The Dangers in My Heart – 12 (Fin) – Showing It All

Ichikawa thought he was pretty clever, booking his first shrine visit with Yamada a half-hour after his family’s. Master planner, this guy! Except he forgot that Yamada is always super early for everything where he’s concerned. His mom is the first to spot her, and then Kana gets a look at her, looking like a girl waiting for someone she likes. Oh, she is.

There’s no way for him to weasel out of this: his family and Yamada shrine visits are now merged. Also, Kana is totally and inescapably crushing on Yamada right from the get-go, and I not only can I not blame her, I salute her. She is a gal of refined taste. That said, Kana is plenty cute herself! I love how closely her outfit resembles her brother’s here. Oh, and he’s gone full Mikasa with that scarf.

After polite introductions —I love Ichikawa’s nearly-invisible pops asking “who is this?”—Yamada hangs back to give Ichikawa a playful shove, calling him out for the double-book. Thankfully, the other Ichikawas give the couple some space to pray. When Ichikawa can’t put his hands together, she puts her hand on his and they pray together. So damn cute.

When Ichikawa’s folks head off for lunch, Kana decides to stay with her bro and track down Yamada, wanting to make better first impression. Instead, she gets a new impression of Yamada, as she’s already stuffing her face with fried food. I love this. First she got the stunning model side, then her messy glutton side. Both sides rule.

Kana is no idiot, and when she heard Yamada say (with her mouth full) that she got some food for Ichikawa, and also saw her looking in her mirror, checking her makeup and smile, it clicks for her: her brother is not on a romantic suicide mission. He’s really got a chance!

Kana invites Yamada to their house, but as soon as Yamada takes off her coat he sees she tied the dog keychain to her belt loop. To keep Kana from seeing it, he ends up making a gesture that looks like he’s slapping her hip, embarrassing everyone.

Kana serves Yamada some leftover new years soup which she loves. Ichikawa thinks how cute she looks, and then Kana vocalizes it. She also gets a hit of Yamada’s endearingly guileless ego when she says a lot of people call her cute, and Yamada is just like “Yup, they do!”

When talk turns to how Kana should address Yamada, thinking last names seem too distant, puts Ichikawa on the spot. Both she and Kana want to hear him squirm, but Yamada also really wants to hear her first name in his mouth. When he gets it out, she flashes a warm, appreciative smile.

Kana then breaks out the albums, showing Yamada a even tinier, cuter versions of her and her bro. Ichikawa thinks he looks the same in his grade school pic, but Yamada thinks he’s completely different. I tend to agree. Then Yamada accidentally treads on a sore subject when asking about the class excursion, which Ichikawa never went on.

Reading the room, Kana elegantly excuses herself, but before she leaves, she earnestly thanks Yamada in the entryway. She can tell her brother is happier, and she knows why. She’s happy for him is all.

I’m not surprised Yamada asks if she can call her onee-san, because she’s an awesome onee-san! Kana even leaves her keychain behind for her brother, having spotted the matching one on Yamada. Now he and Yamada match, and Yamada’s never gonna be mad about that.

Yamada is eager to learn more about Ichikawa, and ends up following him to his room. She finds another photo of him in the yearbook, noting that he friend Chii went to his school, “not like she was looking for him in her yearbook (she was)”.

While he’s worried about any lingering evidence of jackin’ it, she insists on sitting as close beside him on the bed as possible. When she sees what look like Ichikawa’s two friends in that photo, he says they drifted away when they went to private school.

Yamada gets up an admires various trophies won in what he calls his “glory days”, and then Yamada finds his armor: the book about murders he carries to keep others away. For a beat, he waits for her to react, but of course she reacts how you’d expect: excited, a little impressed, and eager to learn more.

Heck, she even jokes about having a double life as a murderer; how would he know? As she does so, she lies back on his bed, making herself comfortable, and spots the corner of a girly mag under his sheet. Ichikawa panics and gos for the mag, but ends up right on top of Yamada. Every second they linger in this position, the tension rises, until Yamada slowly gets back up and off the bed. Too soon for … for That!

Ichikawa is scandalized, and feels like her spotting his mag turned her off him completely, but that’s not the reason for her haste. Whatever her goals were today, she achieved them, and doesn’t want too go too far too fast. Ichikawa feels the same way.

No, after snapping his yearbook pics and heading down the stairs, she tells him she looks forward to showing him her yearbooks next time. Ichikawa takes that for what it is: a enthusiastic future invitation to her house.

The morning of his first day back after winter break, Ichikawa wakes up from unpleasant dreams of his past loneliness and isolation, and finds a shirtless Cool Ichikawa standing in his room. He’s shirtless because he represents Ichikawa’s heart, which he wants to bear. Ichikawa wants to show everything he is to Yamada.

Due to his arm injury, Ichikawa’s mom drives him to school, and Kana tags along to wish his little bro well—and probably to catch a glimpse of Yamada. She gets that wish as Yamada leaps out from behind a car to greet him, then says good morning to his mom and sister.

Yamada inspects him and notices he’s missing his dog keychain. When he produces it, she attaches it to his button. The bell is about to ring and everyone else is inside, so Ichikawa deems it the perfect time to show more of himself to Yamada.

He tells her how he used to hate middle school, but that’s changed, thanks to her. While clearly very happy to hear this, Yamada tells him he should be thanking himself first and foremost. He kept coming to school, even when it was painful, and that led to him eventually talking to her.

Yamada hands him back his books, with the murder one that he used to keep people away at the top of the pile. He says “thank you,” but it’s more than just thanking her for helping with the books. It’s the words he’s wanted to tell her all along, more than “I like you.” Those words aren’t necessary here, because his feelings are clear. Yamada lets the books fall to their feet again, gathers him into a warm hug, and pats his head.

Ichikawa pulls Yamada closer and thanks her again, and they stay like that for a few more precious seconds before heading to class. On the way, Sekine greets them, and they pull away from each other so quickly, she assumes they’re bashful after having “done it.” They most certainly haven’t, but they did do a lot during the winter break to clarify both who they are and what they mean to each other.

Before joining Sekine in the classroom, Yamada hands Ichikawa a bag of shrimp crackers—an empty bag, like she did in one of their first close interactions many moons ago. Then she says “just joking”, takes the bag back, and produces a candy for him. As always, the strongest sign that Yamada Anna likes you is that she’ll share her precious snacks with you without hesitation.

I know episode 11 me wanted an actual confession in words from someone, but the series subverted my expectations to the point I still walked away satisfied with where we leave Yamada and Ichikawa. They remain on that road together, walking hand-in-hand more often than not, and far more locked in to each other’s emotions.

From family and “dark past” to his murder book and nudie mag, Yamada has seen a lot more of who Ichikawa is in very short order, and it has only endeared him to her more. It is Thanksgiving day as I write this, so I am mindful of what I am grateful for, and it’s anime like this!

I’m anticipating the second season more than any other Spring 2023 show, as while Ichikawa is the lead and POV character of the show, hopefully it will also delve deeper into who this girl Yamada Anna is, beyond what we’ve seen and heard. Also including their first kiss couldn’t hurt … just sayin’!

The Dangers in My Heart – 11 – Remote Control

Ichikawa and Yamada’s date went so well and they made such big strides in their budding relationship, but what fresh villainy is this? Ichikawa in an arm sling, between Sekine and Loverboy and with Loverboy’s groupie across from them? In hindsight, I loved how random and vicious this stinger is, but in the moment I was anxious as fuck.

It’s a classic “How’d I end up like this?” story, which coninues by rewinding to the start of Ichikawa’s family trip to Akita. His frustration over having to share a room with Kana dissolves when he remembers his promise to photograph the snow for Yamada. But in the process of doing so he slips and falls off a damn cliff and at the very least sprains his arm.

He sends a selfie to Yamada as a gag, but she almost immediately video calls him, genuinely concerned about his arm, and relieved that he’s okay. I know that concern is genuine because a.) it’s been established she’s crazy about this little guy and b.) she called him so fast she forgot she was in Casual Evening Mode with her sports bra and glasses.

When she learns he’s returning home early, her thoughts turn to hanging out with him as soon as he’s back, but the two lovebirds are interrupted when they notice Kana, whom Ichikawa thought was dead to the world, is awake, and catches a glimpse of Yamada. She says she’s cute, and he says she’s “just” a friend from school. Kana is amazed she wasn’t some streaming thing.

Yamada wants to know what Ichikawa told Kana, and he’s honest: “that we’re friends … he guesses … for now.” The for now part is enough to cause Yamada’s heart to overflow, granting us one of her cutest faces to date. She then asks if they can talk more, and Ichikawa goes into the hall.

Yamada proceeds to ask Ichikawa to do things while she does them, from taking a drink to looking out the window to admiring the moonlight. It’s a tried-and-true method for feeling closer to someone you adore. Even if you’re far apart, the part of them in your heart feels closer than ever. She also has the shoujo manga in her lap, turned to the page where the boy says “I want to be with you. I wouldn’t be otherwise.”

Before heading back, Ichikawa decides to buy an Akita dog keychain for Yamada. Kana tries to let Ichikawa down gently by telling him girls are more than just their looks, and Ichikawa assumes she’s telling him not to get his hopes up with a girl out of his league.

For all their differences, Ichikawa recognizes in Kana the same tendency to try giving up on what she really wants before it hurts that he has. But now that he has something, someone he wants, he’s not willing to let it go. Not yet. Hopefully, not ever!

The next day Ichikawa heads out to meet up with Yamada, both to return the red scarf he borrowed and to give her the dog keychain. Instead, he ends up startled by a dog, who is attached to a leash, which is being held by Yamada in full-on Adorable Athleisure Mode.

Even after they made plans, she suddenly worried about his arm and decided to head his way instead. She decided this so quickly and with such a strong desire to see him as soon as possible, she neglected to consider the possibility they might’ve missed each other. But it’s all good; luck was on their side, and they were able to cross paths.

They head to the park with her Corgi, Wantaro, and Ichikawa suddenly gets cold feet about giving Ichikawa a non-food gift. Does this kid not remember that extended sequence bathed in blue light where he and Yamada were holding hands like old soul mates?

No matter; he is punished for his lack of faith by being given a bottle of green tea that’s already open by Yamada. My first thought was that she already took a swig, making it an indirect kiss. And while Ichikawa felt a bit like Yamada was remote controlling him over the phone the other night, she ends up following the commands he meant for Wantaro, including, most importantly, “paw.”

Yamada sits close beside Ichikawa without letting go of his hand, then reaches over him to retrieve the red scarf. Ichikawa put it in a bag so it would stay clean. Yamada blushes, tightens her grip on his hand, and admits that she actually wanted him to keep it, but then thought he wouldn’t want it.

His eyes opened by her honesty, Ichikawa exhibits his own, accepts the scarf, and offers her the dog keychain after all. She is so goddamned happy to get a gift from Yamada that she jumps up and does a little frolick. Before parting ways, she asks him about his first shrine visit of the year. He says he’s going, but doesn’t say it’s with his family, so she assumes the two of them will go, and will message him the time and place later.

From then on, Ichikawa and Yamada message each other every day. He may feel like it’s getting to his head that he can’t stop reading and re-reading her messages, the fact is she’s doing the exact same thing. If he’s a big embarrassing dork, so is she! And that’s perfectly fine!

What isn’t fine is Ichikawa heading into a FamilyMart to buy a drink, only to be ambushed by Loverboy, his groupie, and Sekine. It’s awkward as hell, especially since Sekine pretends not to know “Ichihara.” When Loverboy realizes it’s the boy who was with Yamada, he presses him for her LINE.

In an extremely telling moment, Loverboy orders the groupie to grab him a coffee, and the groupie blushes and obeys without hesitation. It feels so different, and so wrong, compared to when Ichikawa and Yamada were obeying each other on the phone call and in the park. Loverboy doesn’t seem to respect or even care about the groupie. He’s just using her because he can.

Sekine also excuses herself, leaving Ichikawa and Loverboy alone, but remains in earshot behind a wall. This is a test, and Ichikawa best not fail it. Loverboy drops the nice guy act, and things get transactional. “Ichihara” will give him Yamada’s LINE, and in exchange, he won’t tell anyone he got it from him. Ichikawa says he won’t tell him, and Loverboy asks why.

Ichikawa could tell him way, but Loverboy doesn’t deserve that much, and it isn’t really his business at all. So Ichikawa tells him he’s not telling him because he simply doesn’t want to. Before Loverboy can say another word, Sekine interrupts and asks Ichikawa to walk her home. When Loverboy offers to go with her, Sekine says she’s good … because she and Ichikawa are friends.

Sekine is clearly impressed with Ichikawa’s resolve. He passed the test and protected Yamada. But she says he should be straight with Loverboy next time about why. When Ichikawa protests, Sekine takes his hand in hers, and he recoils from her, and says, out loud, that he likes Yamada … he “thinks”.

For dramatic and comedic effect, Sekine takes a beat, then walks away and yells with a fake echo “I know…know…know,” then remarking that it’s “absolutely super obvious.” When they reach her door, he thanks her, and she teases him by asking if he wants to pop in. This Sekine girl man … she’s alright.

Having just been thoroughly messed with by another girl, but also given the validation he needed (note at no point did Sekine say he shouldn’t pursue Yamada, as it’s likely just as clear to her that Yamada is crazy about him), Ichikawa wants to hear Yamada’s voice, so he calls her. I loved her little nervous reaction before picking up (I love all her reactions, really).

He wishes her Happy New Year before she can tell him, but hastily hangs up when Yamada says Sekine has arrived (Yamada unknowingly walked her right to where Yamada and the others were having a sleepover). Bathed in moonlight, Ichikawa vows to someday tell Yamada that he likes her.

What a glorious slow burn this has been, with incremental progress from episode to episode providing a steady stream of good vibes. What began with a chuuni dork with delusions of edginess outraged an invasion by the class idol has now come to point where that dweeb is on the cusp of confessing to that idol … whom he’s learned is also a dork.

Ichikawa has done so much for Yamada thus far. First out of decency and kindness, then out of his growing affection for her. Now there’s one more thing to do: the most important thing, the thing that will end their beginning and begin their story together in earnest.

That’s asking a lot. It means putting himself out there after so much time as the safe but lonely hedgehog. But he doesn’t have to fear. He’s got this! He can, should, and must confess to her. The only question is will he, and before the season ends? Or will she be the one to confess first?

Masamune-kun’s Revenge R – 07 – Masamune brulée

During her family’s big formal New Year’s celebration, Neko is off to fetch more sake when the little son of one of her relatives bumps into her. She neither spills the bottles on her tray nor vomits blood, which I’ll call a win. But seeing her relative for the first time since her wedding, when she was as small as this kid (only rounder).

Meanwhile, it’s been ten days since Christmas Eve, and Masamune and Aki haven’t spoken. Not a great way to start the year! As I said, it sucks for these two to run into problems so soon after becoming an official couple, but I suppose we do still have six episodes for that to be resolved.

Neko is reminiscing about the day she met Masamune when they were both kids. She was desperately shy, but he offered her a giant chicken wing from his pocket (a habit he’s since kicked). She then gets a text from Tae inviting her to join her, Kojuurou, and Masamune for the first shrine visit of the year.

While I know Masamune is freaking out about this hives thing, which his doctor suspects is due to stress, it’s still pretty mean to not only ghost Aki, but lie about her and Yoshino being busy so as to exclude them and spare him the awkwardness. Fortunately, he’s terrible at hiding the fact he’s troubled, and Neko notices something’s not right.

He notes that he still manages to laugh and have fun, and while he and Neko get a brief moment alone together, it’s not long enough for her to broach the topic of what’s troubling Masamune. Her suspicions are reinforced when she watches Yoshino breeze right past Masamune in the hallway without a peep.

When coincidence conspires to put both Neko and Masamune at the same hospital one day, she offers him a ride and some tea at her house. Her attendant Shidou-san is not pleased with his presence, but there’s nothing she can do about with whom her mistress spends her time.

Masamune expresses how the lack of anything wrong with him seems wrong in and of itself, even as he realizes the irony of coming to someone with such fraught medical history with his problems. He wonders if the thing stressing him out is holding something back, like not telling Aki about Yoshino’s role in separating them.

But Neko has a different theory: he’s burnt out and in a state of shock after his life’s goal of revenge was suddenly ended. His mind, body, and energies had been concentrated on that goal for so long, it’s only natural there’s a physical as well as psychological strain from its rapid termination.

She also wonders whether Masamune is hewing too close to his pretenses and preconceptions. He may have loved Aki, back then, before his heart was broken…but does he still love her now? Meanwhile, she owns up to having met him once before Aki did.

When she made advances on Masamune earlier, she was clinging to the meager memories of the past, but now she makes clear she loves the Masamune of today, here and now. She draws in for another kiss, this time one that is free of the past…but Shidou breaks it up.

Neko tells her attendant she doesn’t need to worry, as she sees the hives develop on Masamune’s hand. Her smile and trembling hands betray her heartbreak all over again as she declares “no mistakes will be happening today”. She then considers if she truly has cast off her pretenses and preconceptions.

I truly felt for Neko, being a good friend to Masamune, and testing the waters only to be burnt herself, not by his words this time, but by his very skin. But in this she’s not alone; that’s now two girls who have given Masamune hives since he learned the truth.

As he views Aki’s text asking if he’s okay after visiting the hospital, Masamune vents his frustration over not knowing what truth there is to find that might cure him of his stress hives by shouting on a bridge. This startles someone on street level and causes them to fall.

He apologetically rushes to their aid to find it’s his ex-master Yoshino who fell. Despite her efforts to ignore and avoid him, circumstances have brought them back together, and I think it would do them both a power of good to talk about things a little more.

Urusei Yatsura – 11 – The Trickster Ojou

When another slow-moving oxcart escorted by ninja rolled through town, I assumed it was Mendou’s mom again. It turns out to be someone who speaks loudly enough to be heard, and who makes the effort to throw a handkerchief out of the cart so it happens to land on Ataru’s face. He uses his lecher’s sense of smell to track down the owner, and is rewarded with a damn skeleton arm.

The next day, the girl arrives at school resplendent in her kimono and wowing boys and girls alike. She initially introduces herself as Mendou’s fiancée, which gets all the girls fuming and weeping. But she’s really Mendou’s little sister, Ryouko, who loves playing elaborate tricks on people for her own amusement.

She’s come to deliver her dear brother his lunch that he forgot, but he tells her he forgot that lunch five days ago. As the lunch is composed entirely of raw seafood, it is now essentially toxic waste, but that doesn’t stop Ataru, eager to get into Ryouko’s good graces, to try to eat it. When Ryouko sees how lovey-dovey Lum is, she ups the flirtation, and locks Mendou away in a dark cabinet.

Ryouko’s introduction at school is followed by her inviting Ataru to her home for a New Year’s Party, but most of the rest of the cast was invited as well, including Sakura, Oyuki and Benten. Everyone’s in their best New Year’s finery, but I personally think Lum wins for best kimono—the colors are just sublime.

Of course, this is no ordinary party. Not only is the Mendou residence ludicrously huge and complex, but the partygoers are unwitting living game pieces in an elaborate board game being played by Ryouko and her parents. This results in trap doors and hidden passages and various obstacles shifting everyone all over the place and doing all sorts of things.

We get mochi eating contests, badminton, spiked walls, 100,000 and 200,000-kg weights being dropped … it’s a little bit of everything. The chaos all serves one purpose: entertaining Ryouko, a girl with far too much money and far too much time on her hands.

By the time everyone (or most everyone) arrives in the actual party room, they’re all so exhausted from being pushed and prodded around and made to carry out various tasks they can barely sit up. But it’s still not over, as Ryouko presses a red button that sends her brother and Ataru up in a giant bamboo rocket that explodes with fireworks to ring in the new year.

It’s here where I’ll note that now that Lum is back by his side, Ataru is right back to being a lecherous ass, despite being genuinely devastated by her absence which for all he knew was caused by his neglect and constant two-timing.

It wasn’t, and Lum will probably never leave the guy’s side, and maybe I was a fool for thinking any character development would stick around for the next segment, let alone episode. That said, I enjoyed Ryouko as an unapologetic agent of chaos and general shit-stirrer.

Komi Can’t Communicate S2 – 06 – Tadano’s Dizzy Fever Day

While Komi spent New Year’s Eve with her extended family, Tadano spends it at home playing video games until midnight with Najimi. The next morning Najimi is still there, and suggests they call as many friends as they can to go on their first shrine visit. But between Komi not picking up, Ren in Hawaii, Agari almost choking on mochi, Inaka not in cell range, Nakanaka playing a crucial mobile game, Yadano playing battledore, and Katai doing pushups, it seems like it might be a bust.

However, they still manage to organize a huge group, including Komi, who calls Najimi back after the initial missed call. Najimi leads the charge up the steps to the shrine, leaving her and Tadano in the dust. As we know, this is Komi’s second shrine visit of the day, but it doesn’t matter, because she’s happy to be invited and to spend time with her friends…and Tadano. She also flashes a cheeky streak by withholding her fortune from him (which is excellent).

In the middle segment Katai continues his elaborate plan to make Tadano his best friend (or possibly boyfriend?) by inviting him ice skating. Tadano asks if he can invite someone else, and to my delight Najimi wasn’t his first call and isn’t around to suck up all the oxygen. Instead, Katai sees Komi’s presence as a sign she’s worried about her “student”; in reality, Komi is still weary of Kati, but also isn’t opposed to trying to bond as friends some more.

Turns out Tadano is the only one of the trio who know how to ice skate, which means he gets to teach them both, starting with Komi. Before you know it the two are skating together hand in hand, but because Komi over-corrects on her braking step, she spins around to face Tadano, and they both realize how this must look. Katai also eventually lets go of the fence and, with Tadano taking his hand and eventually letting go, the big guy is able to get the hang of it as well.

Possibly due to being out in the cold, Tadano comes down with a fever. He stays home alone, promising his little sis he won’t die, but in an extended scene, this cold gets worse and worse and he starts to get delirious and worry about actually dying. It doesn’t help that his bottle of sports drink is empty and he doesn’t have the strength to get out of bed. What he does have is a charged phone, which he uses to call Najimi…or at least he thought he called them, but ends up calling Komi instead.

The doorbell rings, and who should be at the door but Nurse Komi to the rescue. She bears hot ginger tea and ingredients for rice porridge, which she expertly and lovingly prepares in the Tadano kitchen. While I’m sure she’s upset that Tadano isn’t feeling so swell, you can tell she’s absolutely reveling in the opportunity to take care of the boy she cares for, especially after all that he’s done for her. That said, her enthusiasm for the job of nursing him to health results in her trying to feed him, perhaps out of habit from doing the same for, say, her brother.

When Komi comes back from washing the dishes, Tadano is out like a light, and she can’t help but draw near to him, watch his sleeping face, tuck him in so he doesn’t get a chill, and in perhaps one of the most touching moments of the entire series, slides her hand into his. Unfortunately Najimi mucks up the moment by bursting in unannounced, but it was still a beautiful moment. Her increasing number of colorful friends are fun, but her quiet little interactions with Tadano—ones she’d never have with anyone else—will always be my favorite part of this series.

Komi Can’t Communicate S2 – 05 – Hanafuda Komi-Komi

Our cold open is also a silent one, as the first 3+ minutes of the episode progress with neary a line of dialogue, only the cozy soundtrack and a number of the series’ trademark signs. Najimi has gotten both Tadano and Komi up at the break of dawn because it snowed overnight. After admiring the pristine unblemished whiteness, the thre build a gigantic snowman, while Komi makes a tiny one to match with Tadano’s.

After that, Ren, Yadano, and Agari join Tadano and Najimi on one team in a grand snowball fight. The elementary school team is short one person, so Komi joins them. There’s a great sight gag of her four teammates looking as tall as her, but she’s actually standing far behind them. A furious and dramatic battle ensues, eventually leaving Komi the only one on her team left standing. Ren, who has her best (and least problematic) appearance thus far this season, takes Yadano and Najimi out, leaving Komi to take her out and claim victory…as it should be.

When Komi visits her extended family over the New Year’s holiday, she reunites with her initially timid Akira, who slowly warms up to her older cousin and invites her to join her in a game of Hanafuda Koi-Koi. Komi sits out the first game where her granny eviscerates Akira, but Komi ends up getting one of the best combos in the game to erase her cousin’s debt.

No doubt impressed and proud of her granddaughter’s performance, Komi’s Gran lends her an absolutely stunning kimono for their first shrine visit of the year. Gran notes how “convenient” Komi is to have around as she literally parts the waves of people, and after making her offering and New Year’s wish, the amassed crowds feel like a goddess is in their midst.

The last segment throws Komi into the frying pan, as she’s put to work as a substitute shrine maiden making transactions for visitors. While initially overwhelmed, her colleague Inaka helps calm her down and reminds her that instead of talking she need only write everything down. Komi does a bang-up job, and then reveals she knew Inaka was Inaka all along in a sweet note hoping they’ll have a fun new year together. Needless to say, Komi doesn’t mind in the least that Inaka is a country girl!

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3 – 10 – A Better Snowman

Dang photo bombers…your ruining the shot!

Knowing it would be hard-pressed to top last week’s full-length Takagi x Nishikata wonder-date, this week’s episode doesn’t bother; instead it returns to the warm, cozy, less dramatic flow of the couple’s interactions. Last week wasn’t an official acknowledgment that they’re dating now, but such a formality isn’t needed with these two. They’re fine just existing beside one another, fitting like, well, gloves!

To whit: the two didn’t plan to meet at the shrine visit; their families just happened to come at the same time. It sure looks like those two married couples were their parents, doesn’t it? I feel like at some point they’ll have to meet each other’s parents, but that they don’t mean we get more time with these two. hen Takagi is called back to her folks, Nishikata says they should do it again next year…which she says happened to be her shrine wish. Who’s to say it wasn’t?

Yes, that’s right…make that ball bigger…

The next segment is classic Master Teaser, with Takagi up to her old tricks in cornering Nishikata into a snowman-building contest knowing full well that he’ll get to ambitious. While he’s sweatily rolling dirty lumpen mounds trying to build a Snow Titan, Takagi puts a lot of time and care and quite effortlessly builds the cutest lil’ snowman in all the land…so cute Nishikata doubts he’d have won. even if he’d finished…which Takagi helps him do.

NGL, from a distance this looks like a confession…

After Nishikata’s friends and the three girls have their little mini-scenes talking about the new year, we come to “Advice”, when Houjou takes Nishikata aside and asks him what he thinks Hamaguchi might like for his birthday. Yuuki Aoi is masterful at sounding both mature and incredibly hot-and-cold. For his part, Nishikata is both thoughtful and helpful. Then Houjou asks him to keep their chat a secret.

Little did Nishikata know that Takagi spotted him talking with Houjou, and asks him what about. When Nishikata demurs, she guesses correctly on the first guess, and pretty much knows, but Nishikata still won’t break his secret. Takagi’s facial expressions are so subtle here, but you can tell she’s a little mad Nishikata is keeping something from her…even if she knows what it is with 99.99% certainty!

Takagi expresses her jealousy by trying to stoke Nishikata’s, saying she wants to know what to get a “15-year-old boy”—not a Chihuahua, but a third-year middle schooler. This does affect Nishikata, who doesn’t want to give advice for some other guy…even though these two spend so much time together he would know of such a guy!

Of course, this time, Takagi is referring to Nishikata on his next birthday. He’s quite relieved, and apologizes for not being able to break his promise. Takagi apologizes too, owning up to the fact she did do something a little mean. When Nishikata asks her why she doesn’t always think that, she says this and her usual gentle teasing are two different things!

When Nishikata flat-out asks Takagi why she teases him, her answer is as expected…“Who knows?” But she knows, and so does Nishikata, and it’s the same reason they’re already making plans for spending next year together.

My Senpai is Annoying – 11 – A Very Good Year

Like the Valentines, cherry blossom viewing, and Christmas festivities, the end-of-year office party at a cozy izakaya is another way to reap vicarious enjoyment of a work culture that doesn’t really currently exist for me, as I work remotely for an out-of-state company. While I still wish the dudes would bother Sakurai less, there’s something just really nice about watching Futaba and her co-workers and boss drinking together and talking about their holiday plans.

Takeda says he’s just going to “veg out” for New Years, Futaba isn’t quite able to summon the courage to ask to hang out. That’s not a problem for Sakurai, who takes Kazama aside and invites him to her and Yuuto’s home for some homemade udon and celebration. It ends up being just the two of them for New Years Eve when Yuuto suddenly remembered he had made plans with a friend for the night.

Whether this was his mentor Natsumi teaching him how to properly isolate a couple, or simple absent-mindedness on his part, Sakurai is so flustered by Kazama’s arrival the udon burns and they have to have instant ramen for dinner. It doesn’t matter to Kazama; he came to see her and is happy he did. When the two laugh at the same joke on the TV, they look and feel like a cozy old married couple.

While Futaba wasn’t able to spend New Years Eve with Takeda (she has a quiet evening with Natsumi, and gets a call from her gramps who is on a very manly fishing trip, she and Natsumi end up encountering Takeda at the shrine, and Natsumi soon makes herself scarce so the pink kimono-wearing Futaba is alone with Takeda. Her prayers for the new year don’t include anything related to getting closer to him, but it happens anyway as they share the same fortune: The one you’re looking for is right next to you.

The fact Kazama still “doesn’t know how she feels” about him truly stretches credulity by the week! After he and Sakurai are assumed to be a couple by a live TV camera crew, and he starts blabbing about having spotted Futaba and Takeda, even going so far as to show the reporter a picture of the two sleeping together, Futaba runs back to the shrine to beat Kazama with her kinchaku.

He wakes up lying in Sakurai’s lap, and when she asks if he was looking at her chest, she’s appreciative when he honestly said that he was. Clearly it’s fine if it’s him. As for the photo a passing little girl took on her toy digital camera of her stealing a kiss while he was still asleep? That’s the very evidence Kazama needs to be sure Sakurai feels the same way about him…only Sakurai is too bashful to let him see it. Oh well…there will be other opportunities.

Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut – 08 – Wait and See

Irina returns to headquarters not to more scorn and racism, but an actual standing ovation—albeit a somewhat forced and stilted one. As forced by the chief as the applause might be, it’s still applause directed at Irina, something she likely never imagined she’d ever experience when she volunteered to do this.

The downside to both Irina’s success and Lev’s role in that success is that it becomes the impetus that separates them just when they were feeling closer to one another than ever. Lev is promoted to full candidate and joins the others for the final tests to select the first human cosmonaut. One would think his knee injury would put him out of the running, literally, but it doesn’t seem to be an issue.

As for Irina, her long expected post-launch “disposal” is postponed indefinitely. While the narrator suggests that someone might try to cause an “accident”, that’s made harder by the fact Anya makes it her mission to be Irina’s friend in Lev’s place. She takes her out for a festive night on the town, wearing traditional dress and performing the ritual of tossing pine cones into the water to grant your wishes.

It would seem Irina got her wish, which wasn’t at all “Love Live the Motherland”, but nothing more than another opportunity to be with Lev. When they meet for the first time in the new year, he’s prepared a spread and presents her with a bouquet. Irina questions the “point” of all this, all the while smiling with glee. So far it looks like these two crazy kids are going to be just fine, but as Lev says, it’s very much still a “wait and see” situation.

Horimiya – 12 – The Mantis

This week it’s Christmas in Horimiyaland, and everyone is figuring out how—and with whom—they want to spend their holiday. It’s just too perfect that Yuki fell in love with Tooru having absolutely no clue that the boy’s family was freakin’ loaded. Money can’t buy you love! If anything, it intimidates a girl of more modest means like Yuki.

At a time when everyone needs Christmas cake, Izumi is scheduled to work through the holidays at the bakery, meaning he won’t be able to join Kyouko and her family. While she’s understanding—her boy’s fam gotta earn, nothing you can do about it—her dad, mom, and Souta are less forgiving. Never mind if it’s Kyouko’s the one technically dating him. They want Izumi!

Shuu and Sengoku were both convinced Tooru and Yuki were already an item, but by saying he only “recently” harbored a crush on Kyouko, Tooru he reveals he’s still in a transitory place: not yet far enough removed from the pain of not having those feelings returned, and thus not quite ready to look for love elsewhere. Compounding matters is that he likely considers Yuki his best mates.

Why else would he so helplessly waver when she asks if she can come to his place to play video games? Or sneak in the house like something elicit is afoot? Or so determined to keep the family’s statuesque personal assistant Yashiro’s nose out of his business? Like his other friends, Tooru likely doesn’t want Yashiro or his family to get the wrong idea in the present—even if it may well turn out to be the right idea in the future.

After they both calm down after tea and cake (from Izumi’s bakery!) and fire up the video games, Tooru lets slip that he’s “happy with the way things are.” And honestly, I really don’t see Yuki disagreeing with that. As they watch that loading screen, they both seem content and comfortable. No need to rush things.

There’s a bit of drama at school when Sengoku doesn’t immediately agree to spend Christmas with Remi at Remi’s, and for a very bizarre reason: her dad is into catching bugs and putting them in boxes. When it’s trifling things like this that come between lovers, you know it’s true love. Sengoku simply has to grow a pair. The bugs are DEAD, dude!

When Kyouko shows her parents her superlative marks (all A’s save gym and art…kinda the opposite of me!) her mom remarks how there will only be one more report card, and then she’ll graduate. As her parents bicker and Souta asks her to look at his marks, Kyouko gets lost in thought: What will her life be like after graduation?

But before that, it’s Christmas, and the episode doesn’t want to leave anyone out as it checks in on just about everyone, starting with a contact-wearing Yanagi and Yuki’s big sister, who have a cute little exchange by a big outdoor Christmas tree. Tanihara and his brother wrestle over a clear view of the TV.

In what is a promising development, Yuki and Tooru are hanging out together for Christmas. I’m rooting for you two tentative bastards….take all the time you need!

Motoko is studying hard even the night before Christmas, but Shuu makes sure she takes a fried chicken and cake break. Sakura urges Sengoku to stop being a goddamn wimp and go hang out with his adorable girlfriend on one of (if not the) most important nights for couples both potential and extant. On the latter front, Shindou asks his girlfriend to wait one more year for him to graduate, and she agrees.

The entire Hori residence—including Souta’s cute friend Yura—is united in their elation when Izumi stops by to drop off their cake. When he says he can’t stay, Kyouko is again understanding, but her family won’t let him leave without a hot drink, eventually stealing a whole hour of his shift at the bakery.

When they finally allow him to leave, Kyouko walks him home, despite not being dressed for the chilly night; she’s in slippers, for goodness sake! But there’s something she wants to say to Izumi, and mercifully it’s not to ask him to berate or hit her; that particular pothole on their relationship road seems to have smoothed out off-camera…and that’s fine.

No, Kyouko tells him the same thing he told her back when they first started going out: she still doesn’t know very much about him. But due in part to that and other factors, she wants to be with him even after they graduate. Izumi goes quite a few steps beyond agreeing, and proposes marriage! Whoa, boy! Immediately embarrassed by blurting out what is surely deep-seated but still premature desire, he shuffles off.

But Kyouko promises she’ll “make him happy”, something Izumi says is usually what the guy is supposed to say in such a situation—which ironically is the kind of cisnormative comment you’d expect from Kyouko! She insists she should be the one to say it, as she admits she’s self-centered and “only good at studying and chores” though she’s selling herself short.

These two lovable dorks then bow to each other, expressing how they’re looking forward to their future together. All I can really say to that is BAAAAAWWWW.

After the credits, we fast-forward to New Year’s, which Kyouko and Izumi are spending together at a festival. They get their fortunes, but they hardly matter, since they both agree that as long as the other person is smiling, it’s all gravy. They grab some amazake and reflect how they were the last people they saw at the end of the previous year and the first people they saw at the beginning of the new one.

Izumi wants every year to be like that. Izumi walks Kyouko home hand-in-hand, assuring her that they can and will indeed be together forever. And damnit, I believe him. And like them, I’m happy just seeing the two smiling together, shrugging off the anxiety around what would happen after high school, laying out their future, and sharing in the warmth, relief, and elation of knowing graduation will only be the end of their beginning.

Yuru Camp△ 2 – 03 – Top-Grade Eels and Feels

When Rin tells Nadeshiko she’ll be staying in Shizuoka for a couple extra nights due to the snow back home, Nadeshiko makes an alternate proposal: Rin could join her at her grandmother’s house on Lake Hamama. There’s are some lovely little moments of tension in between Nade’s offer, the alert sound on her phone, and the reveal of Rin’s reply: “Looking forward to it!”

The snow granted Rin two extra days to be all by herself if she wanted, but she choses to spend it with Nadeshiko, though first she books a surprisingly cheap campsite, spending New Year’s Day reading on the beach and then luxuriating in the bath.

At dusk, she quite accidentally stumbles upon a little local tradition where people gather to watch the sun setting directly into a torii gate near the Hamama-Ohashi Bridge. As Rin puts it, she got to see the sun rise and set on the year’s first day. Early in the morning, Sakura gets Nadeshiko up so she can make all the various train transfers to Sakume Station, where she’ll meet Rin.

After breaking camp, Rin heads to Kazanji in Nishi Ward to buy a gift of Strawberry buns, and soon learns that there’s a fanatical demand for them, as she ends up in yet another crush of people. Nadeshiko is at Sakume and greets her with a formal New Year’s Greeting, then shows her a gaggle of tame black-headed seagulls.

It’s a 20-minute walk to her grandma’s but Nadeshiko suggests they grab some lunch, further suggesting they have eel, a Hamama Lake specialty. Rin is down to just ¥1,920, so when she sees that the Top-Grade unagi Nadeshiko orders costs ¥4,000, she panics. Not to worry: Nadeshiko whips out a crisp ¥10,000 bill her dad gave her specifically to treat Rin to the good stuff, as thanks for how much she’s helped her out over the last half-year.

Rin doesn’t turn down the offer, but is perplexed when Nadeshiko, who decided to sit at the counter, turns away from watching the practiced chef kill and clean the live eels. Watching Rin’s reaction to tasting that eel, I’d say Nadeshiko’s tendency to make food look really good is rubbing off!

Upon arriving at Nadeshiko’s granny’s lakeside house, Rin also meets Nadeshiko’s childhood friend Toki Ayano, who comes off as a lot less energetic than Nadeshiko. In fact, she’s kind of a Lake Hayama Rin … or maybe Rin is a Yamanashi Ayano! There’s a natural bit of tension here as well, as it’s always a bit strange to meet your relatively new friend’s much older friend (or vice versa).

As expected, Rin ends up learning more about Nadeshiko from Ayano. Specifically, she was quite a bit chubbier in middle school, and her sister Sakura put her on a grueling exercise regime biking around Lake Hamana, and she slimmed down by her first year in high school. Now Rin understands why Nadeshiko had the strength and stamina to bike from Nanbucho to Lake Motosu the day they met.

Nadeshiko and Rin show her granny and Ayano more pics of camping, many of which are of food and eating, to which Nadeshiko declares eating outdoors to be the “best part” of camping. Rin doesn’t loudly agree, for a reason we learn later that night, but she does demonstrate her mini offertory box portable campfire grill by grilling mochi outside, and Ayano starts to get it. Also, Ayano has a moped too!

After an evening of watching TV while under the kotatsu, playing the Game of Life, Ayano has to head off to work at the konbini, agreeing to meet up with them at the observatory later. When the time to head there arrives, Nadeshiko wakes Rin up for once, and Rin, who hadn’t slept in a real bed for several nights, needs an extra few moments to shed the coziness.

Rin is initially worried about biking at night, but as Nadeshiko assures her, this area is like her back yard; she knows it like the back of her hand. Ayano is there to meet them at the observatory, and she and Nadeshiko points out all of the landmarks of Hamamatsu at night. Then she asks how Rin’s solo camping went, and she gets a very honest answer.

Going from Christmas Camping to soloing for New Year’s confirmed for her how different it feels when you’re camping alone. You see and hear and taste things you just won’t when you’re not alone, and you have nothing but time to contemplate things.

Rin describes soloing as “a way to appreciate loneliness”—which is a hell of a line! Nadeshiko notably doesn’t come right out and agree with Rin … and that’s okay! She and Rin can prefer different kinds of camping and enjoy occasionally camping together or with larger groups and still be good friends.

It may just be my imagination, but Yuru Camp seems to have upped its game a bit in the second season. Landscapes and backgrounds seem lusher and more detailed, as are the interactions and emotions it tackles, without beating you over the head with drama.

There’s a pervading realism to everything, from those little indefinable moments and feelings to a strong sense of geography and culture of the places the character inhabit. It’s also making me compile an ever longer (and harder to complete!) list of places to go and things to do next time I make it to Japan!

Yuru Camp△ 2 – 02 – Four Sunrises

Rin arrives at Iwata, and it’s everything a gal from a landlocked prefecture could hope for: crystal-clear skies and endless ocean. Riding her moped beside the sea feels great, until the cold and wind get to be too much. Fortunately her mom recommended a tea place, and who should be minding the store but the mountain climbing lady she met at the Yashajin Pass.

Yuru Camp seems to be running with the idea that Japan is just a big small town, where you’re always bumping into people you know by chance. I don’t mind, it’s fun! Rin goes to the upstairs café for a matcha tiramisu set, and suddenly wants to set up her tent right there.

Rin also visits the Mitsuki-Tenjin Shrine, but learns that Shippeitarou III passed away years ago, making Rin suddenly think about how short dogs’ lives are, even going so far as to text Ena her worries about Chikuma. Ena says she’ll be devastated when it happens, but it’s inevitable. All she can do is make sure her pup has as many good times as possible.

Rin switches gears from pondering mortality to getting a fire and dinner going. With no pine cones or twigs on the campground, Rin uses her knife to make a feather stick to start her fire, showing how there are plenty of tricks she still learning. After whipping up a duck soup nameko mushroom soba, she sends all of her pics to the gang, and Nadeshiko reports that it’s snowing back home.

After getting a few hours of sleep, Rin gets up to watch the first sunrise of the new year from Furude Beach, where many others are already gathered and a torii gate is set up for the event. Toba-sensei elects to drive Chiaki, Aoi, and Aoi’s little sister Akari to Mt. Minobu.

They take the ropeway, pray at the shrine, buy some dango, drink some amazuke, and find a good spot to watch the sun rise. In both locations, there’s a palpable electricity in the air, a sense of anticipation in the literal darkness before the dawn.

Then the sun rises in all her majesty, filling that darkness with blinding light and vivid colors. Rin aligns herself so the rising sun appears directly within the torii gate, as if a great spirit were emerging. Yuru Camp has previously displayed a gift for depicting sunrises and sunsets, but it really outdoes itself this time, showing us the same sunrise from multiple locations.

As the day goes on, Rin is looking forward to trying out Iwata’s local specialty pig’s foot curry, but is tempted by a food truck selling pizza and pot-au-feu, and decides to indulge. Chiaki gets Toba and the others to hurry off Mt. Minobu so they can try to catch a second sunrise in Fujikawa City fifty minutes after the first—and one that looks like a diamond rising over Fujiyama’s summit.

While Toba-sensei drifts her Suzuki Hustler up and around the mountain road with the skill of a rally driver, they arrive to find the sun already high above Fuji-san—Chiaki was off by a whole half-hour. The last to see a “sunrise” is Ena, once it’s already pretty high in the sky. Still, I’m sure she enjoyed the extra sleep!

While Rin is starting to think about preparing to check out, she gets a call from her mom: Yamanashi has frozen over in the night, making the roads home too dangerous to attempt, particularly on a moped. The new plan is for her grandpa to drive out in his van to get her and her bike. She just has to sit tight for two days. Considering she’s a short walk from the beach, there are far worse places to be “stuck!”

Yuru Camp△ 2 – 01 – The Power of Curry Cup Ramen

In its first season Shima Rin mentioned she first started camping in her first year of middle school. The second season opens by saying “You don’t have to take her word for it; we’ll show you!”

Rin’s passion for camping began when her grandfather mailed her a package containing camping gear. Then, as now, she was a voracious reader, but used to simply read in the front room of her family’s super-awesome house. She takes a long look outdoors and decides to figure out how the tent gramps gave her goes together.

Before long, the day has come for Rin’s very first camping trip, a day trip to—where else—Lake Motosu. Her dad, whom we see for the first time, drives her there and walks with her to the lakeside where she’ll set up camp on her own. He’ll be chilling in the lodge while she’s camping, in case she needs help. The striking view of Fuji-san fills Rin with awe.

That awe soon turns to frustration as Rin proves absolutely terrible at camping, but in her defense, it’s her first time, she’s only 11 or 12, and most everyone is crap at doing something the first time!

She bends one of the tent spikes when hitting it too hard with a rock. She doesn’t have a chair so her butt hurts. She tries to start a fire with no kindling and enormous branches. She ruins the pot in which she tried—and failed—to cook rice.

It’s cold, and she’s hungry, and she’s been so busy trying and failing things that she hasn’t able to read a single page of her OOPArts book! Then her mom gives her a call, and tells her she slipped some “emergency food” in her backpack: a cup of curry ramen. Aw, mom! Rin boils some water on the fire the camp admin helped her build, and she digs in.

She can’t recall curry cup ramen ever tasting so good, but when you’re enjoying nature’s majesty, once-ordinary foods just taste better. In a lovely little closing touch, Rin is admiring Fuji-san close up, and we cut to a sixth-grade Nadeshiko in her hometown, gazing happily at a much smaller Fuji-san.

Fast-forward to the present: with New Year’s fast approaching, Nadeshiko is working hard at a job perfectly suited to her energy levels: bicycle mail delivery. She finishes her route and has lunch with Ena, whom she shows the retro lantern she wants to buy. Then they get into a text exchange with Aoi, Chiaki, and Rin regarding their New Years plans.

Chiaki doesn’t get any time off, but everyone vows to bring back something for her, so she’s fine “holding the fort”. Rin will be soloing for New Year’s, preferably by the ocean, somewhere like Izu. Both her parents prefer that she chose a campsite that doesn’t involve heavy traffic, as she’s still a relatively new rider.

Rin settles on Iwata in Shizuoka, not least because it has another dog shrine like the one she visited on her impromptu solo trip—and this shrine features a living descendent of Shippeitaoru AKA Hayatarou. I wouldn’t pass up meeting a holy dog either! She loads her trusty moped up with her gear and sets off before the sun comes up, her mom sending her off.

While at a stop light, Rin hears someone calling her name from a konbini…It’s Nadeshiko, who is buying snacks before starting her early workday! Nadeshiko runs up to chat with Rin and gives her something to eat and stay warm once she’s at her campsite: a cup of curry ramen.

Not only is it the same kind Rin shared with Nadeshiko when they first met, but it’s the same kind Rin’s  mom packed for her on her first ever trip, and thus always had deep sentimental value. Emphasizing the two girls’ warm, sweet, enduring friendship no matter how apart they are…Yuru Camp 2 is off to a great start!