Insomniacs After School – 01 (First Impressions) – Our Time

Nakami Ganta can’t sleep. We’ve all been there, but this guy is an Edward Norton in Fight Club insomniac. There is no relief in the darkness, and there is no manual boring enough to help him doze off. He simply lies there in his bed, waiting for the sun to rise and the next day of despair to begin. At school, he gets flak from classmates for being a lazy grouch.

But while off on an errand to procure more boxes for what looks like his class’ cultural festival exhibition, he decides to explore the school’s observatory, once headquarters for the astronomy club but now used as a warehouse. But once he’s there, Ganta finds it the perfect place to nap and refresh. Only problem is, someone beat him to the punch: Magari Isaki.

At first, the two are repelled from one another due to a lack of familiarity. But once they realize that they’re each dealing with someone with the exact same problem as they have and searching for a good place to rest, they lower their armor, and end up falling asleep while huddled close together like an old married couple.

There’s a magic to watching two kindred spirits finally find each other after so much aimless wandering and suffering. When Ganta’s trustworthy friend lets them out (when Ganta closed the door he locked himself and Isaki in) Isaki promptly gives Ganta the code to the lock on the door. After they clean up the place a bit, she opens the observatory’s roof and declares the establishment of the Nightly Fun Society, with a membership of two.

One night, Ganta and Isaki sneak out for their first official society meet-up, and they have the entire sleepy town to themselves as the explore together. While this isn’t presented as stylishly or stylistically as Call of the Night, and neither of them are vampires, I still got that nice goosebump-like feeling you get in the dark that makes it more fun and exciting.

When Ganta spots a cop on patrol, he and Isaki hide inside an enclosure, and Isaki gets so close to Ganta she can hear his heartbeat. It’s soothing enough that for a moment she drifts right off, as if Ganta is the key to solving her insomnia and vice-versa. When she comes back to, the coast is clear, Ganta mentions how his heart is racing, and Isaki knows, because not only did she hear it, but hers is racing too.

In case they encountered a policeman, Ganta brought a camera so he could say they’re with the photography club. Even if he says it’s an excuse, the beautiful nighttime sky beckons, and he snaps some shots of the moonlit clouds, as well as Isaki goofing off, showing that even though she was frail and hospitalized as a kid, she’s all better now…aside from the whole not sleeping thing!

The two watch the sun rise at the waterside, then Ganta walks Isaki home and they exchange contact info. As they do, Ganta wonders what kind of relationship they’ve started. Just days ago, they ‘d never even spoken to each other, and Isaki assumed he was a scary jerk. But now they’re exploring the town at night, have each other’s numbers, and have started a club of just the two of them.

I’m going to not go out on a limb and call this the sweetest premiere of the Spring. Ganta and Isaki aren’t just adorable, they feel like real people with a real, relatable, and basic problem: sleeping. By meeting, they have stumbled onto a way to not only possibly improve their sleep patterns, but make the time they are awake much more enjoyable.

I couldn’t help but wear a big goofy smile throughout the episode, and by no would I dismiss anyone for whom this isn’t their cup of tea a cynical grouch who needs more sleep ;) This just feels to me like Laid-Back Camp: warm, fuzzy, charming and inviting. So I’ll be sticking around.

Vinland Saga S2 – 14 – Weathering the Storm

As son as Gardar showed up, I knew someone’s blood would be spilled under the gray storm clouds that day, I just didn’t know whose. When he approaches Arnheid, he asks about their son Hjalti, whom we know isn’t there. Before Arnheid draws too close, she’s yanked back by Snake, who isn’t having any of this.

Gardar is wounded, so once Arnheid is out of harm’s way, Snake hits his weak spot and knocks him out. The slave killed his master and is wanted by that master’s uncle, so he’ll face justice. Thorfinn has to hold Einar back from interfering, but Snake doesn’t care about a slave’s opinion on the matter.

Einar keeps stewing about it that night, but when he stands up from the table, Arnheid tells him to have a seat; dinner will be ready soon (incidently, it’s also stew). She tells Einar that in situations like these, no good can come of action, so inaction is the best course. Don’t run into the storm and get consumed; stay put and wait it out.

Arnheid then tells Einar a little about herself, and how she lost her son because of pots. Specifically the iron deposits that would make pots and sickles and such for the humble farming village in Sweden where she, Gardar and Hjalti lived peacefully, neither rich or poor.

Thanks to a friend, Gardar got caught up in a village-wide campaign to arm up and fight for those iron deposits, lest they end up in the hands of someone who will upset the balance of power in the area. This meant every young and able-bodied man left the village to fight.

This left the women, children, and elderly on their own when the Vikings arrived. The village was pillaged and burned, the old and infirm killed, and the women and children separated and taken away to be slaves. In telling this tale, Arnheid rightfully gives Einar absolutely no ground upon which to stand, for he too wants to fight when no good can come of it.

Arnheid also tells them that she’s currently carrying Ketil’s child, and intends to raise it on the farm, certain that Ketil will accept it and be pleased with it. With that in mind, there is no choice but to wait through the storm—in this case, Gardar himself, gone mad from his long suffering.

But later that night, Arnheid prepares to leave the safety of the cabin and head out to the storm, if only to clean Gardar’s wounds. She’s stopped by Sverkel, who heard her tale and offers one of his own. Like Ketil, Sverkel is not someone any Norsemen would follow if they knew the truth about how they lived their lives.

When Ketil fell in love with a beautiful young woman and an up-and-coming warlord wanted to claim the same woman, Sverkel let it happen, because he feared the consequences. That warlord ended up taking an arrow to the back from an entirely different enemy, and in the ensuing battle, the woman Ketil love died in her wedding garb.

Sverkel doesn’t intend to convince Arnheid to stay put and do nothing. He knows firsthand that even when trying to weather a storm, it can leave scars that last a lifetime. He’s just sorry he can’t help her. Arnheid decides to head out after all, to the stockade where her husband is being held, if only to look upon him one more time.

She may be inviting ruin upon herself and her unborn child by walking into such danger. Gardar may not be all there in the head, and even if he was, he probably doesn’t deserve someone like Arnheid after he abandoned her for some stupid iron.

But Arnheid braves the wind and clouds nevertheless. In a world where women cannot overturn the decisions of men, she stopped Einar from very likely getting himself killed, and has now decided to see the man she once loved and had a life with, before turning the page once more.

This episode isn’t what I’d call “fun”, but it does feel significant and important. Arnheid and Sverkel’s stories are the stories of countless people, both those who lived centuries ago in darker times, and those living in our slightly-less-dark times. That, and the emotional and visceral reaction I got from hearing these crushing tales of injustice and woe, is why this makes the List.

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