My face(s) when…
It’s rare to be surprised by the twists and turns of anime plots nowadays, but I’ll admit it — this episode got me. What was truly impressive, however, was the anime’s execution. Like “Bolero,” a faint idea was seeded in my mind from the very start — the possibility that the anime could go there crossed my mind, but I certainly didn’t think the anime would go there. With every passing minute and every passing flourish, however, the idea got sharper and sharper, every note of the anime ramping up toward the inevitable conclusion:
Yes, that is Yukiatsu in drag — more specifically, cross-dressing as Menma. But why does Yukiatsu want to be Menma? I suggest that Yukiatsu covets. More specifically, he covets Menma and what Jinta had with Menma in the past. When Tsuruko urged Jinta to provoke Yukiatsu in the middle of the episode by declaring that Yukiatsu’s Menma was fake, Yukiatsu’s immediate reaction was to deride Jinta as a leader. At first glance, this is a rather odd response because although Jinta is the main character of the show, there has been nothing in the anime thus far to suggest that Jinta is or ever was a leader.
Yukiatsu’s next statement, however, are striking not just in what he says but how he says it. Shifting his eyes downward, and likely breaking eye contact with Jinta, Yukiatsu continues, “And even back then I didn’t acknowledge you.” These visual cues can give us hints to Yukiatsu’s thought process. Avoiding eye contact might suggest that he’s lying, but it’s not always that simple. There’s an idea out there that when someone looks downward, they are in fact talking to themselves. This, of course, isn’t a hard science, but when a pattern seems to have emerged, it’s hard to ignore what we see before us. Does some pattern emerge in Ano Hana?
Earlier in the episode, Yukiatsu made some bitter statements toward Jinta, one of which being
Tsuruko, who perhaps knows Yukiatsu better than anyone else in the show, later confesses to Jinta and Anari that Yukiatsu’s words were really directed at himself. Looking at the screencap directly above, although his eyes are closed, we can also see that Yukiatsu’s eyes are downcast. Before I elaborate on this, let’s jump back to the very first episode. During the credits, Yukiatsu opens his closet and mutters “Menma.” Now that we know he is cross-dressing as Menma in secret, maybe Yukiatsu was referring to himself in the first episode after all. After the confrontation between him and Jinta, Yukiatsu opens that closet again in episode four. Again, his eyes are downward:
After he utters the line above, his eyes then move up. From where does Yukiatsu’s Menma “come out” of? His closet, from within him, or both? When he says, “Let’s show you… to [Jinta],” did Yukiatsu intend to be caught? Nevertheless, there certainly appears to be a pattern in Yukiatsu’s words and body language.
So when Yukiatsu claims that he never acknowledged Jinta in the past, not only is it likely a lie, but an ironic self assertion. He absolutely acknowledged Jinta back then, and he still does so now. After all, Yukiatsu makes it an emphasis to inform Jinta that he too could see Menma. By doing so, he hopes to render Jinta’s unique trauma neither unique nor special. And in becoming Menma, in appropriating her thoughts and her actions as his own, Yukiatsu possesses her. It is thus no surprise, therefore, that Yukiatsu would urge everyone else to forget about her; by depriving them of their old memories of Menma, he becomes the sole person who loves and misses her.
Where do we go from here?
Other Bits & Pieces
• In every episode, there are little moments that seem like nothing to the unwary eye, but really carry a lot of meaning. Here’s one such moment in this episode.
Jinta’s father immediately brightens up when Jinta wishes him, “Itterashai.”
Something like “itterashai” is probably taken for granted by the lot of us, so customary between families and friends. It loses heart in its meaning when repeated so often and so casually. In Jinta’s family, however, perhaps it has no longer become customary. You appreciate the little things in hard times and “itterashai” probably means everything to a man who has lost his wife and may fear losing his son as well.
I wrote two weeks ago that trauma is akin to being stuck in time and place. Perhaps “itterashai” breaks a pattern in their lives, one signifier of many that the family is finally moving on.
• For once, Jinta is honest with his feelings to Anari.
It comes at a moment when she could have seriously hurt herself. Does this explain Jinta’s brusque demeanor toward her throughout the course of the anime? Does he push her away because he can’t stand to lose yet another childhood friend? I wonder how close they really were in their childhood.
As an aside, I really hope the anime abandons or quickly resolves the idea that Jinta has or had deeper feelings for Menma. For the sake of it, I’d rather have an obligatory romance between him and Anari simply because Menma and anyone continues to rub me the wrong way. Better yet, can’t friends just miss each other without any implication of romance? This is where someone goes “If you can’t see Menmaxsoandso, I judge you,” right?
• This scene is my favorite scene featuring Menma so far.
I’ve made it no secret on this blog that Menma, the person that the entire plot revolves around, is nevertheless my least favorite character on the show. I think her character design and demeanor are somewhat pandering and — more importantly — one dimensional. For a short moment here, however, there’s a short look of resignation in her eyes, suggesting that there’s little she can do for Jinta. Unfortunately, the moment quickly dissolves:
• Knowing what we know now, who did Tsuruko ended up drawing?
And why did she give the the person blue hair? Speaking of Tsuruko, she tends to say a lot of strange things:
Everyone else is talking about cooking, but clearly Tsuruko is not.
*****
To wrap things up, just a great episode that kept my attention from start to finish. As surprising (to me) as the ending may have seemed, everything naturally built up to the conclusion with finesse and heart. Other than the few loli pandering moments in a couple of the previous episodes, nothing in Ano Hana feels cheap. There are times when anime has great, thought-provoking ideas. There are times when anime is exciting. Ano Hana is the rare anime, however, that I genuinely care about. I want to know what happens next.
Great post! I was curious about the hints dropped by Yukiatsu in the past few episodes and you’ve summarized them pretty well. It actually makes me want to go back in the past few episodes and observe the childhood flashbacks to see more of what Yukiatsu was doing in those flashbacks (even if there probably is nothing).
I don’t really have any issues with Menma, although Anaru pulls off the white dress look better. She seems pretty happy-go-lucky and carefree, a fair contrast to everyone else (of course she’s not really chained to life’s responsibilities anymore). I’m not so sure she’s one-dimensional though, she’s shown a happy side and more reflective, saddened side (like when visiting her family). I find her bundle of energy refreshing sometimes to all the angst.
Thanks. Ano Hana’s been great enough that I’ve had no problems rewatching episodes without being too bored.
When I say she’s one dimensional, I didn’t mean to say she literally has only one personality trait or demeanor. What I really meant to say was that I don’t think her character has a lot of depth. She’s either happy or sad so far — that strikes me as rather one note.
i was surprised as hell! do we really need the weird crossdressing drama…again? kuragehime, wandering son and now this…is crossdressing a japanese thing? i haven;t watched many american movies with crossdressers, well excluding TROMA films, lol.
anyway, i’m dreading next ep when they push yukiatsu against the wall, while he’s crying and struggling…and tell him that it’s all okay – friends support each other in all situations, always. at the same time everyone will smile at him. yukiatsu will also smile…and stop crossdressing thanks to the power of friendship. each and every time shit like this happens i wonder why they don’t seriously recommend going to the shrink, NEVER. reminds me of ef – a tale of…
1) There’s nothing inherently immoral about cross-dressing. Such a notion of cross-dressing implies that there’s a right way and a wrong way for men and women to dress, and that’s a silly idea in 2011.
2) Not all cross-dressing is the same. Kuranosuke cross-dresses primarily because he thinks women’s clothing are more beautiful then men’s clothing. On the other hand, I don’t think Yukiatsu is necessarily a cross-dresser simply by wearing one set of women’s clothes. He impersonates Menma.
3) While Yukiatsu may need to consult a psychiatrist, I don’t think cross-dressing is his biggest problem, assuming that it is a problem in the first place. The fact that he puts on Menma’s clothes is entirely incidental; it’s not the trauma itself.
1)i’m not saying that it’s immoral. i’m saying that i don’t like crossdressing. AND there is too much of it in recent seasons. + crossdressing implies a sort of mental issue with which i have no association. which are 3 different issues…
2) see 1). any kind of crossdressing = weird mental problems.
3) yes, i didn’t say exactly that the problem was getting over menma’s death, but i thought that it was in this situation obvious and could be boiled down to crossdressing.
+ you say that it wasn’t mentioned that jinta was the leader in childhood. but it was mentioned in fact. i can’t quote, but in ep1-3 i remember getting messages of that meaning.
My impression of your first comment is that you think cross-dressing is some sort of deviant behavior. It isn’t socially accepted, but it’s nothing more than that. I’m just saying that there are real mental issues at hand and we’re focusing on the wrong thing (cross-dressing).
you’re trying to differentiate between mental problems, while in reality they are all connected. “real” mental problems give way to, i guess “unreal” problems, such as crossdressing. i see it as a monolith. what you’re probably trying to say is that the problem is menma’s death and crossdressing is a way to COPE with that problem. it fits all the psychology i’ve read. person can’t cope with death – person does things seemingly defying other person’s death (crossdressing as dead person, thus keeeping him/her alive)
and usually it’s not just deviant behavior. having a mohawk is deviant behavior. but when still gender roles are being reinforced even today, crossdressing is more than deviant behavior.
It’s not an “unreal” problem because it shouldn’t be a problem whatsoever. Gender roles being enforced doesn’t validate anything. Besides, I don’t consider Yukiatsu a cross-dresser. He impersonates one woman and (as far as we know) wears a single outfit — that does not make him a cross-dresser. That’s like saying someone who plays one rock song over and over is also a rock musician.
so you’re just dissmising my psychological BS ? okay.crossdresing (CR for short) is a problem from the point of view of psychologists who say that normalcy is the way the MAJORITY of the population behaves. sure it has its flaws, but it WORKS. its not a problem from the standpoint of maybe yukiatsu, but only until his friends catch him in the act. (which actually should not affect the behavior)
it doesn’t matter how much outfits he wears. I already said that i made the mistake of naming the cause and effect the same name. i’m not into labels. really.
+ enforced gender roles validate if not many things, the ones they do validate – they validate seriously and hard. it means that a person has to be insane to deviate SO far from the norm as to CR, in our world, where if you wear the wrong pants you are considered gay. everyone more or less sane fears such drastic contrast from others as CR.
well, anyway. i’m trying to say that i understand that this is not about CR. as i’ve already mentioned…
I should hope those with Ph.Ds have more substantive things to say than “normalcy is the majority.” By itself, this does not validate the idea that cross-dressing is a problem. Most of us are right-handed — is being left-handed a problem?
I get what you’re trying to say — there’s a social stigma attached to socially taboo acts such as cross-dressing. This still doesn’t mean someone’s insane to challenge such norms. That doesn’t make them wrong, ill, etc. There used to be a social stigma against left-handers. Women didn’t always get to vote or hold assembly. Blacks were considered only 3/5 of a person in America. My point is that it doesn’t matter what society considers normal and what it doesn’t because this is constantly in flux.
uh no. left handedness or gender or race, they all come inherently. while CR comes later in life. CR is a RESULT. of smth else which is the cause.
believe me, i like most of the minorities. my nickname is “idiffer” for god’s sake. it’s just that CR bothers me a lot and comes across as a problem. if only because trying to fit in our current society will be troublesome if you CR. and CR is a coping mechanism. so if other ppl can deal with problems without CR, that makes ppl who CR very petty. they have to escape from problems. and even in that escape ppl will try to pound them into the ground and make them face even grater problems.
second, it’s not so much in flux that you can just say that you don’t care what society says. actually everyone is influenced by society daily. yes, fucking challenge norms, but not in such a devasive way. go and shout in the streets about your dead friend. if you hide it then it is already a problem – secrets take effort and eat away at your conciousness. fear is stress. unless you don’t fear to be found out as a CR, you’re basically fucked. espeacially if you now that what you’re doing is socially unacceptable.
Who gets to say that cross-dressing isn’t inherent? Why can’t someone just like clothes of the opposite sex moreso than what they’re “supposed” to wear? Who are you to say that cross-dressing is a coping mechanism for every single person who cross-dresses? Why are you generalizing so much? You brought up Kuragehime yourself — what is Kuranosuke coping for?
I never said I didn’t care what society says. It’s a given that I care what society says being that I live and depend on society to survive. Society, however, does not dictate what is moral. What is socially acceptable and what is morally acceptable are two completely exclusive ideas. Rightness and wrongness is not dependent on what the masses think. There is nothing inherently wrong with cross-dressing regardless of what society thinks.
I simply take issue with your assertion that cross-dressing is wrong. You don’t like it? Fine. But if you’re gonna just generalize cross-dressers and say it’s wrong, I will continue to disagree.
1) mmm…as condescending as it may sound…i can’t just retell you the 10 books i’ve read on psychology. you are not born with the desire to wear certain clothes, to be simple. how could you? society tells you what to wear.
why i generalize? because humans have alot in common, espeacially in the topic currently at hand.
i don’t know what kuranoske is coping for. his character isn’t all that fleshed out. there was that thing about acting out against his father, but its unlikely. we didn’t get to see his past.+ i brougt it up as an example of the large amount of CR shows, not of the abundance of psychologicaly accurate shows. also its interesting that you bring up an anime character as an example, and not a real person. considering how hard it is to apply psychology to anime compared to real life. american TV shows even…
and again, you are confusing morals with warefellness/gains or losses. i wasn’t talking about about morals. wrong, right – i don’t care.(it’s too subjective) there is though the wellbeing of the CR at hand . and the happiness level of the society when seeing CR.
As condescending as it may sound, I don’t put much stock into the testimonies of random psychologists without any hard data to back it up. Psychologists throughout history have made ridiculous arguments without any use of the scientific method to justify their claims. If you’re going to make an assertion, back it up.
I’m not confusing anything. You can’t have it both ways — you can’t say something is wrong without invoking morality.
let;s just leave it at that. at the abscense of hard data, which will take up 5 mb of text, which i can’t remember anyway. and i did try to explain in a simple way…
and you still think that i mentioned smth about morality. never have i said that CR is WRONG. see? i was arguing it’s usefullness at best. or at worst – hell knows. anyway, 2nd cut – morality is a lost cause for me.
PS. its really not the hard data that conqoures your mind. its the abundnce of crossecting soft data from different fields of psychology and phylosophy. you read 2 books of psychology – you think its shit. you read 5 – you think that you’re the master of the world.
I don’t particularly care what you want to call it. Hard or soft data, I need more than simple assertions and generalizations.
And you still don’t see my point. If it doesn’t matter whether or not cross-dressing is wrong, then its usefulness is irrelevant. There is no end to useless actions in life but no one ever targets them for derision.
no, i already told you the use of CR. its a defense/coping mechanism. i described in detail why ppl would do such a thing. yes there is hard data, but you wouldn’t gain anything from it if you don’t understand the theory behind it. opposite of physics.
LOL, now you are definitely condescending. Please don’t make any assumptions of my comprehension.
we wouldn’t have CR ppl if it wasn’t absolutely needed for them. there is your usefullness.
really? i wasn’t trying to be. really. i swear. i can even give you a list of books you should read (if i find them in english) to gain a basic/whole understanding of the human psyche. and what i said is really what i think.
if x=4, y=3, a=1, what is b? have data, but impossible.
you have to have an equation. same with psychology.
This is ridiculous. This started as a good discussion, but I think there’s no way to continue this respectfully.
to whom how.
for me its not ridiculous.
also, rethink your statement about my “assumption of your comprehension” after my last reply (4-56 pm)
well anyhow…i didn’t mean any disrespect. we’ve reached an enpasse or watchamacallit. maybe we’re fated to disagree. but still i believe that “truth can be gained from arguement” or smth like that, no matter the conclusion.
Wow, you were right, I shouldn’t’ve read the comment section. I feel like I just lost about 20 IQ points just from glancing it over.
Why do you think I’ve turned vigilante?!
‘Cause guns are more expedient than words!
I would have stopped replying as soon as he invoked the mighty power of his BS.
you can read that any way you want.
I’m not gonna pretend I’m not disappointed you guys are commenting on the lame discussion and not the actual post!
Umm…. uhhh…. uguuuu~?
Fine~ it’s not like I wanted to write these recaps anyway!
Uguuuuuuu~ isn’t my own post a partial response enough?
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yeah, maybe i shouldn’t have drunk so much beer that night…
The episode on the whole didn’t do much for me. I had the Yukiatsu twist nailed down already so I wasn’t that surprised.
I think both yours and adaywithoutme’s interpretations make sense. I lean toward the coveting Menma angle myself though I would be really surprised if Yukiatsu actually had the hots for Jintan. It makes me wonder about how the wedge got driven between Tsuruko and Yukiatsu. I have a hard time imagining that he started cross-dressing without her knowledge. On the other hand I can’t imagine she endorsed it either. I like Adaywithoutme’s explanation of it being the elephant in the room. It doesn’t explain though how it got to the point it’s at. One of them (Tsuruko or Yukiatsu) had to have done or not done something that their became a point of contention between them.
Well, I tried to address the fact that even if the twist wasn’t very surprise-worthy, I thought the execution was top notch. As for Yukiatsu/Tsuruko, I bet we’ll get to see what’s going on between them soon enough so I’ll abstain from plot speculation.