Aoi Hana (Sweet Blue Flowers) episode 11 (the finale); A sweet satisfying ending to a wonderful series.

 

        This episode begins with the change of seasons (and the change from summer to winter school uniforms) and life seems to be moving on just fine for Fumi and Akira. The two girls seem to be following their normal routine of meeting at the train station and sharing the train ride to school, and both Fumi and Akira seem to be getting along well at school.

         Even as life goes on for Fumi and Akira, change is in the air as Fumi must discard older books to make way for newer books triggering a flashback to her and Yasuko’s kiss, and Akira can also sense change because Akira finds out that next year she’ll be on stage next year. One afternoon Fumi and Yasuko see each other on the train platform and they exchange polite glances. When Yasuko boards the train Fumi lets that train drive away without getting on and she watches it head off into the distance. Later, Kyoko finds out from Yasuko’s sister that Yasuko will be going overseas to study after she graduates, and I think she lets it slip to Akira.

        After the train leaves the station, Akira spots Fumi standing there and they decide to stop at a cafe where Fumi tells Akira that she still has some feelings for Yasuko. Akira tells her it’s OK, people just can’t turn off their feelings at will. Later, we see that Yasuko leads her basketball team to second place in the nationals, and we also see that Kyoko sends Yasuko a text congratulating her and wishing her luck in her overseas studies.

       Life moves on, fall gives way to winter, and Christmas Eve approaches and Akira decides to have a Christmas Eve party and she invites Fumi and her three friends to her party. Later, we find out from Akira that Kyoko won’t be attending because she’s spending the day with Kou. Also, Fumi gets a little down because her cousin sends her a picture post card of she and her husband with a message telling Fumi that they’ve moved and she would like Fumi to pay them a visit.

        As Christmas approaches, Fumi sees Akira and Kou together while shopping; Akira got a call from Kou asking her to help him pick out a gift for Kyoko. While Fumi watches them together she doesn’t bother to get their attention and lets them continue shopping. Later, in the bath, Fumi thinks to herself that Akira and Kou aren’t dating and she probably wouldn’t mind if they were,  but why did she lack the courage to walk up and say “hi”.

          At Akira’s Christmas Eve party Shinobu stops by her room to say “hi” and Akira gives him grief, and when he leaves the room the other girls joke about flirting with him, and we see that Mogi is blushing  because of this talk. Later, the girls look through some old photo albums from Akira’s childhood and they lots of pictures of Fumi and Akira together. Over at Kou’s place, we see that Kyoko really likes her gift and she manages to get Kou to tell her that he got Akira to help pick it out. Kyoko sends Akira a text thanking her for helping Kou pick out such a nice gift for her, and Akira shows the text to Fumi who gets a laugh out of the whole thing.

       As Akira’s family and Fumi are seeing off the other three girls, Mogi runs up to Shinobu and puts a letter in his hand and rushes off with the other girls. Well, Mogi gave Shinobu a confession letter that included asking him out on a date.

        Later, as Fumi and Akira are getting ready for bed, Fumi says she’s impressed that Mogi had the nerve to ask Shinobu out, but Akira doesn’t understand why Mogi likes her brother. Around midnight, neither Fumi or Akira can sleep, so they go for a walk around the snow covered city, they stop at the tree where Fumi cried her eyes out as a kid, and then they head over to visit their old elementary school that will be torn down soon.

       Akira thinks the school is creepy at night, but Fumi insists on walking around the school’s grounds. Then Fumi gets the answer to the question Yasuko asked her a while ago, “do you remember you’re first love”? Fumi now understands that her very first love was Akira back in elementary school, and tears begin to roll down Fumi’s cheeks as she remembers her love for Akira. Then Akira notices Fumi tears and says she’s sorry if she did anything, But Fumi tells her she remembered something wonderful and they walk back home holding hands. Well, that’s all for this episode and this wonderful series.

       This episode was a very mellow and unstated episode that was loaded with many powerful feelings, and the whole theme of this episode was that while life goes on, things also change and move forward. It seems that most of the main characters have managed to mature and move forward through life’s trials and tribulations.

         When this series began, Fumi was a sad and hurt person, but as time went by she has managed to mature and more forward with Akira’s help. The symbolism of Fumi not getting on the train when she saw Yasuko boarding the train can be seen as she’s now mature enough to realize that some things in life need to come to an end and you have to let some things just move on without you. In the end, Fumi has really been blessed, she’s had three loves before she was even sixteen years old. Fumi is now a much more mature person for her experiences, and it was really nice to see her shed tears of joy at the end of the episode.

        Yasuko seems to have come to the conclusion that she needs to break with her past and take a change of scenery after graduation. I think that she’s matured to the point where she realizes that if she’s not ready to give up on an impossible love it’s better to separate herself from the situation and work on being a better, more mature person.

        Kyoko has also managed to mature and move forward, she’s no longer being a semi-stalker when it comes to Yasuko, her text message to Yasuko was very touching and shows that she coming to terms with Yasuko not having affections for her.

        Another thing that I thought was really awesome was Mogi going for the win, she really some courage when she handed her confession letter to Shinobu in front of Akira, her parents, and all the other girls. I think that Shinobu’s mother was doing backflips of joy after seeing her son get a confession letter, she’s told him a few times that she’s not worried about Akira, she’s worried about him. I think that Shinobu getting a girlfriend might just break him of his overly protective attitude towards Akira.

        Overall, I feel that this was a very rewarding and enjoyable romance with all the feelings being  potrayed in a understated but powerful manner, and this series never went into the over-the-top mode like so many other anime. A prime example of this was the ending scene between Fumi and Akira, any other show of this type would have had Fumi confessing her love to Akira making for an uncomfortable cliffhanger ending that also puts Akira on the spot. I think that Fumi knows that Akira isn’t gay or at least she not at the point where she knows what she wants, so Fumi will settle for holding hands and being near her friend.

       One small gripe, what’s the deal with only eleven episodes? If they could have given us two extra episodes bringing the total to thirteen we could have gotten a little more character development and back story for the issues of Kyoko and her family relationships, Kou and his mother, and more interaction between Yasuko and her sisters.

       My small gripes aside, Aoi Hana was a tremendous series, enjoyable, believable, loaded with powerful feelings and emotions, a must watch for fans of the yuri romance genre.

 

When the wisdom of the masses fail: A strange thing happened to me while watching Kanamemo; I found that I like this series.

       Being an episodic anime blogger who works full time really limits my ability to sample every new anime that’s released, so after picking my 3-4 series I’ll blog episodically, and chosing the other 10-12 series that I’ll watch but not write about, I generally look towards other bloggers’ opinions to see if I’ll add anything to my watch list.

      Generally, this system had worked quite well for me until now, but with Kanamemo it failed. As the new anime season began, most of the bloggers that did a “first look” post of Kanamemo rated the series as one of the worst of the year, so I didn’t bother with Kanamemo. But, the other day I had some time on my hands and several episodes of Kanamemo on the computer so I watched the first episode and fell in love with the series.

A short description on Kanamemo’s plot and main characters.

Plot-   Kanamemo is the story of thirteen year old middle school student Kana, who up until now had been living with her grandmother because her parents died early in her life. Recently, Kana’s grandmother passed away and after the funeral some moving men show up at her house and start hauling away her grandmother’s furniture.

       Kana not being the smartest person in the world assumes that the movers will soon try to grab her and put her up for sale, so Kana rushes into her room and loads up a small bag with some of her clothes and rushes out of the house. Then Kana proceeds to search for a job that provides room and board, as Kana passes a newspaper delivery office she sees a help wanted sign offering room and board, but she runs away when she sees two of its female employees kissing outside the office.

       Kana then keeps looking for a job but is turned down either because of her age or that she needs to show permission from her parents or guardian. As night approaches, Kana finds herself walking past the newspaper office when she gets slammed into and knocked unconscious by one of the employees returning from her route by bike.

       When Kana wakes up she finds herself inside the office surrounded by its female employees. At first, the office chief offers Kana a job, but withdraws the offer temporally when she finds out that Kana is only thirteen. After hearing about Kana being a orphan with one to look after her, the chief gives Kana the job and just kind of forgets to fill out all the proper paperwork. Soon, Kana spends her days learning her job, attending school, cooking the office meals, and becoming part of the family of misfits who work and live at the newspaper office.

The cast of characters.

Kana-A thirteen year old orphan and middle school student, a very good cook, and  a very sweet but not very smart girl.

Saki-The assistant chief of the office, and the only company manager that we ever see; while she’ only a fifth or sixth grader she is by far the most mature person working in the office.

Yume-Is a college age girl who attends a  patisserie academy, she puts way too much sugar in everything she cooks. Yume and Yuuki are a openly lesbian couple and show their affection for each other in public.

Yuuki-Is a college age girl who also works at the newspaper, but it’s never shown what college, if any, she attends. Yuuki is Yume’s lover and she is very jealous if anyone gets too cozy with Yume.

Haruka-Is a college student who studies bio-fermentation, she is always seen drinking some form of  intoxicating beverage. Haruka is a lesbian who has a weakness for cute girls between the ages of eight and fifteen. She is constantly hitting on Kana and getting smacked around by Saki and Hinata for her advances on Kana.

Hinata-Is a college age girl who has failed her entrance exams for two straight years, she works hard and thinks a lot about money but tends to try and get more money by gambling , playing raffles, and entering contests.

For me, Kanamemo is about the value of having a “family” and not being alone.

       Yes, your Honor, the verdict is in and Kanamemo has been found guilty on all charges. Yes, Kanamemo is loaded with silly tropes, a unrealistic plot line, unbelievable characters, and just plain silliness that could never happen in real life but Kanamemo works for me. First and foremost, Kanamemo is about the value having some sort of family that cares for you, looks after you, keeps away the loneliness, and is non-judgemental and supportive. While the newspaper office is populated by a strange cast of weird girls, they form a “family” unit that works for them, and they’re happy with their arrangement. Many critics have been very mocking of the unrealistic nature of Kana’s situation saying that she must have other relatives to care for her, or her grandmother must have had money, or that the state would have sent her to some institution or boarding school for kids in her situation. But, I would rather see Kana being part of a family of misfits than going home alone each night to an empty house or a lonely boarding room at some school (think of Orihime from Bleach at home alone every night).

        Another thing I like about Kanamemo is that while most of the girls attend some sort of school or college the series doesn’t spent much time showing the girls’ attending school, and while the girls work six days a week doing early morning and late evening newspaper delivery that’s still a small part of the show. School and work issues in Kanamemo only function to have the girls interact with themselves as a “family” unit, they greet each other before work, eat their breakfasts and dinners together, take trips to the public bath together, and generally hanging out in the evenings together before bed. Also, the employees of Kanamemo function as a full family in the respect that they do all the things a normal Japanese family would do together, such as, celebrating the Japanese holiday of Obon.

      I guess, in the end, that I’m a sucker for the ‘family is were you make it” types of anime like Eureka 7, Brigadoon, Maison Ikkoku, and Clannad, which place as much value on the closeness of your relationships with your friends as you would with your normal family, in affect your friends and companions become your real family.

Notes about Japanese newspaper delivery. I did a little bit of research on this topic and found that over 90% of Japanese households take a daily paper, and about 35% of households take both a morning and evening paper. Also, since the papers are delivered very early in the morning and late evening it’s one of the jobs that are considered to be compatible with a student’s schedule with over 45% of the delivery employees being students and almost half of all delivery employees being female. A typical Japanese biking/walking delivery route has about 200 delivery points and takes about two hours in good weather to complete. Also, the delivery person is not paid a large amount of salary, I read a little ditty written by a college age newspaper delivery boy and he said he made less than 22,000 per year before the company deducts any fees they may charge for the use of a company dorm or other such living arrangements, and of course, taxes.  

 

Aoi Hana (Sweet Blue Flowers) episode 10 review; It’s over, but a chance for a new beginning.

        This episode begins on the Sunday of Yasuko’s sister’s wedding with Akira being driven to the ceremony by her brother. While Akira is heading to the wedding, we see that she never told Fumi about it, so after Fumi tries to call Akira she heads off for a walk.

        While this is going on, we see Yasuko talking to her sister before the wedding, and she also talks with her unrequited love, Kagami. Once Akira arrives at the ceremony she runs into Kyoko and Kou, and soon the group also runs across Yasuko who invites both Kou and Akira’s brother to attend. Well, the wedding goes off without a hitch and Kazusa and Kagami both look great and seem very happy.

       After the ceremony is over Akira checks her cellphone to find messages from Fumi, and once Akira touches base with Fumi she decides to join Fumi who’s taking a trip to a nearby tourist island. Akira’s brother volunteers to drive Akira to meet Fumi, but before they can leave, Yasuko asks if she can tag along too.

        When Fumi sees that Yasuko has also tagged along she’s not very happy, and she asks Yasuko why she’s here? Yasuko says she wanted to see and talk with her, but Fumi says she doesn’t wish to talk with her. Akira rushes to Fumi and they start walking ahead of Yasuko and Shinobu, and when Yasuko tries to use Akira to get closer to Fumi she’s told by Fumi to not put Akira in a tough spot.

       As the group is walking in pairs through the village Yasuko explains the whole bloody situation to Shinobu who pretty much keeps is mouth shut and listens quietly. Later, the group decides to check out the local cave and once they’re inside the caves Akira pulls her brother away from Fumi and Yasuko so they can talk alone. Yasuko tries to explain her situation and her feelings to Fumi but Fumi calls Yasuko selfish and a child, and Fumi tells Yasuko that if she has someone she loves then she needs to concentrate on that person. Yasuko asks Fumi what she should do about a unrequited love and Fumi tells her that she should give up gracefully. Fumi then tells Yasuko that she’s given up on her, and that she should grow up. As Fumi is walking off, we hear Yasuko trying to tell Fumi that she’s sorry. Well, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, this was one hell of an episode, while many powerful feelings and emotions were revealed it was never done in an over-the-top method. We finally got to the bottom of how Yasuko became how she is now and while all the girls that know her think that she’s a strong person we now understand that it was caused by personal weakness on her part. As Yasuko told Shinobu, she fell for Kagami after he was dating her sister for a long time and in an attempt to imitate her sister she cut her hair, and she also became more manlike in an attempt to act out/get noticed by Kagami and her sisters. It was also quite interesting to watch Yasuko basically tell Shinobu that Kyoko relationship with her is almost a copy of her relationship with Kagami, so Kyoko is almost a copy of her at that age.

       Finally, Yasuko’s relationship with Fumi reached a breaking/ turning point. We can see that Yasuko misses Fumi and still has feelings for her, and she also understands she hurt Fumi, but when she tried to talk with her Fumi she got the laid the hammer down on her by Fumi calling her selfish and childish. Even though Fumi tells Yasuko that she’s given up on her she really left the door open for Yasuko by telling her to concentrate on the one you care for and give up gracefully on a impossible love,  you need to grow up. While many may think that this is the end of Fumi/Yasuko it’s really giving Yasuko a chance for a new beginning if Yasuko can move on from Kagami and really shows she really cares for Fumi. In affect, Fumi’s been burnt once by a just fooling around relationship and she’s telling Yasuko that if you really want me, PROVE IT!