Episode 5: Alien & Super Dried Out Amusements Bath
Another day dawns in Enohana. It's a few weeks later than last episode, and the staff of the bathhouse is once again in an emergency management meeting. The bathhouse continues to slide deeper into the red and Kotomi fears that she won't be able to pay salaries or buy supplies for the bathhouse unless the situation changes quickly.
Kotomi has come to this meeting with the germ of an idea in mind—to restore the Enoshana Bathhouse as a center of community activity. Kotomi explains how she is often alone in her apartment, longing for company late at night. She thinks that a many people feel the same way and she envisions turning the bathhouse into a place of socializing like it use to be, as well as "a place to healing the loneliness of modern times."
But how to bring all these potential customers to the Enohana Bathhouse? It's NieA who provides the catalyst that brings Kotomi's latest marketing scheme into focus. She comes bounding into the kitchen with a basket full of electronic components. Ignoring Mayuko's angry admonishions over being late for the management meeting, NieA gleefully reveals that she has found true treasures: the motherboards from a bunch of old arcade games that are due for the garbage dump. When Kotomi here's this, she dispatches Mayuko, Yoshioka and Mayuko to acquire those games. She decides that weekly video game tournaments, featuring valuable prizes, is both a way to play to the sense of community [[ITALICS]] and [[ITALICS]] bring in the young people, and she dispatches Yoshioka, Mayuko and NieA to retrieve the video games.
Within short order, the games are installed in the bathhouse's changing room and signs are up announcing the video game tournament. Chie passes by and notices the sign. Soon, she has spread the word to all the kids in town. That evening, Genzo once again comes to visit Mayuko, this time bringing a case of soda for her, another gift that he claims is from his father but which he delivers with a deep blush. He further tags along to Karuchie's, stating that he was thinking about getting dinner anyway.
While Genzo is eating dinner and Mayuko and Chie are chatting with him, Karna walks in and haughtily orders some extra-spicy kimchee to go. She is surprised when Chie treats her in a welcoming fashion and is grows flustered when she sees Genzo sitting at the counter. She eavesdrops as Chie discusses the video game tournament with Mayuko and Genzo and his filled with jealousy when Genzo agrees to be part of the Enohana Bathhouse team in the tournament if it will make Mayuko happy. Her jealousy boils over when Chie teases Mayuko and Genzo about being a couple, and she leaps to her feet, declaring that she will enter the tournament and that she specifically challenges Mayuko. This tense and confusing (for everyone but Karna) moment is disrupted when Shuhei brings the takeout order and Karna has to ask for chopsticks.
The day of the first Enohana Bathhouse Game Tournament arrives, and a bull-horn wielding Kotomi is in charge of the proceedings. She is disappointed that the turn-out consists entirely of children—with the exception of Karna—who have been told by their parents to bring home the valuable prizes. Still, she hopes the children will spread word of the new feature of the bathhouse and, as Yoshioka urges, makes the best of the situation. She announces that the first stages of the tournament involves the playing of three games agains the Iron Game Men of Enohana. The player who manages to beat all three Iron Men will go onto face the Secret Enohana Boss in a final battle for the grand prize: An Enohana Bathhouse Gold Pass. This prize is less than impressive to the kids who state they'd much rather win unlimited game play. She tries to sweeten the deal with a "fighting spirit prize" to whomever makes it to the final round, but the kids continue to gripe. Kotomi's anger, frustration, and her own competitive nature causes her to order her employees to make sure they defeat each and every kid, because she'll be damned if she's going to give anything to those brats.
Once the kids get a look at the video games, they become quite a bit more interested in the tournament and their presence in the bathhouse—it turns out that these retro-games are "in" right now.
Chie is the first contestant in the tournament, and she first faces off against the Iron Man of Fire—Yoshioka. The boiler-man is at first nervous and lost before the video game as he doesn't play them normally, but when Kotomi cheers him on, his hidden affection for her (not to mention his obsession with fire, as the character he controls in the game is supposed to burn things). But he is ultimately defeated when other kids distract him.
Next, the Iron Man of Fist—Genzo—squares off against Karna in a fighting game. Karna is certain of victory, as fighting games and martial arts are her specialty, but then she learns that Genzo is her opponent. Her infatuation causes her to play poorly, and Genzo's victory is secured when NieA taunts Karna about her feelings of love, and Karna flies into a rage. The defeated alien girl then swears that Mayuko will pay three-fold for her defeat.
Meanwhile, Genzo's winning streak continues. He defeats kid after kid, but ultimately his loses when he falls victim to the dreaded "hand-cramp" from all the button pushing.
Now, there is only one Iron Man left between the kids and the Secret Boss--Miss Thousands Hand Cannon. This particularly freakish-looking Iron Man is NieA riding on Mayuko's shoulders, with Mayuko's arms and NieA's arms and legs sticking out from a cylindrical costume. This arrengement is perfectly suited for the game they are playing, and NieA providing basically two more sets of hands to work the controls—as she is quite adept in her pedextrousness—proves to be an advantage that is even a challenge to the unstoppable video game might of Chie. But then NieA's ravenous appetite gets in the way, and as the alien takes a snack break, Chie easily beats Mayuko.
Then, Chie has to face the Secret Boss… who turns out to be Momo Enoshima. The outcome of this showdown between the very young and the very old seems to be predetermined, but it turns that Momo's hands shake so badly that they cause her to press the game's buttons with superhuman speed and make it impossible for Chie to keep up.
So, the first Enohana Bathhouse Game Tournament ends with the house standing victorious, except for Chie's earning the "fighting spirit prize": a gold-plated bath pail. However, it turns out that the first game tournament may be the last, as the episode closes with Kotomi and Yoshioka looking at an astronomical electric bill.