Craaaaawling in my skiiiiin, these wouuuunds they wiiiiill not heeeeaaaal, and etc.

Well, it’s not like I didn’t expect some sort of twist at the end but the ending was still rather surprising. It wasn’t the best of endings, it was definitely rushed, but it brought everything together decently, to the point where there aren’t any lingering questions or loose ends. But I can’t believe they did an epilogue time skip, I personally hate them with a passion.

Episode Rating: 7/10 || Series Rating: 7.5/10

The episode starts off with a flashback to Nanaka’s childhood where we’re introduced to a new character, Kaoru, a good friend of Nanaka’s parents, the three of them have been together since high school. After Nanaka’s parents got married Kaoru offered his services as Nanaka’s violin teacher. However, during middle school he fell ill, diagnosed with cancer, knowing his time left is short, he tells Nanaka to find a new violin teacher and continue learning, but Nanaka refuses and says she’ll wait until he is released.

Unfortunately that day never comes, Kaoru passes away, leaving Nanaka’s mother in tears, and her father looking oddly enraged. The reason soon becomes clear, that night Nanaka’s father confronts his wife, having learned the truth, that she and Kaoru went behind his back and Nanaka is actually Kaoru’s child, which explains why she pushed Nanaka to learn violin, so she could put the talent she inherited from him to use and at the same time see her real father. Overhearing this, Nanaka goes upstairs and tries to pretend it’s all a dream, but she can’t ignore what comes next…After hearing a loud crash she goes back downstairs to find her mother unconscious and her father and the whole living room doused in gasoline, he spots her looking in and gives her a dirty look as he ignites the gas. The house erupts in flames, Nanaka grabs the hair tie that Sana gave her at the festival and her violin and jumps out the second story window.

After hearing the story, Sana hugs Nanaka in an attempt to comfort her, but it’s evident that she’s paralyzed from the shock. He brings her home where her uncle sends her off to get some rest before talking with Sana. Sana tells him what he heard from Nanaka, her uncle isn’t very surprised, he had heard the story from Nanaka’s father, apparently not wanting to die having deceived his best friend, Kaoru told Nanaka’s father everything on his death bed. However, he didn’t take it very well, calling Nanaka’s uncle out to vent, even saying that he’d kill her. Unfortunately, his words weren’t taken literally, Nanaka’s uncle had prayed that her memories of that night be sealed off forever, that she not be made to go through such pain again.

Afterwards, Nanaka began to lock herself in her room, refusing to talk to anyone. Sana would visit diligently, everyday, rain or shine trying to get through to her to no avail. One day he knocked on her room door to find it empty, only to realize she was taking a bath at the time. However, as the time passed he began to worry about her, going to check on her he has a shocking thought accompanied by a flashback to a similar experience he went through. And sure enough, he goes into the bath house to find Nanaka passed out in the bathtub, wrists slit and bleeding to death.

Luckily he was able to make it in time to save Nanaka’s life. Afterwards he goes to visit her, Nanaka feels resentful towards him, saying that he has no idea what she is going through right now. But Sana shows her that he does, taking off his wristwatch he shows her the scars from the time he tried exactly what Nanaka did. He tells her the story about how he was bullied all throughout middle school to the point where he couldn’t take it anymore and tried to commit suicide. He explains the reason that he came back to this town and reunite with everyone was to try and regain the life he had before, to return to his former self. After trying to commit suicide and failing he often told himself it would have been better if he had just died that day, but now realizes that it was worth it to continue living if only for the fact that he was able to stop Nanaka from making the same mistake he did.

TIME SKIP, LOL

It’s now ten years later and everyone is all grown up, even though Hinako hasn’t made as much progression in the breast area as she had hoped. Apparently over the years Asami fought against the politicians and managed to keep the park that Shuri’s father was planning on tearing down intact. Aoi and Asami run into each other in the park, a open air concert recital is being held that day, Nanaka as the star. Before her performance on stage, Sana goes to see Nanaka with a little present, an engagement ring (?) He returns to his seat and is congratulated by Yuzuki-sensei, who gives him the customary caramel candy reward. Even Shuu and Shuri ninja their way into the performance, sitting hand in hand in the back rows.

Nanaka comes on stage and introduces herself as well as her original composition that she will be playing on the violin, the first tune that she composed that took a long time to complete. While working on it there were many happy times and equally as many sad ones, reunions and separations, her song encompassing all those feelings, entitled: Myself; Yourself.

Thoughts and Final Impressions

Myself; Yourself’s ending leaves me feeling a little weird. It tied up all the loose ends and left practically no unfinished plot lines, but I felt there was something missing, sort of like after all that build up that there should have been something grander in store for us at the end.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought the explanation of Nanaka’s childhood was pretty good, unexpected at the very least. I should have known better than to stick with the simple theory that the uncle did it, after so many twists and turns in Myself; Yourself, I should have known that such a simple and logical conclusion was below them. While I wasn’t really thrilled at such a late character introduction, with respect to Kaoru, it worked fairly well. I didn’t sympathize with him as much as I should have though, actually I found myself thinking he was an idiot for spilling the truth in his dying moments, it was a very selfish move, it may have cleared his conscious but it tore Nanaka’s family apart as a price. But of course I’m pinning the end blame on Nanaka’s dad for flipping out and beating his wife, then burning her to death, what a bastard.

But *sigh* that time skip was stupid. They could have chosen to do an epilogue consisting of Sana and Nanaka fully realizing the deep connection between them and taking the leap from more than just friends to lovers. I could even imagine Sana giving some sort corny “let’s continue to be together from now on” speech and Nanaka totally buying into it, full dere dere mode. To show everyone all grown up and explicitly show Sana about to propose to Nanaka was unnecessary in my eyes, it’s not as if the meaning behind Nanaka’s song taking so long to complete would have been lost if they had done it after her suicide attempt. And the ambiguity between Shuu and Shuri at the end was also really frustrating, did we get an incest end there or not?

Meh, whatever. Overall I still consider Myself; Yourself a great series, what I thought was going to be a stereotypical harem anime turned out to be so much more. Even if the drama did seem a little forced at times there were still those gems here and there like Shuri breaking down in front of Shuu and, of course, Nanaka breaking down in front of Sana. To truly get the full story one would have to go read the visual novel, and I suppose the incentive behind making the anime is just that. But even as a standalone work, Myself; Yourself went far beyond what I ever expected and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a decent romance drama with some twists along the way.

On a final note, what’s up with all the blood censorship in anime lately. It started with School Days where they had to censor the last episode with black blood instead of the usual red, but it continues to be the trend, as seen with Myself; Yourself. I suppose the issue hasn’t died down just yet, and after hearing about the news of kids around the US making Death Note lists, I can see why they’re doing it. But really, anime is no more likely to influence behavior than traditional TV or video games, ie. in my opinion, almost none at all. And it gets ridiculous when you see shows like Bamboo Blade following suit, having blacked out Reimi’s nosebleed in episode 12.

WHERE’S MY INCEST END D=

~ Shirukii ~

Nanaka sees you fapping

Considering the numerous plotlines that Myself; Yourself opened through the course of the season, I’d say they’ve done a pretty good job so far, making sure they address them all. Sure the Kaji scenario didn’t play out nearly as dramatically as it could have, but it was still a satisfactory ending, and it served as a nice buffer for Hoshino’s borderline psychotic lesbianism. With one episode left and only Nanaka’s story to patch up, finally explaining what happened with Sana and the deal with his watch, and perhaps a little aside on the twins, looks like all the loose ends will be tied off quite neatly. Good stuff.

Episode Rating: 7.5/10

With the sudden disappearance of two of their best friends, Sana, Nanaka and Aoi are understandably saddened, even more so since it hasn’t been that long since Sana came back and the group really reunited. To make things worse, rumors of the twins’ disappearance continue to spread, most of the students buying into Hoshino’s fake story about them going to a love hotel together and eventually eloping to escape their parents.

That afternoon, on the way to the convenience store, Sana gets a package from Shuu, unfortunately with no return address nor a phone number. At the convenience store he buys a bento and ends up winning a free drink from their promotional raffle. On his way home he sees Yuzuki sensei sitting alone at the park near his apartment, noticing she looks a bit down Sana goes to see what’s up. Seems like they’re not the only ones worrying about Shuu and Shuri, Yuzuki-sensei saying that she tries her best to get to know her students and support them, but in the end they didn’t come seeking help from her. But she doesn’t blame them, they probably knew that she couldn’t have done much to help in their situation anyways, but she at least wanted to offer them some encouragement. Having been cheered up numerous times in the past by Yuzuki-sensei, Sana repays the favor, offering her the drink he won earlier as a reward for having such good intentions.

The package from Shuu ends up being a fishing rod, one that Shuu worked to save up to buy. Wanting to put it to good use, Sana invites Nanaka and Aoi to Kotsuchi river over the weekend. But when Sunday comes around, he gets a phone call from Aoi saying that she caught a bit of a cold and won’t be able to make it. But really Aoi is just faking it, having noticed that Shuu and Shuri’s disappearance has really taken a toll on Nanaka, and knowing that it’s Sana who can cheer her up the best, she stands down and let the two have some alone time together.

Taking a while to set up the lure, Sana eventually manages to hack the thing together and put Shuu’s fishing rod to use, but despite it being a great rod, Sana’s fishing skills are as terrible as ever and ultimately he comes up blank. Luckily, Aoi called Nanaka the night before and let her know she might not be able to make it, suggesting that she cook for two in case Sana isn’t able to catch anything. Annoyed with their lack of trust, but happy to have a backup, Sana, slightly hesitantly, eats Nanaka’s odd bento combination of slightly burnt eggs and cookies, apparently the only two things she can make.

After spending some time after lunch lounging around the river, Sana tells Nanaka he has something to show her in the mountains (RAEP!). After a lengthy hike through the forest the two reach their destination, narrowly avoiding getting drenched in a sudden rainstorm. At the end of the dark cave lies the thing that Sana wanted to show Nanaka, a large cavern whose roof has essentially become a huge geode resembling a starry sky.

The effect doesn’t last very long though, as Sana’s flashlight battery runs out and the two are forced to sit tight until the rain stops and the sun comes up so they can make their way back down the mountain. Taking advantage of their time alone, Nanaka asks Sana the story behind his wristwatch and if it really was a gift from his girlfriend or something. Sana assures her it’s nothing like that, but doesn’t actually tell her anything more about it. He changes topics by asking her why she put the letters she wrote to him in the mailbox instead of sending them directly to him, as she should have done if she was really in that much pain. Nanaka tells him that she was surprised how much she changed after the fire and was scared that Sana might have changed too, and she thought that by putting the letters in that mailbox she’d be able to reach the Sana she knew as a child. But in the end she’s happy that Sana hasn’t changed much at all, that he’s still the Sana she’s always known, the Sana that she loves.

The two doze off in the cave, Sana waking up before Nanaka and heading outside. When Nanaka wakes up and makes her way to the entrance of the cave, the orange/reddish glow from the sunset pours into the cave, resembling the color of fire, Nanaka has another one of her panic attacks and blindly walks outside, falling down the slight incline of the cave, luckily into Sana’s arms, who is there to catch her. But it’s apparent that something is wrong, Sana notices Nanaka is shaking, and when he asks her what happened, she tells him that she remembers everything, everything from the night of the fire. Seems like the memories aren’t very pleasant, as she lets out a scream, Sana trying desperately to calm her down.

Thoughts

Sooo…am I the only one who thinks Sana’s an idiot? Despite having said something as embarrassing as “I’ll stay with you forever from now on” on the ferris wheel, when Nanaka pretty much confesses to him, he does nothing? The hell? I thought for sure that they would kiss or at least hug, probably followed by copious amounts of blushing, but something! Nope, instead he just sits there in silence.

And that was some pretty cowardly dodging of Nanaka’s question. She’s feeling uneasy about the story behind his wristwatch and Shuu’s suggestion that it may be from a previous girlfriend yet instead of fully explaining things to her he continues to weakly deny it, leaving it open for question. And what’s more, not only does he completely deflect her question, he comes back and asks her a personal question of his own. A pretty one sided relationship they’ve got going on if you ask me.

And another thing that really surprised me this episode was how Sana just ignored the girls talking crap about Shuu and Shuri. He knows the rumors of them going to a love hotel and engaging in sweet twincest loving are completely unbased, yet he ignores it and walks by silently. What happened to his bold declaration that no matter where they are they’ll always be friends, last time I checked, friends stick up for each other when people talk behind their backs.

Anyways, enough Sana ranting, this episode was still awesome due to the concentrated Nanaka screentime. Dere dere Nanaka is love, she deserves better than Sana D= Next episode will probably be a combo flashback/revelation as to what really happened the night of the fire, which means, equally, or perhaps more importantly than the actual plot development, we get to see loli Nanaka again next episode! Judging from her reaction to her returned memories things couldn’t have gone very well that night, and seeing as anything else would take too long to explain, I’m betting that it was her uncle who torched the house.

Aaaand I just went back to check out the preview. Yep, definitely the uncle. This week’s preview gave away a little more than it should have, it showed present day Nanaka escaping from her burning house, clutching her violin. Which probably means that her uncle found out Nanaka’s memories came back and had the brilliant idea to try and burn her…because, you know, that isn’t obvious at all…damn pyromaniac.

EDIT My mistake! That was the flashback scene in the preview, as you can see, Nanaka’s room is upstairs in the scene, whereas if you go back a couple episodes you’ll notice her current room is on a ground floor. But hey, it would be funny to see her uncle try it again anyways XD

So it looks like things will come full circle, Nanaka’s uncle won’t be able to deny arson again, so he’ll probably get locked up. Nanaka will go all panicky and this time Sana will be there for her to comfort her, etc etc. Happy ending. But again, Myself; Yourself has thrown some really WTF curveballs in the past, so you never know, they might just go with something completely unexpected instead. Guess we’ll find out next week.

Aside: Has anyone noticed the blog has been running a little slow at times lately? Sometimes taking up to a couple minutes to load. It only happens every so often, but it’s really annoying when it does, I can’t even get to the admin dashboard or connect to the ftp to see what’s going on. I sent an e-mail to Maestro asking to see if there’s anything wrong on his end, hopefully it goes away on its own.

~ 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 ~

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 ~

Holy crap what an awesome episode. I was floored by the drama that suddenly exploded in the SanaXNanaka relationship, it was very well built up and the climax was executed with so much raw emotion that you can’t help but feel for them. There were also some buffer scenes where the tension wasn’t so high, having the double effect of not loading the viewers with a full episode of angst while at the same time acting as comedic relief, further intensifying the breakdown of the latter scenes. Myself; Yourself isn’t going to win any awards for groundbreaking storywriting, but it sticks to the basics and does them very VERY well.

Episode Rating: 9.5/10 (Bordering on a 10, really)

Following Shuri’s incident with her father and after a day off from school, Shuri is back and lively as ever, or at least pretending to be anyways. As the gang makes their way to school, Nanaka passes by, ignoring Sana’s greeting and walking by coldly, no doubt a direct result from the scene she saw not too long ago at elder sister hill.

Nanaka’s cold attitude towards Sana continues throughout the day, Sana desperately trying to figure out why she’s so angry as they head to the library to kill some time before the class rep meeting. Nanaka insists that she’s not being angry, but eventually caves in and tells Sana that she saw him hugging Hoshino near the temple at elder sister hill. Hearing that, Sana knows he’s screwed, he tries to explain that it was an accident, but ends up making things worse when he compares the incident to the time when Nanaka hugged him at the festival when a raccoon scared her, indirectly putting her and Hoshino on the same level. Things don’t get any better when Hoshino greets Sana at the meeting, inviting him to help out at the old folks home again, which he can’t bring himself to turn down, irking Nanaka even more.

Sana finally snaps as the two are walking home, asking Nanaka what more she expects of him, having explained that it was a misunderstanding and an accident. He goes on to rant how Nanaka has changed, becoming a completely different person from the Nanaka he knew in the past. This strikes a nerve and Nanaka turns around, in tears, yells at him for saying that when he’s changed just as much and runs home before he can respond.

At home, Sana continues to be half frustrated and half concerned concerned over how Nanaka is acting. He begins to reminisce about the times when they were kids, when Nanaka used to depend on him, a childish girl who needed him to hold her hand when walking past a scary dog or eat her carrots for her during lunch.

He then remembers about the secret mailbox that the two used to share, it had stopped being used so Sana put it under chain and lock, to which only he and Nanaka had the key to, saying that they should use it to write about things they want to keep secret from others, even Shuu, Shuri and Aoi. It ends up being used for rather trivial conversation like Nanaka having nightmares and Sana having trouble passing the horizontal bars in gym class, but the fact that it was something for just the two of them was far more important than the content.

Having remembered all this, Sana figures he should find the key and check to see if there have been any changes to the mailbox. He eventually finds it buried underneath a bunch of ero-magazines that he had kept tucked away on a shelf. Just as he finds it, Aoi walks in to bring him some dinner, seeing the pile of ero-magazines and a piles of tissue lying on the floor from a cold that Sana has caught, she misunderstands (*fap fap fap* lol) and runs out before Sana can explain.

When Sana goes to check the mailbox, he’s shocked and horrified at what he finds. The mailbox has been filled to the brim with letters, so much so that they topple out in a huge pile when he opens the mailbox. But more disturbing is the content of some of the letters, one of them a simple piece of paper with nothing but “Help Me!” written on it over and over.

The next day at school, Sana calls Shuu onto the roof to explain, to tell him what happened to Nanaka in the years that he was gone. Shuu tries to avoid the subject, but seeing the seriousness in Sana’s eyes, he sits him down and tells him the story. Shortly after Sana had left, there was a fire at Nanaka’s house, she managed to escape by jumping out the window, clutching her violin and the bracelet Sana gave her, but her parents weren’t so lucky and died in the fire. To make things worse, an investigation concluded that the fire was most likely the result of arson, when Nanaka jumped out the window, the physical injuries were limited to a broken leg, but the trauma caused her to largely forget the events of that night and so she became a suspect in the arson.

After her leg had healed, Nanaka began coming to school again, but a completely different person, isolating herself from everyone else. Throughout the rest of elementary school and middle school, she pretty much didn’t talk to anyone, only calming down once she hit high school, just in time for Sana’s return.

Sana asks Shuu why he, and everyone else, kept it a secret from him, something so important. In turn, Shuu asks him if he could have done anything even if he had known, because he himself was powerless to help Nanaka, a friend in need.

Needing some time to process everything he’s just heard, Sana goes to the park near his house to do some thinking. But his solitude doesn’t last long as Yuzuki-sensei interrupts his angsting with her usual caramel offering, curious, Sana asks her why she gives out caramel candies to students. She tells him that when she was a kid, she would always come home to an empty house since her parents both worked too late to be home when she came back from school. Her mom used to leave her some money, but all Yuzuki-sensei really wanted was to have a snack with her mom when she got home, so she did what many other lonely and bored kids do, she played pretend. Playing the role of her mom and herself, she would give herself an afternoon snack, settling on caramel candy since everything else was too expensive.

Eventually the habit became a reward more than anything, Yuzuki treating herself to a candy whenever she worked hard or succeeded in something. This habit spread to her friends, family and underclassmen when she got into high school. One particular incident stuck out in her memories, passing by the very park they are sitting in she noticed a boy trying to do a flip over the horizontal bar, amazed by his determination. When he ran out of energy, she offered him her standard caramel candy gift, and with it the boy’s spirit returned and he vowed to give it his best shot. Only, it was so long ago that Yuzuki-sensei can’t remember the face of the boy, only a faint memory of his smile.

Having remembered bits and pieces of it before, Sana realizes that he is the boy that Yuzuki-sensei met during high school. The nostalgic story gives Sana the push he needs, standing up, he puts on the same smile he did all those years ago and vows to give it his best shot, only this time referring to Nanaka. Seeing his face, Yuzuki-sensei realizes that the boy was Sana all along.

That evening, Sana calls Nanaka out to the mailbox to talk. When he tells her that he saw the all the letters in the mailbox and heard about the fire from Shuu, Nanaka tries to run away, but Sana stops her. Nanaka breaks down, telling him that it’s too late for his pity, that he wasn’t there when she needed him the most, that he has no idea how much pain and suffering she went through while he was off somewhere far away with new friends, all the while she was waiting, praying that he would come to save her. Sana apologizes for not bring there but promises to stay by her side from now on, no matter what.

Thoughts

Long summary is looooooong. But so much stuff happened this episode, I guess it can’t be helped. And what an episode it was, one of the most emotionally impacting I’ve seen of late.

The structuring made it so the last scene hit with full emotional force. A breakdown of my feelings as I went through the episode is as follows: the beginning lured me into a false sense that we were going to get another school comedy episode with a random isolated plot and maybe some development on Shuri. But then Nanaka showed up, reverted back to her ice queen self, so at that point I thought we were in for 20 minutes of sorting out stupid misunderstandings.

But then the scene where Nanaka has a mini breakdown after being accused of changing over the years by Sana made it clear that there’s more to this than just childish misunderstandings, foreshadowing the angst-ridden events to come. The mood lightened a bit with Sana’s flashback and the brief Aoi scene, but shit hits the fan when Sana finds the desperate cries for help in the mailbox and learns of Nanaka’s past through Shuu.

The buffer scene with Yuzuki-sensei serves as a nice fall in action which gave me time to take in the rather depressing twist of Nanaka’s past while at the same time doing well to shift the tone of the episode from depressing to hopeful, Sana’s confidence having been restored. Then everything comes together in the final scene, all the suppressed pain that Nanaka has been holding in for all these years, the regret that Sana feels for not being there when he was needed the most, but all accompanied by the overarching message that this is only the beginning for them with Sana’s promise to be there for her from now on.

I may sound like I’m fanboying a bit here, but really, I’m no literary expert, so it came off as almost flawless to me.

Myself; Yourself continues to amaze me week after week, evolving from its beginnings which pegged it as a run of the mill harem into what I believe to be the best romance/drama of the season. (Better than DCII, at the very least). I only hope they don’t screw up the ending. So far everything has tied together very well, almost every scene throughout the series has had some relevance to the overall plot, weaving this subtle yet intricate plot that continues to surprise me as it unfolds. All that remains is to reconcile Kaji’s subplot into the now central SanaXNanaka relationship. It would be nice to see Hinako play a key role as well, but I’d be content even if they left her as a side character for the main purpose of filler and loli fanservice, an important role if you think about the alternative, ~13 episodes of unrestricted angst.

Another thing that has to be resolved is the explanation of what happened to Sana in these past five years. We know Nanaka’s story, but Sana’s has remained largely untouched, despite several small hints throughout the series. I’m sticking with my theory that he went suicidal, given the continued emphasis on his wristwatch (even cutting to it during the scene with Nanaka) and his overprotective mother.

The preview for the next episode suggests we’ll be getting some more Nanaka love, balanced by some Hinako screentime along with a not too subtle power rangers knockoff.

Given how much I hate some of Koshimizu Ami’s other roles (Tenma from Sukuran and Sae from Sola to name a few) I’m amazed how well she handled that final scene.

And now for another week long wait ;_;

~ Shirukii ~

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 ~

Hinako end!? SORT OF WANT!

This was a surprisingly well done episode, I liked it. It felt a lot like the stereotypical harem feel that Myself; Yourself has been giving off for a while now, but it came off quite well, the build up was typical yet carried a sort of bittersweet feel as Hinako was abandoned by her mom but had a memorable birthday anyways. And the closing scene did well in summarizing the efforts of the episode pushing character depth to a new level. Even though in the grand scheme of things, this was probably just filler, it was well executed filler.

Episode Rating: 9/10

Hinako arrives back home from school, only to find that her mom had to leave for a business trip on short notice. With nowhere else to go, she packs some clothes for the night and heads over to Sana’s house where she casually walks in and kicks him out so she can change. After Sana gets over the initial shock of Hinako showing up to his house out of the blue, he runs back in, wanting to know what’s going on, only to get yelled at by a half undressed Hinako.

Despite being the one intruding, Hinako offers no explanation as to why she’s come to stay over, insisting it has nothing to do with Sana. Hinako tells him that he should be grateful for the opportunity to spend the night with a beautiful lady like herself, when Sana stands to protest, he ends up tripping on a magazine and falling on the bed, right on top of Hinako. Cue Aoi, who walks in and seeing the scene before her once again panics. After they settle down and Aoi apologizes for the misunderstanding, Hinako fills her in on what’s going on and surprisingly, Aoi find no problem with it, on the contrary, saying that if it’s Sana, there’ll be no problem, and with that, leaves the two alone.

Making herself right at home, Hinako unpacks and starts to do some homework, suggesting Sana do the same. But Sana isn’t nearly as studious as Hinako is, and is unable to solve basic algebraic (x,y) intercepts which even she finds basic.

As gratitude for letting her stay over, Hinako ends up trying her hand at cooking again. While her curry ends up the right color this time around, the taste is no better and the two end up eating at the family restaurant once again, both ordering kids meals and luckily managing to complete Hinako’s yeti-kun collection.

Afterwards, while Hinako takes a bath, stressing she won’t hesitate to kill Sana if he peeks, Sana gets a little worried and takes a look at her school ID, using it to call her house to let her parents know what’s going on, despite only getting the answering machine. But he also notices another thing, it’s Hinako’s birthday that day.

It doesn’t take long for Hinako to start feeling a little sleepy so Sana suggests they call it a night. Sana apologizes that he only has one bed, but Hinako has no reservations in taking it and relegating him to the floor. But in the middle of the night, Hinako tells Sana that he can sleep on the bed with her. She explains that at home she has a huge yeti-kun plushie that she can’t sleep without, so for tonight, he’ll have to be its replacement.

The next morning, Sana wakes Hinako up, only to have her forget where she is and attack Sana with a pillow, thinking he’s in her room. After breakfast, he tells her that she should get ready as they’re going shopping, Sana needs to pick out a present for a girl, so he asks Hinako for her help. As the two leave the apartment, Aoi spies on them with a pair of binoculars and signals the start of a mysterious operation…

The two spend the morning shopping for a present, eventually deciding on a cute chick shaped clock, however, it’s a little out of Sana’s price range. While shopping, Sana gets a text from Shuu asking where they are. Soon after, he ‘coincidentally’ bumps into them, not exactly dressed for Sunday morning shopping. Hearing their shopping story, Shuu offers to pay half the price of the clock, out of the goodness of his heart.

The three spend the rest of the day on a pseudo date, going to a cafe, the movies, shopping and picture booths.

When they get back to Sana’s place, Hinako walks in, finding the place dark. When the lights are switched on, she’s greeted with the sound of hand fireworks and a big “Happy Birthday” from Nanaka, Shuri and Aoi. Sana and Shuu hand over the clock they picked out as her birthday present, along with a overnight stay kit from Shuri, cookies from Nanaka and a cake from Aoi.

They spend the night eating and playing in celebration until Sana notes that it’s pretty late and Hinako should probably get going soon. Hinako agrees, apologizes for being such a handful and thanks them for a fun birthday party, everyone sings a round of karaoke and the party ends.

After the party, Sana walks Hinako home. When they come to the crossing just before her house Sana sees her off and tells her she’s welcome to drop by anytime. Then, as she starts to cross, Hinako suddenly turns around and gives Sana a kiss on the cheek before running off home. Aww :3

Thoughts

It’s too bad that Hinako is 11 (ie. illegal) meaning that there’s no chance in hell that Sana will end up with her, otherwise, I would have said this was a nice twist in the story. But alas, with Hinako not even in the running, it was really a filler episode at heart. But it sure didn’t feel like one, while Hinako seems like a really stuck up character, she’s actually really sincere and as she best describes herself “an adult on the outside but unexpectedly childish inside”. Despite being introduced late and coming off initially as a side character, Hinako has grown to have the most development of all the girls so far and my personal second favourite right under Nanaka.

I’m actually really surprised that they’re pouring so much time into developing Hinako’s character, she’s the outsider of the group in terms of history and age. While I enjoy the episodes that center around her, I don’t see her being a huge part in the main storyline, whether Myself; Yourself chooses to go the Higurashi route or the generic harem one. If the former is chosen, Hinako isn’t really involved since she wasn’t there when Kaji when batshit loco. If it’s the latter, then as I (and Hinako herself, lol) said, it would be a pedophile ending, which I just don’t see happening. But then again, who am I to complain in the face of loli fanservice!

Myself; Yourself has a pretty nice setup for the rest of its run. Whether it picks the Kaji route and gets a little darker or whether it resolves that matter quickly and reverts back to a happy go lucky harem anime, it will do well for itself, in my opinion at least. It’s a win win situation! I do have a slight preference towards the darker route though, just because it would be unexpected and nice to see pulled off.

Lookin’ kinda Katsura there Nanaka

Next episode looks like it’ll be getting back to the whole Kaji plot, which could prove to be the turning point in the series, effectively choosing which of the aforementioned paths we’ll be taking. Oh man, can you imagine how awesome a yandere Nanaka would be.

Aside: On the topic of ages and birthdays, mine’s in a couple days, I’ll be turning 19! Legal drinking age ftw!

~ Shirukii ~

OH GOD NANAKA IS HOT!

Well this episode certainly made up for last week’s lack of Nanaka, not only did she get a bunch of screen time and character development, there was even some fanservice. Good stuff. It was also a very well paced episode, doing great in terms of covering some ground in terms of character and plot, the ominous foreshadowing of the episode suggests Myself; Yourself may be heading down a darker path…

Episode Rating: 9/10

The episode starts off with Nanaka practicing the dance she’s to perform at a festival in a few days. She’s interrupted by her uncle, who is glad to see her practicing seriously, he tells her that the stage will be lit with bonfire simulating lights, as Nanaka seems to have requested. She then politely excuses herself and asks to be left to her practicing.

The next day after school, Shuu suggests they all go for karaoke, but when Nanaka is asked to tag along, she declines, saying she has to practice for the festival dance. Having forgotten about it, everyone reminds Sana about the dance at the sakura festival that they used to watch when they were kids, the temple hasn’t held it for about 10 years, but now that Nanaka is helping as a priestess there, they’re finally able to do it again. Nanaka modestly says she’s just helping out her uncle because he’s letting her stay with him, but when Sana asks why Nanaka is staying with her uncle at the temple, everyone goes silent…

Later that day, Sana happens to run into Hoshino as she’s out shopping. She explains that she volunteers at an elderly home during the weekends and recently they took in a stray cat, they named it Poe and she’s out looking for a collar for it. Since the cat is a boy and she’s afraid she’ll pick something to feminine for it, she asks Sana to help choose, and in the end she asks him if he would like to help out at the elderly home the coming Saturday, he agrees.

As luck would have it, Nanaka happens to be out running an errand for her uncle and sees Sana and Hoshino shopping together. The three run into each other outside the pet store and Nanaka is thankful to hear that it’s nothing like a date, they just happened to meet coincidentally. Sana takes the opportunity to invite Nanaka to the home to volunteer, but quickly remembers she has to practice the dance for the festival. But surprisingly, Nanaka says that she wants to come anyways, since she has most of the dance memorized already.

That Saturday they all meet at the elderly home, shocked to see that Shuri also volunteers there, and was actually the one who first invited Hoshino to volunteer there as well. It turns out that they’ve been wanting to get a young man to volunteer there, but for quite an odd reason, so that one of the residents there has a partner to play video games with. Meanwhile, Hoshino is busy helping out and trying to solve a mystery, there used to be a sparrow named Pi-chan that the home kept as a pet, but recently it’s gone missing…

As Hoshino helps out in the kitchen, one of the workers there ends up talking about a resident at the home named Kaji. She caught a slight cold lately, but what she’s more worried about is her mental condition lately, apparently she had recently lost her granddaughter to a tragic car accident and has been acting odd ever since.

In an attempt to cheer her up, the whole gang goes to visit her, but when Kaji sees Nanaka, she jumps out of her seat and starts walking towards her, under the impression that she’s her late granddaughter Motoko. After they calm Kaji down, she explains that Nanaka resembles Motoko, and the similarities go even further when it’s revealed that, like Nanaka, Kaji’s granddaughter also played the violin. But when Sana suggests that Nanaka play something for them, Nanaka has a small panic attack and declines.

Afterwards, Sana walks Nanaka home and apologizes for the violin incident, though not exactly understanding what happened, he says that he’s sorry for thoughtlessly insisting she play. Nanaka tells him that he didn’t do anything wrong and runs home.

The day of the festival arrives, and on Shuu’s recommendation, they head there extremely early, because he’s been excited about it all day. Something that Aoi seems to share in common with him, not wasting any time rushing to the booths the second they get there. First up, Shuu challenges Sana to the rifle game, ending in Sana winning the largest prize there and Shuu walking away empty handed (or maybe with one of those crappy consolation prizes).

Later that night, Sana spots Nanaka at the temple’s booth and goes to talk to her. She notices the prize he won, a big plush yeti, and asks him about it, Sana tells her how he won it but finds it a hassle to carry around. Just when Nanaka is about to ask for it, Hinako runs up and has a kawaii-gasm at the plush yeti, remembering that she collects them, Sana offers it to her, much to the jealousy of Nanaka.

Before Nanaka’s dance, Shuri takes the opportunity to explain the legend behind it. There used to be twin hills in the town, and the legend goes that if the sakura trees were to blossom on both of them, your wish would come true. The sakura festival’s dance is a charm to make this even come true, but rumor has it that in ancient times, they used to offer live humans as a sacrifice instead.

After Nanaka’s performance, Sana finds her sitting at the back of the temple and compliments her on her dance and how surreal it was watching her. Nanaka goes all blushy and thanks him, but suddenly something darts across the field, brushing her leg and running into the bushes, causing Nanaka to suddenly grab onto Sana in fright. She’s quite embarrassed when she realizes that it was only a raccoon, but the two laugh it off, and just as the mood between them starts to lighten up, Hinako shows up to drag them back to the rest of the group.

The episode ends with a freakishly ominous scene of Kaji watching Nanaka’s performance at the sakura festival on tv. Alone. In the dark. Stroking Poe like one of those evil villains in a movie. Creeeeeepy.

Thoughts

It’s time to theorize! Given how predictable Myself; Yourself has been so far, I believe there’s a high probability that what I’m about to say, or at least something close to it, will come true, so possible spoiler warning?

Given how much emphasis was put on the legend of the twin hills combined with the sinister foreshadowing at the end of the episode, I’m thinking that old lady Kaji is about to go batshit insane. What I’m thinking is that given her knowledge of the twin hills legend and her mental instability, she’s going to try and use Nanaka as a human sacrifice to revive her dead granddaughter Motoko. Now you may think that something so violent wouldn’t happen in what appears to be your run of the mill school drama, but the question I have for you then is…what happened to Pi-chan?

Maybe I’m taking the Higurashi-esque feel that this episode had a little too seriously, but when I think about how everything fit together, it’s the outcome that strikes me as the most likely to happen. It would also serve as a good buffer into tying up the end romance, we could have Sana play the knight in shining armor role who rushes in at the last second to save Nanaka, which would set the stage for their final pairing. Wishful thinking? Perhaps.

Speaking of Nanaka, this episode has me curious as to what exactly Nanaka has been through these past five years. She’s now living with her uncle, presumably instead of her parents, the rest of the group seems to know the reason, as they fell silent when Sana asked about it, but we viewers were left in the dark too. Then there’s the whole deal with Nanaka’s implied fear of fire. When asked to play the violin for Kaji, Nanaka had a vision of a flaming scene, and there was the whole deal with her insistence of using simulated bonfires instead of real ones. It’s clear that she’s under a lot of stress, made evident from the water splashing scene (delicious fanservice :3). And lastly, what was the whole deal with Sana and Nanaka almost linking hands at the end of the episode o.O

Nanaka love comes at a price though, not many other characters got notable development this episode. As expected, Hinako seems to have been relegated to a cameo character after having an entire episode dedicated to her, Shuri continues to be the blunt and sarcastic character of the bunch, and Aoi has been degraded to little more than a moeblob (whose voice seems to be becoming higher and higher pitched with each passing episode).

EDIT: Scratch that, I checked out the preview for next episode, and it looks like Hinako is getting another episode dedicated to her. From the looks of it, she’ll be moving in with Sana, for god knows what reasons.

I take back what I said about Myself; Yourself at the beginning, it’s shaping up to be a lot better than just generic harem. Actually, if you take Hoshino out of the picture, I wouldn’t even classify it as a harem anymore, as neither Shuri or Aoi seem to have romantic interest in Sana, unless Hinako switches her love interest from Shuu to Sana.

Hopefully the coming episodes don’t completely pass up the potentially awesome build up they’ve done with Kaji and the twin hills legend. Nanaka’s going to get taken home!

~ Shirukii ~

A wild loli appears…
[] FIGHT [] Pkmn
[] ITEM [] RUN

Huh, never saw anything like this coming. I thought the cast was well established and that we’d just see things unfold between these five old friends and the new love rival Hoshino, not to mention that I never thought Shuu would have much time dedicated to his character. However, it’s not a bad thing at all, I’m always for token loli characters.

Episode Rating: 8/10

On his way home, Shuu spots a group of elementary school boys bullying a girl from their school, playing keep away with her bag. Shuu comes to her rescue, grabbing her bag back and chasing the boys off for her. Little did he know his small act of kindness was to put him in a situation that could get you arrested in many a country…

The next day after school the girl Shuu saved is waiting for him in front of the high school, she runs up and introduces herself as Mochida Hinako, thanking Shuu for the other day and returning Shuu’s student id which he had unknowingly dropped while fending off the bullies. But that’s not the end of it, the next day she’s back, waiting for Shuu and the gang in front of the gates once again. Shuu questions why she’s still hanging around them, but when he caves at Hinako’s puppy dog stare asking if she’s bothering him, he seals his fate as she promises to come meet him everyday. And surely enough, much to Shuu’s surprise and initial dismay, she keeps her word.

One night, Sana is getting ready to make himself some dinner, but when he opens his rice cooker he discovers he forgot to turn it on and is now left with nothing to eat (oh come on, it doesn’t take THAT long for rice to cook). He ends up going to a nearby family restaurant where he coincidentally bumps into Hinako, the two end up eating together. Hinako feels like Sana has a bit of a patronizing attitude towards her, treating her like a child. At 10 years old, Sana argues that she -IS- a child, this drives Hinako into a vitriolic rant about her maturity despite her age, but it all falls apart when the waitress brings her a kids meal. Hinako justifies herself by saying it’s for the toys that come with the meal, she’s collecting them, sympathizing with her, Sana buys one too and ends up giving it to Hinako, who accepts it in classic tsundere style.

One day, after parting ways, Hinako continues to follow Sana and Aoi toward their house, saying that she needs to talk to Sana about something important. Sana invites her to his apartment but unconsciously start to change clothes despite Hinako being there as well. Stopping to listen to Hinako’s important news, Sana is shocked and amused as it turns out Hinako is in love with Shuu. Seeing Sana laughing, Hinako gets up to leave, causing Sana to hurriedly try to stop her, he ends up tripping on the table and falling on top of her. Right on cue, Aoi walks in to see a half undressed Sana towering over Hinako and assumes the worst (RAEP TIEM!)

When the two explain the situation to Aoi, she apologizes for jumping to conclusions. Back to the topic, Sana understands Hinako’s feelings, but thinks the age difference really is too big. But Aoi rises up and declares that age and gender are irrelevant in love. Setting aside the gender part, Hinako is glad to have some support from Aoi, going as far as calling her onee-sama. And so the plans to help Hinako win over Shuu begin.

since knowing is half the battle, the obvious method to follow is to use Sana to figure out what Shuu looks for in a girl and tailor Hinako to his expectations. Sana’s first reconnaissance reveals that Shuu, like many other guys, is all about the breasts. Hinako lacking a bit in that department, seeks help from Aoi, but she says that hers just grew large naturally during middle school without any special tricks and suggests maybe asking her mom. This leads to Sana having to sit through a very awkward conversation on various methods of breast augmentation.

With that option out, Sana goes back for more info, this time Shuu says that cooking is also important, saying that a girl should at least know the basics. However, this doesn’t turn out well either, despite Aoi’s sincere efforts to teach Hinako to cook, all she can manage is the all too familiar purple fuming death curry, a signature dish of bad anime cooks everywhere, but that doesn’t stop her from shoving it down Sana’s throat anyways.

Sana’s last attempt reveals that Shuu happens to like girls who are soft spoken and calm. Hinako gives it a shot, but Shuu ends up telling her to act more like her cheerful self, because after all, kids should be cheerful. With all plans having failed, Aoi’s last recommendation is a straight up confession, but having cited what looks like a manga as her reference “love bible”, Hinako isn’t so sure about Aoi’s advice anymore…

But nevertheless, Aoi goes ahead and details the plan: Sana is to lure Shuu out to an aquarium (just the two of them) while trying not radiate gay vibes, and there, Hinako is to ‘coincidentally’ bump into them. Despite some painfully bad acting and suspicious behavior, the plan goes through and Shuu unquestioningly falls for it. While things look good, Sana sneaks away and turns his cell phone off, leaving the two alone.

After lunch, they meet up again and both sides apologize for losing each other and spending the day apart. Sana notices that Hinako is acting subdued and is unusually silent, taking it as a sign that things didn’t go so well, he suggests that they go home.

On their way home, Hinako puts a strong front to Sana, saying that he doesn’t need to pity her, that she isn’t sad because despite getting rejected, Shuu finally started looking at her as an adult. But Sana can tell that she’s ready to breakdown any minute. He gives her a hug and tells her that it’s okay to cry, that even adults cry when they have their hearts broken.

Afterwards, back at his house, Sana goes through the usual phone call with his mom, reassuring her that everything is going fine. With Hinako’s rejection on his mind, he asks his mom if she ever confessed to anyone before, misleading her into thinking that he found a girl he likes, which he profusely denies.

Thoughts

A surprisingly good episode, in my opinion. It was nice to see that they’re not afraid to introduce new characters and take some time to integrate them into the cast. Just as long as they don’t overdo it, I happen to like large casts over small ones, but Myself; Yourself only has 13 episodes to work with, they need to get working on the main storyline quickly, or else face a rushed ending, or even worse, the dreaded open ended ending D=

I lol’d when Shuu was describing his perfect woman and the description ending up being the polar opposite of his sister Shuri. When he started staring at her when Sana first asked, I got major siscon vibes, but that was quickly shattered as he proceeded to look for qualities exactly opposite her personality. Personally, I’d totally go for her…and by her I mean her voice…and by her voice I mean Nanoha…and by Nanoha, I really mean Feito-chan.

As for Hinako herself, she’s kind of a ‘meh’ character for me. By all rights she should be just my type in terms of anime girls, she’s a loli (in its truest meaning) and a pseudo-tsundere. But I dunno…the way it all comes together felt way too generic, and that’s saying a lot, since Myself; Yourself is a generic series to begin with. I can’t say she’s a carbon copy of other series’ characters, but her personality thus far had little that set her apart. While this is vastly true for the rest of the cast of Myself; Yourself, only in Hinako did I find it noticeable enough to be more or less uncaring to her.

Since this was a rather tangential episode, we didn’t get much info as to where the plot is going, but from the continuing phone calls, I’m still standing by my Sana is suicidal theory. I’ve never met anyone with parents overprotective enough to call their kids EVERY SINGLE DAY. But if I’m right, it begs the question: Why send your suicidal son to live on his own?

One thing this episode was sorely lacking in was Nanaka screentime, if I recall correctly, she didn’t have a single line this episode. That’s just wrong. So to make up for it…

Nanaka miko! Oh God the Chikane vibes I got from the preview shot were awesome, I need to rewatch Kannazuki. The preview for next week’s episode was weird, it felt like something more suited for Higurashi rather than Myself; Yourself. I highly doubt they’d veer off in that direction though, so my guess is that next week will be a festival episode with Nanaka putting on one of those traditional priestess dance things. Which means lots of Nanaka screentime to compensate for the complete lack of it this episode.

Just as planned.

~ Shirukii ~

Deredere Nanaka = love

Myself; Yourself continues to impress me in that it follows nearly every typical harem convention to the letter, but remains interesting and doesn’t give me the feeling I’m watching a copypasta of say, Shuffle.

Lots of development in the NanakaXSana relationship this episode, as well as some hints to Sana’s past (CRAAAAWLING IN MY SKIIIIIN). And of course, some fanservice.

Episode Rating: 9/10

While doing some exercise, Shuu and Shuri think about what to do with Sana and Nanaka, as everything seems to be going wrong between the two. The next day at school they reveal their plan, a trip to the river where the five of them used to hang out a lot at as kids and a trip to the newly opened spa afterwards. Aoi offers to make lunch for the trip but Shuu insists that he’ll reel in a ton of fish at the lake and all that will be needed is some tea and rice balls.

As the four of them head back inside after lunch, Nanaka is sitting in the classroom when a couple of students horsing around bump into her, making her drop her mirror. When Sana walks into the class, busy talking to everyone else, he ends up stepping on it by accident. He apologizes profusely but gets the usual cold attitude from Nanaka, who says that it wasn’t particularly expensive anyways and walks off. To make things between them even worse, Nanaka spots Sana in the shopping district that day after school, with Hoshino of all people.

But the next day, Sana redeems himself by giving Nanaka a new mirror to replace the one he broke. Not only that, but it also helps relieve Nanaka’s jealousy when she realizes that the reason Sana and Hoshino were together yesterday was he was shopping for the mirror. Shuu and Shuri take advantage of Nanaka’s positive mood and invite her to the trip.

That night, Nanaka admires the mirror that Sana bought her while reminiscing about their past visits to the river and how she made cookies for everyone when they went one time, eventually deciding to make the cookies again even though it’s been a while.

However, Nanaka’s change in heart doesn’t last long as the next day when everyone gathers and is ready to set off, Sana tells them that he happened to invite Hoshino along as well, much to the annoyance of Nanaka and the dismay of Shuri. Things get even worse when Hoshino pulls out the exact same mirror as Sana bought Nanaka, telling Shuri that Sana bought it for her when shopping the other day for helping him choose one out for Nanaka. Nanaka overhears this and goes back into ice queen mode while Sana has no idea of the mess he’s just made, casually laughing it up with Shuu.

Once they get to the river, it doesn’t take long for nostalgia bombs to start pouring in, as Shuu remembers one time when they visited and Sana tried to start a fire by rubbing wood together. When Shuu sets up to start fishing, Sana pulls out the lure that he gave him before leaving and tells him to put that on his fishing rod. Shuu is surprised to see Sana kept everything from five years ago so well, even Shuri’s one sided glove. Aoi is disappointed that her present wasn’t a longer lasting one, a cake being gone forever once it’s eaten, but Sana says that no matter how long gone the gift, the memory still remains, causing Nanaka to remember the song she wrote him. The all laugh at Sana for being so lamely conceited with his speech and go back to fishing.

Sana and Shuu try to teach Aoi to fish, but it ends up in disaster. Aoi manages to hook the back of her skirt when she goes to cast her line and exposes her pantsu when she goes to cast. At the same time Sana hooks a fish and the whole mess results in a back and forth of Shuu yelling at Sana to pull his line, Sana yelling at Aoi to not pull hers and poor Aoi confused in between the two.

After all the fishing, it turns out Shuu’s big talk about his fishing confidence stayed just talk, as they only manage to catch one fish between the three of them, Sana being the one who reeled it in. But fortunately, Aoi didn’t trust in Shuu’s fishing abilities and brought along some meat for the barbecue, preserving the trip but destroying Shuu’s confidence, knowing that Aoi didn’t believe in his fishing ability.

When preparing the barbecue, Hoshino guts and cleans the fish that Sana caught, but when Sana sees the blood on the knife she’s using he has a panic attack and funs off to calm down. While recovering, he finds a shiny rock along the riverside and pockets it before Shuri finds him and drags him back to help prepare lunch. The six of them, Shuu in particular (despite not having contributed much) enjoy Aoi’s barbecue, Aoi helping the cause and giving the fish Sana caught to Nanaka. After eating, Shuu notes that some dessert would make things perfect, Nanaka goes to get her cookies but stops when Hoshino runs to her bag and brings out a…pie? flan?…dessert of some sort, and after seeing how impressed everyone is with it, Nanaka decides not to show them her cookies.

Next up is the spa part of the trip, being more of an indoor pool than just a spa. This leads to the classic bathing suit revelations and oppai comparisons for the guys. Aoi dominates the group with her massive chest, Hoshino being surprisingly well endowed herself, and Shuri, realizing her inadequacy, apologizing for being a consolation in the contest. As for Nanaka, it’s not so much her endowment that stands out when she comes out of the changing room, rather the focus is on her swimsuit, not having any others, she uses a school swimsuit. Which is fine too :3

After everyone is pretty much done playing around in the pool, the group sits down to rest a bit when Shuu notices that Sana is awfully attached to his wristwatch, not even taking it off to swim. Sana says that it’s fine because it’s water proof and refuses to take it off to let Shuu see it. Shuu suggests that maybe it’s a present from a girl, that’s why he won’t take it off. Hearing that, Nanaka excuses herself to go swim some more and Shuu gets a kick in the shin and a stare down from his sis.

With the day over, the group splits off leaving Nanaka, Aoi and Sana heading the opposite way from the rest. Suddenly, Aoi brings up their past visits to river again and remembers that the day after Sana couldn’t get the fire started that Nanaka shared some cookies, recalling how delicious they were and how she’d love to eat them again. So imagine their surprise when Nanaka tells them that she actually made some. The three of them end up going to Aoi’s house to eat the cookies and have some tea, although Nanaka says she’s not confident the cookies will taste good, Sana and Aoi love them and devour the entire plate. As a way of saying thanks, Sana pulls out the rock he found at the river and gives it to Nanaka. Aoi thinks it’s pretty and wants one too, but Sana apologizes, saying he only found one and that it’s not something to be too thankful for anyways, but Nanaka is happy anyways, having gotten a present from Sana just for herself. She spends the night admiring the rock, which unlike the mirror, is unique to her.

Meanwhile, back at Sana’s house, he gets another call from his mom, checking up on him. But instead of his usually dreary tone when she calls, he sounds a lot more lively this time, something which his mom picks up on and wonders if something good happened to him…

Thoughts

Crank up the Linkin Park (or for the indie kids: Rites of Spring, Sunny Day Real Estate, Texas is the Reason, etc.) and sharpen your razors, Sana is, or at least was, an emo kid.

Or so goes my theory, which is pretty elementary and obvious when you look at the events of the episode. First off is when Sana sees the blood from Hoshino cleaning his fish, he gets all queasy at the sight of it and runs off to calm down, all while sporting a pretty melancholic expression.

And then there was the whole wristwatch business, Sana’s refusal to take it off suggests that he might be hiding something, and it’s quite clear that Sana is your typical dense male harem lead, so it’s definitely not a girl as Shuu suggested. More likely is that there are scars from him trying to kill himself hiding under that watch.

Finally, it explains Sana’s mom frequently calling Sana to make sure he’s going to school, eating properly, etc. She’s checking to see that her baby hasn’t tried to off himself again. The whole point of Sana coming back to his hometown may have been to try and cheer him up and lift him out of depression.

Seems to be working too, as he seems happy to be back with his friends. And then there’s the whole thing with Nanaka that will probably get rolling soon, since it’s painfully obvious that she is and always has been in love with the guy. Her behaviour is typical tsundere and I love it! Seeing her reduced to a blushing mess poking at the stone Sana gave her was so much win.

Although, I think her ice queen nature is a little harsh. Take for example when Shuu jokingly suggested that Sana’s watch may have been a present from a girl. It was a pretty harmless and common joke, but Nanaka took it way too seriously, walking off without waiting for Sana’s response, or for him to realize why she was mad for that matter. It’s tolerable at this point and heavily overshadowed by her AWESOME deredere, but I just hope Nanaka doesn’t ruin herself by going Suzuka level ice queed (read: bitch).

On that note, I hope the other vertex of this love triangle doesn’t just take it and play dead, Hoshino needs to put up a fight. It’s all well and good when your pick, in my case Nanaka, wins, but it’s even more satisfying when she overcomes a boatload of drama and rivalry to do so. Nanaka ftw, but some competition from Hoshino would make it that much better.

Then again, that all hinges on Sana realizing that they’re in love with him, which he doesn’t seem to be aware of yet. He’s not the densest of harem leads I’ve ever seen, but inviting Hoshino along when Nanaka gave so many hints that she doesn’t like her was pretty stupid, as was buying the same mirror for her. Meh, he’ll figure it out eventually, they all do.

As for Aoi, she’s just been reduced to the fanservice/gag character. The fishing scene was proof positive and they carried the momentum by highlighting her healthiness in the swimsuit lineup. Everything about her relegates her to the position of fanservice ammo, the meganekko, large breasts, childish personality, superior cooking skills, the list goes on. For the few of you out there praying on the faint chance of an Aoi victory, don’t get your hopes up. I still can’t get the image of Azu’s Chiyo out of my head when she talks anyways.

I don’t know how it’s managing to do it, but Myself; Yourself is really winning me over, despite belonging to a genre which I have by all rights overkilled to hell and back. But I guess I shouldn’t be complaining about enjoying a show, haha. It probably has to do a lot with Nanaka, who is one of my favourite chars this season, at this point being below only Clannad’s Kyou and maybe DCII’s own Nanaka, depending on how much screentime she gets.

Lastly, sorry for the lateness of this entry, midterms > me.

*awaits the inevitable meme-gasm*

~ Shirukii ~