I’m sure your social media has been totally flooded all weekend, either by Game of Thrones spoilers, or mini-reviews of Eurovision performances. I don’t even watch Game of Thrones, and I’ve been watching Eurovision since I was a kid. So anime episode watching ended up taking a bit of a backseat for me this week 🙁
(By the way, Russia was my favorite song, and we as the UK deserved to get last place – heck, Hitoribocchi’s ‘wa ha ha’ song last week was better than ours!)
Even if anime watching took a back seat for me, this week’s shows really ended up hitting home for me, all for different reasons. I’ll start with Hitoribocchi which continues with the theme of cute girls doing cute things. However, as we watch this week’s episode, we see the show start to take a more serious turn.
Summer break is about to start, and Bocchi, Nako, Aru and Sotoka all decide to go out and do typical activities like karaoke and pool trips, but a bad dream has begun to haunt Bocchi just before the break starts: a dream of Kai (her best friend before she started middle school) abandoning her completely when she says Bocchi didn’t live up to her ‘promise’. We already know how mentally fragile Bocchi is, I’m sure Kai does too, and to give her such an outlandish task (of making friends with everyone in her class) is pretty crazy.
While the producers have tried to keep comedy the main genre here, we see Hitoribocchi show how much people with Social Anxiety Disorder really have to suffer with. When we find people that we become close to, we can sometimes end up being so attached to them and so reliant on them that, if separated, can break us apart completely. I think that Kai has unintentionally done this to Bocchi; she has unknowingly given Bocchi the impression that she has abandoned her and cast her aside to live her own life, thereby making Bocchi think that she’s the one at fault.
“What did I do?” “Did I hurt you?” “I’m the bad one, aren’t I?”
I sometimes fear that something like this might happen with Nako as well, later on in the show. Even though Nako has figured out how shy she is, and realizes this week how cold Kai has been, she also knows that Bocchi can’t cling onto her forever.
Now I can write an entire post about this subtle message of theirs, but I have other shows to write about this week as well. To sum it up, Hitoribocchi has decided to go back to how it originally started: with Bocchi sticking to her initial ‘mission’ in a singular storyline, as opposed to comedy sketches each week. And I like this a lot.
We Never Learn has been an odd one this week though. Focus is more on Fumino this week, as opposed to Rizu and Uruka. She’s having more difficulty with her science and math, but her own class is convinced that she and Nariyuki are an item, and so it’s that rumor that Fumino is more worried about. Ehh, what do you expect from a harem show like this?
It was good to finally see why Kurisu (the former tutor) is acting the way she is: because pursuing a personal interest doesn’t always work out in the long run for people, which is what ended up happening for her. Kurisu originally wanted to do figure skating for a career (and won lots of competitions for it as well), but it was only until later when she realized how short the lifespan of a figure skater’s career is. So becoming a teacher was something that just landed on her lap, and she hasn’t looked back. “Pursuing careers on what people excel at ends up paying off” has become her motto now, and she believes that, even if Rizu and Fumino hate her for it, they will thank her in the future.
Language teaching is something that has just landed on my lap too. I had all sorts of career dreams as a young boy and teenager, from professional photographer to joining the Royal Navy, but fate can be a cruel mistress, and so going down this road sort of just…happened for me too. It lead to me having a lot more respect for Kurisu now; I don’t even care if she’s now the one who’s developed a silly crush on Nariyuki (I don’t want a Domestic Girlfriend repeat here…please no).
But I see that these two are already drinking out of married-couple coffee mugs, which was pretty funny.
Last week I had a lot to say about Sarazanmai, and how I didn’t really understand why it was getting so much hype and so much love from fans. It’s something I still don’t quite get, and my opinions of the three main boys hasn’t changed that much, but this episode explains a lot to me now, and perhaps other viewers too.
Kazuki, Kuji and Enta remain kappa after failing their task last week, and Kazuki continues to detach himself from life after admitting to the others how selfish he was. It only takes Haruka to be captured by Reo and Mabu (who represent the Otter Empire) for Kazuki to do a 180 and go on a rescue mission. Interesting though how Kuji’s opinion of him changes suddenly though; here was me thinking that the Kuji I see in past episodes would be the type who couldn’t care less.
Despite all of its subtle messages and crazy animation, I still can’t find much to enjoy in this show anymore. I know that, from the opening episodes, I thought that this was pretty amazing, but as each episode has passed, I ended up growing to dislike the characters more and not enjoying the story. Saying that, I do appreciate how much effort has been put into this, and I understand totally why some people have grown to love it in the way they do. I’m just not one of them, unfortunately.
Just as I’m slightly losing some interest in Kaguya-sama: Love is War, which is odd as this is actually been a very enjoyable watch. I like how Kaguya and Miyuki are playing a game of chicken on who will confess first, and I like how Chika is being so random. So is it just a case of malaise? Am I just getting tired of seeing this every week? I’m 7 episodes in this show now, and so perhaps it’s just that I want something to happen. Strange how I don’t usually feel like this when I’m watching other comedy sketch shows, so why do I feel like this when I’m watching this otherwise brilliant anime?
As this is in the out-of-season section of this column, I don’t mind if you guys spoil me on if anything more happens in this show.
On to Rascal Does Not Dream now, and I was a little off on what I thought the next arc was going to be. Episode 7 begins Rio’s arc, and how there are two versions of her living Rio Futaba’s life. While one is enjoying her summer break and occasionally attending to Science Club activities, the other has had to live in an internet cafe and keep away from her family. When Sakuta and Mai figure this out, he lets her stay at his place, although I get the impression that there is more to this particular arc than just Rio. Shoko (the girl with the stray cat from the last episode) comes back, and something has spooked Mai as well.
Some interesting episodes this week. Hitoribocchi and We Never Learn hit home this week, while the arc I’m currently watching in Rascal Does Not Dream looks to be very detailed and fascinating so far. How has your anime week been? Enjoying these shows, or are you already looking up shows in the summer season to watch? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below…