Urusei Yatsura – 35 – What’s at Cake / A Fox’s Tale

Atari spots Ran in the park but loses her, but not before she drops a neatly-packaged cake from her basket. A cake she said would “knock him dead”. Hearing her use those exact words puts us in the Lum’s state of mind, because when she finds Ataru, he’s flat on his back and in bad shape.

Lum, noted inventor and tinkerer, turns to her robodoc, who confirms poison, but no treatment: just funeral preparations. Hooking him up to a vital sign monitor of her own design that she can check on with a handheld remote, Lum heads out to save her Darling. She manages to find the warp gate Ran used to travel to a fantastical (and gorgeous) forest, but she’s always a step behind her.

When a napping Cherry snags a wire, Ataru’s vitals flatline on Lum’s remote. But as expected, “knock him dead” was just an expression: Ran made the cakes for Rei specifically, and the galoot does seem to enjoy them. But Lum doesn’t know that, assumes Darling is dead, and her wailing lament draws both Rei and Ran to her. Ran is pissed at first, but when she sees Lum won’t stop crying, she seems genuinely concerned for her old friend.

She’s able to calm Lum down, assuring her there must be some mistake. Sure enough, they return just as Ataru is reovering a bit, but is still wretchedly bloated. Turns out the cakes were specifically formulated to be one hundred times more filling than normal, in order to satisfy Rei. Pissed that Ataru ate one, Rei goes after him, while Ran lays into Lum for ruining her date.

It’s a raucous, unpleasant ending, but it can’t ruin the previous display of Lum’s genuine love and devotion for Ataru (and despair upon believing him dead) as well Ran showing she’ll be there for Lum if she needs her.

The second half marks the return of the adorable little fox (we’ll call him Kitsune) from last season. It starts with a positively gorgeous folktale of a fox who fell for a human girl and used charmed horsetail shoots to turn her into a fox for a night. Kitsune just happens to have some of spring’s first shoots, and sets out intending to play out the folktale with his beloved Shinobu.

Between the folktale and Kitsune finding Ataru and Lum, his journey to the big scary city and issues with big dogs and cars is played out with scarcely any dialogue. Kitsune, the dogs, and his Kotatsu Cat hero simply make expressive sounds. The music is also superb in this sequence, as it perfectly complements Kitsune’s unique POV in the otherwise familiar town setting.

When he spots Ataru and Lum at a vending machine, he disguises himself as Shinobu (which of course means he looks like a little fox Shinobu and isn’t fooling anyone). Shinobu feels bad about simply sending the little guy on his way, and agrees to help him find the horsetail shoots he lost.

They take him to Shinobu’s, where he disguises himself as Ataru and Lum and even adopts (and mixes up) their unique manners of speech. Kugimiya Rie is the perfect button-cute voice for Kitsune, no matter who he’s imitating. The four eventually encounter Cherry and Kotatsu Cat, who are cooking something (I love how everyone ignores Cherry until they simply can’t anymore).

They initially offer Kitsune some of their soup to comfort him after they were unable to find his shoots. But Kitsune, Cherry, and Kotatsu make the soup seem so tasty, Ataru, Lum, and Shinobu have a bowl as well. And because Kotatsu Cat put the horsetail shoots in the soup, they all turn into foxes!

This reveal, complete with soaring music, cozy lighting, and adorable character designs is masterfully directed and timed for maximum emotional impact. The whole episode was a feast for the eyes and ears, but you simply cannot go wrong with a Kugimiya Rie-voiced little fox. I’d watch a whole season of his adventures and terrible disguises!

Summertime Render – 07 – Tools of the Trade

Deciding to tentatively trust Shinpe, Hizuru and Nezu fill him in on some details about the Shadows. For one thing, if you destroy a Shadow, like Hizuru just did with Alan’s, the Shadow can’t come back, and you can never be copied again. Hizuru’s brother was killed by one fourteen years ago, but a part of him lives on…as the second of her two personalities. When she puts her hair up, Ryuunosuke comes out.

That means it’s game time. The Kobayakawa’s are her target. Her old friend welcomes her in warmly, but Ryuunosuke takes a sledgehammer to her face. Then the monsters show their faces, and while her parents are relative pushovers, Shiori proves to be the toughest of the three. Ryuunosuke has to stab himself with chopsticks to injure her, but she manages to dodge fatal sledge strikes and slithers out a window.

Nezu is ready for her outside with “Plan B”—a nailgun—but he’s unable to get three consecutive nails into her Shadow, which is key to pinning her down. Shinpei proves to be an indispensable member of the party by tackling Shiroi when she tries to give them the slip. Nezu pins her, and Kugimiya Rie gets to chew some scenery as Evil Shiori until Ryuunosuke has had enough and finishes her off.

Later, Ryuu tells Shinpei that he’s not the author of the two, but he does come out when his sister is forced to deal with things she doesn’t like: interviews, meetings, and killin’ Shadows. Hizuru regains control by punching herself in the face. Shinpei now has one quirky ally, but you can’t say she—or rather they—aren’t capable.

The next task is to try to deal with Shadow Mio, whom Shinpei knows will stand outside his house at 9. When he heads in, for a moment he thinks Shadow Mio is already there, but it’s just regular Mio, trying and failing to cook for him. It’s a pretty great fakeout.

I was almost yelling at Shinpei to not let Mio out of his sight, but thankfully the episode had a different cliffhanger in mind: that of the Ushio variety, as she suddenly appears with a growling tummy when he starts sautéing some onions. We know Ushio is a Shadow—Shiori admits to killing the original—but we also know that she acts just like Ushio without a hint of malice, so her arrival isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

ēlDLIVE – 01 (First Impressions)

Kokonose Chuuta is a high schooler who avoids contact with others and is always talking to a voice no one else hears. One day he’s scooped up by ēlDLIVE, a space police force, who immediately put him to work apprehending an alien criminal, who turns out to be his buxom teacher.

The voice belongs to an alien who lives within him, and with its help Chuuta successfully arrests the alien and is formally accepted into ēlDLIVE. Among the bureau’s members is his classmate and crush Sonokata Misuzu.

Isn’t it always the way: you try to keep your head down and lead a quiet life helping your auntie at her muffin shop, only to be recruited by a bizarre space police unit? ēlDLIVE presents that rather outlandish scenario, and does it with a brisk pace, confidence, and humor.

Not only that, the person who had been the least human-looking character – Chuuta’s teacher – turns out to be an alien perp in disguise. His crush is pretty generically hostile to him, but at least she’s voiced by Hayami Saori.

ēlDLIVE is fine harmless fun, but there’s not much to it beyond its vivid candy coating, and while it tries to go out there with kooky alien designs, the weird alien that harmlessly pops out of Chuuta’s chest just…doesn’t look that cool. Nor does Chuuta himself, who I guess is supposed to be an innocent weenie.

Still, both the premise and the execution smacks of a show with limited appeal for actual adults – this has Saturday morning kid’s cartoon all over it, unlike something darker like Parasyte. I don’t foresee ēlDLIVE lasting long on my Winter watchlist, but it is inoffensive and decent for what it is.

Sore ga Seiyuu! – 07

More jobs have come for Futaba, Ichigo and Rin, to the point that they’re busy enough to end up in the same studio on the same day, not for their Earphones work but for three separate gigs: Futaba is dubbing a zombie movie with veteran Koyama Rikiya (and the rude guy who said she stunk way back when), Ichigo is reading for an audiobook, and Rin is doing voice work for a video game.

Futaba is scared of the film’s horror theme, especially the fact one of her roles is a zombie, but eventually finds her footing, inspired by the always professional (and veggie juice-drinking) Koyama. Ichigo must adjust her voice to something less urgent than anime yet emphatic enough to get the point across. Rin has the strangest and most abstract job, simply firing off all her lines with no one else around, and even making noises for when her character receives small, medium, and large punches.

While all three were nervous going into their respective jobs, by the end they’re all happy and confident in their performances. And while it’s raining when it’s time to leave the studio, Futaba and Ichigo remembered to bring umbrellas, proving they’ve grown since the day they had to share Rin’s due to poor preparation. That preparation and growth is also apparent, as both the rude guy and Koyama say Futaba did well, raising her spirits even more as they head to the wrap party.

So ends another funny, informative, and charming episode about the day in the life of new but increasingly successful seiyus.

Sore ga Seiyuu! – 06

Earphones are about to go through a very busy gauntlet of dancing lessons, recording, music video filming, events, and promotion for their first single, “Into Your Ears.” But before that, Futaba recalls the her of last year, who recorded a Drama CD with Kugimiya Rie (the show is on a mini Toradora! tear).

When she passes a video store and sees a display for an anime adaptation of the CD, she gets excited about having to budget her time even more, which feels pretty premature; it’s practically assured at this point she’s going to end up disappointed.

Sure enough, she doesn’t hear from the producers of the CD when she should, and it’s Rin who inadvertently breaks the news to her in the middle of one of their radio shows: she, not Futaba, will be voicing Kugimiya’s little sister in the anime version.

Futaba is able to keep it together long enough to finish the show, but after that, she just needs to get away from Rin, and Ichigo, and everything. The show really lets us feel the sting of rejection, garnished with the extra shock of her friend and unit partner being the one usurping her.

It falls to her senpai Shiodome to talk her out of her funk, and I’m pleased to report Shiodome, while kind, isn’t overly or conspicuously kind, and it seems from her body language she’d prefer not to be so hands-on with her juniors, lest they not learn the lessons they need to learn. But in this case, Futaba had her idea of being a seiyu being a dream burst.

Shiodome clarifies that it’s the audience that sees and hears the dream, not the seiyu. The seiyu make the dream possible through their commitment and professionalism, performing with everything they’ve got no matter what’s going on with their personal lives. And all seiyu, even TsundeRie and Hocchan, have felt the sting she’s feeling.

Futaba listens to her drama CD again and learns that the her of a year ago actually sucked, but realizes the fact she can tell is proof she’s grown, and demands more of herself. Expressing to Rin her jealousy and frustration with not getting the part, but also her excitment by what Rin will bring to the part, help clear the air.

For now, Futaba must focus on Earphones, singing and dancing her heart out. If she does well, she’ll get noticed, and other jobs will come.