Shinu Ki Da Yo!
12 May 2008
The memory contest continues this week with the challengers from 'B' block. This groups consists of Takahashi Ai, Kamei Eri, Lin Lin and Kusumi Koharu. I didn't find this episode to be as interesting to watch as last week's. Perhaps it's because none of my favourite members were in this group, or perhaps it's because they took it too seriously, but it just didn't seem as much fun to watch.
Once again the members were given ten minutes to memorise all thirty items. I thought it was a little unfair to seat them all right next to each other. I'd find it hard to concentrate with everyone talking at the same time. I liked Lin Lin's method of slapping the cards and repeating the name, that was funny to watch. Their topic this time was 'things you would find in a school'. This included various sporting equipment (shuttlecock, starting block), musical instruments (Glockenspiel, Cabasa) and scientific apparatus (magnets, measuring cylinders). The rules of the contest remained the same, ie. one point for each card; card gets discarded if all members answer incorrectly.
It started quite well for all the members. Everyone got their first round cards correct, including Lin Lin who got the 'Bell Lyre' card. Personally, I've never even seen or heard of a Bell Lyre before. It certainly looks very odd. The second round was no problem either. Ai got a tricky card which turned out to be 'Alnico magnets' (Alnico is an alloy of Aluminium, Nickel and Cobalt). I thought all magnets were ferrous but obviously I was wrong. On the third round Lin Lin got her first incorrect answer. It was 'Ferrite magnets' on the card but she called them 'iron stones'. This was swiftly followed by Eri's first incorrect answer. She couldn't get the name of the thing you play Badminton with (shuttlecock).
Fifth round and Eri once again got her card wrong (pipettes). Koharu picked up the 'shuttlecock' card and also got the name wrong. On the sixth round everyone got theirs right except Lin Lin. She picked up the 'separating funnel stand' card and had a funny moment trying to say the name. Seventh round and Ai got her first incorrect answer. Up until this point she hadn't got a single one wrong. Lin Lin also picked up the troublesome 'shuttlecock' card and called it a seatbelt.
On the eighth round Lin Lin had another faux pas by calling the separable flask a goldfish bowl. Poor Lin Lin, she obviously has a distinct disadvantage in this competition. From the ninth round onwards the wrong answers starting pouring in from everyone except Ai. No one could get the 'pasteboard' card so it got discarded. The 'Archimedean Screw' and 'separable flask' cards also met the same fate. Finally, everyone got the last card incorrect except Ai, who seemingly managed to pull the name out of nowhere.
It wasn't much of a contest in the end. Ai managed to get pretty much everything correct and only dropped a few points. She finished first with 11 points; 4 points ahead of Koharu in second place. Eri finished in third place with 6 points and Lin Lin was last with only 3 points. Therefore, Aika and Ai will have a face off in next week's episode to decide the winner. Before this episode you would have tipped Aika to breeze through the competition. But after seeing Ai's performance this week it's hard to say. It'll definitely be worth watching next week.
Posted byHocchan at 12:56 pm
