Subculture Anime Blog

Pajama festival~!

Summary:

Kana expresses how cold it is when she leaves for school with her sisters. Haruka promises to make something warm for them when they get back, since she will be leaving school early. As the sisters exit the apartments, they see that a new resident will be moving in. Chiaki and her friends find that they have been assigned a lot of homework at school, so it is suggested that they work together on it. When it comes to deciding the location to do so, Chiaki’s house is the obvious choice. Chiaki worries about what else is going on that night, but her friends decide on their own to visit. As Haruka leaves class with her friends, they wonder what she will be doing once she reaches home. It is then suggested that she cook nabe to warm up. When Hosake overhears this, he has his usual delusions. As Haruka passes by the new neighbors, she thinks about how much trouble it must be for their moving in. At school, Kana wonders why she is so unfortunate. Haruka introduces herself to her new neighbor while doing the laundry, embarrassing herself a bit in the process.

Chiaki and the others get Touma’s attention as she leaves school, telling her to come with them to the Minami household to do homework. On the way out, Touma tells everyone about the new student that will be coming. However, Chiaki is disappointed in the small amount of information she has on the person. After eating at home, Chiaki tells her sisters about her friends coming over to study. As they are brining their pajamas, Haruka and Kana believe that it will be a pajama party. Haruka is surprised to find that Chiaki’s friends are coming that night, but she simply hurries to prepare. Kana gets up to help, but Chiaki prevents her from doing so. Haruka returns for a bit to suggest that they have nabe that night, which the sisters agree to. Kana wonders if Chiaki is interested in their new neighbors, but she denies. Kana agrees that it is more of Haruka’s job to greet them, but the two quickly jump at the sound of the doorbell when they think it is them. It turns out only to be Chiaki’s friends, including Mako-chan who Kana scolds some distance away.

After Mako-chan goes away, Kana and Chiaki find Yoshino and Uchida enjoying themselves under their kotatsu. Kana quickly has them prepare for the “festival”, so they change into their pajamas on the spot. Haruka arrives home afterwards with Makoto and Fujioka. Kana wonders why Fujioka has come, but finds that Chiaki has invited him for nabe. When Touma arrives, she wonders why everyone is already in their pajamas. Kana enters behind her, trying to force her into pajamas as well. When the nabe is prepared, everyone quickly starts to dig in. Haruka goes to answer the ringing doorbell, which happens to be the boy living next door with his father. He introduces himself as Fuyuki, and presents Haruka with a gift. An interested Kana and Chiaki invite him in, but he denies the offer before saying goodbye. Fuyuki sighs outside the door afterwards, however, seemingly disappointed in himself.

Stuffed, Kana lounges under the kotatsu after dinner. Haruka scolds her a bit, before telling her not to do anything unnecessary. Chiaki warns her friends in the bath as well, as Touma and Yoshino trade places. While doing the dishes with him, Fujioka notices that Makoto looks like Mako-chan. Kana comes up with things to do to Chiaki’s friends while sitting with Haruka, and finally decides to do something. She makes a suggestion about who is the most adult after visiting them in the bath, causing an awkward atmosphere. Fujioka pours Makoto a drink, but Makoto is still nervous about what was said earlier. As the girls walk out the bath, Kana offers them milk. When the girls get in bed later, Kana separates them from Chiaki in terms of boob sizes. This obviously annoys Chiaki, as she even claims that Touma is a boy. The girls all express that they’ve had fun in the morning, but the room gets silent when Haruka asks if they got their homework done.

Preview: Looks like a proper introduction to Fuyuki.

Impression:

So I think I just wrote two impressions for this episode…pick one.

Hahaha, what a classic joke! Every time I watch this show I start feeling all nostalgic. There were a lot of great moments in this episode, all centered around the Manami sisters as usual. Kana’s sisterly love towards Chiaki never gets old, but it was even funnier seeing Kana’s tears after Chiaki punched her in the face. Apparently it’s not just Kana, because Touma was shot down too (”How cold…” Haha!). Hosaka made a second small appearance which added to the hilarity, but I’m just wondering when he’ll come back with a bigger role. He certainly had a lot of screen time in the first Minami-ke. I laughed pretty hard at Kana’s observation towards Mako-chan, but even harder when Fujioka noticed Makoto’s resemblance to “her”. I might have to take my words back from earlier, because the fanservice was definitely upped in this episode. The loli chest was blatantly shown too, like it was no big deal (I think KnJ should take lessons). Japan’s media has been making me giggle more and more lately. I’m wondering what the introduction of Fuyuki will bring to the table from here on. I instantly thought of Keroro Gunsou when he mentioned his name (He even has the same hair color!). I also loved the homework gattai in this episode, and the dry “so do you have anyone you like” necessary question at the pajama party. I mean, they said it like they just had to!

I’m always interested in the small cultural things this show represents. I’m obviously interested in Japanese culture, if not azn culture in general. I could relate to some of the things in this episode, which might have increased my enjoyment of it. The eating of nabe seems like a big event that’s usually presented in anime. My family has this type of meal everyone once in awhile too (it’s not called nabe, but something Chinese that I never remember), but it is true that everyone looks forward to it. I noticed more subtle things like the meal the sisters were having earlier too, right down to the slurping and Kana blowing her nose. Not something I would usually think twice about, but it is a small cultural thing to point out. Instead of paying attention to the loli chest like everyone else probably was, I was thinking about the Japanese’s willingness to share baths so easily. I also laughed at how everyone picked Chiaki’s house for the host location so quickly, since this is the case with me and my friends too. Oh, and Touma saying “ore” in this episode was weirding me out. I almost forgot she was a girl for a second.

Bloggers like to talk a lot about nothing, huh?