Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

      Here’s a few new anime & manga motivational posters for the week of 4/27/2009. Feel free to share and enjoy these posters, but please at least give me a link or track back if you’re going to post them to a board or forum, Click on the poster to view at full size, enjoy.

        This episode begins with Yui’s sister Ui having a flashback of a Christmas from their childhood, that Christmas Yui got in trouble for using some stuffing from some of their cushions to make a white Christmas for her. Ui wishes for a fun Christmas this year as she and Yui are putting up this year’s Christmas tree.

        The we get a little skit showing how close Yui and Ui are as sisters, Yui shares her scarf with Ui, and Ui keeps Yui’s ungloved hand warm while they walk home in the cold.

           Then the scene switches to K-On clubroom, Ritsu wants to hold a Christmas party at Mugi’s house but Mugi says it’s not available, she needs at least one months notice to book her house. Why not have it at Ritsu’s house, to which Mio says that it’s so full of stuff you can’t move around, and Ritsu shoots back that Mio’s has all sorts of clothes laying around her room, like panties. Yui then says it’s OK to have it at her house, her parents will be in Germany for the Holidays, and her sister Ui will handle the cooking. Ritsu suggests a gift exchange for the party, and Mugi loves the idea. Back at home, Ui agrees to do the cooking, but she’s worried that Yui will hurt herself if she helps with the cooking, so she tells Yui to handle the decorations.

        Then we get to see the girls doing their shopping for the gift exchange at the local mall where they all sort of bump into each other. Back at home, Ui is deciding what to cook for the party and she’s also figuring out what to do for the party’s talent contest.

         Then the scene switches to Yui’s house where Ui’s is finishing the cooking and Yui is making the decorations. Later, the other girls arrive and they sit down for some food and drinks. At first, everyone thinks that Ui’s the responsible younger sister and Yui’s kind of like an airhead, but soon they decide that Yui and Ui make a nice combination together. When the girls decide to do a toast they discover that Sawako used some ninja skills to sneak into the house without anyone noticing, besides how could they forget to invite their advisor. Well, they didn’t forget her, they just thought she’d have a date with a boyfriend, that touches a raw nerve with Sawako. As punishment someone has to wear a Santa outfit, Yui puts it on without a second thought, but Sawako says it’s not quite right and she looks over to Mio.

      After some Sawako chasing Mio around the house action, Nodoka shows up at the party and Sawako starts the gift exchange rotation. Sawako gets the Jack-in-the-box present, and she declares that it’s the best Christmas ever. After everyone else opens their gifts, only Yui’s and Ui’s gifts remain unopened, and Yui ends up with gloves from Ui, and Ui ends up with a new scarf from Yui.

       Now it’s time to get the talent contest rolling, So Ui goes first with a hand puppet show, then Yui and Ritsu do air guitar and drums, Mio models the Santa outfit, Mugi does  a ocean sunfish imitation, and Sawako does a belly slap maple leaf demonstration. After the girls head home, Yui and Ui notices that it’s starting to snow and they’re going to have a white Christmas, and Ui mentions the time that Yui gave her a white Christmas.

         As Ui is in her bed she says that it was a really fun Christmas, then Yui knocks on the door and asks Ui if they can sleep together, so the sisters spend the night together with Yui hogging all the covers. As the days pass, Yui spends her time lounging around the kotatsu while Ui does all the cooking. When the girls meet up for New Years they ask Yui how much weight she gained from sitting around and eating, she tells them she never gains weight no matter how much she eats, this news sends Mugi and Mio into a fit of depression. Then it’s brought up that Mio is wearing her kimono, and she says it’s because Ritsu suggested it but she’s going home to change into normal clothes, but Yui tells her that she looks really cute in her kimono. Then the girls see Sawako leaving a wish at the temple and she doesn’t look happy at seeing so many young adult couples at the shrine. Then girls then make their New Year’s wishes at shrine, and in the end, Ritsu says that they should wish for the success of the K-On! club. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        Well, we experienced a pretty large time jump between episodes, K-On! jumped from the cultural festival to right before Christmas eve, and even though this was a large time shift it really didn’t feel too jarring to me. Basically this episode was all about the sisterly love that Yui and Ui have for each other with a good dose girl bonding throw in for good measure. We get to see that the love that Yui and Ui share for each other is very deep, and pretty unconditional. Yui and Ui  have very different personalities, but Ritsu, Mugi, and Mio come to understand that Yui and Ui make a pretty good team. Now for the girl bonding, since none of the girls, or even Sawako have boyfriends, girl bonding is very important this time of the year. See below cultural notes on the Christmas holiday and Sawako’s situation.

      Overall, I found this episode to be a nice and relaxing bit of girl bonding with a good dose of sisterly love thrown in, easy on the eyes, easy on the ears, and easy on the brain. The next episode preview gave some nice hints about the future of K-On!, for one thing the girls are going to be starting their second year of high school, and the club will be getting some new members, one of them most likely being Yui’s sister Ui.

       Cultural notes on Christmas in Japan and the term Christmas cake, (In Japan, Christmas is a pretty big commercial event, and Christmas Eve has become a big night for couples, a lot of marriage proposals and very romantic dates take place. So, on Christmas Eve girls who don’t have boyfriends tend to get together and have a girl party. Also, with Christmas Eve being such a big couples/dating/romantic night in Japan, women who are single/unattached and are over a certain age find this to be a very unsettling period. In Japan  in is a insulting comment to refer to an unmarried woman over a certain age as Christmas cake, or stale cake, looks good on the outside but tastes old or stale on the inside, and this term is often used by women who have husbands/boyfriends to dig at their unlucky coworkers).

In anime such as Lucky Star, and Azumanga Daioh you get to see how depressing this time of the year is for the single teachers Yukari, Minamo, and Nanako.

        This episode begins with Yuuri having a dream about his past where he and Ameri promised each-other that they would always be together. Then in middle school it looks like Ameri started to distance herself from Yuuri, and he wonders what happened to their promise. Later, while Mashiro is giving Yuuri a massage, Nue tells them that they aren’t ready to battle the other monsters yet, they barely managed to beat her and she was the weakest of the bunch. Ameri gets pissed off at Mashiro for giving Yuuri the massage, and because she keeps saying she’s Yuuri’s wife.

       While Mashiro is out shopping with Yuuri she overhears some women talking about how women in a nearby town are being attacked by some monster. After school, Ameri invites Yuuri and Sankuro to hangout with her, and Yuuri agrees until Mashiro calls him and says she wants to investigate a nearby town. When Sankuro and Ameri are walking home he notices that she’s not happy, he tells her to just tell Yuuri how she really feels, but Ameri says it might be too late. When Mashiro and Yuuri meet outside the school, Yuuri comments that she looks tired so why don’t we forget about the Tayutai and go have some fun. We see that Ameri is watching and listening to their conversation from around a corner. Later, we see that Sankuro has come up with a plan to get Yuuri and Ameri together, he invited Yuuri to go shopping with him and he gives Ameri two tickets to a motorcycle movie and leaves.  When Yuuri shows up, Ameri works up her courage and asks Yuuri to see the movie with her, he turns her down saying that he promised Mashiro that he would take her to a museum. When Mashiro shows up, Yuuri asks her if she wants to go to a movie with him and Ameri? Yes. Ameri gets really upset, she says why does Mashiro have to come with them, and she runs off in tears.

        Later, Mashiro goes to Yuuri and asks him if Ameri might like him? He asks Mashiro if she means in a romantic way? Yes. Yuuri says there’s no way, they’ve know each other since they were kids, it’s not possible. Mashiro says that Yuuri’s wrong and she wants to have a serious talk with Ameri. When Yuuri tries to call Ameri he finds that she’s blocking his calls, and he gets pissed off at Ameri and jumps on his bike and says he’s going to find out what her problem is, Mashiro tries to stop him but he doesn’t listen and leaves anyway. While riding in the rain, Yuuri spots Ameri and he stops and asks her what is she thinking, they get into a big argument over Mashiro, Ameri calls her a monster and she asks Yuuri if it’s pity. He tells Ameri to take it back now, but she runs off in tears (Yuuri is a blockhead).

         Then we see the Tayutai that has been killing women on the prowl, he complains that people don’t have enough spiritual energy to fill him up. He senses some strong energy and goes to investigate, then he attacks a girl who turns out to be Ameri. As she being attacked by that guy another human looking Tayutai destroys the other one and saves Ameri, he tells her that she’s the one he’s been looking for.

       The next day, Yuuri has cold from searching for Ameri all night, and when Yuuri is talking with Sankuro, Ameri rushes up to him and apologises to him for last night. When Ameri notices that Yuuri has a cold, she again apologises and touches him, and some sort of energy transfer from her to him making him feel better. As dark clouds form above the school, Ameri tells Yuuri that it’ll all be over soon. Yuuri notices that all his friends are frozen so he makes his way outside where he finds Nue, Mashiro, and Kisaragi. Nue says that the dragon got lucky and found someone with high spiritual energy, so they better run away. Kisaragi gets pissed off at Nue for wanting to runaway, and Nue removes her protection from Kisaragi, freezing her in place, she tells them that since she made a friend she doesn’t want to lose her, she grabs Kisaragi and runs off.

       Mashiro and Yuuri face the dragon alone, Mashiro uses some of her power to attack the dragon and when she calls on Yuuri for his power she finds that he’s unable to do anything, something been done to him. The dragon attacks Mashiro while Yuuri looks on helplessly, finally Yuuri is able to break whatever is binding him and he is able to aid Mashiro. When Yuuri reaches the unconscious Mashiro he looks up and sees a dark winged Ameri hovering above them. Then the scene switches to the school’s nurse’s office where Yuuri wakes up to find that Kisaragi and Ameri are by his side, and a injured Mashiro is in a bed next to him. He asks Ameri about her wings and she tells him that he must have been seeing things because of the blow to his head. Well, that’s all for this episode.

         Well, here we are, it was quite apparent from the beginning of the series that Ameri going to play the role of the girl next door in this harem, but I didn’t figure that Ameri would also be the promise girl from Yuuri’s childhood. Or should I restate this to call Ameri the broken promise girl from Yuuri’s childhood? I know that this is an overused premise in anime, and some bloggers like omisyth  dislike the childhood promise trope, but I’m a sucker for it. Some of my favorite television shows, anime, and movies like Forest Gump, Love Hina, Little House on the Prairie  and many others use some form of the childhood promise/childhood pledge of love to drive the story forward.

        I think the reason why I like the whole premise of the childhood pledge being included in the story is that it raises the level of the storytelling to fairytale levels. I know that most childhood promises/pledges of love are soon forgotten, but when the do come true they become part of family lore that is passed down through the generations. I think that every family has some story about how some relative met their spouse at a very young age and they eventually married and stayed together for 40  or 50 years, but Ameri’s and Yuuri’s childhood story has a little twist to it.

      As we saw in this episode, Ameri and Yuuri made a childhood promise to always be together, and they seemed to keep that promise up until middle school. We saw from Yuuri’s memories that at some point he felt that Ameri slowly started pulling away from him, his memories are probably right but his conclusions were most likely wrong. It seems from his memories that he felt that Ameri was breaking her promise to him, but her pulling back was more likely caused by a difference in maturity levels between them. We all know that girls mature at a some what faster rate than boys, so I assume that Ameri’s pulling away was caused by her becoming romantically/sexually attracted to Yuuri while he still viewed Ameri as a girl friend and not a girlfriend, and because of Ameri’s youth and inexperience she didn’t know how to react to her new feelings so she pulled back. Now a couple of years later, Ameri is still in love with Yuuri and views him as her property, and Yuuri still views Ameri  as a close childhood friend. So, now along comes Mashiro, the new girl who’s not afraid to show some physical affection towards Yuuri, and he responds to her actions. Now, poor Ameri is all angry and flustered because Mashiro has managed to get romantically and emotionally closerto Yuuri in a couple of weeks than she’s managed in about ten years. Well, it’ll be interesting to see whether the magical girl or the promise girl gets the guy in the end.