Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

        Well, Thanksgiving is upon us once again, a day where we get to sit down and enjoy a great meal cooked by loved ones.

        Once the meal is prepared sitting down with family and friends is the best part of the whole deal to me, but you have to be careful who you let carve the bird.

       After you’ve had your fill of delicious food and your sampling the tasty juice, remember if have to work or shop the next day, don’t drink too much juice.

        This episode starts off with Midori waking in tears from having a dream about how badly her mother treated her when she found out about Midori’s powers. Then at school the class has to decide what they’ll do for their school festival, after the votes are taken, running a cafe and a haunted house end up tied, so the class president casts his vote for running a haunted cafe.

        So, for the rest of the day the kids spend time making things and preparing the classroom for the haunted cafe. After School, Ran invites Midori and Rui to have dinner with her family, Midori is really happy since she can help Rin with the cooking.

         After sharing a nice meal together everyone sits down for some coffee and Ran’s mother and father share their experiences of a school festival from twenty years ago. Ran’s mother became separated from her friends and she wandered into the pickle research club where she meet Ran’s father for the first time, and it was love at first sight. They then tell how they were married and how happy they were when Rin and Ran were born, this embarrasses Rin and Ran, Midori seems to enjoy watching Rin and Ran’s reaction but it also makes her a little sad.

          As Ran’s parents talk about more happy family memories Midori asks them how would they feel if they found out that one of their children was completely different from normal people, would they still call them precious? Ran’s father asks Midori what she’s means by different, and he tells her that it would be worrying. After hearing this, Midori thanks them for the meal and she gets up and leaves abruptly.

         Back at her apartment Midori is still upset about her bad dreams and Ran’s parents reaction to her question. At the start of the school festival Midori’s classmates vote to have her wear a Medusa costume for the haunted cafe. The kids look really cute in their haunted cafe costumes and they seem to be having a good time running the cafe. Later, Rin shows up and he tells Midori how cute she looks then she takes him to a table and waits on him. The cafe turns out to be a big success because of all the guys that are drawn inside to see the beautiful Midori.

           later that day Ran’s parents show up to see the cafe and they tell Ran and Midori how cute they both look. Then Ran and Midori are forced to use their powers in front of Ran’s parents to save a mother and child from serious injury. After the Cafe closes, Ran’s parents tells the girls that even if their children were different the would still care for them, because Ran is still Ran, and Midori is still Midori.

         At the festival’s closing ceremony it’s announced that the haunted cafe won the contest by getting the most customers, and that Midori was voted MVP for her Medusa costume. Back at home, Midori gets a letter from home and it causes her to place a phone call to her mother. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        Well, while this episode features a school festival it was really about Midori’s feeling towards her mother and the differences between her family and Ran’s family. As we have seen in previous episodes Midori’s mother rejected her from an early age while Ran gets along with her family, but Ran’s parents don’t know about Ran’s telepathic abilities. Midori leaves Ran’s house in frustration when she hears Ran’s parents answer to the different question, but I don’t think that it was a fair question she asked them. Different could have meant anything; disabled, chronic illness, mentally disturbed, perversion, or anything else under the sun. So, I felt that Ran’s father’s response of I would be concerned was pretty reasonable with their lack of knowledge about what her “being different” question meant.

       What I really liked about this episode was how Ran’s parents found out about Midori’s and Ran’s powers, too often in anime series do the kids have tremendous powers that they use all the time but no one ever finds out. I also liked how her parents reacted to discovering that the girls had special powers, they tell the girls that it doesn’t matter, you are still are who you are (they probably thought, thank god at least their not pregnant).

          Now, this brings me to what separates this series from most current anime in a good way. Most current anime uses the idea/plot-line of a dysfunctional/absent family to make possible all the crazy stuff that occurs in most series; kids living alone, dead parents, MILF mothers, lolicon dads, big brother complexes, little sister complexes. Telepathy Shojo Ran uses none of these tropes, while the story might be a little less interesting because of this it feels a little more real and honest. As this series nears it’s end I look forward to seeing if Midori will come to some understanding with her mother, and I look forward to how the Ran/Rui and Midori/Rin pairings will work out. Overall, this is a nice series featuring nice kids having interesting adventures while experiencing the process of growing up and learning about life.  

        This episode begins with Miss Brownell announcing that she will be leaving the school to get married and they will be getting a new teacher. After the students see Miss Brownell off they all wonder what kind of person the new teacher will be, and at school that’s all the students are talking about. 

          Then Francis Carpenter, the new teacher shows up at the school, and the students think he’s quite strange. He does things like conducting classes outside in the fresh air, and he asks the students about their hopes and dreams. Emily should be very happy with this type of teacher because of a comment about her writing she doesn’t seem to like him while Ilse is very captivated by the new teacher.

        Later, Mr Carpenter visits Teddy’s house to give him a art book, he tells Teddy’s mother that Teddy is very talented and he could someday study at a good art school in a large city. When she hears him talk about her son leaving her someday to study she throws out the teacher and his art book, and she says that she’ll never be parted with her son. That night Emily finds out that all the townspeople know of Mr Carpenter but aunt Elizabeth won’t tell her any of the details of his history.

       The next day as Perry is returning from some errands he stumbles upon Mr Carpenter teaching a history class to the students by reenacting the events through a play, and he gets so excited that he gets involved in the class. Perry gets nervous because he’s supposed to be working and not going to school but Mr Carpenter has him participate anyways. Afterwards, he tells the kids that it’s important that they study history through the feelings of the people involved in the events. As Emily listens to Mr Carpenter’s words she’s reminded of how her father used to talk to her.

       Later, Mr Carpenter asks Emily to read one of Emily’s poems and she tells him that she doesn’t want a person who already judged her work to read them. So, he asks her that if she wishes to be a writer will she only let her supporters read her works? If so, then she’s an immature as a writer who has no confidence in her skills and her writings. After hearing this Emily hands him her poetry book and runs away from him in front of the whole class.

         Teddy goes after Emily and they end up at an abandoned house called the house of disappointments because many unhappy events occurred to a young couple that moved there causing them to leave in disappointment. Teddy asks Emily if she’s going to give up so easily, and he tells her about his mother’s reaction to his art, and that he won’t give up on being as artist no matter what his mother thinks. Teddy also gives Emily a drawing of her that he just finished, and Emily then resolves not to quite her dream of being a writer. The next day Mr. Carpenter gives Emily her notebook back and he tells her that while she wrote about 400 sentences only about ten of them were really noteworthy.

        Emily reacts badly to his words and he asks her if she’s going to give up writing? Emily starts crying as she tells him that she loves writing and that she can’t help herself because she has to write. She’s asks him why he’s bothering with her writing if he thinks that it’s no good, and he tells her that she wasn’t listening to him, if she can write ten good lines at age eleven she’ll be able to write 100 good lines at twenty.  He tells her that writing being a writer is a tough road to walk and that even if she works hard she might not succeed at it, but Emily tells him that she’ll really try hard to be a good writer.

        Later, she and Teddy meet at an abandoned house and they decide to go inside where Emily resolves to write her novels here, and Teddy also says that he’ll work on his art here. Emily and Teddy also resolve to someday in their future to find their happiness in this house together. Well, that’s all for this episode. 

       Well, it’s been such a long time since I’ve watched an episode of Emily I almost forgot how much I really enjoy this series. Two interesting things occurred in this episode that will probably effect the rest of the series.

      Firstly, the kids got a new teacher that truly seems to care about what the students want for their futures, and he is also the type of teacher that will go the extra mile for the students that have special potential.

       Mr. Carpenter is the first person that really took Emily’s writing seriously, Emily wasn’t ready to handle a serious critique, and I think that he’s just what Emily needs to force her writing to a whole new level. I think that everyone’s had the experience where they thought they were hot shit in their own little world until someone comes along and shows you that your good but not good enough yet.

         Also, this episode sets the course for Emily’s and Teddy’s future relationship with them promising each other that they’ll find their future happiness together. I guess that everyone could see it coming, Emily and Teddy are kindred spirits so it only natural that they’ll be attracted to each other.