Subculture Anime Blog

Did those whirlpools always generate tornadoes?

Summary:

Ikuto has begun helping around the village with his own strength, and the villagers take note of this. Suzu thinks to herself that he may need some help from her soon, as she finds a bottle washed up on shore. Suzu takes this to Ikuto, and he quickly notices that it is the message in a bottle that he sent to his sister, Misaki. Finding that she might have been in danger, Ikuto quickly rushes out of the house to find away to leave the island. His boat ride out doesn’t work as usual, so he gets attached to a kite and has Suzu guide him. This doesn’t work out too well, as Ikuto remembers that he is afraid of heights. The rest of the girls see him while he is in the air, so they all go down to help him. They prepare a giant slingshot to launch him off, but they soon realize that this method will not work.

Machi has her own ways of helping Ikuto, but she proposes that Ikuto must marry her in exchange. Through her chanting, Ikuto’s soul begins floating out of his body. However, the rest of the girls quickly put an end to this. Chikage’s idea is put into action next, and she summons the genie once again for Ikuto. The genie annoyingly gives Ikuto trouble, and in the end his wish is not granted. The girls get rowdy with Ikuto as usual, but Suzu shouts for them to stop. She tells them that this isn’t the time to do such things, because Ikuto will disappear from the island if he is reunited with his sister. Ikuto chases her as she runs out, passing by Obaba along the way.

Obaba meets with Suzu, as she expresses her selfish feelings and sadness towards Ikuto’s leaving. Obaba tells her that there is one way for Ikuto to leave the island, though this will have to do with Suzu’s feelings. After thinking by herself for a long while, Suzu finally shows herself to Ikuto at the house. She tells Ikuto that there is a way for him to leave the island, just as he arrived. He was brought there by a storm that only shows itself once every hundred years, but Obaba appears to describe a rain calling song to them. To prove its effectiveness, Toono appears to have water flowing out of his head. There is however, one condition that must be met for Ikuto to leave. He must meet with someone named Kiryu-sama first.

Impression:

With the climax of Nagasarete Airantou coming around the corner, it looks like we finally know where the production quality has been going. The animation was much better in this episode than it was an any of the previous, and the insert song was a very nice touch. Just as the previous episode suggested, Ikuto has finally gotten word from his sister from the message in a bottle. The kappa song and mention of Kiryu-sama are all hinting towards Ikuto’s leaving of the island. Even Suzu is preparing to give him up. Really, I doubt they will have an ending with Ikuto leaving Suzu but they are doing a fairly good job to get to that point of the story. I’m hoping for a good set of final episodes. I really want to see Misaki at least once.