Recap: Haruka has returned to school and Moritani decides to join the ESP club, prompting Yuriko to throw an all-night party for both events. Several days later the school participates in a sports festival and Haruka is conscripted into running a relay race.

Jel’s Thoughts: This may have been the moment everyone feared (or possibly looked forward to) as Kotoura-san finally shows its 4koma roots. Episode 5 is all comedy with short plot lines and even shorter gags, and I imagine that will be disappointing for some people who got hooked by the drama.

Personally I was calling for an all comedy episode to give us a breather, and I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. It was like taking a victory lap after a hard fought battle, finally giving poor Haruka a chance to have a little uninterrupted fun. The jokes were clean and simple and any interaction between Haruka and Manabe is incredibly adorable. I’m not totally sure what role Moritani is supposed to play in the club just yet. Her constant teasing might seem a little mean spirited in a vacuum, but considering what she did I think it’s an appropriate punishment. Beyond that though, I will be curious to see where they go with her character.

Is this really the episode Kotoura-san makes the jump to full time comedy? It’s hard to say for sure. The new upbeat ending song seems to indicate a more permanent change than I was expecting, but at the same time the episode title is “School Paradise?” with a question mark. We could just as easily snap back into drama mode next week, and after our fun little break this week I’d be cool with that.