Subculture Anime Blog

CODE MARIMITE: YOSHINO OF THE REBELLION

Summary:

With the tea party planned for the next day, Yoshino expresses her excitement to Rei. In her belief, she has finally started to understand how Rei felt about obtaining an imouto. The next day, Yoshino starts the party by having everyone introduce themselves. After introducing herself though, she quickly sees how many fans of Yumi there are in the room. Yoshino and Yumi soon take note of a girl named Naito Shouko when she makes her introductions, as she was the one who sent the rather demanding note previously. While getting to know the underclassmen afterwards, Yoshino refuses to speak to Shouko who thought either she or Yumi would be fine. Yumi takes an exit after being interviewed by several excited girls, then meeting Shouko out in the halls. Shouko finally explains that she became excited about the Roses upon seeing their sparkling appearances in the photos from the previous festival. Wanting the chance to appear in the same way, she wished to enter the Yamayurikai. Yumi quickly corrects her, however, as one wouldn’t necessarily have to join their group to put on an appearance like that. Realizing her mistake, Shouko easily sees that this is something like being turned down.

Gathering with with the rest of the Roses the next day, Yoshino and Yumi explain that they would further narrow down their choices by having some of the candidates from the previous day come to help at the mansion. As girls enter, however, all of the situations turn out to be disasters in various ways. Walking home from school, Yoshino expresses the worry she has about what to do about Eriko. She hopes that she would be too busy to meet, but this turns out to be far from true when Eriko, Sei, and Yoko meet Yumi and Sachiko the next day. Yumi does her best to deceive Eriko, but she easily sees through her fibs. This even leads to a game between the three upperclassmen, as they look around to guess who could be Yoshino’s new imouto. When Eriko points out Kanako and Touko, Yumi sees that they have suddenly started getting along.

Yoshino continues to worry during the kendo competition, until it is finally Rei and the others’ turn to perform. With Yoshino’s support, Rei is able to defeat her opponent by the end. Yoshino attempts to escape at the end of the competition, but Eriko catches up to her. Still looking for options, Yoshino claims that her imouto is in the bathroom. When she enters in a rush, she accidentally bumps into a girl named Arima Nana. Having her play along with her at the moment, Yoshino introduces Nana to Eriko as her new imouto. To Eriko’s surprise, this was one of the girls she pointed out earlier during the guessing game. The girls further act as if Yoshino cannot hand over her rosary right away, which Eriko actually accepts before leaving. Later, Yoshino tells Yumi that she would choose Nana as her imouto if she were unable to obtain one as they became third years.

Preview: Who are you?

Impression:

Marimite has clearly been taking influences from several popular anime that have aired previously. This episode contained high pitched screaming from kendo girls, sudden hair style changes, and PIZZA HUT. Marina Inoue as Shouko was a plus too, though her character ended up playing a much smaller role than what was suggested by last week’s preview. I found it funny how some girls were obviously going to be cast aside through their character designs (a common feature in anime), but I also liked how most every scene played some kind of importance by the end. As slow as things are progressing, at least Eriko’s randomly “correctly” guessing Yoshino’s soeur was a nice touch. I can only wonder if this will actually turn out how it is being suggested.

Notes:

• Last week’s episode could have been replaced by this week’s two minute recap, and nothing would have been missed.
• Yumi has so many fangirls!
• Staring so intently!
• Gokigenyou! ……KYA~!!!!!
• It’s written all over your face, Yumi!
• How many times are you going to change your ribbon color this season?