HaruChika – 04

HaruChika - anything but that

“People didn’t like last week’s episode?!?! Oh no!”

winter15-highw Last week’s HaruChika was a disappointment. No two ways about it. The question is do they continue the slide? Or do they right the ship, to mix a few metaphors. Let’s take a look!

Getting Back to the Track

HaruChika - how far he's fallen

Oh how the prideful have fallen

So the main verdict is that this episode was a lot better than last week’s. You could say that it would have to be, but it really doesn’t, they could have continued with the same problems as last week. But instead, they went back to the things that worked a lot better, namely Chika and Miyoko. I have liked how Miyoko has become the second-tier character that gets brought along for adventures, but that they haven’t really made a big deal about it. I can guess the reasons for it, such as Miyoko being someone who is more of a contemporary with Chika, but she also provides a nice foil for Chika, being more girly (scared of ghosts, for instance), but has enough personality to hold up her end.

HaruChika - Type R Drift

Nice detail on the Civic Type R, but it’s hard to drift a FWD car that much.
Maybe she uses the handbrake.

This week wasn’t about finding anyone new for the band. It was about putting Haruta indoors. The boy’s quite a bit too prideful, or at least too afraid of being with his sisters. I think at this point, we can safely say that Haruta’s a bit of a drama queen, and sure he might not like the things that his sisters ‘make’ him do, but I’d bet that being at home is nowhere near as bad as he makes it out to be. I sure didn’t have much sympathy for his protests, and it didn’t seem like Chika did either. Plus, when you compare him to people such as Souta Takanashi, he’s got it easy. But he thinks it’s terrible to be there, so he’s decided that living with the chicken coop at the school, at Christmas time, is better than living at home, or even asking for help to find a new place. Minami doesn’t even force him to come home, but instead goes to help him find a new place. And that’s where this week’s Scooby Doo-style mystery comes in.

Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Missing Room

HaruChika - This is quite a prank

This is a hardcore prank

So when they’re trying to find Haruta a new place, they come across one that seems perfect, but has your usual ghost problem. And because of the ghosts they can’t keep any tenants. On top of that, the inheritance taxes are forcing the new owner, Mr. Amano to have to sell it. He was surprised that he inherited it from his prankster uncle in the first place, because while Amano was the uncle’s partner-in-pranks for a while, he had a blowup with him a few years earlier, contributed to by the stress of failing business. And now, with a wife and expecting a child, he just can’t afford the taxes and no tenants. Sounds like the perfect setup for some Haruta Help. The ghosts also make a perfect setup for Chika to wind up Miyoko some, which is just a fun aside.

HaruChika - Great focus

I like that they never focused on the coin

The gist of the show ends up being that the building was specially renovated, and on top of being sound proof, it’s got an odd double-wall construction. And the main purpose of those features was for the uncle to squirrel away his life savings, one 500 yen coin at a time, dropped through a slot (or more) in the third floor. This probably gave the uncle no end of fun when he would scare his tenants away with sounds like a ghost priest’s staff jingling. And after years and years of dropping coins in, there’s quite the nest egg built up, leading to the special will saying that Amano should inherit “all the furniture, furnishings, and precious metals” written on a plan of the place. And the mysterious “Key to the sixth room” is what unlocks this treasure trove.

HaruChika - a sea of silver coins

A sea of silver coins

I have to say that I especially liked the human side to this story, the parts that were conveyed between the words. Far from it being an albatross that the uncle wanted to saddle Amano with, it was a special gift to his favorite nephew and his new bride and child. And I think that the uncle completely understood why Amano was short with him during his period of bad business and life happenings, and never held it against him. To me, that kind of love is wonderful, something that really makes me glad for humanity. Apart from the hassle of dealing with tons of coins, it was a wonderful gift.

HaruChika - oh how unlucky

A minute of heaven for these two?

header-winter15-highw

I also really liked how PA Works handled that last aspect of the show. They didn’t oversell it, they didn’t hammer on it. It was just something that could be understood from the way the story was told. And apart from that, this episode definitely brought back the interplay between Haruta and Chika, bringing her back from the sidelines like she was last week. I also liked the appearance of Minami, who gave a nice counter-argument to Haruta’s melodramatics about his family. So overall, a nice bounceback this week.

About

Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
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5 Responses to “HaruChika – 04”

  1. Wanderer says:

    A shame Japan now has a negative interest rate. He should invest that money overseas before it costs him more than it probably already has.

    • Highway says:

      The interest rate matters little to someone holding cash. The key is the inflation rate, and Japan’s CPI inflation has been almost non-existent, including periods of actual deflation in the mid-2000s. Shoving cash in your mattress, or in this case in your building walls, would be a viable investment strategy in a period of very low inflation, as it holds none of the risks of markets.

  2. skylion says:

    There is a fine line between prankster and arshole; and I think Amano’s uncle may have crossed it one to many times.

    • Highway says:

      I think he probably did. Dumping your guests into the koi pond is probably over that line. But I still think that he thought of Amano with fondness even after he blew up at him.

      • skylion says:

        Yeah, the shouting made him see that line with clarity, but did nothing to curb his eccentricities. Which is pretty awesome, cause Apartment Bank…

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