Subculture Anime Blog

Episode two?

Summary:

When the morning comes, Yuno quickly wakes in preparation for her first day at Yamabuki High School. Miyako arrives to have breakfast with her, but when the two make a racket, Sae comes in to scold them. Seeing that Yuno is nervous and excited about going to school, however, Sae simply does her best to give advice to her. When Yuno and Miyako reach the school, they are glad to find that they are in the same class. When the Headmaster gives his speech during the opening ceremony, Miyako cannot remain awake for very long. Hiro and Sae are meanwhile visited by their old upperclassman Misato. She had business at the school, but because of current events, she was unable to do it right away. After spending some time with the girls, Misato quickly runs at the sight of the Landlady.

When Yuno and Miyako reach their classroom, they are quickly introduced to the odd Yoshinoya-sensei. They are happy, however, to be able to choose seats next to each other. On the way home, Yuno suddenly falls asleep. When she wakes in her room, she is surprised to find that Miyako had carried her to the apartments. The Landlady presents gifts of vegetables to the Headmaster and Yoshinoya in the meantime, as they discuss the graduating of Misato and the entrance of the two new Hidamari residents. Yuno enters Miyako’s room later, revealing a letter she received from Sae and Hiro. When the two enter Hiro’s room, they are greeted with a welcoming party. Guessing that it would be better for them to choose snacks that they like, the girls then go out to the nearby grocery store. For Yuno, this is her first time going.

When the girls return to the apartments to enjoy their snacks, Sae and Hiro discuss their own first days at Yamabuki High. Sae had once spoken to Natsume normally, but times have since changed. Sae and Hiro are glad that Miyako and Yuno got into the same class, but when they find that their homeroom teacher has become Yoshinoya-sensei, they worry a bit. At the same time, however, they become glad that she would no longer be their own teacher. As the conversations continue, Hiro warns Miyako against simply entering other rooms in avoidance of the Landlady’s punishment. When Yuno brings up what the other girls do for breakfast, Hiro and Sae recall that they don’t usually go out to eat. The two suggest another market to Yuno, however, which they would go see the next day. After Yuno hears about Hiro’s great cooking skills, she hopes to learn some from her. Miyako, on the other hand, decides to depend on Yuno. At the end of the day, the girls all retire to their own rooms. This isn’t before Hiro secretly enters the room she warned Miyako against going into, however.

Preview: Sports festival?

Impression:

At this point, it’s far too obvious that they are going to be introducing episodes in a non linear timeline throughout the season. Even the last episode proved to be continued in an episode from the first season. This week’s episode occurred soon after the first episode of x365, dealing with Yuno and Miyako’s first day at Yamabuki High. We finally got to meet Misato, the graduate that once lived in Yuno’s room. Her cheerful character was very easy to become attached to, even though we only got to see her for a couple of minutes. It’s a shame that Yuno never got to meet her.

Watching Yuno and Miyako experience their first days of school really had a nostalgic feel to it, since all of us have had those kinds of days at some point of our lives. I loved Yuno’s expressing her gladness to be in the same class with at least one person she knew, since it really is an assuring feeling. Things don’t always go this smoothly with some people though. Watching all of the girls act as if they were just getting to know things at Yamabuki was wonderful, since this is something that we’ve never really had a proper introduction to. One of the charms of Hidamari may be that we can already feel as if we know all the characters, but that doesn’t change the fact that we kind of just jumped into their lives in the first season.

The funny parts of this episode consisted of the usual gags, but some stood out to me more than others. I loved Ume-sensei’s dropping the Sakura petals in the beginning of the episode, as Shaft really likes this imitation of a movie set. Sae and Hiro’s plotting when they found out that they would no longer have to deal with Yoshinoya was absolutely hilarious as well. On an ending note, I’d like to thank my readers for pointing out episodes from the first season that x365 lead into, since I don’t have the time myself to go back and look. You guys are awesome. This type of thing really does make me feel like re-watching the first season though.