Somehow or the other, I've managed to get a day "off" from "vacation". This Chinese concept of playing hard will kill me. Is it so bad to just want to lounge around?
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| Copying Lucky Star? |
I walked into the OVA not really knowing anything except that Morita was a girl that didn't speak. After reading the synopsis for the Summer Season 2011 previews, I thought it might be a slightly-serious story about how Morita comes out of her shell. However, it turned out to be more comedy, perhaps of the Lucky Star variety. The OVA was a series of extremely short scenes throughout the course of a few days, while ep01 was only 3min long. The OVA was a little harder to get through in one sitting, but I can definitely handle 3min-long episodes about this kind of everyday stuff. Perhaps I'll do a batch post every 5 or so episodes...?
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| Nobody else's eyes are like that... |
The OVA began with a random opening scene of images from the manga (most likely) introducing three of the girls and having them say random things to each other (I really couldn't keep up). That gave way to Morita Mayu in the library. The reason for her inability to speak has to do with her constantly over-thinking things so as to not be misunderstood, which would probably get annoying were I taking it seriously.
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| She ended up going with green. |
The scene right after the OP had Murakoshi Miki (who seems to be the ringleader of the three girls introduced at the very beginning) asking for Mayu's help in picking out a present for a boy that she liked. We got more of a glimpse of how much she over-thought things, wherein she couldn't figure out how to answer the question of which colour she thought would be better. This was a slightly slow scene, really.
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| How does a woman bumping into you do that? |
The next scene had Miki and Miura Chihiro approaching Mayu to have her try some of the sweets they had baked with the intention of giving it to Miki's crush. Mayu immediately thought it was delicious, but remembered her mother's advice that explanations had to be thorough and clear, and so continued eating to figure out what to say. It became clear that part of the reason why she was unable to speak freely had to do with her mother's advices - things that the woman herself seemed to put into malpractice. (At the end of the scene, having nibbled away on the sweet, Miki and Chihiro concluded that it must be good.)
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| That's pretty shoujo-ai, I must say. |
The next scene dealt with Mayu's lifeless eyes (seriously, what's with them?) in part by having Miki coach her into smiling. It just looked creepy, like perhaps that deranged axe-wielder you met in a dark alley after a matinee. As she headed to the corner of a class to be sad, Matsuzaka Hana approached her to comfort her. After it turned into Mayu patting her head, her fingers got caught in Hana's extremely curly and tangled hair, so she took to brushing it...while Hana touched Mayu's hair. The theme of lesbianism was very strong throughout the episode.
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| Apologizing from the get-go. It's so planned. |
After having two male classmates watch the lesbian scene and reminisce (obviously pretty turned on), the scene shifted to Mayu arriving at home to see her mother "scolding" her father once more. Say what you will, but I really like how funny this woman is. I wonder if she's just a normal suspicious spouse, or if the father is really wandering (or, at the least, goading his wife because he likes it). I found myself watching out for the mother's scenes constantly.
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| Wow. Scaredy-cat. |
By this point, most of the characters had been introduced and the episode "picked up" in its randomness. After another lesbian scene with Mayu and Miki touching each other (and the boys staring), Megane Musume (the nameless girl with glasses) attempted to frighten Mayu into yelping...and succeeded a little too much. The baking scene thereafter was pretty humdrum, with Mayu being extremely focused on what steps needed to be done at what time, only to end up with tasteless cookies. That scene led into Miki and Chihiro kissing Mayu's cheeks at the same time, with the two boys watching; I was pretty surprised that they weren't running to the washroom already, seeing how excited they were.
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| Personally, I'd find that a little much for public. |
The poolside scene introduced Yamamoto Ritsuki, who was apparently very stylish. The real focus of the scene, however, was Miki getting water in her ear and then Mayu offering to have her lie down on her lap to get it out. Sometimes, I wonder if girls are doing these things just to taunt the guys. It seemed to be working, since the two boys had pretty much gone off the deep end, wanting to be reborn as a bathing suit. I wonder if lesbian tendencies are a current fad in Japan, seeing as how A Channel also exhibited them (and then Yuru Yuri of this season as well).
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| Why so angry? |
The next scene had Miki and Chihiro breathing in the sun's scent and Mayu worrying about how to tell them that there was no scent of the sun. Ritsuki stepped in and told them the truth, after which she scolded Mayu for staying quiet. Really, as a native speaker, how does one mistake "irritate" (iraira) and "turn on" (muramura) so constantly? Despite being stunned and apparently worried about her young body, Mayu took to following Ritsuki to somehow apologize. It ended with Ritsuki apologizing for being so crass; another win for Silent Mayu!
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| The only time she spoke out loud! |
The last scene of the OVA (other than Megane Musume getting jealous that Ritsuki stared at Mayu) was Mayu and Miki walking home together. After finding a cat and having an internal monologue with it, Mayu trailed behind Miki. After Miki found out, she walked back, only to encounter Mayu speaking. (Le gasp!) The ED was not so interesting, so I skipped it.
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| She didn't seem to change much. |
Ep01, being only 3min, pretty much was one slightly longer scene than the ones in the OVA. Miki, in her typical talkative self, first asked to borrow Mayu's notes, then to copy her homework, and then began rambling about another boy that she liked. Mayu, remembering her mother's advice to always listen to other people until the end, blankly stared and listened, nodding, until Miki saw someone she liked and ran off. Afterwards, Miki was apparently rejected once again and Mayu struggled to somehow comfort her. Miki got over it on her own (as a friend, Mayu definitely comes off as cold), and then they hugged on their way home. (I see the lesbianism is still alive and well.)
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| They do seem to make up pretty well. |
After watching the OVA, I knew that I wouldn't be able to sit through episodes like that for too long, however funny many of the scenes may be. Knowing that the anime has 3min-long episodes makes it a lot better; I'll definitely watch it. Blogging about it seems like it'll be a challenge unless I wait for a bunch of episodes to pile up. I wonder how this thing airs, anyway. Between two other shows?
~Aaro
