Everyone’s in love with everyone! Okay, maybe not, but it sure felt like it. On a side note, I’m going to be busy for at least a week, so this will be a short post. After last week’s twist, this episode is naturally slower anyway.
• What a mess. Yukiatsu was and is still jealous of Jinta, revealing how he was awkwardly rejected by Menma on that fateful day.
Of course, Menma was too young to really reject him. She very likely had no idea how to respond to a love confession at that age (perhaps even now). Nevertheless, another dimension is possibly added to Yukiatsu’s trauma: he claims it was his fault Menma died.
Huh? At the moment, however, the anime didn’t elaborate. We still don’t really know the details of her death, after all.
• Last week, Tsuruko drew a picture that looked a whole lot like Menma, but since it had blue hair, I wondered who it really was.
Well, I forgot to hazard an obvious theory: she drew herself. How is this possible? It has her hair color and that silly hairpin. I mean, I don’t know for sure she drew herself as Menma, but considering her relationship with Yukiatsu and the themes I wrote about last week, perhaps she also covets Menma’s popularity.
In addition, the hairpin she puts on this episode appeared old and worn out, looking a whole lot like the hairpin Yukiatsu threw away. Consider the metaphor: incidentally rejected, Yukiatsu discards his feelings in rage; Tsuruko secretly picks it up, tagging along with Yukiatsu ever since. Do I sympathize with Tsuruko yet? I’m not sure.
• Anjou sure hangs out with some shady people. I am disappointed with how weak she appears in this episode. I’m not talking about the moment when some guy attempted to rape her — those situations are never easy to deal with –, but the way she blushed and stammered on the train with Yukiatsu was… well, as I said, weak. In the end, the whole thing is such a cliche. Being self-aware, however, gets the anime no brownie points!
And since we love geometry, Yukiatsu also unearths Anjou’s deeper feelings for Jinta, oh that lucky rascal. She stops short of saying she likes the guy, but she nevertheless confesses that she can’t stop thinking about him. On a lighter note, as she was saying this, the train she was riding entered a tunnel.
Very subtle, guys.
• Finally, there is Jinta and Menma. After seeing the mess that Yukiatsu got himself in, they both have questions. Menma only thought about things in terms of fun, i.e. she hung out with Jinta because it was fun. As a result, “[she] felt that it’s okay not to think about it.”What is it, though? Considering how the rest of this episode has gone, there’s an obvious guess I don’t think I need to spell out.
As for Jinta, he once again wonders why Menma appears to him of all people. Does he like Menma too? I’d bet yes, but unfortunately, we get no straight answers this week because it’s only the fifth episode. Plus, Jinta evades anything that’s remotely difficult. At one point, Menma tells him that she has something to say, something about her wish, but Jinta brushes her off yet again. Like with all the problems in his life, he refuses to face any of them head on. In a way, he hasn’t matured much since the day he ran out of the room on his sick mother.
• I love how the visuals say everything. Jinta’s father comes home, sees a pile of snacks, and tries too hard to be excited about it.
When he picks up the popsicle, it just falls limp like his current relationship with his son. A rare and needed moment of levity, but it’s nice to see that it’s not just humor for humor’s sake.
*****
I thought this episode was interesting if you had been following the anime thus far, but by itself, a fall off (understandably) from the previous episode in terms of pacing and execution. There is a lot of inner monologues and forlorn gazes this episode with little to balance the tone of it all.
Almost everybody’s romantic feelings seem interconnected, but I’m not a shipper or anything so I’m not voting for any pairing in particular. I can only hope it doesn’t end up being dumb, but that goes without saying. I wish there was more Poppo at times, being so removed and happy-go-lucky in comparison to everyone else.
With that said, I’m going into a week-ish (at least) hiatus. Maybe the other writers will update the blog, but in any case, see everyone later.
I don’t know if that’s what you intended, but the first picture of Menma makes her look like she’s…
Oh never mind.
What was I intending? Better yet, what was A-1 Pictures intending? They’re the ones who drew it!
Ah, Memna’s feet. Thanks for making my evening E minor. They’re so tiny and cute.
And the food of the episode is… (drumroll)… popsicles. Yes popsicles. I really like the gorilla Mascot on the wrapper. They should be called: Donkey Kong’s Chilly Sticks. They’re cool!! Am I weird for only noticing the food in this show?
I didn’t really like this episode. Poppo seemed like the most level-headed character for most of the show, but the way he desperately tried to get Menma to show herself and talk to him suggested to me that something’s wrong with him too.
I didn’t get the vibe Jinta’s dad was “fake excited”. My hunch is he either doesn’t know what to do about Jinta (or knows Jinta has some terminal illness, sigh), and has decided to just play it cool and act like everything’s normal.
Given that Poppo’d already been by a bit back I got the sense that dad saw the food and for a moment was legitimately happy — his son acting a bit more normal! — and then from the melted popsicle could tell something wasn’t quite right.
I didn’t call it fake excitement; I just think it was a bit forced. It’s like when a dad sees his kids a little bummed out and goes “Hey, who wants to go for some ice cream!” Obviously, he’s playing the ice cream angle up — he didn’t honestly want the ice cream personally that badly.