Urara Meirochou – 05
Sweet Sake Goggles
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I was so looking forward to some big time exposition from Doom Bunny! Or whatever animal it turns out to be, if it even turns out to be much of anything corporeal. The kami move in mysterious ways, after all… |
Kimono & Sake & Kami
“Let grown-ups do the drinking. We’ll just enjoy the smell”
I think the above caption captures the feel of the first part of this story quite well. The Wedding Kimono Festival, at one point in the past, has had a great many sacred traditions attached to it – and still does more than likely. But when it comes to our younger main characters, the stories of gods, matrimony, and fancy kimono are more for their training, as both urara and as people, than it is for finding a husband and settling down. Given how the story changed gears from the comedic to the semi-serious by the middle, it’s safe to say that the idea of weddings, in this context, are more metaphorical than actual as well. The joining of the mysterious and the everyday. Which is probably more everyday than we think. While life has many huge mysteries left in it, it’s the little ones that have the most life to them in so many ways. Which doesn’t mean we can’t go big. So any guess as to who the not-rabbit, not-fox thingy was? My guess is that is’a wild sort of kami that wants to make it’s presence known to mortals, and Chiya is it’s chosen emissary. But I guess time will tell on that one…
“Only the urara chosen by the gods can see their form which cannot be seen”
So after all the hijinks at the festival and Chiya passing out on the hill above town, it’s lucky she has both Captain Saku and Nina, in addition to her three friends, to rely on. But while they were very worried about her given her sudden absence and sleepy time, Chiya still has that odd visitation and the barely heard voice haunting her thoughts to a degree. But before that can be brought to much more, she has one more first in this new life to contend with – an anime cold, which proves that she’s no baka. Now this only serves to have the rest of the girls pitch in to take care of her, drawing their circle ever closer; Kon growing closer to how she feels about her mother, when mothering her sick change. But it also gives us a bit of a break in the story process as well. The big mystery is there for another day. That leaves Kon and Nina to contemplate what it was that Chiya said that saw and heard, both of them gathering on the hill to discuss it – the ever diligent student, and her new sensei. But even they admit, that will all their study, alone or with each other, the future is unwritten, and theirs to grasp. Even if they solve the big mysteries, the little ones will still be there to give them some degree of meaning.
You know, I always knew this show wouldn’t depend to much on a driven plot or exposition, so my initial surprise reaction above was a bit of a ruse. Urara excels when it does exactly what it wants to do and needs to do, and that’s to take it one step at a time, feeling it out bit by bit, and making the characters come alive in the small ways.
Answering that age old question…”who’s a good girl!?”
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
Just for the record, Sensei’s name is Nina. You’ve got her alternately called “Nana” and “Kana” in this post.
Anyway, it does seem most likely that Chiya saw a kami of some sort, but in the end I don’t expect it to matter. Even if she is chosen by the gods, I still expect her to end up spending her time learning with the others and working her way up, just because that’s the sort of series this is. Girls living their lives and getting up to cute silliness is what it’s all about.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
…Also, how can I possibly be posting comments to quickly, you silly spam filter? This is my first one here today!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Ah, my dreaded two-syllable name switcheroodosky curse is always active…(and I’ve edited the post, so don’t you folks think that Wanderer is picking on me for nothing. I do this all the time!)
I think meeting up with the kami now might be telling us that the status quo will be changing before the show ends, and that will be a good moment of growth for Chiya, and that the girls will help her then as much as they did now. Chiya might even forget that along the way and need to be reminded of it, but like you say, it will have their friendship at it’s core.