Myself; Yourself 10
December 5th, 2007 by Shirukii
Incest? In my atypical harem animu? It’s more likely than you think.
Haha, wow, what an…interesting episode, to say the least. By all rights it should have been really dramatic and prove as good build up to the climax of Shuu and Shuri’s arc, if not the entire series itself, but the problem was, the drama was so forced and ridiculous that I couldn’t manage to take it seriously. A lot of key plot elements were fleshed out, but the whole thing played out like a cheesy daytime soap opera. But nonetheless, although it may not have had quite the impact it should have, things were pushed along quite a bit and I can see Myself; Yourself pulling itself together quite nicely for its, hopefully less cheesed, ending.
Episode Rating: 8.5/10 (because of the lulz)
While Shuu and Shuri sit at home CRAWLING IN THEIR SKINS, their step mom is out barhopping like the slut she is. She complains to a some random guy she meets that even though she’s the second wife of a rich politician, she hates Shuu and Shuri, pissed off that they see her for who she really is. In the end, she lives up to her title and heads to a love hotel with the guy.
Cut to Shuu and Shuri, who are visiting their real mother’s grave, something that they haven’t done much since she died because of certain other uncaring people. Afterwards, the two kill some time, anything to avoid home, going to a restaurant together followed by a visit to a random store where Shuu offers to buy Shuri a present to cheer her up, since she’s been depressed lately. Shuri knows that Shuu is sharing the same pain and the two end up buying a matching pair of misangas. As the two walk home, they hold hands, something Shuri tried to do earlier but had Shuu pull away in embarrassment.
And here’s where the problems begin. At school, Shuu and Shuri are called down to the principals office where they are told that they received an anonymous letter saying they saw the two walk into a suspicious looking, love hotel-ish, place on Saturday. Their allegations persist even after they explain in detail that they went grave visiting and shopping that day. Yuzuki-sensei stands up for them and the principal finally gives in, saying that they won’t pursue the matter any further, but will have to inform their parents of the letter. With their father on the brink of elections, when he hears the news he goes postal on the two for putting him in a position where the media may jump on the rumors and smear his campaign.
Things don’t get any better, next day at school the rumors have spread to the students and Shuu and Shuri walk into homeroom to find their names on the board, under an ai ai gasa. Shrui runs off while Shuu threatens to beat up everyone in the class until he finds the person who wrote it.
After school, Hoshino and Sana invite Shuri to come with them to visit old lady Kaji, whose cold turned into a small case of pneumonia. They feel a little uneasy bringing her out after what’s happened, but Shuri says it’ll be a nice change of pace.
However, Shuri’s streak of bad luck continues. After cutting herself peeling apples for Kaji, Sana sees the bloody knife and goes into a panic attack, having to be carried off to the restroom by Hoshino. Suddenly, Kaji goes insane starts ranting about the legend of the Twin Hills, saying how she made a wish to them for her granddaughter to be revived but it wasn’t granted, even after she sacrificed a bird and cat. Shuri realizes that Kaji has absolutely lost it and starts to back away, but Kaji’s intentions are clear, she intends for her next sacrifice to be human, and while she has nothing against Shuri, it’s just convenient at the time.
She backs Shuri up against a wall, brandishing the carving knife when Hoshino and Sana return to see her being attacked. Hoshino takes one for the team and dives in front of Kaji’s attack, ending up unconscious on the floor, oozing blood.
Luckily, her injuries are not major and they ARE in a hospital, so treatment must have been applied fast. After some minor surgery, Sana, Shuri and Hoshino’s parents are assured that she will be just fine.
Shuri, on the other hand, just can’t seem to catch a break. When she gets back home, her father wastes no time in telling her that she will be sent to boarding school in London. He tries to pass it off as a means of protecting her, that this incident will surely make it to the media and Shuri will end up being targeted by them, but Shuri knows it’s just to get her out of the way so she doesn’t ruin his campaign. After the argument, Shuri goes to her room to cry, Shuu quickly coming to see what happened. Shuri explains the situation to him and despite him saying he’ll protest it too, she knows that he’s already made the arrangements and there’s no escaping it, just like when their step mom came into the family. Shuri can’t stand the idea of being separated from Shuu, so he tells her that they’ll escape together, to somewhere their father can’t run their lives.
Under the glowing moonlight, the two hold hands and gaze deeply into each others eyes, Shuu leans in to embrace his troubled sister, tentative at first. They both know what they’re thinking is wrong, but their feelings and intentions are clear. Shuri grabs her brother and the two fall to the bed, locked in passionate embrace…
lol, no, just shitting you guys :3
Thoughts
So yea, a really weird episode. I wanted to feel sympathy for the Shuu and Shuri, but the way the whole scenario was built up made it almost impossible to take seriously. If it were just their battle against their father, that would have been ok, everything works fine within that context. But it’s the pseudo-incest vibe that I’m getting that’s making the whole thing a joke. This coming from a self proclaimed siscon lover. I have nothing against siblings going at it, after all, I watched and enjoyed series like Da Capo, Canvas 2, even the more controversial Koi Kaze. But there’s a time and place for those things, and this is not it, or at least not how they portrayed it.
The vibe that I always got from Shuu and Shuri was not a romantic one, but rather a deep sense of understanding and trust between the two. Now, my siscon radar isn’t nearly as strong as a certain other blogger, who actually predicted that we may see something develop between the two. But that’s definitely an exception to the rule, aside from those select few who are finely tuned to the ways of the siscon, I think the majority of viewers were thinking along the lines of my reasoning, and that’s why this episode seemed so ridiculously over the top. If I’m wrong here and am the only one who didn’t see this coming, then feel free to flame away, but really, I don’t think anything except regular old sibling love was implied between these two before this episode.
One other thing that this episode sort of trivialized was old lady Kaji. I thought her plot would be a lot more intricate that it ended up being. I never imagined that she would just randomly snap, confess her crimes that would make PETA cringe and go after the nearest person with a damn fruit knife or all things. The manner in which she was shown before made me think she would be some crazy evil genius with an intricate plan to lure one of them out, carve them up and pass the whole thing off as suicide or something. Rather disappointing to see her go down like that.
And finally, I’m really sick of them sidestepping around Sana’s story so much. We’ve seen him freak out a number of times now, but still have no inkling as to what may have happened to him in those five years (well, except //wrists). With next episode looking like another Shuu and Shuri centric episode, I can’t help but wonder how long they’re planning to put it off.
But meh, for all I complain, the episode did do a good job at accelerating plot development, despite how forced it seemed. Reactions to Myself; Yourself as a whole have been mixed, but I’m still content with its performance on a grand scale. I came into it expecting nothing but a generic harem and ended up getting much more, although, having seen its potential I hope that they manage to finish the series with a bang, something comparable to the emotionally charged confrontation between Sana and Nanaka a couple episodes back.
~ Shirukii ~
16 Responses to “Myself; Yourself 10”
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At this point, the best (realistic) ending that we can hope for is a bittersweet one.
If the final episode is called “Myself ; Yourself,” put on a parka before watching it. It’ll get bloody. X(
Holy f*ck. This episode was crazy insane. I don’t even know where to start. Everything happens in this episode, other than Nanaka. This is what happens when you rush things~ I thought it would’ve been paced all right until Granny went psycho and stabbed Hoshino (all I could think was nice boat, the poor girl xDD). They really need to get into Sana’s story, though.
I don’t have this ’siscon’ radar o whatever, but once the incest seed was planted that’s all I could think throughout the episode when they were together, as innocent or not their relationship is or may be. It really does fit well, and I wouldn’t be bothered by it if it was the case.
I was expecting a generic harem, too, and while I’m surprised it’s not, I’m glad for it, too. Still hoping it’s more than 12 episodes, or has another season, though xP
Damn I need to see this.
It’s getting more serious now.
LOL
I totally did NOT read the
“lol, no, just shitting you guys :3″ part.
H-o-l-y- S-h-i-t!
That was one crazy episode :P
Thanx to a snow-day on Tues. I ended up marathoning eps. 1-9 of Myself; Yourself…….what a pleasant surprise :)
As for the siscon stuff……I don’t know how you guys didn’t catch those vibes early on……in fact, Shirukii I think you mentioned it in your post when Shuu is comparing his “ideal woman” to the opposite of his sibling…….and I don’t know……the vibes have been there…
which normally makes me sick to my stomach…….but oddly enough not in this particular case :P…..I must really be getting into anime now! Good thing or bad thing is still to be determined
As for old-lady Kaji attempting to kill someone with a pairing knife….ya it was a little far fetched :P…….
but I’ve seen people with mild-moderate cases of dementia…….and that’s not too far from how they would act if they went the psychotic route…….at least imo…….
but excellent series so far…..voice acting has been great :)….totally believable characters!
Anyhoo can’t wait for next week! This is one of the better surprises of the season……that and Blue Drop……which is somewhat generic…..but for some reason I find myself going back to it week after week…..it intrigues me…….
P.S. Happy Channukah (sp?) to any Jewish friends out there! :)
Too late shuusuke, I slept with shuri already.
Yeah, my suspension of disbelief was being kept in check, but the infamous black blood simply threw it over the edge. It is sad that the Kaji arc had to meet its pitiable end (maybe).
Hell yeah, no Aoi’s annoying voice in this episode (except the from the intro). I definitely agree that everything comes so randomly, which makes thing really hard to take it seriously. The way the psycho Kaji snapped and tried to kill Shuri was just stupid. I mean, she had been plotting the whole resurection for a long time and then it just end like that. Lame.
Also, for the third or fouth time, we still don’t know what really happen to Sana. Hopefully, they don’t reveal in the last episode. That would be suck. Please no more “School Days” shit.
Other than that, this episode is still entertaining.
Shirukii: I know that you still have finals. I done with final since Monday!! (If that make you feel better. lol)
Just kidding, dude. Since you have to do Fourier integrals, let me put this way. I did that shit long time ago. If I can do it, so can you. Good luck with final.
Dear God, the drama-o-meter went from like 0 to 11 in no time. At first it was just “oh look the siscon radar is tingling” and then all hell broke loose with just about everything. I mean…wow. Shuri’s going to end up one messed-up character by the end of this (siscon / love hotel allegations, divorced / bad / abusive parents, boarding school, Kaji goes crazy on her, etc)
The one thing I can really coherently wonder about this episode is why didn’t Sana go batshit crazy after seeing Asami bleeding all over the place as a result of Kaji’s endplot. (considering what a little knife cut did to him)
Speaking of Kaji, I think it makes sense she kind of just snapped. It feels like how criminals work; especially elderly ones. Not everyone is a ‘thinks things through’ smooth criminal; some are just messed up, and such is Kaji. It just seems sad that ultimately Kaji / Asami are only going to end up a vehicle to move forward the Wakatsuki plot.
At least Asami looks 300% more awesome in hospital garb. I think we have a Sayuri successor.
@ W4: With respect to which plot line though? I don’t see Shuu/Shuri’s family problems being solved, so I’m with you on that one. But I think Nanaka and Sana can have a happy end together.
@ Hopey: Haha, no need to censor here, I don’t enforce a no swearing policy or anything =P
Now that I’ve gone back and watched that scene again, I noticed that they made the blood black a la School Days. Is this a new censorship method or something? It’s weird.
As for siscon radar, you develop it when you have a pseudo-fetish for siscon. I personally love it for the drama that it usually brings up, battling against societal precepts and all that, fun stuff.
@ Avisch: Totally, it’s worth the watch.
@ Kaelyn: Haha, yea, that was really random on my part, sorry. Aren’t you glad I’m not a fanfic writer?
@ Kanon_fan82: Indeed I did mention I felt siscon-ish vibes in that episode, but on a whole, I never felt it between them. Guess I need more training.
Voice acting in Myself; Yourself really is quite good, it might seem a little overdone at times, but the cast voice their characters passionately, it’s awesome.
As for Blue Drop, not bad, but needs moar subs.
@ Michael: I will give you copious amounts of money to tell me how you entered the 2d anime world.
@ ItAintEazy: I’m pretty sure that’s the end of Kaji. She wasn’t exactly subtle here, she’s probably going to be sitting in jail once her pneumonia goes away.
@ kenshin514: Indeed, the break from Aoi was blissful. I wouldn’t worry too much about a School Days type ending, I think we’ll be seeing a relatively happy ending. At the very least, bodies won’t be dropping left and right.
And lol @ the finals comment, I was so confused until I remembered that you read Totali’s blog as well. What year are you in anyways?
@ CCY: I don’t think Sana is terrified of blood exclusively, just blood on sharp objects? All the instances I remember him freaking out in all had bloody knives in the vicinity (minus Nanaka’s speech).
I was also disappointed that Kaji was just used as a plot device to further the Shuu/Shuri plot, but eh, they didn’t have enough time to give it a dedicated arc.
Though Hoshino does look pretty awesome in hospital clothing, Sayuri is still superior. Ahahaha~
@ Shirukii: With three episodes to go, there’s still quite a bit that can go wrong.
Please note that this is, essentially, Wild Mass Guessing.
Let’s start with who can make things go wrong:
* Nanaka’s uncle. If he is the culprit behind the arson that killed Nanaka’s parents, then what’s it to him to add his niece (and her friends) to his body count?
* Kaji. Assuming that she’s gone for good may be premature. Granted that this would take some heavy-handed Deus Ex Machina, but it’s possible.
* Practically anyone from Sana’s past. We don’t know the who and the why, but someone did something with a knife that stops Sana cold.
* Asami. No, wait. Hear me out. I know that she’s the sweet, shy girl, but she just underwent something traumatic, and we all know what can happen when an anime series breaks the cutie, right?
* That smarmy vice-principal. …okay, I’ll admit that he’s on this list only because I don’t like him. ^_^
* If Shuu and Shuuri stay for the remainder of the series, add their father and stepmother to this list. (Alternately, add Shuu and Shuuri to the list in place of their father and stepmother.)
So… what could happen? …hoo-boy.
* Fire. Lots of it. Sana tries (and fails) to protect Nanaka. If he survives, he angsts and angsts hard with whoever survived the series. In lieu of fire, the uncle might decide that a gun would be quicker and cleaner.
* More Sakura hills madness. If this happens, the most likely victims would be Asami (still recovering) and Hinako (unaware/unexpecting).
* The bloody-knife nut from Sana’s past buys a plane ticket and lands in Japan. This one pretty much writes itself.
* Asami-break one: terrified after Kaji’s attack, she clings and clings hard to Sana. This causes a Break-The-Cutie-level snap in Nanaka, who does something drastic.
* Asami-break two: terrified after Kaji’s attack, she clings to Sana. In her emotionally vulnerable state, she falls for him. When she learns of the strong feelings between Sana and Nanaka, Asami snaps and does something drastic.
* If Shuu and Shuuri stick around… hoo-boy.
* * The father goes too far and either kills or seriously injures Shuuri. If this happens, either he will kill himself or Shuu will kill him.
* * The father goes too far and either kills or seriously injures Shuu. Shuuri breaks down and has to be institutionalized.
* * It turns out that the stepmother was the one who sent the note to the school. She doesn’t want to sink her husband’s career. She just wants to be rid of Shuu and Shuuri. But if the note and the boarding school don’t do the trick, then a more permanent solution will have to be found…
Note that I’m not rooting for a “School Days”-style ending; none of the main characters deserve that type of ending. But with three episodes to go, it’s easier for a writer to say, “Aw, heck. Kill ‘em all!” than it is to bring a graceful end to it all.
…of course, this is assuming that the anime doesn’t try to rubber-band an unrealistic happy ending together.
Actually Shuri and Shuu’s development shouldn’t be too surprising since they softened the ground with ep 6 where Shuu kept looking at Shuri when describing her ideal girl. It’s a classic case of trying to deny your feelings by rationalising it away.
I also think it’s one way. Shuu has feelings for Shuri which he’s trying to ascertain. Shuri’s affections for Shuu is mostly sisterly. Much as I hope they can up the drama by trespassing to siscon territory, there’s just no time to develop that with 3 remaining eps. I think their running away next ep would fully conclude their arc.
OMG! If they continue to let Aoi to do the review of OP my heart will be broken.
Kaji: remember this is Kaji not the Kaiji one from Ultimate Survivor Kaiji so don’t expect her to be that level. But it is still lame to see it end up that way.
Siscon: How are we going to blame that we didn’t see it coming when the series is never going to head that way?
Alright, lets keep that lame thing aside. Now it seems like there are 2 major groups here that think Shuu X Shuuri is siscon or non-siscon. The war is about to begin so why don’t we choose our own side? Who is here with me go for non-siscon and who else go for siscon?
Haha, okay, I’ll try not to censor myself like a bad dub xP
Yeah, the colour of the blood was odd. For a second I thought they were going to go all RahXephon-philosophical on me, which would have just added a whole new WTF level to the series xD
And yeah, forgot to mention, but I want to go School Days on that damn vice-principal. What the fuck is his problem?
I didnt think this was going to get that serrious, its almost a little too emo for me. I knew there was going to be the generic high school problems, but i didnt think we’d be dabling into child abuse, incest, murder and bat-shit craziness *sigh* I thought this was going to be a refresher after all the drama we went through with school days, but to no avail. I will say i knew that the step mom was pertty whorish, but i think that was just a gimme. I does piss me off that shuu and shuri’s dad is soo stupid that he doesnt realize that all these bad things are happening due to the up comming election, this is all still feeling so rushed with only two episodes left. Also what they hell is going on with sana!? when are we going to find out the back story to him, cause it doesnt look like we’re going to find out anything new in the next episode. Arrgggg, im going to watch the final episodes of Higurashi no koro ni kai… at least that is giving me the answers im looking for in that anime…bah!!!!
Disgruntled kay_kay Out!
@Kay_Kay: Buddy, 3 more episodes left.
>> “I does piss me off that shuu and shuri’s dad is soo stupid that he doesnt realize that all these bad things are happening due to the up comming election,” I think he has been so stupid for a long time ago.