Flying Witch – 04
Someone had a baaaaaad idea
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Drinking can get you in trouble. |
Sakura Matsuri
See? Everyone takes this picture
It’s always nice when a show that is mostly atmosphere ramps up the atmosphere for a special occasion. Even more so when they use an aside conversation from the previous episode to tie the continuity in to the current episode. After talking about going to the cherry blossom festival last week, this week is the cherry blossom festival, and true to his word, Kei takes Makoto and Chinatsu on a weekday. This is a good plan at Hirosaki Castle, because it’s one of the most popular hanami spots in Japan so you can imagine how packed it would be come the weekend.
In you go!
But for now it’s rather quiet, and the locals are enjoying the normal matsuri attractions, like the Haunted House. Japanese obakeyashiki are different from the gore attractions in the west, and knowing that it’s certainly not surprising that Kei is not that interested in it, although it might be more scary to have Makoto navigating through it, since she gets them lost. But it was cute the way that Makoto and Chinatsu ganged up on Kei, and it seemed like they all had a good time. And Chinatsu even won at the usually rigged string lottery, and just can’t help but brag about it, leading to meeting a new person.
Chinatsu now makes easy friends with animals
Be Careful What You Eat
I loved this exchange: “Oh, it’s just like witchcraft!”
“Yeah, it’s really like witchcraft!”
“Uhhh, I am a witch.”
This effect was perfect: cute, beautiful scale, pretty, and completely appropriate
The mysterious fortune teller turns out to be Inukai, who has quite the story involving Makoto’s sister Akane, some chocolate, and just a little bit of misremembering. She’s stayed mad at Akane for the whole year since being turned into a dog girl, and now that she’s found Makoto, it’s time to get the spell reversed! Except that Makoto has no more way to contact Akane than Inukai does. But Makoto will try her best to reverse the spell with plenty of exhortations how she’s not just doing this to try out the spell, or anything like that at all. It certainly looked like she made it work, with all the cute konpeito candy and the multi-colored little explosion.
Oops
Well, Akane’s not that far away. (And look how Kenny sits on the broom! OMG, it’s perfect!)
It didn’t work. Oh well, guess Inukai will have to wait for Akane who might be a while… or she might show up right now. Completely unpredictable, she is. And she is able to jog Inukai’s memory about what actually happened, and confess that she hasn’t found a way to reverse it. But the most important part is that now there’s another new friend for Makoto and Chinatsu, and who knows, maybe Kei will actually decide that he likes both forms of Inukai enough to ask her out.
Inukai’s ‘other’ look, although I don’t know if one is cuter than the other
This episode made us a great new friend, and told another great story. It also showed us another familiar in Al. Something of interest in this show is JC Staff’s strategy of getting almost complete newbies for the main roles, and getting really big names for the minimal roles. With Minami Shoda as Makoto, Shinsuke Sugawara as Kei, and Eri Suzuki as Chinatsu, you have three VA’s with about as little experience as you can get (Eri Suzuki actually does have a main parts, as Sanae in Rokujouma no Shinryakusha, but that’s it). Even the supporting cast, with Kana Aoi as Akane and Mari Hino as Inukai have almost nothing in their body of work. But then you get to the bit parts and that’s where the big names show up: Ai Kayano as Chito, Ayane Sakura as Kenny, Ari Ozawa as Al, Kikuko Inoue as Nana, and Takahiro Sakurai as the Harbinger of Spring. That’s a lot of experience for just a few lines, most of them various animal noises. But it’s an interesting feel that the show has produced, with Chinatsu, Makoto, and Kei all feeling very natural and conversational, with just maybe that bit of raw and new to make them seem more like their characters. I really enjoy it.
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: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Chinatsu is getting darn possessive of her cousin; sticking super close to Makoto at all times. She’s happy when she has the older kids at her disposal. Then she’ll get even more spoiled by Akane and now maybe even Inunaki.
…good visuals, cheap vocals…?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t know if I’d characterize it as getting possessive on Chinatsu’s part, it just seems like she’s being your typical 10-12 year old, and at the same time getting used to the situation of a world that she hasn’t really experienced before. I also think that even if she hasn’t really thought about it, the fact that all of the things she’s experienced because of Makoto have been fun and friendly makes her more willing to go along with whatever happens.
I loved her questioning of Inukai this episode, and also that when Inukai was leaving she was holding hands with Akane. And it seems that Chinatsu is happy to do what the older kids do, not try to make them do stuff with her. But as usual, the show cultivates that relaxed feeling, and having Chinatsu be brattier would dampen that feeling. I think we’ve seen about how bratty she’ll get with her disapproval of the bakke.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
And the answer is “not very.” She just made faces to indicate how she couldn’t stand the stuff.
Frankly, Chinatsu’s just a good kid. She’s not really taking advantage of anyone, she doesn’t demand anything unreasonable, and she really enjoys hanging around with the older kids and seeing what they do.
Oh, in regards to her age, she has to be either 9 or 10. Kei told her she was 3 when Makoto was there in the past (back in episode 1), and it was stated that Makoto had been gone for 6 years. Apply math to the situation, and allow for a little fudging on precision on “3 years old” and “6 years,” and you get that Chinatsu is either 9 years old, or 10 years old.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, I think they’ve stated she’s ten, and I’ve mentioned that fact before. I mentioned 10-12 there to indicate her cohort, since pre-teens do act differently from under-10s.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
This is one of the shows I most look forward to each week.
No matter what form Inunaki is in she’s cute. Well, as a cat person I do find her full-on dog form the least cute; but she’s still a very attractive dog.
I’m not surprised Chinatsu wants to hang around the big kids. She’s at an age where she wants to start being thought of as something more than child. One way for that is to start hanging out more with the big kids. Besides, things are just so interesting around Makoto.
Do you suppose the time will come when Chinatsu asks Makoto if it’d be possible for her to become a witch?
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
…I think you should keep watching. 😛
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
No worries about that.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 261 comments
Yeah Ms. Apprentices Witch (Makoto Kowada) she should bow to her Fox Master! XD!
AND yeah The Witch Cat vs The Naval Cat….
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I think Navel Cat has far more power than we will ever know. Like Galactus, “I have to devour the Earth”, level of power…