Nokemon, huh?
We meet Poppo, another childhood friend, early on in the second episode. Like Jinta, he doesn’t go to school either, but instead of cooping himself up like a hikikomori, Poppo saves up his money to travel the world.
Seeing as how Poppo’s the only friend who doesn’t currently look down on Jinta, Jinta decides to confide in Poppo about seeing Menma. I’m guessing that the general thrust of the plot will be fulfilling dead loli’s wishes and, in the process, recover from the trauma of her death.
Poppo suggests catching a rare Nokemon, a creature from a game that they all played as a kid. Everyone knows you can’t catch all the Nokemons alone so this leads to Jinta and Poppo enlisting Anaru’s help. At first, Anaru thinks this is all childish, but hey, I know adults who are still playing Pokemon. Hell, there are people pining desperately for a Pokemon MMO. Anyway, enough digressing… while they didn’t quite solve Menma’s final wish (assuming that that’s even the trick), Jinta might have made some inroads in repairing his relationship with Anaru.
Some stray observations:
• The theme of trauma. I think I’ve written about this before so just a quick recap of some general ideas. PTSD is like being trapped in time; sufferers of PTSD are unable to move beyond their moment of trauma and this usually manifests in a variety of ways. For war veterans, sudden noises can give them flashbacks. For Jinta, it literally plays out in two ways: 1) he sees the ghost of his childhood friend (in addition, she hasn’t effectively* matured in appearance or behaviorism whatsoever) and 2) he’s a hikikomori.
One way to recover from trauma and regain a sense of time flowing is through play therapy (you can look this up if you think I’m making shit up). This plays (no pun intended) out in the second episode through the three childhood friends (and Menma) meeting up to play Nokemon. The nostalgia of Nokemon is very important in framing one’s sense of time, i.e. ‘We used to play Nokemon in the past with Menma.’ This subconsciously communicates the flow of time to the trauma victim, suggesting the possibility that they can move on:
Jinta (at the end of the episode): This is the first time I’ve had fun in a while too. … It looks like my trauma isn’t going away any time soon, but as long as there’s a tomorrow, I feel like I can take my time….
• Anime lesson #359: all rich people are condescending pricks anyone with any sort of social advantage in life will lord this fact over you and treat you like dirt. Tsuruko proves this episode that Yukiatsu isn’t the only person with a giant stick up the butt.
I was just watching the Korean adaptation of Hana Yori Dango so I was already fed up with these one-sided portrayals of rich folks. Hey, I’m all ‘power to the proletariat’ and all that jazz too, but I think it’s a little unnecessary in a character drama like AnoHana. I know we need villains in the plot, but elitism is so overplayed in Asian dramas.**
• The loli bits (and that’s being generous) cheapens the rest of the anime.
All the heart flies out the window when we’re busy discussing Menma’s nonexistent ectoplasmic rack.
• This is an amazing display of rainbow cabinets.
Strangely enough, they’re not even uniform in size.
• I really like the show’s color palette, but I’m not an artist of any sort so I can’t really explain why.
The animation doesn’t blow me away, but as a whole, the show is pleasant to look at. Except this… they really put in the effort to animate yakiniku.
In addition, the ED is pretty neat looking too.
• Does anyone find themselves typing ‘Memna’ constantly?
* ‘Effectively’ added in for clarification of what I’m trying to say.
** Edited due a mistaken assumption on my part. Thanks to commenter ‘j’.
*****
Overall, this was an enjoyable follow-up episode to the premiere. AnoHana still remains the anime I look forward to most every week.
Two nit-picky points: Menma has aged in appearance, just not very convincingly; do we actually know that Tsuruko and Yukiatsu are rich? I had the impression that they were in the elite high school on the basis of academic achievement, not wealth.
I really wonder what the thought process was with all the jarring bits of loli fanservice. The start of the first episode I can kiiiind of understand: “If any loli/moe fanboys are tuning in, let’s make sure we can keep their attention before we hook them by the heartstrings!” But randomly in the middle of episode two? Why? I’m hoping that the fanservice really is a cynical ploy rather than something which the director honestly thought should be in the script, because that means there’s a chance that they’ll ease off it in future episodes.
Not disagreeing or anything — just that I don’t really get the point of the anime making the distinction that she has aged when for all intents and purposes, she still acts like a little kid.
You’re right — we don’t know whether they’re rich or not. I spoke too quickly and made an assumption. Usually, academic elitism and wealth elitism tend to go hand in hand in Asian dramas, i.e. ‘a rich, private school will get you ahead in life but it’s full of self-centered people — what to do?’ Rich and/or smart, I really meant to speak on elitism in general and arbitrary stratifications over silly differences.
Yeah, I don’t understand it and thankfully, these portions have been short so far. Maybe all that silly blushing from Anaru in this episode whenever she looked at Jinta can become something so we can just move on from the loli brouhaha.
I enjoyed this episode and this is the show I am most looking forward to as well.
What I was most struck by in this episode besides the use of Pokemon as a plot point (complete with a cathartic NOKEMON GETTO DAZE!) was the dynamic that Poppo created. The show really needed a character who is unequivocally rooting for Jintan (and is not completely childish) but also understands some of what he is going through thanks to basically being a drifter. The cheery attitude and speculated wanton behavior may hold a deeper trauma but for now he is helping Jintan move in a healthy direction. I know from experience how important it is to have someone like that who can give you a leg up and make you feel a little bit more at ease in a social situation.
Poppo is the type of character that was sorely needed for Ohana in Hanasaku Iroha. I guess it might not be so necessary now that she and Nako are friends. But back to Ano Hana, I certainly hope Poppo isn’t harboring any angst. Nothing’s wrong with conflicts, but they don’t all need to be traumatic, and a cast full of people with heavy duty crisis can detract from the other storylines. Shows like these need comedic relief from time to time.
Yeah, AnoHana is really turning out to be a very enjoyable watch. I’m hoping that perhaps the loli service bits will fade out over the course of the show, as other than that I find this to be a pretty solid series.
Y’know, while I was rewatching the episode to write the update, I wonder why Jinta’s dad doesn’t seem very involved in his son’s life. We always joke that anime character’s parents are never around or mysteriously dead, but man, this guy may as well be dead — he doesn’t do anything.
I think it could be a matter of the father not knowing what to do with his son, especially given how massive of a contrast there is between Jinta as a child versus Jinta in the present time. So, he does things like make him food and is encouraging when Jinta brings old friends by, but lacks the confidence in his own capabilities as a father to do more.
…but I could be giving the show more credit than it deserves.
I didn’t quite say he was useless, but I still maintain he isn’t a very good parent.
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finally after years of otaku abuse, pokemon finally gets some love. In your face children’s card games. Monster combat takes the lead mates.
In half-hearted defense of loli fanservice in this show: Menma initially appears to Jinta right after he overhears that dirty-talking couple outside his window (“…but your tits really have gotten larger!”, assuming the gg subs aren’t trolling me on that one); in general I’d bet all the characters are still virgins (poppo included), and clearly they all have issues in that direction.
If you pay attention sex comes up all the time in this show (sometimes disguised, cf Yukiatsu’s “hobby”), to the point that it can’t be an accident. There’s a nonzero chance that this show is going to wind up being about these characters maturing into being capable of healthy romantic / sexual relationships (once they get over their guilt about Menma, yadda yadda), and in that case the fan service — while still annoying — would turn out to be thematically relevant.
There’s also the “Jinta has a disease” theory. Parts of E1 play into that if you watch it with that in mind, in particular the initial “loli grind -> pass out” sequence seemed like tacky fanservice on a first watch but could be a disguised hint at Jinta’s condition. The same with Jinta’s dad’s attitude; it’s not unbelievable to take such a blaise approach to a kid you thought was going to die in a few more years anyways.
When I complain about loli fanservice, I’m not debating its plausibility. Yeah, you could list all the reasons why Jinta would get his rocks off of Menma squirming in his pants. That’s not the point. The point is that this doesn’t add anything to the anime that is necessary so why have it all and risk coming across and cheap and pandering? Jinta (and others) are not defined by their lack of sexual immaturity. The show’s main thrust isn’t something like American Pie or whatnot; it’s about dealing with grief and trauma. As such, these moments aren’t necessary characterizations. They’re just here for flavor, and it’s a flavor I don’t find very agreeable. Whether or not a young man realistically has a hard on for his dead loli friend, I don’t care.
Alright, I see more where you’re coming from, and tend to agree vis-a-vis the fanservice in this show. It’s too bad the international market for anime is so small and niche-y; right now the risk-reward seems to tip in favor of throwing in truly needless and distasteful, but if the western market were substantially larger (and less niche-ish) it might start tipping the other way.
That said, there’s far too much of what I guess you could call “sexually themed content” in this show for it to be either an accident or insignificant. I don’t think that’s what the show is about, per se, but it’s woven pretty thoroughly into the characters and their motivations.
I really haven’t had the perception that the show is particularly sexually tinged, but then again, I may not have been looking for it. I’ll keep it in mind the next time I review the episodes.
Sex-tinged might be too strong, but if you do a rewatch sometime it’ll jump out at you more. Maybe 20-30% of the dialogue touches on it in some fashion (though this ranges from Poppo’s boasts to Anaru’s mom joking about Anaru going through puberty to Tsuruko’s telling Anaru “your friends look like sluts, you do too, so please stay away”).
Most of the time that sort of stuff is just used to illustrate the general lack of maturity of the characters, and so far Anaru’s misadventures are the only plotline directly driven by sex, but it’s definitely there as a consistent undercurrent.
You have a different perspective from mine, to put it simply. All those indirect sexual references seem natural to me because the cast are teenagers. I didn’t think twice about Poppo’s boasts or Tsuruko’s insults. To me, teenagers will have sex on their mind. Contrasted with the sexual polarity that is a lot of anime, I can see how Ano Hana might stand out. By this, I mean how anime will either be blatantly sexual or completely non-sexual; it’s rare to see a show take a nuanced path down the middle. Whether Ano Hana’s “sexually themed content” is a signifier of anything bigger, however, I’m not quite ready to lean either way. We’ll definitely see how it all bears out — I’ll be interested in seeing whether or not you’re right.
On a lighter note, there’s always that eye-rolling observation of Anaru’s name.
Yeah, we’ll see how it turns out. It’s not that I find it unrealistic — on the contrary it’s close to how I remember that age, and is lending a lot of verisimilitude to the characters — but it certainly stands out in a medium that’s usually very polarized (nice term).
The usual formula for a coming-of-age story is to set up some characters who haven’t yet come-of-age, introduce some surface-level plot to keep things interesting (Menma’s ghost, the wilderness trek in “Stand By Me”, etc.), and then have the characters mature in response to the events of the surface-level plot.
Since AnoHana seems to following that formula I’ve been reading the maturity / coming-of-age stuff as primary and the actual Menma-related storyline as the seemingly-primary-but-actually-secondary plotline. In the context of coming-of-age story — with characters at that stage of adolescence — it’s not unreasonable to expect the indirect sexual content to be pulling a bit more weight than realism.
Ah well. I’m used to art films (somewhat regrettably, and due what you could call “life circumstances”) and consequently tend to overthink other genres, but it’s nice to have an ongoing anime series for which such overthinking isn’t obviously wasted. Ep7 title suggests we’ll find out Menma’s wish pretty soon.
In re: Anaru, I was very surprised the writers decided to actually use it that way, but going far enough to name a character so their childhood nickname would that sort of humorous in her teen years is an interesting decision.
Nonsense, you’re not overthinking it. If anything, people tend to underthink this kind of stuff. High or low art, people underestimate visual media. Even the most puerile anime makes a statement, directly or indirectly. For the sake of the discussion, I have responded to your comments from a skeptical position, but your ideas have merit or else I wouldn’t entertain the thought.
Cool, it’s been fun. Ep 7 went differently enough than expected I’m going to hold off on predictions and try to just go with the flow from here on out.
The “is it worth overthinking?” question is poor phrasing; there’s always stuff you can pick out of anything, and it’s more a question of how interesting / rewarding the findings are.
With AnoHana there’s a lot of somewhat-subtle stuff the writer’s doing that’s fun to pick up on; none of it’s necessary to the understand the show’s events but it’s a bit of a hat-tip to the careful viewer, and probably has a subconscious impact even when not consciously noticed.
One that’s so obvious it’s easy to miss at first is that when Yukiatsu gets caught crossdressing as Menma he meets “his” “end” in a way that’s probably not too far off from a farcical replay of how Menma met her fate. Not “deep” by any means, but a nice touch for sure.
Thanks for the lovely discussion, I’ll probably pop by again once the show’s wrapped up for real.
I’ll look forward to it. I’ll likely rewatch the entire series as a whole to see if I missed anything.