Demi-chan wa Kataritai – 05
Sensei is just “Sensei” and is fun to laugh about
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Last week was Seiren first, but this week we’ll go back to Demi-chan first. So what is the big worry for Yuki? |
Don’t Know My Own Strength
A distinctly worried girl
We know that Yuki had been worried about something related to her nature, something that is represented by the possibility of everything around her freezing. This episode opens with her talking to Tetsuo about how she had started the school year with the intention of hiding the fact that she was a Yuki-onna, and keeping her distance from others. The opposite of a high school debut, she’s pressed to this tactic because she has recently become more concerned about her possible ability to freeze things, since she found ice in the bathtub with her. It’s not really an overreaction to think that if you could cause the bath to freeze, you could seriously harm someone. And the fact that she was feeling a bit depressed about having moved to a new place, away from her old friends and comfortable surroundings, and now faced with the scary possibility of hurting someone, it’s understandable that she was so self-isolating through the beginning of the school year.
Her biggest fear
One thing that I liked seeing this episode was how frank Yuki was with her depression. Even though she’s talking to Tetsuo about it, there’s very little embarrassment about that. He doesn’t have to draw it out of her, she willingly volunteers that she was thinking that way. And nor does Tetsuo get embarrassed about it, calmly talking to her, and only worried about hurting her further in an effort to try to prove his idea. Because he’s not convinced that she’s particularly dangerous, but even if she is, it likely would be better to know that than continuing to be uncertain about it, especially being able to know how to deal with it, rather than just isolate herself completely.
Some cute feet
And that pressure pays off as Tetsuo is able to show Yuki that what she’s freezing is only her own sweat and tears, that she doesn’t have the power to freeze hot water or other people. The change in Yuki’s personality after that is instant and complete, with the thing that has been weighing on her mind able to be completely dismissed. Now we see more of what she presumably usually is like, a girl who is straightforward and smiles easily.
Finally able to laugh for real
Three Friends
Trying to clear the air
With Yuki over her worries, the only thing worrying these three is Hikari’s concerns about being too clingy to Yuki, after seeing her pull away from everyone else. But now that she’s not worried about freezing Hikari, they are able to both get on the same page, and Yuki gives her permission to cling on her. Hikari even takes it a little bit farther, well, a lot bit farther, asking if she can gnaw on Yuki, something that she does with her sister Himari. This is better than the other thoughts she’s having, of sucking Yuki’s blood, but is still a bit weird.
Some names work, and some just don’t
The other bit they did is about the constant struggle in Japanese society to figure out how to address your friends and acquaintances. It’s made more difficult by the inclusion of Tetsuo in the conversation, since he is supposed to have a bit more decorum than the rest, but he just addresses Hikari with no honorific at all. But as they all figure out, sometimes there’s just the right name to call someone, and protocol doesn’t really matter.
Good job, Satake! 6 girls to yourself!
A nice episode, but didn’t have the impact that some of the other ones have had. I liked the way Yuki bounced back from her worries, showing that she was really the most concerned about hurting someone else. With the three of them now seemingly close friends, we’ll see what the show brings from this point as far as how these girls interact.
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 10997 comments
Goodness, but Hikari is getting hungrier as time goes by. She’ll nom anyone at this point, I guess? Nah, she’s cool, but she has her needs, including getting just a touch closer to Ironman-sensei. That’s the normal bit I like best, the girls are “normal” enough now to have a silly adolescent race to get sensei to notice them with silly names…
But more than that I loved the interview, from putting Yuki at ease so she could trust someone with her troubles; fear that you’ve done something wrong you don’t know how to prevent? Crushing to a kid, as they show that well. But then on to the added touch of sensei using folklore as pointers to figuring out her troubles. It’s sketchy as all get out from a real-world scientific viewpoint. But this is the clincher, they laid the tracks for it to make complete sense in the internal logic of the show.
More shows should show this much care.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I was wondering if Tetsuo actually had, you know, a job to do, since he seemed to spend all afternoon researching about Yuki-onnas. The amount of care he put in was touching, but also just pinged my “Is this really what you’re getting paid to do?” meter.
I liked how they just went right into them talking, because they laid the groundwork for it last episode, so we didn’t have to have a lot of hemming and hawing about “can I talk to you?” I also really liked the way Yuki opened up to Hikari and Machi about the fact that she was talking about a problem with Tetsuo. It helps move her personality into one that’s actually very open with people, and helps to contrast how closed off she was because of her worries.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
They’ve done a good job shifting between each girl and their A and B stories from episode to episode, good pacing.
As for Tetsuo’s job? I think your concern might all under “How does Joel/Mike eat or breathe and other science facts?” LA LA LA. But that doesn’t really pass, does it? So instead, does it fall under, “when does he use the toilet?”…No…What does he do at the school?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Well, it’s more that I know that his job is ostensibly to be the Biology Teacher. So the reaction, when he’s apparently spending that much time in the library is “Does he not teach any afternoon classes?” Maybe show him rushing out of the classroom to go to the library, that would give us the setting that he’s working on this between his classes or something.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
So the teacher version of the piece of toast hanging from mouth & dash is what we need?