What’s the show? Chio’s School Road, Episode 8.
So what randomness does Chio and her friends get up to this time? A surprisingly down-to-earth episode, well—with the exception of the middle segment which has Chio being afflicted with Gamer Brain again and has her shimming up the side of two buildings ala Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell games.
‘Kay… so what happens in the first segment then? Well Chio and Manana are on the way to school minding their own business with their other friend Yuki shows up in “inappropriate outfit” which is to say her track and field outfit—which Manana deems wholly inappropriate for walking to school in but of course doesn’t have the courage to outright say that to Yuki so she requests her to come into the busiest convenience store in town in order to show her the error of her ways.
And how’s that supposed to do that? By having all the men in the store leer at her and making her feel uncomfortable of course! She’s a good friend that Manana, but it backfires because Yuki likes the attention—says it reminds her of being on the track with “all eyes on her” which Manana surmises to mean she’s an exhibitionist. When leaving the store Chio is suddenly wearing her Tennis outfit which at first Manana assumes it’s to show solidarity by working a similarly embarrassing and unsuitable ‘walk to school outfit’ but she later realises it’s because it better hides her identity, thus preventing embarrassment by association!
Smart girl… Indeed, all a part of Chio’s “Art of Being Below Average” a delightful way of life that’s very relatable—at least in a societal sense.
And the second segment, something about Chio shimmying up a wall like in a video game? At this point the more outlandish stuff feels almost pedestrian to the friend-interactions that ring far truer. It was still a lot of fun though, even if I think it could have been a bit shorter of a segment. Basically Chio climbs up a wall and gets into all sorts of shenanigans then Manana has to come after her, but uses her brains rather than risking her life, to get up the building.
Fair enough, and the final part? Unexpectedly, we get a completely non-comedic segment—and by that I don’t mean it tried to be funny and wasn’t but rather it’s a contemplative and honestly kind of pitiable look back at how Momo (who appeared in Episode 5 previously) became public morals officer of the School Council. It’s a well-written, emotional little piece that’s completely at odds with this show. It also paints her teacher (Gotou, who’s forever standing at the front gate of the school) in a much more sympathetic light as he’s the only teacher who bothers to listen to her—and did I mention this is completely at odds with this show! Maybe there’s a point to it later, maybe it’ll prove to be invaluable information, or maybe they just wanted some random pathos for a character we hardly ever see?
Anything else you wanted to add? This is probably one of the weakest episodes so far, but even then a weak episode of Chio’s School Road is more enjoyable that ~most~ things. Plus there’s never a shortage of outlandish and ridiculous screencaps to indulge in, which, let’s face it is half the fun of these reviews!
Previous Chio’s School Road Reviews:
Otaku’s Creed – Episode 1 Review
The Actual C-Word – Episode 2 Review
Full Contact Perineum – Episode 3 Review
Stupid Sexy Smoking – Episode 4 Review
Urine Trouble – Episode 5 Review
The Art of Butt Groping – Episode 6 Review
Public Enema Number One – Episode 7 Review
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Anime QandA 
I liked the little piece on momo at the end. It was definitely a curevball from the usual “final segments” which often just quick one-punch type gags
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