Myself; Yourself 09
November 28th, 2007 by Shirukii
Anyone else feel there’s an excess of BAAWing this season?
Though not anywhere near the drama of last week, this was a pretty good episode which did a decent job progressing the story, even with the backdrop being your stereotypical amusement park episode. I’m beginning to wonder if Myself; Yourself has dug itself into a hole with too many plot lines to wrap up and not nearly enough time to do it, but this series has been surprising me all season long, so I have faith it’ll be able to pull it off.
Episode Rating: 8/10
Following her emotional breakdown last episode, Nanaka prepares herself to face Sana and apologize for losing herself and saying far too much the last time they met. However, when the two meet in the morning, Nanaka’s practice goes to waste as she bails at the last second, causing her to brood over it for most of the day.
At lunch, Aoi tells everyone that her dad got free tickets to an amusement park and invites them to go, along with Hinako, since she has an extra ticket. It’s been a while since they last went to an amusement park, so naturally there are no objections to the plan.
That night, Nanaka is contemplating what to wear to the amusement park while helping her aunt cook dinner. But suddenly, the fish that her aunt is cooking catches on fire and Nanaka’s pyrophobia kicks in and she has a panic attack.
After lying down in bed for a while, Nanaka manages to calm down. Her aunt and uncle comfort her with some kind words and prescription drugs and tell her to get some rest.
Nanaka wakes up in the middle of a night after having a nightmare about the accident and goes to grab some water. On the way to the kitchen she overhears her aunt and uncle talking in the living room. Her aunt thinks it would be a good idea for Nanaka to go see a specialist to help her recover her memories, afraid that if things go on the way things are, she’ll never get them back. But her uncle isn’t keen on the idea, saying that it’s useless to bring back painful memories for nothing. Her aunt insists that it would be a good idea to catch the arsonist once and for all, but her uncle questions whether the fire was even the cause of arson.
This gives Nanaka a horrible thought…Remembering back to after the fire, the investigators said that signs lead them to believe that the fire may have been caused by a relative. But rather than Nanaka being the prime suspect, they say it’s her uncle who had a more likely motive, their investigation leading them to believe Nanaka’s father and uncle were recently having disputes over who would succeed as the head of the temple.
Switching tones, we fast forward to the day of the amusement park trip, Aoi and Hinako being the most enthusiastic of the bunch. But Hinako’s energy doesn’t last very long, after being dragged onto thrill ride after thrill ride by Aoi, who has acquired quite a liking for them after her inner thrill seeker awakened during the spa episode. As Aoi goes to drag everyone onto yet another ride, Sana notices Nanaka looking a little out of it and offers to take a break with her, during which they run into Hoshino and her little cousin, so of course they’re invited to join them for the rest of the day.
And of course, what’s a trip to an amusement park without a haunted house scene. Lots of love for Nanaka here, as she defiantly says that such a childish thing won’t scare her, only to run into Sana’s arms screaming at the first scare point. And for some reason, everyone thought it would be a great idea to leave the lolis together, Hinako ending up having to put on a facade of bravery in front of Hoshino’s little cousin. But it’s all for the best as the little guy ends up quite attached to Hinako and more open to the rest of the group in general.
Afterwards, the group goes to view a performance which parodies the power rangers, called the Animengers. It’s one of those shows where a victim is picked from the audience and used as a hostage in the performance, and despite Aoi pining for the role, it’s Hinako that gets chosen. The performance reminds the gang of how they used to watch these types of shows when they were kids and found themselves instinctively cheering. When they see Hoshino’s little cousin on his feet, cheering the Animengers on, they figure “why not” and join in, even Nanaka manages to bring herself to cheer for them.
The day finishes off with a ride on the ferris wheel. Nanaka and Sana get in first and are sent off by themselves, a cunning plan most likely of Shuri’s doing. But Nanaka is relieved as she wanted to talk to Sana alone anyways. She apologizes for the other day and all the things she said, she felt that it was selfish of her to pour out all of her feelings so one sidedly. But Sana tells her there’s nothing to apologize for and that all he needed to say to her that day was that he’ll be with her from now on, no matter what happens. *blush blush* etc.
On another ferris wheel car, Shuri stares out the window admiring the view, only to have Shuu tell her to cut the act, at least in front of him. He knows that she’s holding it in, the pain she’s feeling everyday at home, she may be able to hide it from others, but they’ve been together since before they were born, Shuu knows exactly what she’s feeling. Shuri ends up breaking down in a fit of tears, letting out all her frustrations about their step mother and how she barged into their lives after their mom died.
Aoi, Hinako, Hoshino and her little cousin are in the last car, holding the most innocence of the three. But as they reach the peak of the ferris wheel, Shuu and Shuri’s car comes into view behind them and Hoshino sees Shuri crying.
But after the ride, Shuri comes out in her usual high spirits, leaving Hoshino with a worried look on her face.
Thoughts
Whoo, more Nanaka development ftw. Having never experienced a really traumatizing, life changing, event myself, I can’t really identify with what Nanaka must be going through now. But it’s easy to sympathize with her, it’s clear that she’s nowhere near recovered from the trauma it caused. And with the bombshell that was dropped this episode, that her uncle, the one whose care she’s under right now, might have been the arsonist responsible for her parents death all along, it’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
I thought the scene was a little rushed though, it seemed like the type of thing they could have easily spent a full episode on, but squished it into a quick ~five minute sub scene. I also didn’t like how they used it to build all this tension, but then completely changed gears and dove straight into the amusement park, it really broke the continuity of the episode.
And then it sort of happened again with the ferris wheel scenes, ferris wheels apparently being a great place to let your emotions roam free. We went from a fun day at a theme park to Shuri releasing all this cooped up angst that she’s been holding in for god knows how many years. Luckily the scene before it with Sana and Nanaka eased us in to the shift in tone, but it was still quite abrupt considering the context of the episode.
But all things considered, it was still a pretty good episode. We got a bunch of plot advancement for Nanaka and Shuri, as well as the prodding along of the SanaXNanaka couple. But all this leaves me with the questioning of how they’re going to close up all the plots they’ve built up. In terms of main storylines, we have four big ones:
i. Batshit insane Kaji and her sacrifices to bring back her late granddaughter
ii. Nanaka past. Fire, arson, etc.
iii. Shuri’s family troubles.
iv. Sana’s past. What happened to him over the past five years and the significance of his wristwatch.
And if you wanted to throw it in, I guess you could say that trying to tie Hinako in as a key character would be another endeavor they have to take care of. All this within the span of THREE remaining episodes. Meaning that they’re either going to have to blaze through each climax and conclusion in less than an episode each, or alternatively, they could somehow converge all the plots into one and take care of it in one fell swoop.
Although I don’t have any idea as to how exactly they would pull off combining all those plots into one coherent superplot, it’d be amazing if they could pull it off and still have it make sense.
As for the preview for next episode, it doesn’t really indicate that anything major will be happening, looks like we’ll be getting some more insight into the twin hills legend. Screentime division also suggests that it might be a Shuu/Shuri centric episode, sounds fun but can they afford to be taking their time like this?
MOEEEEEEEEEEEE!
~ Shirukii ~
19 Responses to “Myself; Yourself 09”
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I’d say this was a waste of 30 minutes of my life.
Well, what a pleasant surprise. I was expecting a filler episode, but instead it was actually essential.
Oh, and if you’ve never experienced a traumatic experience in your life, try watching “Two Girls, *** ***” Gah, I can’t even bring myself to finish the title. Oh well, more PTSD-induced night terrors for me.
I enjoyed this ep too. There IS development as Shirukii said and for those who missed it, the show’s probably not your cup of tea.
I agree with few eps remaining, it seemed like a hefty task to close all the storythreads. Just to add to your list, this ep looks like the writers are still keen to build on Hinako’s growth and struggle to be accepted as an adult. On top of Shuri’s home problems, I suspect they would be building Shuri and Shuu relationship. Whether it would trespass siscon territory remains to be seen. Finally there’s a huge question mark on Asami. I can’t believe Asami is used merely to invoke jealousy to bring Nanaka and Sana together. It’s such a waste of seiyuu talent (Nakahara Mai) and great character design. The ending minutes in ep 9 suggest she may be coming to the forefront of the story soon.
So much with so little time. I hope M;Y can end strongly.
One reason it’s easy to sympathize with Nanaka is that Koshimizu Ami is doing such a fantastic job of voicing her. Now that’s voice-acting. I was about to ditch this train-wreck until episode 8 and 9, in which Nanaka just about single-handedly made it interesting for me again.
…call me crazy, but my “Nice Boat” sense is tingling. Not that Sana — or any of the protagonists — deserve such an end, but if episode 12 is titled “Myself ; Yourself”, then… @_@
I can only say this… M;Y ftw!!!
I hope we have a great ending, with all these plots an stuff to work on.
*Adds Michael to the list of people who can’t feel worth a dime*
Well, I must say the pace is abit jumbled up in this episode, especially the random insertion of a five minute Super sentai rippoff which could be easily used to develop one of the other running plotlines which are seriously short on development. Just as well, we haven’t seen Creepy-grandma-who-killed-Poe-whose-name-I-can’t-remember-at-this-point ever since episode 7, which judging from the feel at that point in time, could have been easily concluded in a couple of episodes….Or maybe I have been watching a little too much Higukai. Anyway, the only 2 ways I can see them closing all the plotlines is by either rushing through everything, or get a second season.
*sigh* So many plots to little time, i also am very worried about how all this is going to end. It was nice to see furthur advancement on shuri and nanaka’s part, but theres really not enough for sana. I wanna know whats with the watch, and with the mom who calls him constantly. These are my pressing burning questions..yarg!!! Im going to watch minami-ke to relax now, and try to mentally prepare myself for the next episode of clannad..god help my tear ducts!
^_^
@ Michael: Every episode of anime is a waste of life, it’s whether you enjoy it or not that makes the difference =P
@ ItAintEazy: I’ve watched it, it didn’t even faze me. After lurking 4chan for a little over a year now, I’m desensitized to those kind of things.
Enjoy your Ghost Hound.
@ Stripey: Good points. I don’t think Shuu and Shuri’s relationship will tread into siscon waters, Shuu made it pretty clear some episodes back that his ideal girl is the polar opposite of Shuri. Unless he’s tsundere for her, lol.
As for Hoshino, meh, I could really do without her becoming deeply involved in the plot. I don’t find anything particularly wrong with her, I just always thought of her as more of a catalyst for the SanaXNanaka relationship than anything else.
Would definitely love to see Hinako’s story sorted out as well, though less crucial than the other ones mentioned, she’s gotten so much screen time that I feel they should give her a proper conclusion.
@ hashihime: Agreed, her performance at the end of 8 was incredible.
@ W4: I don’t see anyone going yandere and half the cast dying, but a general bad end isn’t unprobable. After all, the guy who wrote the script of Myself; Yourself also did Ever17.
@ Rakushu: I have faith they’ll be able to pull it off.
@ Alias: Batshit insane grandma = Kaji.
A second season would be nice, but if the animation budget of Myself; Yourself is anything to judge by, this series doesn’t have the greatest funding, so I dunno if a second season would be a possibility.
I hope they don’t rush it, but I think I’d still prefer for them to rush through things rather than leave plot lines open ended and unsolved. I suppose only time will tell.
@ Kay_Kay: I’m also really curious to know what happened to Sana. I want to know if my //wrists theory is right!
Haha minami-ke, what an awesome show. I AM BOSS.
Fuko ;_;
LOL Aoi’s voice is still impress me.
I believe there are FOUR remaining episodes left. And i think it is enough to conclude everything within 4 episodes. I dont think there is a reason to have a second season at all.
For me i think Hoshino is a type of support character and i dont think it is such a waste of of seiyuu talent as Stripey mentions it above. If you look at the past episodes you can see how many good thing has she done. From the point of my view i can say that she has nothing to do with Sana at all and all she did in the past episodes was just to want everyone to be happy. Specially in this episode, they actually show a sign that she has been endure some kinds of pain in her past I believe my feeling and the OP/ED theme wasn’t wrong.
@Kay_Kay: Also add these to ur list
-Shugo Chara
-Kaiji
-Goshuushou-Sama Ninomiya-Kun
@Shirukii: Do you enjoy Ghost Hound?
@_@
If that type of (literal) crap is par for the course in 4-chan, Shirukii, then thank God I don’t frequent that place.
Sheh, and I didn’t even get an out-of-body experience, whatta rip :^
Man, that is a good question, about the plotlines. I’d like to see how this one happens, it’s going to be interesting.
Heh, actually that was the ep that gave me the suspicion that Shuu liked Shuri. We can look at it 2 ways. Shuu was either describing Aoi or what he hoped Shuri to become. After all, every time Sana asks him, he inadvertently looks at Shuri. I don’t think the series will take this very far but it’s a good sign that they are not only developing the leads :)
Oh.My.God!!!!
That kid that Hoshino was with at the amusement park…
LOOK AT HIS HAIR COLOR!!!
You can guess who Hoshino’s elder sister is, right?!?
Small world…lucky Sana didn’t hook up with her or it would have irreparably broken the group of friends.
@Stripey: LOL, your theory and logic combine together make me stun. I wouldn’t say ur theory was wrong but wasn’t it a little too much to believe it?
@PassinGass: How did u know that Hoshino has a elder sister?
@Siva: you may be right, Hoshino said “cousin” not “nephew”…so the stepmom is her aunt? And the twins don’t even realize they were looking at their half-brother…
I understand that Nanaka’s past is very painful to watch, but what even more painful to me is Aoi’s voice; especially, her laugh in this episode. This episode will be much better without her laugh. I have to shake head every time I hear her voice. Can’t stand it !!!
This series is only 12 episodes? I cannot see this ending in a decent way if that’s the case. There really is too much going on for a single season. There has to be like a second season or something xD I better be damn well surprised and impressed if it ends decently at 12.
If nothing else, I freakin’ wanna know Sana’s past xD I like how Nanaka’s is progressing and Shuri’s slowly getting up there, too. Now all we need is Aoi to have some messed up past and the whole lot of them are screwed.
hola k obo yo digo que es chido eso