Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru – 07
The only time he’ll ever be between those legs!
Considering that you can go on a date with a skeleton in the game Undertale, I wonder if Sakurako would be into playing it? I guess not since her only interests are assembling bones and eating sweets. Although I wonder what else she does to pass the time since she’s always alone…Maybe she knits little sweaters for her cat skeleton?
This week’s money shot
I’m a lot more excited about this mystery than the previous, festival one. This is largely because Sakurako is front row and centre in this case. This is a straight-up bones mystery involving nothing but a pile of bones, so there has never been a task more blatantly tailored to her talents. I thought analyzing dead bodies was already a direct translation of her skill set, but now she’s literally going through models that are just like the ones she assembles at home. So while we’re still far from the finale, I get the feeling such a conveniently-themed episode will actually be the start of a pivotal mystery of the series. It looks like we’re about to find a lot about who Sakurako truly is and the demons that haunt her.
Whoa, that look says there are a lot of demons in there…
Oddly enough, the main focus here isn’t really the cremated skeleton or finding out what the now-deceased teacher wanted to do with all these specimens. It’s mostly about figuring out what the hell Sakurako is thinking. This is the first time Shoutarou and Sakurako have had a major argument, and I’m a glad to see a little friction between the two. Thus far, Sakurako has been able to get away with whatever she wants just by shooting Shoutarou a demanding look or just acting through brute force before he can stop her. Shoutarou is a bit of a doormat in that he does whatever he’s told and never questions others much, so it was nice to see him stand up for his beliefs. By calling out Sakurako for being so callous about her pet cat, Ulna, we can now see how Sakurako will react to being essentially called a heartless robot.
The thing is, I don’t think Sakurako is as cold as Shoutarou sees her. She is just wary of getting close to others and bad at expressing her true emotions. Throughout the series, she has demonstrated a fine-tuned sense of empathy and care for other people and their emotions. She may do brash things, but that is almost always counteracted by her doing something sweet a second later. I think the same thing applies to Ulna’s death. The flashback showed Sakurako looking absolutely distraught, clutching Ulna to her chest. Presumably, she wanted to bury her cat under the tree in her backyard, but simply couldn’t muster up the courage to do so. Perhaps burying your loved one means admitting they are dead and gone forever. That’s not a pleasant thing to accept. Preserving their bones as a figurine means they are still with you in physical form, even if that physical form is clearly not alive. I think this may be why the biology room human skeleton was kept close at hand – he couldn’t shoulder the pain of burying someone he cared for.
Sakurako clearly still has issues to resolve. I wouldn’t say she’s in denial of Ulna and Soutarou being dead, but it seems like she tries to cut off her emotions as much as possible so she won’t mourn for them. Sakurako is an emotional person who distances herself precisely because she is hurt so easily. She literally shuts out Shoutarou after they have their talk, likely because stirring up those old memories actually did make her a little sad. I love learning more about Sakurako and her strange obsession with bones, because it seems more and more like an unhealthy hobby the more I see.
Aside from some nice Sakurako drama, we do have the start of a nice mystery on our hands. Like I said…Straight-up boxes full of bones given to a girl who is a bone expert…you can’t go wrong. It also looks like Sakurako is pulling out the big guns here, going to her uncle for an investigative edge. What I didn’t realize was that he was in some sort of comatose state, which gave me a mild pang of sadness. Sakurako really has hardly anyone to look after her except Shoutarou.
Oh and the school festival stuff was dumb but tolerable because watching Sakurako have a food orgasm over pancakes was cute.
Nothing quite like a pancakes from a butler
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I thought Shoutarou was being an ass. It felt like he was being very high and mighty about Sakurako’s treatment of her cat, but there was nothing wrong with what she did, imo. Why is a grave better than a display? I know that Shoutarou has some sort of hangup about displayed bones (and that a lot of people do), but to me, that was a loving presentation.
I know most people don’t want to think about what’s under our skin, that people and animals are meat and blood and bones and goo and schmutz and squick. But there’s value in facing that, in realizing what makes everyone tick.
I’m sure there was some sort of connection between the school teacher and Sakurako’s upbringing and current life, and I’m interested to see where we’re going.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Yeah, this was gonna be the tone of my comment as well. But, “what Highway said,” plus a bit more. I thought they oversold Shoutarou’s distance. I mean, sure, be creeped out by the bones and such, but to assume that there is something “wrong” with her was really prickish of him; unless that will form the foundation of his later character arc…
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Eh, I still don’t think he overstepped his boundaries. He stated his opinion and Sakurako didn’t really…respond. Or defend herself. She could have very easily told him why she did what she did much in the same way you described there being nothing wrong with having a rad skeleton cat display. I think he would be less creeped out by it if she didn’t respond like a serial killer would with blank looks and silent cat skull petting. :/
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
But did she really have to explain herself to him? Ulna was her cat and it was her decision of what to do with it after it died. There are people who keep the ashes of one or both parents in an urn on the mantel. Is keeping the skeleton of a pet cat worse? Is it because you’re looking at its bones while the ashes are out of sight in an urn? Although perhaps his attitude is more akin to how most Japanese feel about those who’ve died and that explains his reaction.
I think Sakurako keeping Ulna’s skeleton was her way of keeping her beloved pet with her. She acts cold about it because it’s too painful for her otherwise.
By now Shoutarou has to know what she’s like so his freaking out about her reaction to bones (and this hasn’t been the first time) seems unrealistic. By now he should either be able to accept her attitude towards bones and death or if he’s freaked out by it he should have left her, no matter how fascinated he is by her and yes, he’s also sexually attracted no matter how much he denies it even to himself.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
That’s actually reminiscent of Parasyte where Shinichi dumped a recently deceased puppy’s body in the trash, got scolded for it but replied with an emotionless tone and vacant look in his eyes.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Sakurako is indeed a bone magnet. No matter where she goes, there’s always a corpse nearby.
It may sound cold to some but it was annoying watching Shoutarou get emotional over Sakurako making a decision that was hers alone. Dissecting the cat for its bones is her way of remembrance. The act should be less of a concern because the specimen in question is long dead and the dead can’t feel. Even if there are fond memories, they are just that and cannot undo incidents that have already come to pass.
Aside from what the deceased teacher intend which has half of my attention, the other half is on wondering what Sakurako sets out to do in her yet to be elaborated investigation. Other than that, I was taken in by the use technology granted that allowed her to communicate with her supposed uncle in the hospital bed. Sakurako was the only one speaking but got responses through a computer screen. Impressive.
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 38 comments
Honestly, perhaps it’s some sort of cultural thing with Japanese, but Shoutarou was really annoying to me. His reaction made zero sense to me. I might accept a bit schocked, but definitely not angry as he got. However, it was just like the girl last episode: her reaction and jumping to a totally unwarranted conclusion and her constant agressive reaction toward her teacher’s rationalism were totally irritating to me. The worst part was the cop, who also jumped to the same stupid conclusion from the note and the ring, and then started to attack the teacher because he had a different opinion. Really, as Overcooled said, it seems Sakurako is the only interesting character in this show, which makes it get a little too biased to my taste.