Narumi is so distraught by the fact that Renji and Souchirou are at each other’s throat that he breaks down and cries. I’m just perplexed as to why Narumi cares so much about either men. Doesn’t he have homework to do? College entrance exams to cram for? Narumi’s just a kid so why doesn’t he act like one? Yes, he’s sworn brothers with both men, but still — it’s not as if they’ve been best buds to Narumi. Even more mystifying, why does anyone care what Narumi thinks?
They refer to Narumi as ‘aniki.’
I never did understand how an ineffectual high schooler got accepted to the Hirasaka group in the first place, much less why Souchirou would even respect Narumi as much as he does. Renji, however, is the bigger mystery. So they met at a club and ran away from some thugs. Narumi then went shopping with Renji, they shared a talk and now they’re brothers? I guess I just don’t get it. What does everyone see in this Narumi guy?
The missing spark
It’s really the same deal with Narumi and Alice. Alice is now frustrated if Narumi fails to visit her. It’s not as if the two has ever sat down and really chatted. It’s not as if the two have ever connected on a deeper level beyond their silly cases. He brings her ramen and soda, she waxes on dryly about inane shit — the perfect anime couple. Hell, Alice outright admits that Narumi isn’t remotely remarkable… except for his silly ability to carry her burden, whatever that means. Narumi then sweeps the poor girl right off her feet with these passionate words!
Narumi: “I’m not strong like you. I’m dumb, and I can’t figure anything out. But if I can carry some of your burden just by being here…
My, my! I do declare~
Then Alice does what every anime girl does and that is leaning their heads against the shounen’s torso. It’s as if the only alluring quality about Narumi is that he’s dependable. How romantic. Therein lies the problem with relationships in anime. Where’s the passion? Where’s the aching declarations of love? Anime girls just fall for bland guys with no real stand out qualities whatsoever except for their ability to, well, be a stubborn mule.
That’s all Narumi really is. He’s a stubborn mule. He’ll try super hard and it’s like gold star — gold star for everyone! Cute girlfriends for any otaku who puts his head down and, uh, does stuff. Whether or not he succeeds at it, well, at least he tried. If Madame Bovary was an anime, Emma would be leaving Rodolphe for Charles. If Jane Eyre was an anime, Mr. Rochester would be a Sunday school teacher. What does he have locked up in the attic? Nothing. The man would have no secrets, no passion, nada.
It goes on and on and on…
This arc is going to take at least four episodes to resolve. I really thought they would have patched things up by now, but nope. I feel as though the anime could have excised all the band promoting scenes and the story wouldn’t have suffered one tiny bit.
Exciting logo picking action at the textile shop.
In fact, we would have gotten a tighter story. Instead, the arc goes on and on and on… so I took a peek at the anime’s Wikipedia page out of curiosity. Light novel spoilers ahead, I guess:
Soon after, [Ayaka] mysteriously jumps off from the school roof injuring herself and falling into a coma. This motives Narumi to make a request for Alice: find out why she jumped off from the roof.
Man, that sort of sounds like an interesting mystery. Back in my day, mysteries used to be head scratchers. Mysteries used to involve implausible events and such. Why would a normally cheerful girl with no apparent issues jump off a roof? That’s a mystery! Instead, I’m watching two pretty boys hold a grudge over some girl from ages past. Then Narumi cries. Ugh.
Pingback: Notes of Kami-Sama No Memochou Episode 7 | Organization Anti Social Geniuses
I’m more interested on what kind of burden was Alice even carrying. She seems perfectly happy with her NEET “detective” lifestyle plus having bitches around to do the work FOR her.
Her burden is being overly pretentious about what she does.
But… she look like she also loves being overly pretensions.
I can’t even watch this series anymore. I can’t even imagine why I ever thought it had promise.
Well, the animation is pretty damn good.
It’s posts like this one that keeps me coming back to your site.
You ask the question that I find most other blog writers never really ask: Why?
Why are the characters doing all of this? What is their motivation? Is their motivation a believable reason for them making the choices that they make?
You’re right, Kamisama no Memochou fails very badly at convincingly answering the “Why?” question, for most (if not all) of its key characters. Most anime fans let this go because they’re tropers who will let anything slide if it arises from old familiar anime tropes (this is probably why they have more patience for Dalian in her anime than you or I do).
But you dig deeper, often taking a literary review perspective to anime, and that’s what I like about many of your blog write-ups. You haven’t lost sight of the nature and value of real storytelling, and how a bunch of tropes just haphazardly thrown together can never take the place of a good, well-told story.
Well done. :)
With all of our differences, I gotta say I’m a little surprised by this post of yours. After all, I’m generally considered “trollish,” pretentious, or some combination of the above to other anime bloggers. Ah well, can’t win them all, right? Still, thanks for the kind words.
I kinda think you are willfully ignoring the mystery here. Whether out of disinterest or what I don’t know but you haven’t been giving the story any attention. I also wonder about Narumi and Alice’s motivations but that doesn’t mean the story they are involved in isn’t interesting. Right from the first episode of this arc you have been ignoring what’s going on. You left out entirely that first episode the revelation that the guy Narumi was making friends with was related to the Hirasaka group. It wasn’t explicitly stated in that episode but the clues were all there and it was surprisingly subtle for the series. The solution of the mystery isn’t just getting pulled out of someones ass in this arc or in this series in general. Narumi essentially acts as a gatherer of evidence. In his interactions with Renji he revealed the past that pushed Yondaime and Renji apart. A lot of evidence was tossed at us this episode and I’m pretty sure of the solution. Such that the scenes about fabric shop might actually have some relevance. What happened to Hison? Was she pregnant? Was she the lover of someone from the opposing group? I have my theory as to the true fate of Hison. This mystery has been carefully built up over the past 3 episodes and the 4th will just essentially reveal what happened. However, if I’m correct, we already know what happened. All the evidence is laid on the table. This has been the best arc of the show thus far. A sharp contrast from some of the earlier mysteries everything about this one has been deliberate.
Because it’s quite blatant? I didn’t think I needed to recap something that was flat-out told to the audience.
Yes, I’m ignoring the mystery because I don’t care. Who cares about a spat between brothers in a group? Who cares about either Renji or Yondaime? They are both bland characters. The anime has yet to give any reason why I should be emotionally invested in either character. The thing with mysteries is that we usually don’t know any of the characters involved. As a result, the mystery has to be bizarre enough to draw the audience into the story. There is nothing remotely bizarre about this mystery. There’s likely some misunderstanding between Renji and Yondaime about some lady we’ve never met. Who. cares.
Pretty sure guy in sewing shop is sex-changed Hison. If you don’t think that’s interesting or remotely bizarre…well I dunno what to tell you.
And I don’t think it’s been blatant at all. In your first review of the episode of this arc you said basically nothing happens and you’ve been saying basically the same thing for every episode since. It really comes off that you didn’t even notice it in the first place and that you aren’t giving this show your full attention. In which case why are you even watching it? I know you watch shows that you can write about but that works if you are accurate in what you write about. I personally think you’ve dropped the ball on this arc.
Well, you said this was a mystery, right? Who could have guessed that the textile owner is a post-op until the third episode of the arc? So for two episodes, there was nothing bizarre whatsoever, and even then, it’s a deduction at best.
Sweet, you didn’t think it was blatant. I did. What else do you want me to say?
From my FAQs page:
Sure, I review some series and movies every now and then, but that semi-serious, hyperbolic post was certainly not a review in my eyes. I was merely trying to say “This is boring.” If you think I’m being unfair to the anime, you’re certainly entitled to your opinion. I do not care enough about KamiMemo, however, to sit here and debate with you over the level of accuracy I should pay to an anime I don’t take seriously. Sometimes, I watch and write about an anime just to take the piss out of it; I’ve never claimed to be a professional anime reviewer. I am glad you found enjoyment in the anime, but I don’t and I’m going to move on from this discussion.
Pingback: Notes of Kami-Sama No Memochou Episode 7 | Organization Anti-Social Geniuses