After a slightly embarrassing occurrence earlier today in the subway, involving hunger, a heat stroke, and some blood, Rho brought me home and ordered me to bed rest...then headed out with Pearz. How caring. I guess it's time to focus on Nichijou.
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| Where could it have hidden that?! |
This episode of Nichijou was as good as ever, and there were no scenes that I felt annoyed with (which usually happens with Nano-Professor interactions). Some side characters (like Daiku of the go-soccer club and an unknown old man) got a good amount of screen time, but much of the episode was Yukko-centred.
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| Terrible overuse of English adjectives, Japanese-style. |
The episode began with Helvetica Standard, as if to make up for the lack of it last week. I don't think I particularly understood what I'm sure was an in-depth joke; a landlord was asking for rent from her tenants, a raccoon and a bird (a swallow?). The bird eventually offered a small coin, which I assume is a ridiculously small denomination. This joke might have been a word pun, or based on (perceived) characteristics of these animals, or something that I really have no idea about. Gah, I wanna know...
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| I really don't think it works like that... |
Yukko carried a long scene on her own, attempting to frantically study the night before the first day of finals, after having been sick and missing school for three days. She really is a funny character and I've grown to accept her nonsensical (perhaps only to me, a non-Japanese) poems. She kept getting distracted, despite her best efforts, and so switched gears to attempting to re-catch her cold. ...it really didn't work,
surprisingly, and so I assumed fun things happened with her exams.
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| At what school is a helicopter commonplace? |
Daiku of the go-soccer club got some screen time in this episode, conversing with a friend about how he just barely got the club application in before the deadline. His ambitious club seems to still lack members, but he was extremely optimistic and pleasant about it. I might understand why - he had a helicopter picking him up.
Did no one wonder why?! Anyway, apparently he's the son (heir?) of the Daiku Corporation, so he's probably an actual rich kid (unlike Goat Boy). In a later scene, the bus had Daiku written on it and, in an even later scene, Daiku's friend was holding a blender with the name, so perhaps their influence stretches far and wide.
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| That would piss me off to no end, actually. |
An unknown old man got the next long scene; I really have no idea who that was. He talked about perhaps attempting to torture/kill the principal with a voodoo doll, so I assume he's connected to the school somehow. Darn memory...! Anyway, his monologue went all over the place - I'd say that's a natural sign of senility, but I could completely sympathize with the changes in thought process. I'm glad the scene ended with his daughter and grandson coming to visit; loneliness makes me sad and it would have been a downer if this episode didn't resolve it a little.
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| I wonder how they got out. Magic? |
The major Professor-Nano-Sakamoto scene was pretty funny in this episode; it revolved around the Professor creating some water-soluble super glue that she then proceeded to spread around in the front hallway so that Sakamoto and Nano would get caught...and, in the process, getting caught herself. I loved much of this scene - from the Professor claiming that the tube was big because, of course, it was
super glue to Sakamoto laughing about the stupidity of someone who would get stuck while getting stuck himself to Nano not really paying attention despite the explanations and warnings and walking right into the trap. This trio really has its moments...
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| I need to be on the lookout for this rainbow from now on. |
After another scene with Daiku (having bought the go-soccer club somewhere in some competition with some money) and one with Mio (and the small miracle of finding a rainbow of people), the episode ended with Yukko writing the exam that she had been studying for at the beginning of the episode. Like I had expected, fun things happened. It wasn't so much that she didn't know the words (perhaps), but actually that the pictures were as confusing as they had been before. With Mai teasing her by handing her a pen eraser and then pretending to sleep, Yukko had the only option of meditating so she could calmly finish the test. I knew it was coming before it happened; she got lost in her calmness and ran out the clock. Poor Yukko~
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| Ew~ I wouldn't take it even if it was free at this point. |
A super-short short after the ED showed the indirect interaction between the mysterious old man from prior and the principal. As the latter went to his shoe locker in the morning (I thought, as the principal, you would have a shoe locker in a special place...?), he found the bread roll that the old man had previously talked about getting as a birthday present. I want to know their relationship so badly now...!
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| I think I just got told that it's okay for a man to have these nails. |
It was a very good episode. The jokes were good and the focus on Yukko didn't feel overdone. I can see the story picking up when the viewers aren't looking - I mean, obviously the "Daiku and go-soccer club" story is going somewhere. On a serious note, I'm glad my everyday life isn't like this; it's only amusing in half-hour instalments.
~Aaro
