Nanaka is not amused

If I was ever completely off the mark about a show’s first impression, this would be it. I take back anything I said about Myself; Yourself being a generic harem anime. Although you can’t really blame me, its beginnings were not at all indicative to the awesomeness that would follow (or at least the potential for awesomeness that has been built up). With Kaji-obaasan far past the checkpoint of ‘batshit insane’ and Nanaka looking like she’s ready to go postal on Hoshino with a sharp kitchen utensil, Myself; Yourself has become the series I look forward to the most every week.

Episode Rating: 9/10

The episode starts on a light note with Nanaka and Sana going to drop some test papers off for Yuzuki-sensei to the teacher’s lounge. She rewards their hard work with a caramel candy, which causes Sana to have a deja vu moment, but he shakes it off, says thanks for the candy the two excuse themselves. Later, Nanaka explains that Yuzuki-sensei always gives out caramel candies to her students, so it’s hard to keep a secret from the others, even though Yuzuki asked them to do so.

That day at lunch, Shuri is fuming mad about a proposal to tear down the Sakuranomori nature park in order to build a luxurious town hall. Everyone has fond memories of the park, especially Shuri, who used to go there all the time with Shuu and their mom. Agreeing that it would be terrible to lose it, Shuri passes around a petition to stop the town hall and asks them to spread it around as best they can.

After school, Sana goes to the teacher’s lounge to return the key, having finished up cleaning duties. Again, Yuzuki-sensei rewards him with a caramel candy, and yet again Sana has the unshakable feeling that this has happened before. Afterwards, he goes to the park and plays around on the high bars, as he swings around it, he suddenly remembers when he was a kid, he couldn’t manage to swing over and was given a caramel candy by a high school student as encouragement, finally realizing that it was Yuzuki-sensei.

As his reminiscing comes to an end, Sana snaps back to the present to find Hoshino standing in the park calling him. The two talk for a bit and Hoshino ends up inviting Sana to go to the old folk’s home again that Sunday, with little else to do, Sana agrees to tag along.

Meanwhile, back at school, Shuri has been called down to the principal’s office to discuss the petition she’s been passing around, being accused of political campaigning. Yuzuki-sensei is there with her and defends Shuri, saying that what she’s doing isn’t against the law nor is it political solicitation as she’s just passing it around amongst friends. However, the principal says it’s an issue directly related to Shuri as her father is the one who promoted the plan to build the town hall and therefore demands she stop circulating the petition.

After the meeting, Yuzuki-sensei takes out her frustration with Shuri by eating to their heart’s content at a nearby family restaurant, seeing as Shuri isn’t legal drinking age, this is the next best thing. Afterwards, despite being on the verge of puking, having eaten far too much, the two go out to karaoke for some further stress relief.

But problems aren’t forgotten that easily. When Shuri gets home, her father summons her to the living room, first lecturing her about being home so late but quickly changing the topic to the petition she’s been passing around. Her father refuses to believe she doesn’t know that he’s the head of the town hall project and demands to know why she’s opposing it. Shuri says that it’s an important place filled with memories for herself, Shuu and their mother. Apparently, the woman Shuri’s father is married to at the moment is only their stepmom, and Shuri doesn’t even acknowledge her of that, saying that she’s nothing more than a gold digger who her father uses for sex. Shuri’s stepmom says nothing, but her father loses himself in anger and slaps Shuri, only to immediately realize he’s gone too far and chase after her as Shuri runs off.

The following day, Shuri doesn’t show up for school, Shuu not willing to tell the others the reason. Afterwards, Sana and Hoshino head to the old folk’s home where Sana in instantly dragged off by Yokoi the gaming grandpa, itching to play. Hoshino then notices that Poe hasn’t come out to greet her like she usually does, one of the workers says that she’s been missing for a while but will probably show up again when she’s hungry.

After a long stretch of gaming, Sana, Yokoi and the others sit down to have some tea when Kaji comes down for a brief appearance. She denies their offer to join them in tea, having only come down to borrow some scissors, but does take the opportunity to ask Sana and Hoshino to come to her room before they leave, she has a small favor to ask of them.

When the two get there, Kaji points to a box on her bed and asks the two to bury it under a sakura tree on elder sister hill, preferably a really big one. When asked what’s inside the box, Kaji says that it’s a secret. As the two leave the old folk’s home, Hoshino hears the faint ringing of the bell that she put on Poe…

The two head to elder sister hill where Sana immediately picks out the biggest tree, telling Hoshino that he used to play there all the time with Nanaka and the others when he was a kid so he knows where all the biggest rocks and trees are. As they dig the hole for the box, Sana wonders if they should look what’s inside, but Hoshino says it would be better not to.

When finished, the two stand up and Hoshino almost falls over, Sana managing to brace her at the last second. She says that she’s feeling a little light headed and that she’ll be fine in a moment, so Sana holds on to her until she gets her energy back. As misfortune would have it, Nanaka is out shopping at the same time and happens to pass by a nearby path with a direct line of vision to Sana holding Hoshino, she gives the two quite the menacing look, but disappears before Sana lets go of Hoshino, turning around to see the spot Nanaka was standing at, empty.

Meanwhile, back at the old folk’s home, the nurse there continues to try and find Poe, calling him out for food to no avail while Kaji sits in her room glaring lifelessly out her window.

Thoughts

Wow, Kaji-obaasan is freaking psychotic. Not only is she able to do all this murdering of household pets without any trace of guilt, perhaps even a sense of enjoyment, she asks Hoshino, who is basically Poe’s owner, to bury it for her. How sadistic.

I’m really curious as to how this particular subplot will turn out. Eventually it’s going to dawn on Kaji that her pet sacrifices aren’t doing anything to bring back her late granddaughter, so what do you think she’ll move on to next? I’m thinking that she’ll either try and use someone like Hoshino or Shuri as a sacrifice and attempt to channel her granddaughter’s spirit into Nanaka, alternatively, use Nanaka herself as the sacrifice. Either way, should make for some interesting episodes to come.

Another great side story that’s starting up is the whole deal with Shuri and her dad. The drama feels like it’s out of some generic soap opera, but has the potential to become really deep. Shuri and Shuu have always come off as the most uplifting characters in Myself; Yourself so I’m surprised they’re carrying the burden of so many family problems at home. But I can’t pin the blame on either side as of yet, while Shuri is justified in her anger about the nature park being torn down, it’s most likely only her opinion that the head of the project, her father, went about it underhandedly. As for her stepmother, it’s common for kids to push stepparents away because they feel like they would be being disloyal to their original parent otherwise, so it may just be Shuri bs’ing about her being a gold digger. But then again, it might be just as she said, that her father is a political blackmailer and her stepmother is a greedy slut, and should that be the case, Shuri is doing pretty well to cope with it all.

The detour with Yuzuki-sensei and the caramel candies seemed a bit useless to me. Not exactly filler-ish, but just out of place, it had no continuity with the rest of the episode, being a lighthearted moment, it certainly wasn’t comedic relief either, as it didn’t serve as a means to relieve tension before the onslaught of drama, so I’m left wondering what the point of it was. But then again, seemingly insignificant things (ie. Hinako) have become the focus of entire episodes, so who knows what will happen with Yuzuki-sensei.

Preview wise, despite having built up the potential for some serious tension between Nanaka and Sana, next week’s episode looks like it may patch things up between them really quickly. Looks like it’ll be a flashback centric episode based around a mailbox that Sana and Nanaka used for secret correspondence when they were kids. One scene shows them meeting up at the mailbox in the present time, which may prove to be a good way for the two to make up.

But I guess all these theories and more will have to wait for the next episode, a whole week away ;_;

Aside: Sorry for the lateness, school has been getting harsh lately!

~ Shirukii ~