let's be honest: I'm genuinely curious to see more of Mio's mother. A karate master fighting her daughter to try and make her study? That's not something you see every day. Honestly, it was narrated seriously, but the events were so ridiculous that I'm still not sure if Mio was just joking.

There are also a few developments regarding the overall goal of the series, with the girls deciding to go to Tokyo together to participate in the Evo Japan fighting game competition. This will surely be a nice experience to see the girls outside of their usual school attire and perhaps meet more interesting characters.

Honestly not sure what was Mio expecting going into that tangent. The other girls were appaled, thankfully Mio is cute enough that it doesn't matter.

Aya for a moment lost her composure and jumped to hug Mio. Honestly it's a shame that Natsume wasn't there to witness the scene!

The yuri coupling is becoming stronger with each episode, and this installment featured quite a few cute scenes between Tamaki and Yuu. This makes me curious if they'll actually get more intimate soon or if it will remain a superficial, light yuri. I love either, so I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the ride.

In the next episode, the girls will start training to prepare for the Evo Japan competition. Who will they face in these competitions? Will they make new friends or rivals? This is becoming more and more like a sports series, isn't it? Not that I mind, as it's really well-written.