School functions invariably bring out the most awkward of situations for any parent. Now imagine your mother is the Queen…

What They Say:
Lotte’s school announces they are going to hold a parent-teacher party. Asuha hands the invitation to Naoya happily telling him to come no matter what, but Lotte has a depressed look on her face. Her father has passed away, and her mother, Mercelída the Queen, doesn’t seem as if she’ll be able to make it to the party, as she’s really busy with her work. Asuha tells Lotte to deliver the invitation in person, and Lotte broods over the idea, but eventually works up the courage to go Mercelída castle the next day, but…

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Asuha having established herself in this realm pretty nicely and making several friends at school, she’s also been able to bridge things a bit for Lotte in that she’s able to actually have something close to friends now. Asuha was exactly what was needed to help draw her out, but also to pull her in to the social circles that have been hard for her to deal with. Of course, in the background to all of this is the revelation by Naoya that Asuha is his daughter, and while we’re expecting a catch to it all, it’s a moment that you definitely felt thrown by as much as Judit was when it came up. The show hasn’t exactly been creepy, though it’s played the fanservice a fair bit, but with the designs of the characters it’s hard to remember the actual ages of some of those involved.

With this episode, the school material is gain the focus as the kids are given notices to take home about a parent-teacher party in which the parents come to the school for a party to meet the teachers with the kids. It’s all very formal and fun and some of them really get into it, especially Asuha since it gives her a chance to enjoy something very different. For Lotte though, it’s a difficult time because of her family situation, though Asuha does manage to push her into returning home to see the Queen and to at least make the attempt in person to try and get her to come. Of course, there are sorts of matters that she has to attend to, and a school function isn’t exactly high on it, so you know Lotte is going into it without all that much hope. The small kernel of it deep inside her really wants it though since she needs all the ways she can to connect with her mother, something that is definitely very difficult to do considering their relative positions.

The difficulties of the situation come through because of the usual misunderstandings that come up, but I rather appreciated that it has a rather restrained approach to it as Lotte doesn’t get all over the top with her reactions. And she avoids the problem of storming places about it and instead just quietly leaves, which when he mother discovers the truth, looks a bit sad herself about all of it. Though there are moments where exaggerated expressions come into effect, it’s played in a tame fashion that works well. And speaking of fashion, the show does a nice job of playing up the formal side of the event as it gets underway and we see some cute costumes but nothing that feels inappropriate, something that far too many shows try to do with at least one or two characters in order to stand out and up the fanservice. Here, it does feel like a proper formal event with all the right attire. And while the show does try to tie things up well, you definitely have to appreciate that it wasn’t able to make everything better at the optimum time, but rather worked in a different direction to let Lotte experience some pain and heartache over what happens.

In Summary:
Astarotte’s Toy spends an episode doing lots of good material involving a formal event for the kids that brings Lotte’s mother into play in a more direct manner. Throughout the episode, I kept admiring how it avoided going over the top and that it let Lotte herself experience some pain over the events. She really comes across well and even the Queen does some things that fits into how events really do play out at times where you can’t do everything you want for your children and just hope that the best you do is enough. Up until the last minute, the show was a good deal of fun and really kept me engaged. That last minute, which goes into huge spoiler territory, is simply priceless though as it’s going to upend things for people when the truths all get revealed, ones that I’m looking forward to seeing the fallout come from. As much as this show looked like it deserved to be mocked heavily and avoided from the start, it’s turning out to be one of the more enjoyable seasons of the show that continues to make me smile throughout.

Grade: B+

Simulcast By: Crunchyroll

Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.