Subculture Anime Blog

OP: “Guilty Future” by Eri Kitamura – I’ve been listening to this single ever since it was released. The style is similar to the non-anime single that Kitamura Eri put out previously, and it’s quite catchy. The OP animation has some stylish touches that I like, but otherwise, it’s kind of standard.

Summary:

Rin has become the class rep upon reaching the fourth grade with her friends. Aoki notices that she has become much more mature because of this, but this doesn’t stop her from giving him a bit of service every once in awhile. Kuro implies her jealously about this later, but when the girls suspect this of being her way of appreciating Aoki, she becomes flustered as usual. In the meantime, Hoin argues with Shirai’s announcing that there will be activity cuts for the children. Hoin starts to despair upon seemingly losing to the “cool beauty” afterwards, only causing awkwardness between her and the male teachers.

Kuro eventually meets Shirai after hours, then expressing her fondness of her. She had been a fan every since she substituted for Aoki in the previous term. This leads Kuro to start following Shirai everywhere, referring to her as “Shiro-chan”. Shirai approaches Aoki after becoming extremely annoyed by this, but he can only express his amazement towards her for making Kuro act in such an attached way. Kuro continues to meet Shirai throughout the following days, eventually presenting her with a hair pin with a white rose on it. As Kuro is wearing a darker one, this would be a sign of their friendship. Shirai guesses that this would never look good on her, however, as she recalls a time from the past.

When Shirai was still in school, she took note of a popular girl named Chika. Her mother warned her not to get close to her because of her showy demeanor, but Shirai knew that Chika was quite popular because of her personality. Shirai one day overheard Chika and her friends talking about her though, insulting her for being the daughter of two teachers among other things. While Shirai recalls this, Kuro meanwhile spends her time in her room at home. She becomes excited upon hearing her mother return, but is disappointed when she states that she has only returned to retrieve some documents. Reminding her that she has been spending too much money on clothes, but refusing to take the card, Kuro’s mother leaves her daughter in loneliness again.

Kuro returns to her friends in class after being absent recently, just to find Rin excited about the upcoming sports event that has been organized by Aoki. Kuro only agrees to participate if Rin would kiss a girl, and though this surprisingly seems like a lucky chance for her, Rin simply kisses Mimi on the cheek. This has Kuro running out in the halls to meet Aoki, but when he expresses his excitement about creating posters for the event, she kicks him in the nuts. Kuro meets Shirai again next, expressing that she likes her for not treating her specially as a kid. When Kuro implies her love for Rin though, another girl, Shirai only tells her that she would eventually grow out of such feelings. As this was like Shirai was calling her abnormal, Kuro runs away in anger.

Shirai returns home thinking that this is what she actually wanted. When she listens to the messages she has received throughout the day though, she hears from her mother that Chika would be getting married. As Shirai had not gotten a boyfriend or anything of the sort, she suggests that she take this as an example. Shirai is enraged by this hypocrisy, but this only reminds her that she had hurt Kuro in the same way earlier. As she had not even dated once despite being as old as she is, it was not as if she could judge someone of being normal or not.

During commencements at the school the next day, Shirai surprises Kuro by showing that she is wearing the hair pin that she had given her. Kuro quickly puts her matching one on in excitement, but when she overhears two boys insulting Shirai for such an action, she quickly turns to beat them up. This causes a panic for Aoki as well as the other staff and students, but to Hoin’s surprise, Shirai only smiles while watching. In her mind, Shirai could only wonder how her life would have turned out if she had a girl like Kuro at her side in the past.

ED: “1, 2, 3 Day” by Little Non – I don’t really like Little Non at all, and the animation for the ED isn’t anything special, so the OP is definitely winning this battle. How bout that fourth grader fanservice???

Impression:

OVAs and I don’t really get along, and I practically only blog Kodojikan for three people, but hey….Why let those three people down, right??? In all honestly, I hadn’t been keeping up with this series at all ever since the first season ended. Though I definitely considered myself a convert after watching it, I just couldn’t find the motivation to pick up the manga. With promises of the second term being announced awhile ago though, I had no problem with continuing to be lazy and wait to watch the animations. The first of the batch was hella fun, though I really wasn’t expecting such a big focus on Shirai. Kuro is easily one of the more fun characters in this series, and her play on “black and white” made for a pretty good story. I would say Shirai could have used more development than she actually got in this episode, but I suppose it’s not like she wouldn’t be getting more in the future. Watching slightly older Kuro slap a b was really awesome too.

Oh, and a shout out to Doutei, haha! Totally watched this version because it had more seeds out of reverse fan loyalty!

Notes:

• Cutting activities because of academics……or a falling economy!???
• Hoin is always the bomb. A megane Hoin is fine too.
• Mimi knows the truth. Unfortunate that she must be the least likable out of the three.
• If Shirai had a friend like Kuro, she would have obviously become a super “cool beauty” idol.
• ……and a lesbian.