Usagi Drop 6

Humans love mirrors, even abstract ones. Which is why Daikichi feels it isn’t quite right for Rin to plant a commemorative tree for her first day of grade school. She should have a life tree, a tree planted when she was born, so it’s the same age and grows with her. I’m not sure if this is a Japanese thing or just a family thing, but I have to say I like it. Life trees are like reverse tombstones.

Fortunately, Daikichi’s grandfather made sure one was planted, and Misaka even remembers where in the yard it’s planted. Drawing a little map like the lil’ mangaka she is was a very cute touch. Maaya Sakamoto’s warm, mellow voice is a perfect match for the character. Daikichi transplants it at his house, and all’s well with the world.

Well, except Kouki’s acting like such a boy. He almost leaves poor Rin lost in the lurch on the way to school. I do not want an episode where Rin is lost. But Daikichi’s fear of just that is constantly there, and palpable. It just means he’s becoming more and more of a real dad. Why is it watching Rin mull over the market’s choice of cereals (something she’s never tried before this week) is more interesting to me than anything happening over at No. 6?

Rating: 3.5

No. 6 6

I like how Safu is walking around a cold, windless No. 6 with a look of contempt on her place. If it weren’t for her grandmother dying, Safu would never have returned to No. 6, and learned that Shion’s no longer there, but out in the West Block. When she learns this, she immediately declares her undying love for him and vows to track him down. But the security bureau have other ideas, and promptly detain her after she leaves Shion’s mom’s bakery.

I can safely say Safu is my favorite character in this series, and so it’s good to see more of her. The black-and-white-haired lovebirds have just gotten boring. They repeat the same arguments over and over; Nezumi is a totally static dickweed, and Shion is as plain and dull as his hair color, going on about developing a serum and breaking down the wall. It would be nice to see exciting stuff like that, but instead we get more odd couple bickering.

Great things have been done in eleven episodes before. AnoHana most recently. FLCL was only six episodes; Blue Submarine No. 6 only four. All of them did an infinitely better job telling a story in a limited time than this. The main characters are totally unlikable and they’re either too waffling or too weak to do anything. The only person who tries to take action – Safu – is immediately arrested. And when Nezumi gets word of this, does he tell Shion? ‘Course not. Give me a break, No. 6!

Rating: 2.5 

Morita-san wa Mukuchi 6

Everyone wants to encounter love and live with it to the fullest. But isn’t it a wonderful thing? It can’t be helped if we get hurt. There are loads of things that won’t change. I want to be by your side.

Great, but wtf does that have to do with sniffing armpits and blowing a chance to lend a girl an umbrella? Sigh…

Rating: 2

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée 6

Croisée VI: The Return of Alice. Alice is not the most annoying character I’ve known – not by a long shot – but she is edging towards most annoying of the season, and isn’t helped by the fact there’s a much better, more tolerable Alice doing duty on the S.S. Kamisama no Memo-cho. This one treats Yune like a doll with no free will to play dress-up with and have photos taken for her facebook (which, in these days, was just a book.)

Still, despite the fact Alice has a lot of screentime this week, it was still an enjoyable episode, with Yune learning the tribulations and sheer lunacy of Western aristocratic garb. She likens the carilion, for example, to a birdcage, which it is to an extent, as it limits the movement of birds (ladies). Alice is  just as astonished by how expertly Yune folds initially massive kimonos into the neat, compact outfits she wears daily.

It’s a shame though that Alice’s older sister Camille didn’t have more to say or do, she struck me as immediately more interesting than the tiringly hyper Alice. She looks very much the caged bird, extremely well-bred and well-trained, but there’s always a little melancholy in her face and few words, and when she looks at the corsetless Yune – whose future can be whatever she wants – she almost seems a little envious.

Rating: 3