Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night – 07 – Looking Ahead

When the non-truant JELEE members report that it’s time for career guidance meetings at school, talk of the future pops up. Yoru and Mei are likely headed for university after graduation, while Kiui intends to obtain the Japanese equivalent of a GED with the goal of becoming a middle school teacher. Feeling left out on the future fronrt, Kano decides to join Kiui at a motorbike riding camp. Maybe she can find out where she wants to go if she can get there quickly!

Mei is anxious about Nono-tan and Kiui spending so much time together, but this means she and Yoru get to interact more. They realize that after a period of not knowing what to do or why to do it, they’ve both been inspired by a certain someone and now find music and art to be a lot more fun than it was. I loved the cut from Mei saying how Kano pulls them along to Kano making a mess of the motorbike balance beam test.

As Kiui offers emotional support by watching Kano try and fail over and over, an older woman approaches her asking for a light, only to take a much greater interest in Kiui than having another smoke. Her name is Koharu, and Kiui and Kano later learn that not only did she get a boob job, but significant facial surgery to achieve her current cool and casual yet glamorous look.

One night after a hard day’s practice, Kano asks Kiui why she wants to be a middle school teacher. Suffice it to say, Kiui felt like her teacher didn’t have her back when she was struggling socially. If she was the teacher, she’d have told herself that “being normal” and “fitting in” aren’t prerequisites for life. She wants to help those kids who are alone, while also “saving” her past self from worrying about conforming to standard norms. Kano for her part, takes Kiui’s hands and tells her she’s not alone, and Kiui seems to genuinely appreciate it.

Kiui has to don a dark wig and her school uniform to pick up some documents at her school. When she overhears some former classmates recognizing her, she tries to pipe up to tell them off but doesn’t bother. Having made fast friends with Koharu, Kiui joins her for a bath and Kano tags along. They see her artificial Fs in all their glory, but also notice a large and unexplained scar on Koharu’s back.

Koharu tells Kano that the key to riding a motorcycle is keeping one’s eyes fixed on the road ahead. That might be scary, especially at first, but it’s not as scary as finding oneself in an unknown place with no way to turn back. Kano takes the advice to heart and passes the practical exam, though she flunks the written bit. As for Kiui, she tells Koharu her VTuber identity and the two exchange contact info, promising to meet again, at least online. As for Kano, she wastes no time whatsoever renting a motorcycle and riding up to Yoru, who is with her normal high school friends.

Kano can’t quite work up the courage to ask Yoru to hop on, Yoru hops on of her own accord, leaving the normies behind. It’s romantic as hell, and as someone who recently rode on the back of a motorcycle in Cali, I can attest to how fun and exhilarating it is. When Kano says she hadn’t really planned on going anywhere, Yoru smiles and tells her it doesn’t matter. The ride is what matters, and the fact they’re sharing it.

They end up by the waterfront overlooking the Rainbow Bridge, and Yoru explains that she’s planning to go to art college (like me!) because she wants to love the art she makes and make a “certain someone” happy. She makes it pretty obvious that Kano is that certain someone, and her desire to reciprocate after Kano helped her find herself when she was lost.

When Kano admits she’s not sure anymore why she wants to gain 100,000 followers, Yoru reminds her that she told her to draw for her. So Yoru tells her to sing for her. Then she spots a jellyfish in the water—the first either of them have ever seen in the wild—takes Kano’s hand, and runs along the beach with her. Daaaaaaw.

Kano confesses she might’ve gotten a motorbike license so she could ride with Yoru on the back, only she calls her “Mahiru.” Yoru gently teases her for being so sentimental and “heavy” all of a sudden, but it’s clearly not a sentiment with which she disagrees. At this point, if you’re not shipping Yoru x Kano hard, I just don’t know what to tell you!

Norn9: Norn + Nonet – 03

Norn9 continues to hook me with its gorgeous aesthetic, but man, it’s men are jerks! Well, around half of them are; the others are twerps. I think the only guys still unmarked by assholishness are Heishi and Masamune. Mikoto and Sakuya have some kind of past with each other, but I don’t see how she’s been able to stand most of the rest. Poor Koharu is entirely at the mercy Kakeru’s whims; he can joke and mess around with her all he likes, but when she so much as tries to rub dirt off his ear, he slaps her away as if rebuking his chattel. Jerk!

Even lunch has to devolve into a childish confrontation, when Nanami gets lambasted for her apparently subpar shiruken onigiri. Akito puts her hands on her and tells her she’s so quick to toss her food, she shouldn’t make it to begin with. He at least shows a little heart by no throwing the food out after taking it from her, but still…Jerk!

Oh, and there’s Future Boy, who’s apparently a big smartypants, who is poring through the ship’s library trying to learn as much as possible about in order to get back to Tokyo. However, when he sees a glowing ethereal girl, he gets a strange nostalgic feeling, complete with a flash of her embracing him somewhere.

Okay, Future Boy isn’t really a jerk, but as curious as his predicament is, the show was overstuffed with characters before he showed up.

Kakeru finally apologizes to Koharu for slapping her hand away from his ear, and offers an explanation: it’s all he has left of his father, who was murdered. Work on not being a jerk, Kakeru.

This somewhat disjointed episode ends with another confrontation with Akito, being a total jerk to Nanami, whom he believe suspects him of being the “inside perpetrator.” The entire reasons he thinks she partnered with him was so that she could one day turn him in to The World and be rewarded. But he, in his jerkishness, is mistaken about that.

Nanami, in fact, is aware Akito has no special ability, but is willing to protect him. To his protests and veiled threats she responds by demanding he kill her here and now rather than draw it out any longer; but he doesn’t want to kill her.

Even when a gust of wind and the whimsical lack of railings on the Norn almost sends Nanami plummeting to her death, Akito can’t help but grab her hand, even when she gives up. It’s clear then; Nanami intends for them to live together or die together. Maybe he’ll be less of a jerk to her?

Sorry for the flippantness…but I decided to watch one more episode, which demonstrated that this show has the ability to both pull me in with its pretty world and intriguing personal mysteries, and push me away with some of its more erratic and/or abrasive characters.

I’m think I’m going to let the latter motion win out and stay pushed away from Norn9. It’s probably for the best.

Norn9: Norn + Nonet – 02

Last week’s episode-ending bang came from an attacking ship from the outside. One of its two crew members boards the Norn, testing Mikoto’s defensive powers and warning her that she and the other ten are the true “disaster.”

So begins an episode full of mysteries big and small, most of which remain too obscure to really care about. Rather than feeling all that enticed, I felt a bit left out as the episode kinda did its own thing, darting from one activity to another.

It actually reminded me of playing a game with lots of long cutscenes, which while very technically impressive and pretty, are still cutscenes, meaning I’m waiting to get back control of the game.

Seeing Koharu’s powers in action was pretty righteous, but was undercut by the just-along-for-the-ride, autopilot feeling emanating from the rest of the episode.

With the attackers repelled, the second half of the episode focuses on who their foe was and what they want. It is believed someone was “working on the inside”, so everyone suspects everyone else, and gets paired up so they can keep an eye on/out for one another.

In two of the three cases of guy-girl pair-ups, it is implied the guy and girl have some kind of unpleasant past that drew them apart, but everyone’s very tight-lipped on what those pasts entailed, only that they were painful in some way.

Naturally, Koharu gets paired up with Kakeru, and they set to work replanting the orchard she accidentally incinerated, her love for him growing with each planted sapling and descending sakura petal. He even has a little fun with her isolated upbringing by joking that they must sleep and bathe together…ribbing that was more awkward than witty.

Then, one morning, while Koharu is watering her garden, some snot-nosed kid from 2016 shows up, having no idea how he got there. We saw him earlier in the embrace of a mysterious woman in a big pretty blue chamber, perhaps the core of Norn; now he’s out and very confused.

I know how he feels! This episode was a random jumble of strange events, mysteries, and clashing tones, resulting in a kind of indifferent shrug…and I’m only now mentioning the bevy of miniature duck slaves who serve the Norners their meals! My resulting impression was…a lot more ambiguous than last week. Ethereal scenery alone will not save this show!

Norn9: Norn + Nonet – 01 (First Impressions)

I’ll say one thing about No9No+No: it’s a very pretty show; far better-looking than I expected going in. Its first episode is adept at utilizing light and color to portray temperature and mood, which is with a few notable exceptions, very pleasant and upbeat, even…fluffy.

And that’s no moon, nor is it a space station: it’s the titular Norn, a giant spherical ship (kind of a “Life Star”) with a crew of ten humans, A sakura-haired maiden becomes the eleventh, delivering her from snow and solitude to a new life of adventure, mystery, and beautiful people.

The show definitely has the “retro-futuristic fantasy” aesthetic going on, blending Last Exile-style steampunk elements with Castle in the Sky-like architecture. There’s a decent sense of awe, and also a distinct “I want to be there” welcoming quality.

This is really an episode of introductions, with Pinky, who later remembers her name is probably Koharu, standing in as the audience surrogate, all wide-eyed and ready to soak it all in. We also get some cursory introductions to the other eight crew members besides her and her guide, first friend, and perhaps down the road, more, Yuiga Kakeru, who get the lion’s share of screen time.

Koharu becomes the third female member of the crew (there’s also the stoic Shiranui Nanami and more fervent, less patient Kuga Mikoto. There’s also Ichinose Senri, who initially refuses to come outside to meet Koharu, not wanting to get close to anyone since he fears they could all “become enemies” someday soon.

All eleven crew members have special abilities and were chosen specifically to crew the Norn, on a mission of peace sanctioned by a powerful, advanced organization called The World. We can glean that Koharu’s abilities may have been responsible for some kind of disaster in her past that separated her from her family (or killed them) and left her alone to the point she forgot her name.

But now she’s no longer alone; the other crew members ask her to rely on them, just as they’ll come to rely on her once she has her bearings (there’s a rather staged-for-romantic-benefit sequence where she falls out of a tree and nearly to her death before being saved by Kakeru).

Finally, the episode ends with a literal bang, an explosion that instantly made me recall the flames in Koharu’s memories. Perhaps her ability relates to fire in some way, and she’ll be of some use in whatever incident is afoot. I won’t mind tuning in next week to see what transpires.

Natsuiro Kiseki – 09

Now in Hachijo-jima, the girls head for the inn, which happens to be run by the family of the surfer, Koharu, who saved Yuka from the sea. The surfer has a twin sister, Chiharu. She knows about Dr. Mizukoshi’s impending move there, and alerts others that his daughter has arrived so they can meet her and show her around. A bit overwhelmed and still unsure of what to do, Saki becomes invisible and inaudible to all around her; she can only communicate by writing. That night Rin and Yuka convince Natsumi not to try to keep Saki from moving. The next day Chiharu takes them on a tour of the island, with Saki tagging along, after which Saki reappears, now more sure that moving won’t be so bad.

Natsumi is definitely a girl of absolutes. So when her best friend and neighbor relays to her she’s not quite sure she wants to move away, she takes it to mean Saki definitely doesn’t want to move, when the reality is murkier. So murky, in fact, a sudden wish on the big rock’s cousin at an outdoor bath essentially turns her into a ghost for most of the episode. By ghost, we mean the kind that are still connected to the living world in a way they don’t understand, and cannot move on until they figure out what that is and resolve it. Saki is similar: she hears one thing from Natsumi that seems to reinforce her desire to stay on the mainland…but she hears another thing from, well, everything around her.

The island is, as we said last week, a gorgeous paradise, a place where somebody could be quite happy; and a place where people are already lining up to be her friend. It’s also a place her father decided to move to not just to fulfill his dream, but to take over for his mentor, an old doctor who had to retire due to declining health and left the island. Koharu resents that Saki’s father is replacing the irreplaceable, but her twin Chiharu tells everything will be fine. And everything will be fine…even if Saki moves away from her closest friends, they won’t stop being friends.

Rating: 8 (Great)

Car Cameo: The gals pile into a Nissan Cedric Y31 taxi that takes them from the shore to the clinic.