Anne Happy – 07
Sometimes you just need to treat yourself to a cute dress
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Sometimes it’s not so hard to make your wishes come true as you might think. |
A Lifestyle Hazard
That towel isn’t going to help much
One of the things that hasn’t really been pointed out, although it’s been omnipresent in the show, is that besides her problems with animals, Hanako also has a problem with water. When she was going to meet Hibari and Botan for their punishment homework, she went through quite a few copies of her outfit by falling in rivers and manholes, and that was in dry weather. So when they get deep into the rainy season, it’s not surprising that this is a time that really tries her. And being so wet is a recipe for getting sick (and certainly getting sick is a staple of anime stories), so it’s not a surprise when Hanako’s knocked down by illness.
Someone’s house seems ominous
Which lets us do another associated staple of anime, the omimai (お見舞い), or visit someone who is ill (not to be confused with the omiai (お見合い), which is when you meet a prospective spouse). Having gotten just about a perfect gift for Hanako in some fresh Strawberry Milk, Hibari and Botan find her house, which should be easy: Follow the gloomy feeling. It’s not a surprise that there’s a dark cloud over the Hanakoizumi household, although it is nice how sunny and warm the inside is, even with the enhanced rain outside.
Let off the hook by Hanako’s mom
Mom is an alum as well, although I don’t know about “Lucky Seven”
Plus, I’ve mentioned before that her mother knows about Anne’s condition and plans for it, including strategically-placed cushions around the house, although they might be as much of a hazard to mom Sakura as they are a help to Anne. And in another little fun tidbit of information, we learn that Sakura also went to Tennomifume Academy and was in Class 7 (do they have legacy admittance?). All of this really helps paint the picture of why mom and daughter have adapted so well to a life of bad luck, and why they keep their spirits up. The visit also lets us have some normal girl fun with Hibari, Botan, and Hanako, who try out all sorts of other cute hairstyles even through their own protests that they are not suitable for them.
The badness outside doesn’t dampen the fun inside (Botan should totally wear that hairstyle)
Rain Rain Go Away
Hibiki and Ren are a lot more prone to joining now
Even though Hanako seemed to be better during their visit, she still doesn’t go to school the next day (and to be honest, it didn’t look like everyone else did, either). But instead of just talking about the weather, the rest of the group, now including Ren and Hibiki, decide to do something about it, at least as much as you can do about the weather. Inspired by Ren, they all make teru teru bozu to try to make the rain go away and hopefully bring their friend back to them. I liked that Hibiki has dropped a lot of her “Well, if I don’t have a choice…” prefacing of remarks and just joins in. She also has quite the handicrafts kit, seemingly more appropriate for a Craftsman toolbox than a cardboard box, and she puts quite the effort into her teru teru bozu to make it look like an oni mask, rather than the usual ghost look, but it’s certainly impressive.
She might be a little bit too proud of it
The others aren’t quite as impressive, with Botan’s version of The Mummy and Ren’s sleeping tissue one, along with appropriating Timothy as a large-scale version. Hibari rounds it out with one that looks like Hanako, although Hibiki’s not wrong when she points out that naming it after Hanako might have the wrong effect. But in the end, they do work, and the next day dawns bright and sunny, and everyone shows up early, hoping that Hanako will make it to school. And even though they forgot to write down their homework wishes for Tanabata, Miss Kodaira rightly points out that actually doing something towards a goal, even if it’s to try to influence the weather with folksy methods, is better than sitting around waiting for a wish to come true.
This was a pretty great episode of Anne Happy, and it was nice to see that the group is together with much less of Hibiki’s resistance to the idea. It feels a lot more like a group of friends, now that she’s not trying to put herself between everyone else and Ren, not only because that makes it seem like she’s relaxed more. Whether she realizes they’re not going to make trouble for Ren, or whether she likes their company, having Hibiki turn it down a couple notches has really helped the group dynamics. It’s also a nice realistic change, as she and Hibari have felt each other out as far as how to react to the other, and have settled into a comfortable spot.
About Highway
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!
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
After watching this episode, I came up with the theory that Anne’s four-leaf-clover hairpin is actually a good luck charm that counteracts the worst of her own terrible luck. Prior to episodes 6 and 7, it seemed like no matter how ridiculous her bad luck was, it never truly caused major harm or had any real significant consequence. And, for that matter, it could sometimes be offset by strange bursts of impossible good luck, like her egg actually hatching into a chick. However, in both the recent episodes, the two times she’s lost her hairpin those rules no longer seemed to apply. Her bad luck suddenly became a lot more serious, and only returned to being something liveable once she put the hairpin back on.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t really think you can say anything more serious than normal happened to Anne this week. She didn’t even catch a cold, just a bit of a fever. And she was over it in 2 days, even if she didn’t go to school the next day due to extra caution (If your daughter has a tendency to get as drenched as possible, you don’t send her out after an illness while it’s still raining).
Getting trapped in the river is more serious, but I don’t know if it’s really out of scope with her usual troubles with water. I just don’t think the show is supernatural enough to have that kind of positive talisman. It’s always seemed that the ‘power spots’ and ‘lucky items’ they’ve had to search for have been firmly tongue-in-cheek. And I still get the feeling that Miss Kodaira thinks that the majority of the class’s “bad luck” is either in their head (like Botan) or their own choice (like Hibari).
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Exaggeration in the visual parts is a hallmark of this director; do you really think the school built a giant elevator to a huge game arena beneath the school. They don’t have NERV money!
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
I don’t get that feeling at all. In fact I’d say all signs point to her believing the exact opposite. Particularly when dealing with Anne.
As for supernatural stuff, this show is completely full of it. Did you not notice a past-expiration egg hatching into a chick? Completely impossible, yet the distorted situation of unluck and luck around Anne made it happen. Anne’s mere presence made the machines attempting to measure her in the physical exam malfunction and freaking attack her. She heard ghosts during the hearing test. She has never once in her life been able to get the correct items out of a vending machine: we saw the one in episode 2 was somehow loaded wrong, but are we supposed to believe that has happened with every vending machine she has ever used? She will always fail tests of probability: rolling a one on dice, getting the last number in a lottery draw, etc. A line of seemingly infinite black cats just showed up out of nowhere in the middle of a mountain trail, just to march in lockstep across her path. Monkies that don’t look like the ones native to Japan showed up randomly to torment her, and a bear; that was insanely kept in a petting zoo; escaped and attacked the group. We can’t judge her journey to school in this episode because it was unintelligible, but the ceiling just happening to break and dump water on her is ridiculous. Particularly since she’s a first-year student: in practically every anime I’ve seen with a multi-story high school, the first-years are on a lower floor, with the second-years above them, and the third-years above them. Anyway, there’s finally the issue of Anne’s house looking like something out of a horror movie.
Those are just a few examples. So if you try to tell me there’s no supernatural in this series I will laugh. This series uses everything, real and unreal, whatever it needs to have its fun.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
You are arguing a point I did not make. Note the sentence you quoted. It has nothing to do with Anne. So pointing out instances of Anne’s bad luck is not relevant to the rest of the class, which I still hold to be mostly by choice.
I think you also overstate the things that happen to Anne. I would think that she has definitely gotten what she wants out of a soda machine at least once. I don’t recall her saying that she never does, just that she never knows what she’s going to get. We really don’t know that every die roll is a one. And she was able to use some of the other machines fine. So it’s not that everything goes bad for her. It’s that more things go badly for her than for usual people.
And for me, ‘supernatural’ would indicate that she actually has a cause (be it a ghost or a curse or something) for why she’s so unlucky, instead of it just being the way she is. I don’t know if there’s enough to say that’s what happens, and I think that that unnecessarily limits what would happen to Anne. I think it’s better to just go along with the idea that suboptimal things happen when we are watching her (an amount that is far less than all of the time).
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…also, saying it’s supernatural doesn’t really explain anything does it? Nor does it provide for a character arc beyond “oh she’s haunted, let’s stay away from her”. I think all the stuff can be easily seen as falling under both artistic license and creative exaggeration.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
Someone please tell Spammy that just because I make a long post that doesn’t automatically make it spam.
And while you’re there could you retrieve it for me? I’d be grateful.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 261 comments
Gee, No wonder Anne/Hanako had inherit the “Terrible Luck” from her mother…well, Fair Enough
Now i was wondering of Kumegawa Botan…is her “terrible Health” had been inherit to her mom just as the same as Hanakoizumi’s…>:)