This episode is all about awkward couples getting things off their chest. It’s all about saying what you need to say — what you should’ve said — a long time ago. And yet, Inako clearly hasn’t spoken to Kihachi since the incident on the boat. When he comes up in a conversation, all she can do is pout. These kids are so awkward. But I guess Noriko knows Inako’s heart — even though she would’ve let her marry Yosuke in last week’s episode? — so she directs her sister to a nearby pond, where the girl would find Kihachi. And what exactly is our boy up to while wearing nothing but a fundoshi? Retrieving his latest electrical contraption: a plane. Eat your hearts out, Wright Brothers! Well, maybe not. I’m still not exactly sure if this is an alternate universe where Kihachi comes up with all of these technologies first, or if he’s simply doing it first in Japan. But either way, even coming close to building a working plane is an impressive feat by itself.
More importantly, however, is the fact that Inako continues to inspire him. She is his muse: “Maybe you can see it if you ride this. Mount Fuji, I mean.” Clearly, he cares about her a lot. You don’t sacrifice one of your last reminders of your dead brother for someone who isn’t dear to you. You don’t then spend the next few days (or maybe even weeks) working on an invention for their sake. Kihachi was worried that she had given up on her dreams, so he thought he needed to help her find it again by glimpsing Mt. Fuji. So why haven’t they talked until now? Why are they only now hashing things out and getting these feelings off their chest? Ultimately, it just comes down to neither kid wanting the other to give up on their dreams. Literally, all Kihachi has to say is that he hasn’t given up. If he had done that before announcing his intentions to give up the Electrical Catalog, he wouldn’t have had to crash the party on the boat while crossdressing. Well, I suppose I have to give him grace, because Inako is probably the first person he’s ever cared about in a romantic way.
Now that we’ve resolved one couple’s troubles, it’s time to fix the other broken relationship. Specifically, the one between Noriko and Kengo. These two are adults, but they’re no better than the kids. Everyone keeps making these unilateral decisions without consulting one another. As a result, Kengo has called off his engagement to Noriko. He thinks this is him taking responsibility. Man, why is it so hard for people to just talk? Hell, he hasn’t seen her since that boat incident either. I can excuse Kihachi for being awkward and clumsy with his words and actions, but I can’t cut Kengo the same slack. This is truly pathetic for a grown man. Nevertheless, it’s up to the kids to “Parent Trap” him and Noriko. So what’s their brilliant plan? Scaring Noriko with a rat, apparently. This way, she’ll run and jump into Kengo’s arms. As amusing as this plan looks and sounds, that’s such a childish way of dealing with the problem… sigh, they are children. And to help enable Inako’s silly idea, Kihachi presents his automated toy rat! Oh man…
Elsewhere, Yosuke finds a peculiar red card of sorts hidden within the second half of the Electrical Catalog. On it, he finds diagrams and instructions for perhaps the greatest possible electrical invention: “It uses the flow of electricity to perform calculations. The more circuits you stack, the faster it gets, and eventually it will even surpass humans.” Sounds like a computer to me, no? It would also make perfect sense why Yosuke needs the catalog so badly. Sure, electricity can power the limbs of his ghastly Seiroku puppet, but that’s it. That’s all it can do. At the end of the day, the puppet will still just be a puppet. It can’t think, speak, or move on its own. But equipped with something like a computer, it can!
Of course, I still don’t think this version of Seiroku could ever measure up to the real thing. After all, why do we deride AI-generated art? Because it has no soul. It has no originality. It’s a ghastly imitation of the real thing. And we will be able to say the same about Seiroku 2.0. Being able to perform calculations is a far cry from actually having a human personality. Sure, stack them all up. Add millions upon millions of instructions per second. That won’t guarantee you anything. The mystery of consciousness is still something we have yet to solve. To make matters worse, Yosuke still needs Kihachi’s help: “There is something missing. Seiroku conveyed that to me through this catalog, in order to create our future together. … And there is only one guy who can decipher it.” I never fully understood the point of Yosuke desperately getting his hands on the Electric Catalog, because he can’t really do anything with it.
Anyway, the kids try to pull their silly prank on Noriko, and Kengo is actually going through with it. Unfortunately, Inako’s pet stoat has other ideas when it sees the electric rat scurrying about. Bro, just talk to her normally. But no, the kids try their stupid prank again, but this time, Kihachi has a wireless mouse. He even chucks it like a Pokemon trainer. But the poor thing looks so dumb, it doesn’t even resemble an actual rat anymore. I can’t, man… I mean, what are we doing? Yosuke is about to raise the dead via some monstrous, potentially computerized puppet, and we’re sitting here, trying to help a meathead break the ice with his (former?) fiancee. This is so ridiculous. Noriko ends up calling Kengo a coward, but is she wrong?
Still, Noriko isn’t going anywhere at the moment. She’s right in front of Kengo. He has the golden opportunity to say what he needs to say… so he goes and asks if she still loves Seiroku. What a joke. Seiroku is dead. But it’s obvious what Kengo’s trying to do. He’s a coward like she says, so he’s trying to pass the buck. Kengo is practically begging Noriko to confirm his worst fear, i.e., he isn’t good enough for her, so he can slink away with his tail between his legs. Of course, Noriko isn’t blameless either. She doesn’t talk about her feelings either. Rather than seeing the main couple come up with cool, new inventions or destroying whatever soulless nonsense Yosuke is up to, we’re embroiled in this stupid drama between two emotionally constipated adults. And now, one of those adults is getting lectured by the children.
Plus, I just don’t really see the problem here. People are capable of romantically loving more than one person in the course of their lives. No, this is not an endorsement for polyamory, nor am I speaking against it either. Rather, Seiroku is dead. Have we forgotten that crucial fact? So what is even the point of Kengo breaking the engagement? Even if Noriko did always love Seiroku more — even if she would still be with Seiroku if he had survived — that’s all in the past! In the present, he’s dead and that’s an immutable fact. If Kengo leaves her, then what? Is she supposed to just be alone forever? Realistically, she would just marry someone else. If he weren’t such an idiot, he would accept that whom she marries might as well be him.
Yes, Noriko hasn’t forgotten Seiroku, and she feels guilty about that. But getting over someone doesn’t mean you have to completely remove them from your heart. Getting over them simply means just that: moving on with the rest of your life. You can still cherish your memories of them. You can still hold them dear to you. You just don’t let their loss hold you back from living your life. Noriko should’ve unburdened herself from this pain a long time ago, especially since it’s been years since Seiroku died. Sure, everyone grieves differently, but she definitely should’ve talked to someone about his death. She should’ve processed those feelings instead of bottling them up. Ideally, this would’ve been done with Kengo, who literally fought side-by-side with Seiroku and saw him breathe his last breath. As a future husband-wife duo, they should’ve leaned on each other for support. But I guess talking to Inako is the next best thing, and as soon as Noriko finally reveals her true feelings, the rain around her also stops. Even the heavens are sending her a clear signal that it’s time to move forward… or back to Kengo, apparently.
For some reason, Noriko commandeers a horse. Okay, I know she’s heading back to Kengo to fix things, but why is she in such a rush? Apparently, she honestly thinks he would just run off and disappear. Eh, I guess she would know him better than I do. Still, if Inako is with her, I assume Kihachi is on the other end, keeping an eye on the big lout. We thus get a ridiculous scene where Kengo is waiting for Noriko all along, but that electric mouse gets away from Inako’s pet stoat. It then spooks Noriko’s horse. So in order to save his (ex) fiancee from a nasty fall, Kengo has to do the one thing he’s good at: flexing his muscles. He flexes so hard, his clothes literally explode off his body. Yeah, I’ve got nothing left to say about this stupid scene. All you need to know is that they get back together. Still, imagine if both Momokawa sisters had broken off their engagements in quick succession. Jinemon probably would’ve died from a heart attack.
Honestly, I thought it would take the entire series for the kids to prevent Inako’s marriage to Yosuke. When they resolved the matter at the end of last week’s episode, i.e., merely the ninth episode, I couldn’t help but wonder how the anime would run out the clock. Well, this is how. We definitely just spent almost an entire episode on Noriko and Kengo’s relationship woes. Sadly, this is probably the weakest episode yet for me, because I really do not care about either of them. Noriko is rather inscrutable for me. I never understood why she would both help and hinder her sister, and I still don’t. She would hold their father back at times, but then let Jinemon know exactly where to find Inako when the girl had run away. It makes no sense to me. Meanwhile, I can’t see Kengo as anything but a meathead. Neither of them are particularly well-developed characters, so I have no emotional investment in their future as a couple. The kids are over the moon to see those two back together again, but I feel nothing. Be together, be not together — it doesn’t make lick of difference.
Nevertheless, now that we’ve gotten their nonsense out of the way, this means we can get back to the main story, right? Well, Kihachi reiterates that he doesn’t need the Electric Catalog to fulfill his dreams. But in a flashback where Seiroku had promised to Noriko, he spoke of something called the Electric Nishiki. Like a certain girl from another KyoAni production, Inako is now deathly curious. That alone should suffice as a call to adventure, no? Suddenly, that Saki woman steps out from around the corner as if she had been waiting for them all along. She refers to Yosuke as “my Yosuke,” then announces her intention to slap him. And that’s where we leave off for the week.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— Why did they draw his lips like that?
— For once, Jinemon is speaking to his daughter without yelling or berating her. I never thought I would see the day! He was just about to ask her about her dreams of becoming a master brewer, too. But like Kengo, Jinemon bites his tongue then shuffles off like a coward. Inako and Jinemon are also a “couple,” in a way — a father-daughter couple. They also have a relationship that is in disarray simply because they can’t communicate. But again, I can’t blame Inako, because she’s a child. The father, however, has no excuse. Over and over again, these grown-ass men have no excuse for their ridiculous behavior. I mean, how are you not able to talk to your own daughter?! Alas, this isn’t the last episode, so these two will have to wait until another day before they can come to any sort of understanding. It’s not even complicated, though. The girl just wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Like c’mon, what are we even doing?
— Obviously, the conflict between the kids and Yosuke is important for all the reasons I mentioned in last week’s post, i.e., we’re seeing Meiji Japan’s anxieties about modernization play out in front of us on a smaller, personal level. But I still kinda wish we simply had a show about the pure joy of inventing stuff. In fact, the show started out this way. Kihachi didn’t have a working light bulb, so we got to see him conduct all sorts of experiments. He didn’t have a working telephone, so he had to develop one too. But ever since then, the show has more or less given up on, y’know, actually inventing stuff. Need a rat? By the time we cut to the next scene, Kihachi will have had one ready to go.
— Inako has a terrible poker face.
— Cue the flashbacks, I guess…
— I’m not really sure what “nishiki” means in this context. I tried looking up the definition, but all I got was “brocade” or “fine clothing?”
— Is Saki ever without her alcohol? I think she might have a problem.
— This is just the tenth episode, right? Oh man, I bet you we’re going to get an extended flashback with Saki to explain her involvement in this story.