Subculture Anime Blog

Surprise! Rei Kugumiya!

Summary:

At school, a girl rather slow at making decisions named Shinohara Usagi is constantly helped by her close friends. Some other students in class notice that Usagi’s older brother is the rather popular musician Michi, but when they request for signatures among other things, Usagi’s friends keep them from bothering her as usual. Usagi sees that her brother is home when she returns from school, and as Michi has been very successful recently, her parents wonder if she herself has made any plans for her future yet. Usagi does seem to have something to show her parents, but as she is too hesitant, her parents end up making a decision for her. Michi becomes quite agitated upon noticing this, then leaving after calling Usagi a turtle. This mirrored several events from the past, where Michi would ignore his sister who simply could not keep up with him.

Yuzuki panics when she senses that Usagi has contacted the Jigoku Tsushin, so she confronts her after school one day. Usagi denies any knowledge about the Correspondence, however, causing Yuzuki to leave her in embarrassment. Shortly after, a boy named Endo requests to date Usagi. This news reaches the classroom in the following days, and though Usagi’s friends are happy for this, other students in the class decide to mock the group because Usagi has beat them to finding a partner. In other places that night, Michi is called by his mother about the news. It is also revealed that Michi has been working a rather normal job, despite getting coverage in the media for his musical performance.

Usagi continues to date Endo in the following days, but this bothers Michi quite a bit. Usagi’s old friends even start to turn on her out of jealousy, and Usagi eventually receives a mail containing photos of Endo with other women in clubs. When Usagi meets Endo on a later day, he reveals that it was her brother who invited him to to to such events. Not believing he has a right to be with her anymore, Endo breaks up with Usagi. Usagi meets her brother later, relieving and surprising him by telling him that she has already broken up with her boyfriend. Usagi reveals that she has a straw doll for her brother, but adding to the twist, Michi accidentally shows that he has one for her as well. With this, Michi explains that he has always been envious of his sister. His success was something his parents only saw for themselves, and the night he returned, he was actually planning on telling them that he had given up on music. Usagi confirms that she will try her best as well, and with this, the two siblings embrace.

When Yuzuki makes her way to the Shinoharas’ location, she is surprised to see the two dropping their dolls into the river. Despite this, Michi later finds himself being tortured anyways. In actuality, Usagi had went down river to pull the string off of her straw doll. In the past, Usagi had expressed her wish to become Michi’s wife. Michi originally denied his willingness, but later confirmed that he would marry her if she grew up to be beautiful. Still believing that she can do her best, Usagi laughs while standing in the river.

Preview: More elite seiyu.

Impression:

Loved the turtle and the hare parallels in this episode. Real subtle… So, what was the moral of this week’s story? Don’t let retards contact the Jigoku Tsushin? Or are minor characters simply not allowed to live innocent lives? Only Tsugumi is allowed to throw away her doll? Is that it? This episode was overall pretty enjoyable to watch though, and I would be lying if Usagi didn’t help. Watching her take 10 minutes to pick out something to drink among other things was just hilarious. The usual overdramatic scenes had me rolling around as well, and Yuzuki’s kiri naru stalking almost had me falling out of my chair. It just kills me that Deen chose to hold off until half way through the season to actually give us quality episodes to watch. Haven’t a lot of people already stopped watching? Eh, what’s new…

Notes:

• AI IN YOUR SCHOOL. WATCHING YOU LEARN.
• D..d….do you know the Hell Correspondence? I….I’m not trying to stop you or anything!!!
• An iPhone? Or is that Sprint’s “iPhone killer”?
• AI IN YOUR BATH. um……BATHING WITH YOU.
• Kikuri plays with big guns.
• The slow turtle wins the race!