Ano Natsu de Matteru – 08
“First the beach and now a festival …”
“… Hot springs next, okay?”
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Ano Natsu has made it to the top of my list of shows I look forward to watching each week. It only makes me sadder to think we’re two-thirds of the way done already though! I’m going to be a wreck when it’s all over. |
Now back from their Okinawa adventure, both Kaito and Ichika are lost in thought about their almost-kiss. Kaito accidentally knocks down a picture of the group and notices Kanna’s innocent glare. In her room, Ichika attempts to access the terminal (Is that what that crazy thing is called?), but fails to do so when Rinon doesn’t appear. Stressed out of his little round head aboard Ichika’s spaceship, Rinon tries to get sudden warnings under control.
Yup, looks like a quality action film to me.
New Mio, new ‘do.
Kaito watches a short clip of their film, but it makes little to no sense what with the MIA, a giant dinosaur, and badly timed sound affects. At least they tried, right? Ichika brings Tetsurou and him some drinks, and under Tetsurou’s watchful eye he notices a bit of awkwardness between the two housemates. Outside, Ichika finds a tired Rinon and questions him, to no avail. He sneaks away while she looks at a shirt from the trip.
Downstairs Kaito spills the information about what happened between Ichika and him, but Tetsurou still wants to get him together with Kanna. (Or rather, wants to know if there’s any chance between them?) Kanna and Mio arrive on cue and the boys are surprised to see Mio sporting a new shorter, confident haircut. After some compliments Ichika invites them in for some refreshing ice cream and Mio secretly tells Tetsurou she came prepared this time … you know, down below.
I’m honestly worried about what else could possibly be in this notebook.
At a nearby cafe Remon meets up with Manami, Tetsurou’s sister. It’s revealed that they know each other from some time ago, and may have even gone to high school together. (“You’re still in high school?” is a pretty sketchy question after all.) Remon shows her a chart of the love interests in the group and then enlists her help in an unannounced plan.
Walking home Kanna and Tetsurou chat about Mio’s new appearance, and the new confidence that came with it. Afterwards, Kanna says she’s excited for the upcoming festival. While looking over some old film, Kaito notices a strange light in the pictures from the night he was first saved. Before he gets any farther however he is called down for food. Back aboard the spaceship Rinon is faced with a new dilemma.
At the festival the group meets up, minus Remon, and Kanna feels a bit down after seeing how Ichika looks in her yukata. Ichika gets to experience lots of new “Mwunderful!” things, like traditional food and catching goldfish. From the depths of hell From out of nowhere Remon appears, she announces that it’s time for the test of courage! The six of them split into pairs by random draw, which end up being Tetsurou/Mio, Kanna/Kaito, and Remon/Ichika. (I’d ship it.)
I lost my courage at about this point …
… and then this happened and I lost it all over again.
Each of the pairs wander up the rocky path to the temple, their target. Kanna expects something good to happen with Kaito and Mio is already scared out of her mind, meanwhile Remon sneaks away from Ichika and pulls out her camera. Mio and Tetsurou make it to the temple first, but they soon find their not alone. A strange apparition, aka Manami, appears and scares them. The two fall over and end up with their lips locked. Manami reveals herself to a now annoyed Tetsurou as Remon gets the whole thing on film.
Kanna begins a, most likely, confession but can’t get the words out. Ichika suddenly screams and Kaito runs off to find her, leaving Kanna behind with the flashlight. Rinon appears to Ichika and reveals that a distress signal was called, and out of the sky a rescue pod appears to take Ichika back. Kaito appears and helps Ichika escape. They near a cliff and Ichika warns Kaito to run, but he stays and fights against the rescue pod. It throws him off the cliff, but Rinon saves him with Rinna, a small flying vehicle. They fly Rinna straight into the pod as Kaito jumps off to cover Ichika. They land on the ground, but Kaito is surrounded in blood, wounded (or possibly killed, I suppose) by the impact.
Ichika saves Kaito once again using the same technique she used many episodes back. The rescue pod deactivates, destroyed during the impact. The group runs up to where Ichika and Kaito, who is now healed, are and Remon films them as Ichika apologies over and over.
Preview: With Ichika’s secrets out in the open, how will her everyday life change?
Ano Natsu has been so eventful these last couple weeks and I love it! It’s about time we revisited the supernatural aspect of the show and they did a wonderful job of blending it with the romance side. Though things are looking more and more bleak for Kanna, I think I’ve found a newly sparked interest in the Ichika/Kaito relationship. For me it hasn’t really been a driving force in the show so far, but it’s nice to see Ichika finally trying to be honest with her feelings and Kaito being more assertive and direct.
With Ichika’s secret out in the open things should definitely pick up in the coming weeks. With the “federation” hot on her tail it’ll be interesting to see how far they’ll go to get Ichika back, perhaps even sending another person from wherever Ichika came from. Ano Natsu might not be an “action” series, but the fight between the pod and Kaito/Rinon was surprisingly impressive. With all these new supernatural developments, I’m really hoping for some light to be shed on Ichika’s story, like what her home planet is like and why she’s so dedicated to finding that special place.
I don’t understand Remon anymore … at all. I mean, I never really did, but now we learn she might be older than we thought, like close to Manami’s age if it’s true that they went to high school together. The special uniform has always been weird enough, but what is she doing hanging around high school, and how does she not get in trouble for being there or for wearing the uniform in the first place? Ugh, the producers must REALLY want us to have to keep guessing!
Mio and Tetsurou did a good job of stealing like 2/3 of this episode for me, I’m completely infatuated with their relationship. Every week something happens to make me want to ship them even harder, this week being the “kiss”. I want them to be together so bad, but then where does that leave Kanna? I’m torn! Speaking of Kanna, that poor girl, when Kaito ran off during the middle of her confession my heart sank. I just want her to be happy, but nothing seems to ever go her way …
I’m so caught up in this show it’s crazy. I love watching the relationships develop and the whole alien concept makes it like 10x more interesting as well. Ano Natsu is definitely not your typical romance, though I’m speaking from only a few years of experience here, but yeah, no romance show has ever made me feel so involved as a viewer, except for maybe Toradora and Nana.
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
So Remon is a space alien, vampire, or some other creature that doesn’t age? I definitely didn’t see that coming. Still the best character in the show, though.
POWUH: 700-799 and Horror Expert with 701 comments
That would be a pretty big twist if she was an alien like Ichika. Ah Monday needs to come sooner! (Wow, I can’t believe I just said that …)
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Finally they’ve gotten to the alien part of the story. The slice of life part was alright but it was time for things to start developing. Adding the supernatural element, mainly the temple and the test of courage, to the episode was a big plus as well. What’s going to happen now that Ichika’s secret is out of the bag?
It’s interesting that Tetsurou is still trying to deal with Mio after her brave confession. I actually don’t agree with Mio’s new hairdo. She almost looks like Lemon now. I like it when a character has her own unique thing going on. But I will say she is still pretty damn cute.
Lemon, or more commonly known as the anti-christ. She’s always up to something, and usually it’s no good. This time was no exception, but only this time she had Tetsurou’s sister to help her. My god, those two make a deadly combo when it comes to screwing up people’s everyday lives.
About Lemon, after her talk with Tetsurou’s sister, it’s safe to start suspecting that she’s not even human. Stating that she’s an eternally 17 year old girl (Thanks to Joojoobees’s suggestions, I’m beginning to consider them. LOL. Thanks). Moreover by her stories for the movie that’s sharply similar to Ichika’s situation.
Who wouldn’t want to ship Kaito and Ichika or Tetsurou and Mio even further? Their relationship is too great to resist. Though I can’t help but feel sorry for Kanna being dropped by Kaito like that. She’s always being overshadowed by Ichika.
POWUH: 700-799 and Horror Expert with 701 comments
“anti-christ” ahaha that’s good! XD I’ve always kind of had a suspicion of Remon ever since seeing that uniform, but it seems like it might all be building up to something really strange. All the little hints we’ve been getting have to add up to something right?
Kanna’s situation is pretty sad huh. I always feel bad when Ichika interrupts her moments with Kaito because I want to see her happy like the others. ):
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
During the first couple of episodes, I didn’t really like Ano Natsu that much… but now I’m actually enjoying it more and more. It was too soon of me to judge and I know I shouldn’t have but one thing I still gripe over (though I try not to think about it whenever I watch Ano Natsu) is Rinnon who’s obviously a weird creature and even in this episode, it was floating pass Ichika and NOTHING HAPPENED like it was all ordinary. Even in the past few episodes, everyone knocks off Rinnon as some ordinary pet… did I miss an episode? Was there something I didn’t see that made them all think it was a normal pet after being suspicious? I don’t understand anymore… OTL
POWUH: 700-799 and Horror Expert with 701 comments
I’m glad you’re enjoying it now! I felt about the same in the beginning, sort of iffy on the show, but like you I’ve also warmed up to it over the weeks.
I’ve never gotten that either! I guess the producers want us to suspend our disbelief with Rinon, it still feels weird how accepting they are though. The first time everyone saw him/her they were drunk with Dynamite Drink, maybe that has something to do with it? XD
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
Since the Director of Toradora and Ano Hana working on along with the creator of Onegai Teacher.
That moment , when you realize that lemon-sempai is actually wearing the summer uniform from onegai sensei. And what If Lemon was Morino Ichigo . XD Ichigo pretended to be 15 when she’s actually 21. Oh yeah, and she also has a camera with her And the fact that Lemon and ichigo share the same VA ( Yukari Tamura )
And what if Ichika was the daugther of Kei and Mizuho. XD
POWUH: 700-799 and Horror Expert with 701 comments
ahhh I just realized that!! You just blew my mind. XD I’ve only seen promotional art of Onegai Teacher, but I felt like I had seen it before. Now I know, thanks!
So many similarities, thanks for bringing them up. ;D I think I might go download Onegai Teacher now …
POWUH: 400-499 with 428 comments
Yay, the secret’s come out, and in spectacular fashion! Nothing like an interstellar emergency lifeboat POKEMON to just crash on your heads to reveal your senpai actually came from outer space!
Touche, the Rinna aircraft piloted by Rinon crashing into the Pokemon lifeboat was another major hint but we digress, no?
Ah, not gonna lie, I thought when the ep started it was going to be the festival episode, when Lemon comes out of nowhere and decides to have a test of courage! Tetsurou and Mio are definitely paired up from this point now, even though Manami kind of ruined the moment (thanks sis!) but Kanna still got left out, and from Kaito’s sudden dash towards Ichika’s scream, I think at this point she’ll probably see that he’s not going to give her the kind of attention she wants, 🙁 *insert Forever Alone meme here*
Ugh, next week can’t come soon enough but now uni life is messing my anime schedule!
POWUH: 700-799 and Horror Expert with 701 comments
I thought it looked like a Pokemon too! XD (Beats any of the new gen imo …) It was quite the surprise, but I’m glad there’s one less secret now.
Yeah, poor Kanna. )= I don’t think she’s the type of person to just flat out give up though. Hopefully there’s still some fight in her!
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 323 comments
hell yeah !!! festival episode alway’s the best
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Yeah!! It certainly beats beach episodes.
POWUH: 700-799 and Horror Expert with 701 comments
Festival episodes always turn out great! That’s why I love them.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Something happened that few are commenting on. Yes, Lemon is awesome in so many ways, but in this episode, she shows some different colors.
After the big action scene (“How many times have you died?…said by wrong character to the wrong character), when the rest of the gang catches up. Lemon is the last one in. What is her first reaction? Put it on film. She’s already shown to be a big camera nut, that is obvious. And she also acts in that creepy, yet entertaining, way. But, that camera of hers, between herself and her “friends” may be a bit telling about her personality. That that detached exterior, may go to the interior.
I could be reading more into it than there is, so I’m sure one of you will discuss that.
POWUH: 700-799 and Horror Expert with 701 comments
I personally thought her actions towards the end were a little cold, rather than comforting or even questioning what happens she immediately pulls out her camera. I like what you said about her exterior being a reflection of her interior, though I worry what the intentions behind that are. Oh Remon, you’re so hard to read! XD
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 144 comments
Actually, I thought Remon looked unhappy. Whether this be because it’s something that didn’t go according to her “master plan,” or if she thought it was just unfortunate to happen like this, I have no idea.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Hooorayyyy! Things are starting to get out in the open! Finally Kaito will learn the truth behind Ichika…I don’t see Kaito freaking out to much about this or maybe he will?
Lemon! Fufufufu you sneaky girl! Maybe she knew Ichika was an alien all along? She is sneaky enough to figure that out xD
Mio and Tetsurou <3 <3 <3 Best couple <3
POWUH: 700-799 and Horror Expert with 701 comments
Kaito freak out? Hm, I know I’d freak out if I found out my friend was an alien. XD We shall see soon enough!
I wouldn’t be surprised if Remon knew, there seems to be a lot of speculation going around that she might be an alien too … I’m not sure how shocking that’d be though. >_<
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
Ano Natsu is basically a re-imagination of Onegai Teacher. It’s by the same producer and many characters between the series are almost identical or very similar, not to mention the plot is pretty much the same. If you love Ano Natsu, you’ll love Onegai Teacher.
I’m sure this has been mentioned before, but I’m a first-time reader here… so don’t get mad at me for repeating what 100 other people have probably already pointed out.
POWUH: 700-799 and Horror Expert with 701 comments
First-time reader? Ah welcome to Metanorn! I hope you’ll stick around, the site is really amazing and covers like … everything! XD There’s lots of discussion to be had as well, which is always nice.
I’m definitely going to be watching Onegai Teacher in the near future, I’ve heard a lot about the similarities and I want to see them for myself. (As soon as I finish all those shows on my back-log that is … >_<)