HAPPY NEW YEAR! Wait, what do you mean it’s the 11th? I’m late? well uh, look over here! A picture of all the characters in Kimono’s wishing you a Happy New Year!

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Phew….dodged a bullet there. Also, with a new year comes a new opening and ending. Seriously though the episode kicks up with the cast wishing everyone a Happy New Year. From there it opens up into the episode proper and we see that Aoko, Akako, and Kaito are out on a school ski trip. It seems like when it comes to winter sports, Aoko and Kaito are switched. Where as he can’t skate, she can’t ski for the life of her. As they come in from their morning on the slopes their teacher hits them with a bombshell.

A masquerade couples skiing contest! Yes, couples. Boys and girls, hmmm….I see so many chances to run off on a political agenda here but I’m not that kind of reviewer. So let’s leave their teachers narrow minded view of couples alone. I MEAN SERIOUSLY, where does she get off? Girls and Girls can ski together in a couples contest, as can two guys! What a horridly narrow minded thing to say that only guys and girls could ski together in this! That’s just…..ooopppsss…sorry, didn’t mean to go off there.

look at me and my horridly narrow minded view of romance.
look at me and my horridly narrow minded view of romance.

So, Akako in her absolute desire for Kaito tries everything she can from challenging Aoko on who he’s going to ask, to putting a magic charm on his back, to practically pinning him down on the ski lift. [note: Don’t mess around like this on ski lifts, it’s highly dangerous. Akako is a witch and Kaito is a trained professional.]

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In the end, her and Kaito end up teaming up because earlier in the episode. Aoko who was feeling down about how bad she was at skiing ran into a guy who was just as bad as she was. He wanted to partner up with Akako but felt he was no good so Aoko offered to pair up with him, right before Kaito asked her.

My favorite part of the episode is the hot springs scene. I thought this was going to go in a totally different direction then it did. I was expecting something in the vain of Persona 4 or Love Hina where it would result in Kaito getting his ass kicked by Aoko. The reason I love this scene is that it DIDN’T go in that direction. As the girls came into the Hot Spring that Kaito was already in, he disguised himself as a girl……and they bought it. THEY actually buy that it’s a girl with a husky voice!
You know when you’re laughing so hard that it stops sounding like laughing and kind of like a tea kettle has finished? That was me during this scene.

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So, we come to the night time and we see the teacher all fired up about this contest even though she doesn’t ski. We also see the contest judges, who are all just random shop keepers that the teacher ran into. So it runs through some of the students and we see Kaito come up to the kid that Aoko is going to be skiing with and talks with him. He’s dressed as Kaitou Kid and that tells Kaito exactly what Aoko is dressed up as. Her Dad.
Well, it’s time for a bait and switch. We see Akako with someone in a Yeti costume. Let’s all be honest, we know it’s the other kid. Which is pretty obvious when Kaito shows up all decked out in his Kaitou Kid gear, does magic to change Aoko’s outfit into a brides outfit of sorts.

Aoko: “You’re just like the real Kaitou Kid”
Kaito: “I’m way cooler then the real one.”

I’ll give him this. It takes a pair of cold hard balls to dress up like that in front of all his classmates and risk them thinking that it might not just be a costume. In particular with him snapping his fingers and pulling out trick after trick while going down the slope with Aoko. So, they end up with a score of a perfect 40. They have a totally cute moment where he slides the fake mustache back on her and says “You’re going to have to be better then that if you want to catch me, inspector.”

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They both get these doll bears for winning the contest and bring them home. Akako’s evil magic is thwarted again and the day is saved thanks to the Power..er, Thanks to Kaitou Kid!

This was a cute episode, nothing got stolen there was no real tension but it was a cute character development episode for the romance between Aoko and Kaito and I rally enjoy that they didn’t go for the traditional kind of hot springs scene you’d see with a character like Aoko around in the series. I really liked this episode but it’s not plot integral so if you’re looking for an episode to skip, i’d say it should be this one. Next episode, Baccano….I MEAN, we’re going on a train. I’ll try t keep my Baccano references in next episode to a minimum….but i make NO promises.

~Midnight