Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

      This episode begins with Chiaki getting bummed out because a swimming class will be taking place later in the day (if you remember, Chiaki can’t swim) . While the other kids work at cleaning the pool, Chiaki tries to delay the completion of the pool cleaning by taking control of the water hose, and Yoshino, Uchida, and Makoto try to come up with a plan to regain control of the hose. While the group is initially successful at getting the hose back, everyone ends up wet, Makoto then notices that the girls are revealing more than they bargained for, and like the dumb-ass he is, he points it out to them instead of just enjoying it.

     Then the next skit we get is about how hot it is in the classroom with Uchida going on and on about how hot it is. Chiaki tells Uchida to stop with the hot thing, but Yoshino says it’s OK because the pool will feel even better if they feel really hot. This whole line of thought leads to Uchida having a Hosaka like dream about being in the desert and finding a pool.

     Then Chiaki walks over to a water faucet with the idea that if she raises her body’s water content it would go better for her in the pool, but after drinking a lot of water she soon gives up on the idea. Chiaki drinks so much water that her stomach sticks out so she goes to the nurses office to get her some bandages so people won’t notice her stomach, but it doesn’t work.

        When Uchida and Yoshino notice Chiaki’s bandaged finger they tell her that she shouldn’t go in the pool, so Chiaki sits at the side of the pool sweltering in the sun while everyone else has a blast in the pool. Then at Kana’s school, after Kana’s class uses their pool’ Kana suggests that she, Keiko, and Riko go to the pool tomorrow. Riko thinks it’s a great idea and asks Kana about inviting other people hoping Kana will invite Fujioka, when Fujioka hears talk of the pool he mentions that he wants to go to the pool hoping Kana will invite him, and Keiko thinks to herself that this approach won’t work with Kana. But since Kana’s brain doesn’t work properly, she decides to invite some of her younger sister’s friends, causing much distress to Riko and Fujioka.

     So, the next morning when Chiaki is awaken by her alarm clock she discover that Kana is already awake (that must be one or the signs of the apocalypse), but Haruka reminds Chiaki that Kana can get up early when she is heading off to play. At the pool, Kana notices Fujioka hanging out with Riko and Keiko and she yells to them about why aren’t they coming over. On the way back from the pool, Kana is walking in front of the other three, not speaking to them, and when Fujioka tries to talk to her, she stops and kicks him, then she walks off.

      Back at the Minami household a pale of silence has settled over the Kotatsu, everyone can tell that something has happened between Kana and Fujioka. Touma asks Fujioka what happened, and Fujioka tells her/him that when they were playing tag he didn’t want to touch the girls when he was “it”, Touma calls him chicken and touches Chiaki showing him how to do it. Soon Chiaki tags Kana, then she tags Mako-chan, she tags Fujioka, then he tags Touma, who backs away, and then Fujioka tells Touma that in about three years he’ll understand the difficulty in touching girls.

     Soon the game of tag is going around the table, and Touma decides to start evading Fujioka, Touma tells Fujioka that it won’t be that easy to tag him. Fujioka tells him that now he gets it, and that when boys play tag it gets more serious, Touma runs off with Fujioka in hot pursuit, when Haruka asks whats going on? Chiaki tells her it’s just boys playing tag.

      Well, it was nice seeing a episode featuring Chiaki and her friends at their school, getting Yoshino, Uchida, and Makoto back into the mix brings back some of the silly magic that I liked from the first two series. It was pretty funny seeing the intelligent and over analyzing Chiaki have a breakdown in logic when it comes to something she can’t do well, like swimming, it makes her seem more human. I also have to admit that anytime I get to see more of Uchida it makes me smile, to me Uchida provides plenty of good natured comic relief. I feel that she’s like Miu from Ichigo Mashimaro but cuter and not quite as dense.

     One thing that bothered me about this episode, and the same thing bothered me a couple of times during the last season is that Kana at times is just plain mean. While Kana’s personality trends towards being selfish at times, lazy at other times, and she only thinks about how things will affect her at other times, I’ve always felt that she’s basically a nice girl, maybe a little dense when it comes to relationships. But there have been several times in the last season, along with her kicking Fujioka in this episode where her actions were just plain mean, and this is striking when compared to her sisters’ personality traits.

      Now, to the boys. At times I don’t know who’s dumber, Makoto or Fujioka? Makoto should have just kept his mouth shut and enjoyed the show when he noticed the wet t-shirt display taking place. Fujioka, where to begin? OK, when the girl you like invites you to play a game of tag in a swimming pool, not only with her, but with two other cute girls, you stifle your “embarrassment” and enjoy your opportunity.

      Now to a observation about Chiaki. I don’t know, or is it just me, but has Chiaki experienced some reverse growth when compared to Yoshino and Uchida? She seems to be flatter than Mako-chan. See, below pics for comparison.

      This episode begins with Tomoya describing his life since Nagisa’s death, he lives in a mono-color world where all he does is eat, work, and kill time so he doesn’t have to face the reality of his life. He tells us that he now hates this city, and that he regrets ever meeting, dating, and even having his child with Nagisa.

      The in the other world we see the junk doll continuing to work on building the escape craft for him and the girl, but he says it fails to work because he’s not human. Then the girl tells him that when it gets cold again she will have to sleep, leaving him alone, and she asks him if this is a sad world.

      One morning Tomoya is woken up by a visit from Sanae, his place is so messy that he has to have her wait outside while he cleans it up. When they finally talk, Sanae tells him that he hasn’t been out for a while so she invites him on a date. While they’re at what I think is Nagisa’s old restaurant, Sanae tells Tomoya that she wants him to take a vacation with them, Tomoya tells her that he’ll think about it. As soon as Tomoya gets back to his apartment Sanae calls him asking if he thought it over yet? Tomoya puts her off for a while. But, she soon calls back, and Tomoya gives in and tells her that he’ll take four days vacation.

      When Tomoya gets to the bakery, he finds that Sanae has left him a note saying that she and Akio had something important come up and they had to leave. Also, the note has two tickets attached to it, and the note tells Tomoya to take care of everything. After hearing some footsteps, Tomoya finds that Sanae and Akio have left Ushio for him to care for. When Tomoya asks Ushio what she wants to do, she tells him that she wants to go on a trip with Sanae and Akio, but Tomoya tells her that they can’t. We now learn from Tomoya that he gave Ushio to Sanae and Akio over five years ago, and that whenever something important in his daughter’s life came up he made excuses and worked instead. He hardly even knows what his daughter looks like.

       While spending time with Ushio, Tomoya talks with his daughter, fixes one of her toys, and decides to cook a meal for her. After their meal together, Tomoya realizes that Sanae and Akio won’t be coming back today, so Tomoya has to spend the night with his daughter. The next day, Tomoya asks Ushio if she wants to go on a trip? Yes. Even if it’s with someone like him? Yes. So, they pack up and head off, while they’re walking down the street Tomoya says that this is the first time they’ve been alone together in five years, and Tomoya wonders to himself where this journey of theirs will take them. Well, that’s all for this episode.

     When I first started watching this episode I felt anger but that feeling soon turned to a growing sense of overwhelming sadness; Sadness for what Tomoya was becoming, sadness for his betrayal of everything Nagisa’s love stood for, and sadness for his failure to live up to his promise to protect Nagisa and his daughter.

      Watching Tomoya sleepwalk through his life with indifference to the world around and to his daughter showed me that Tomoya was becoming the man he hated most in life, his father. It really hurt when Tomoya said that it would have been better if he and Nagisa had never met and so forth, because that was a betrayal of everything that Nagisa’s life stood for. Nagisa stood for compassion, love, and wanting to give birth to something greater than herself, she never would have cursed life, and cursed the city, she would have cherished the love she had for Tomoya.

      One of my greatest disappointments concerning Tomoya is the difference between him and Akio, Tomoya told Akio that he would care for and protect Nagisa. While Tomoya couldn’t save Nagisa’s life, he’s failed to care for and protect the legacy of Nagisa’s life, his daughter, Ushio.

      Tomoya has been walking down a dark path for the past five years becoming what he most despised, but Sanae’s attempt to reconnect Tomoya with his daughter is just the medicine he needs to save his soul. You can definitely see a part of Nagisa shining inside of Ushio, so if Tomoya can learn to love his daughter maybe he can relearn to love, cherish, and be grateful for the time he had with Nagisa.

My vision of Nagisa watching over Ushio.

       After a hellish couple of days at work, I’m going to do something I don’t normally do, I’m going to give a quick impression of the Ichigo Mashimaro Encore OAV RAW. Usually I don’t review RAWs because my Japanese language skills aren’t good enough for a in-depth review but I’m so tired that I don’t have the energy for a full episode review of something else. So, I’ll just list the skits, and show a few screen caps, then I’ll join Ayu and dream of taiyaki with her.

       The first skit involves Chika getting some prank phone calls, whenever she answers the phone no one says anything to her, then Miu gets pranked too.

       Now some caps from the opening.

      The next skit is about Miu dying after trying to pull off a standing back flip, Miu ends up being judged by Nobue and sent to hell.

      After managing to get past the devil Chika, Miu takes a elevator to heaven where she meets the angel Ana, Miu manages to trick Ana into giving her a set of boobs and wings. Miu then uses her wings in a escape attempt, only to be foiled by Nobue.

       Once Miu finally wakes up from her fall, she’s back in the room with the other girls, and she discovers to her disappointment that everything is back to normal. Then the girls end up at a school field trip where Chika discovered that she forgot some of her school supplies, and Miu calls Nobue, forcing Nobue to make a trip to bring the supplies.

      Once Nobue gets to the location, Miu proceeds to piss off Nobue with her usual antics, and she suffers Nobue wrath. Then the girls just kind of wander around the place looking cute, and doing cute things. Then the girls finally settle down to do their sketching and painting assignments, while Ana, Matsuri, and Chika try to be serious, Miu just sketches silly and ecchi drawings.

        Here’s some caps from the ending.

       Well, here’s my quick impression of the RAW. I feel that the animation style for this OAV is a little different from the previous iterations, while the girls are still drawn very cute I feel that the four younger girls are drawn looking younger than before. I also feel that Miu’s face looks a little chunkier that usual. The girls all still have their usual personality traits; Miu is still Miu, dense and silly; Ana is extremely cute; Matsuri is cute and vulnerable; Chika is still kind of the foil to Miu’s silliness; and Nobue still gets her moe enjoyment from the girls,and she still favors Matsuri. Oh, I also found the devil Chika and angel Ana to be over the top in cuteness. Overall, I found this OAV to be quite enjoyable and relaxing, so I hope that this OAV will either be released on DVD or get a official online release.