Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

     This episode begins with a skit in involving the girls sitting around doing their homework and Miu getting Chika to scratch an itch that she can’t reach herself. Then we find out that Nobue is trying to quit her smoking habit, Chika tells her that there’s no way it’s possible, and they end up making a bet involving bathroom usage, and another task.

      Then we get a little skit where Miu copies all of Chika’s expressions and mannerisms, ending with Miu getting a picture of Chika acting real silly, and a face plant for Miu. After we watch how Ana and Matsuri interact with each other, the scene switches to Miu and Chika where Miu asks Chika if they’re just friends of best friends? Chika asks if there’s a difference, and Miu says she thinks there is, so she rushes off to ask Nobue. While Chika is listening to some music Miu bugs Nobue about the difference between friends and best friends. Nobue walks out of the room and texts her classmate about what their status with each other is?

       A little while later, Ana and Matsuri show up, and when they enter the room Miu ambushes Matsuri and threatens to write on Matsuri’s forehead unless Ana plucks out her nose hairs and sticks them on her eyebrows. Nobue walks in and grabs Ana and tells Miu that if she doesn’t unhand Matsuri she’ll stick her fingers up Ana’s nose or even kiss Ana. Soon, Chika gets upset at the noise and Nobue and Miu let go of the girls, and Nobue tells Ana and Matsuri that Miu was checking how close they are.

       Miu says that Ana and Matsuri are pretty close, best friends? Both Ana and Matsuri say yes without a moment’s thought. How close? They tell Miu that they’re close at school, they play after school, they have matching cellphone stickers, and they text each other all the time. Well, Miu says that she and Chika text each other all the time, so she demands to see Matsuri’s phone so she can look at their texts. When Matsuri hands the phone over, all of Matsuri’s and Ana’s text are nice, cute, and sugary sweet texts to each other, so much so that Miu’s on the floor laughing.

        Then Miu tells Nobue to look and see how best friends text each other, when she see Matsuri’s messages she says how cute, and when Miu shows everybody her and Chika’s messages, everybody feels sorry for Chika. Then Miu sends a sugary sweet text to Chika, and her response is to blow Miu off. Then Miu asks how far Ana and Matsuri have gone, Miu says she’s kissed Chika, and they’ve even touched each others tits a long time ago, so she asks Nobue if that makes them best friends? Well, when Miu goes to talk to Chika, it looks like Nobue told Miu that they’re liable to be lesbians, Miu gets another face plant. Matsuri asks Ana what’s “liable to be Lesbians” mean, and Ana tells her that she doesn’t need to know.

        Nobue asks the girls what her status is with them? After a short pause, Miu tells her she’s a boss, and a second later her classmate texts her back saying, Nobue is a boss! Well, poor Nobue tells them that she guesses that she doesn’t have any best friends. Ana and Matsuri tell Nobue that she’s best friends with them, but Nobue says that their ages are too different. Both Ana and Matsuri say they don’t understand the age difference thing but they love her anyways, this instantly cheers Nobue up. Then the question of how close Ana and Matsuri comes up again with Matsuri being asked if she would give up one of her organs to save Ana’s life if it wouldn’t kill her? Of course she would, and Ana would do the same for Matsuri. Then Miu asks Chika the same question  in a Miu manner, but when Chika hears the details she agrees that she would save Miu, making Miu very happy, but Miu tells Chika she wouldn’t give her an organ.

       As Miu is getting ready to leave, she looks at everyone and goes off on them, she tells them that they’re boring, they do them same thing all the time, and she does mocking impersonations of everyone. Her impression of Nobue is just perfect, I’m an old lady that likes cute little girls, Chika agrees with Miu’s act, and both Miu and Chika get a face plant from Nobue. Miu tells Nobue that she has to prepare for the day that they become junior high school girls. Oh, the horror of that thought, poor Nobue is in tears. Chika tells Miu that this is too sudden for Nobue, so Miu wants to slowly prepare her for that day. So, all the girls including Nobue put on sailor uniforms, and Miu wants to take them to the world where they have left grade school.

       So, Miu explains her vision of life after grade school to everyone, of course it’s a Miu version of the future, slighty off kilter. In her version of the future she and Chika are in eight grade, Ana’s in seventh grade, and for some reason Matsuri is still in sixth grade. Her version also includes a lot of school girl anime tropes found in many of those types of series’s. Also, in Miu’s version, everybody but her comes off bad, and she gets another face plant.

       Later, we see Nobue looking in a store’s window at a turntable or some other thing, it looks like she was saving she money to buy it, but it’s already been sold. As Nobue is getting ready to drive off she sees a cigarette machine and pauses. Back at home Chika and Miu walk-in on Nobue having a smoke, and Chika asks her if she’s going to live up to her end of their bet. Yes. Chika calls everybody up and tells them to meet at her house, Nobue is taking everybody to the beach. At the beach, the girls have a good time and Nobue has a good time watching them play. Well, that’s all for this episode.

Nobue’s in her Heaven & All’s right with the world.

       I’ve always felt that there’s almost no better example of someone enjoying the Moe aesthetic than how Nobue takes pleasure in watching Chika, Miu, Ana, and Matsuri being cute little girls. Nobue takes pleasure in enjoying the girls’ innocence, not in any sort of sexual manner, it’s like she sees them as a younger version of herself, not yet cynical, untouched by the baser realities of teenage life; longing for boyfriends, sex, smoking, having to work for money, and so forth. I think that Nobue’s pleasure in watching the girls is also an expression of  her appreciation of the principle of Mono no Aware, she knows that sooner or later the girls will exchange their childhood innocence for a more worldly adult experience, and she chooses to enjoy every last moment of their childhood.

From William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experiance (1789)

Nurse’s Song (or Nobue’s song)

 

When the voices of children are heard on the green

And laughing is heard on the hill,

My heart is at rest within my breast

And everything else is still. 

“Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down

And the dews of night arise;

Come, come, leave off play, and let us away

Till the morning appears in the skies.” 

“No, no, let us play, for it is yet day

And we cannot go to sleep;

Besides, in the sky the little birds fly

And the hills are all cover’d with sheep.” 

“Well, well, go & play till the light fades away

And then go home to bed.”

The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh’d

And all the hills echoed.

       This episode begins with Yui talking about how scary the guitar strings are, thin and sharp, and Ritsu tells Yui that she has to be careful or she’ll cut herself and bleed all over the place. Mio gets upset over the unhappy talk, but Yui calms her down by telling her that she’s not hurt. Then the conversation switches to Mio showing Yui that her fingers will toughen up after a lot of practice.

       Later, Yui asks the girls how she should go about practicing, Mio hands Yui a guitar instruction book and tells her to learn the cords. As soon as Yui opens the book she has to ask Mio how to read the instructions. On her way home, Yui runs into Nodoka and Yui is reminded about upcoming mid-terms, she’s very worried about trying to do guitar practice and having to study for the mid-terms, but Nodoka tells Yui not to worry because Yui’s nevered studied for mid-terms.

       After the mid-terms are over the girls find out that Yui is the only one who has to take the make up exam. Ritsu tells her to study harder and Yui tells her she didn’t study at all, she spent all her time practicing guitar cords. It gets worse, Yui is suspended from club activities until she passes her make-up exam. This means that if Yui doesn’t pass her exam the club will be left with only three members and the club might have to disband. Well, the make-up is in one week and Yui vows to do her best studying for the exam. Whenever Yui starts to study in her room she gets distracted by cleaning up, practicing her guitar, and so forth. When there are three days left before the exam the other girls begin to wonder how Yui’s studying is going? Mio, Ritsu, and Mugi agree to send Yui a text encouraging to study hard and do well on the exam. With only two days to go before her exam Yui goes back to the girls and begs them for help on the exam. So, Mio agrees to hold special training for Yui.

      So, after school, they all head over to Yui’s house, and the girls wonder what Yui’s younger sister will be like. Well, when they get there they meet Ui, Yui’s younger sister. Ui seems more mature and level headed than Yui, and Ritsu makes the “your sister got all the good genes comment” to Yui. As the special training begins, Ritsu begins to act just the way that she imagined  how Yui would act, and she even gets thrown out of the room by Mio. After a half an hour, Yui begins to lose her focus but the offer of some of Mugi’s cake brings her back to life.

        Then Nodoka shows up to help Yui, she gets introduced to the other club members, and they all share some snacks that Nodoka brought over along with stories of Nodoka and Yui from junior high school. As the studying drags on, Yui falls asleep and goes into dream mode, and has a weird dream of them being trapped in a cabin during a winter storm. When the studying is finally over, and the girls go to leave, they find Ritsu playing video games with Ui.

      As Yui is taking her make-up exam the rest of the girls wait in the club room, everyone except Ritsu is worried about Yui and she gets yelled at by Mio for not worrying enough. Well, when Yui finally shows up with her score,  it ends up that she aced the exam with their help, and they can finally begin to practice again. When Yui goes to show them the cords she learned they find out that she forgot everything  she learned because she studied so hard for the exam. Well, that’s all for this episode.

     Well, compared to the first two episodes I felt that this episode dragged a little bit in parts. What this episode did was give us a little more insight into the girls’ academic abilities and their personalities. Yui learned the hard way the difference between high school and junior high school, as Nodoka pointed out, Yui never studied for mid-terms in junior high, but this time she failed. Yui doesn’t seem to be dumb, she just has a  hard time sticking to one thing for an extended period of time. Ritsu, for all her wild imaginings of Yui, turns out to be the closest in personality and mannerisms to Yui, she could be Yui’s twin sister. Mugi, still acts the most calm, refined, and easy going of the bunch. Mio, dislikes hearing unpleasant things, and when Yui needed help Mio was clearly the one that could be counted on the most. Well, I really look  forward to the next episode, it looks like that episode will be the one where the girls get serious about getting their band together.

      This series begins with a flashback to the past when a village was being attacked by  Tayutai ( magical creatures from the past), the Tayutai are defeated by two people (a Shinto priest and a goddess), it looks like the Tayutai are broken down into balls of lights that are then sealed into a wood or stone marker. Then we skip forward to the present day to see a boy named Yuuri (Yuu, to the girl) working on a motorbike for a girl (Ameri, Yuuri’s childhood friend), it looks like Yuuri lives on the grounds of a Shinto temple.

      Then Yuuri’s dad steps into the scene and he tells his son about some trouble at the high school. Yuuri goes to investigate, and he finds a construction site roped off with the seal we saw earlier, in the middle of the site. As he walks towards the seal we see some floating lights revolving around the seal, Yuuri gets interrupted by a girl asking him if he’s a student here. He says yes, and then she tells him to leave. Before Yuuri leaves the site he touches the seal and feels that an important “God” dwells here, the girl again tells him to leave. As Yuuri is leaving, he sees spirits surrounding the girl and attempts to grab them, leading the girl to think that he’s being weird.

       Later that night, Yuuri asks Ameri and his cousin (Sankuro) to help him out with an exorcism. Then we see Yuuri’s father and uncle sharing a drink and talking about Yuuri, it seems that Yuuri’s father admits that Yuuri’s power is the real deal. Then we see Yuuri prepping for the exorcism with Ameri and Sankuro watching, and after some small talk, Yuuri begins the exorcism. As the exorcism progresses, time stops around the site and ghostly goddess appears above the seal, Yuuri calls her Tayutayu, but she tells him she’s a Tayutai, not Tayutayu. She the says that she’s Kikurami Kami no hime, Yuuri tells them that this is the deity that his family shrine worships. The goddess says that she knows this site is about to be destroyed, and she tells them that this relic houses over 1,500 species of Tayutai totaling about 10,000 in all. She tells them that if the seal is broken the world will thrown into chaos, Yuuri and the others vow to protect this place to the best of their abilities.

       As the group is talking with the goddess, she tells Yuuri that he reminds her of someone she once knew, and that someday the Tayutai and humans might coexist. Just then, the area is attacked by someone telling the goddess that she makes him laugh, Ameri asks Yuuri what they should do, he tells Ameri to take the bike and flee the area. As Ameri is getting ready to leave, the bike goes out of her control and smashes into the seal causing it to split open. As the Tayutai are freed from the relic, the goddess’s power starts to fade, and the goddess invokes a ancient contract between her and Yuuri’s family. She tells him that he has to look after this child for the future of humans and Tayutai are at stake, a pillar of light splits the sky and a young girl appears in front of the seal.

       As soon as the girl appears, she begins to attack the spirits we saw earlier, telling them not to bother humans or cause trouble. She says that they probably won’t cause any more trouble. Then we see that a large group of dark spirits flying about them, it says that it can’t listen to talk like this, the girl calls it the Ouryuu Houou (dragon phoenix). The spirits call the girl weak, and Yuuri asks if those were the sealed spirits? The girl tells him that those were the strongest and most troublesome of the Tayutai, the spirits call the girl Kikurami, and they say that they’ll pay her back for the 500 years of being sealed.

        The dark spirits attack Kikurami, she tries to fend then off but they soon overpowers her, she’s smashed into the relic and knocked out, and the dark spirits leave saying that it would be too easy killing her now. The group takes the unconscious girl back to Yuuri’s house, where they watch the news of the troublesome Tayutai already causing problems. Yuuri, his father, and the other two discuss the problem of Kikurami, Yuuri’s father says that they have no choice but help, the goddess that their shrine worships request their help, and after all the girl is probably another form of the goddess. He places the responsibility of caring for Kikurami in Yuuri’s hands because he has more abilities than his father. A little while later, Yuuri asks his cousin Sankuro to make sure that Ameri gets home safely.

     When Kikurami wakes up, she tells Yuuri that she’s hungry, Yuuri feeds her some of Ameri’s rice balls as she sits on his lap. Kikurami tell him that her body isn’t complete so she’s just overexerted, and needs to rest. Kikurami calls him Yachimata and he tells Kikurami to call him Yuuri, she calls him Yuuri-san and says that it is a nice name, and Yuuri calls her small Kikurami-sama to which she says that it’s not right to call her Kikurami because right know there’s too much difference between their forms. So, she asks Yuuri to give her a name? Well, he looks to the bag of marshmallows, and calls her Mashiro, but he says he can’t name her that, it’s too late, Kikurami starts calling herself Mashiro, and soon the minor Tayutai agree with the name.

        Then Mashiro tells Yuuri that he’s good around girls and asks him how his wife is doing? He says that he’s still in school and not married, but he realizes that back in Kikurami’s days, coming of age was a lot younger. She tells him that he has an adult body and that marrying late is bad for the mind and body, does he at least have a lover or mistress, maybe that girl Ameri? No. So, Mashiro tells Yuuri to marry her, but he says that she’s too young. Will it be OK when I get older? Yes. Then Mashiro says that we’ll make an oath, she turns and kisses him, she says that the oath is now sealed, and they’ll live together, forever. Mashiro then falls asleep in Yuuri’s arms, and he puts her to bed and says that she’s too young.

      The next morning, Yuuri goes to check on Mashiro and he walks in on her while she’s naked, she starts screaming and soon Ameri see the naked girl and starts calling Yuuri a pervert. But, soon Ameri stops her screaming because she realizes that the girl knows her name, and then she figures out that the girl is Kikurami. Mashiro tells Ameri the she’s called Mashiro and that she’s Yuuri’s future wife, Ameri demands to know how far he got in just one night? Mashiro asks Yuuri if he already forgot his oath, and she rushes to his side and says thanks to his loving care she’s been able to recover to this level. Then his father walks in and says, wow what a beautiful girl, they then give Mashiro a kimono to wear, and she looks stunning in it. When Mashiro finds out that it was Yuuri’s mother’s kimono, she says that she feels the responsibility of wearing it. Mashiro bows to Yuuri and her father-in-law and pays her respects to them. Mashiro then tells Yuuri that they must prepare to battle the three strongest Tayutai, Yuuri must fulfill the old contract, and the future is in his hands. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        Well, this episode turned out to be a lot better than I thought it be. While the premise of a live in goddess is a silly one, and one that’s been done many times over in manga and anime, I still found it to be interesting and enjoyable. Yuuri is different from many of the typical leading male characters in a harem type anime, he’s not wimpy, nor is he clumsy, or is he stupid, and he’s not total buffoon around girls, so that’s already a plus. Ameri, Yuuri’s childhood friend is typical of the girl next door from these types of shows, she gets threatened when a new girl comes around treading on her home turf. Yuuri’s cousin Sankuro seems pretty cool and laid back about the whole exorcism and goddess thing, like it happens everyday around there. Yuuri’s father is pretty open to the idea of Kikurami prancing around the property, and since his wife is dead that means that their house will be a pretty wild place, kind of like a bachelor pad.

      I also really liked how small Kikurami-sama/Mashiro is played, innocent and randy at the same time. If you’ve ever studied the historic behaviors of the Shinto priests, Buddhist monks, and the Kami that they worshipped at the time, you’ll know that they were a very randy bunch. Monks and priests fooled around with females all the time, be they married, single, divine or mortal. The Kami, male or female, also were known to bestow more then just blessings on their followers, and several kami were known to have taken mortal lovers, or married and had children with mortals. So, in historical context it’s not out of the question of a female kami to take a mortal husband or lover, but because of their immortality it won’t last forever.

      In closing, I’ll be looking forward to watching how Mashiro’s and Yuuri’s relationship develops, and seeing if they really will fulfill their oath. The only other thing I have to say is that Yuuri’s one lucky dog, and that I want my very own lap goddess too.