This may be the last post I make for a day or two, although I have a lot of anime lined up that I'll be doing a post about (Uta no Prince-sama and Usagi Drop, and maybe a combination of Morita-san wa Mukuchi ep01 and OVA), since my plane time is nearing and I really don't have much of the packing done.
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| So, how is she supposed to act normal with a moving key? |
This episode marks the beginning of the second half of this anime, celebrated with a new OP and ED. I must say, I like this new OP "better" only because one of the only times I saw the old OP was the first episode, wherein I didn't know the characters. Now that I do, this new one is pretty funny (and if I watch the old one, I'll like that too). The new ED remarks on the fact that this show has a
lot of characters, whereas the old ED focused on Nano and Yukko (who, I suppose,
were the main characters of the first half). This episode was extremely hilarious, centralizing on Nano's first day at school, and I can say clearly that I'm already liking this second half.
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| Gr. Stupid Professor. |
The episode began with Nano squealing over her uniform and taking various pictures of it, all the while imagining what her first day would be like. To Sakamoto, she seemed deranged (especially when she kept telling him that he would shed fur on her uniform and even so lunged for him in happiness). The scene where she acted out a conversation between her and a new friend, moving from one position to another and using different voices, was especially trite. As she was at the door, however, Professor showed signs of remorse (especially when learning that Nano wouldn't be back until 5pm due to dinner shopping) and tried to stop her. However, with some random bribing, Nano was off to school.
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| It reminds me of horror movies. |
Somehow or the other, it was only when Nano was in visibility range of the school and other students walking to it that she remembered the gadget on her back. As she freaked out, a "things we think are cool" segment played, and then she was suddenly in front of the classroom, without a viable excuse. I guess it was too much to ask for that the other students not care, because they quite clearly seemed flabbergasted by the key. Nano stumbled and fumbled and, in the end, didn't come up with any kind of excuse, leading me to wonder how she made it through to her next scene (lunchtime), where the students weren't hassling her.
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| Who is that surprised?! |
The episode also devoted some time to Daigoro and Sekiguchi of the Go-Soccer Club. In fact, they're most likely set to become some important characters, because they got a proper introduction scene (with their names showing up on the screen). The story development was pretty clear; Sakurai Makoto (a new character related to Sakurai-sensei, since we see them together in both the OP and the ED) came to join after seeing the banners that Daigoro had hung all over the school (in order to bypass the problem that the club didn't have enough members to not be disbanded by pretending they had won some championship; the continuity was pretty deep). Strangely enough, Go Soccer turned out to be a "real" thing.
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| Must be painful in just socks... |
Interspersed with the scenes of Nano and the Go-Soccer Club was Yukko on her way somewhere, prancing around in her usual self...and losing her shoes. Her first one flew off (or she threw it off in some strange weather-predicting game) and landed on the hood of a car; the vehicle, of course, immediately drove away. The next scene had her desperately chasing after the car, only to trip on her one socked foot and have her other shoe fly off...whereby a dog immediately picked it up and ran away. The best part of this scene, however, was definitely when a dog named Buddy was seen urgently running somewhere (with its child owner chasing after), showing up next to Yukko, and putting his hand on her back in condolence. Continuity!
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| But you dropped the ball and stones... |
Back to the Go-Soccer Club, Makoto began showing Daigoro and Sekiguchi what Go Soccer actually was. By lifting a ball onto their forehead, the game was to throw two (or more?) go stones on top of that, and continue lifting the entire set-up. It's so bizarre... Strangely enough, Daigoro seemed pretty interested - and, stranger still, it turned out that Takasaki-sensei played the game in his heyday. I'm pretty curious to see how one competes in such a game (especially with a team on a soccer field...).
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| Light sabres are old school. Chi glow is the new thing! |
The switch to Nano during lunchtime (the final long scene of the episode) had Mio approaching her to make small talk, along with Mai bringing her wooden statue over. With Yukko returning from her errand (the same one where she lost her outside shoes), the scene quickly shifted focus to Yukko and Mio. With the former having misheard the latter's lunch order (yakisoba, fried noodles, turned into yakisaba, fried mackerel), the two snapped and began arguing, getting more and more outrageous with every yell. The turn of the fight was after Mai placed a paper cup on Yukko's back (and then it flew up to hit Nakanojo), wherein Mio and Yukko began complimenting each other and thus the fight ended.
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| What? Women doing manly bonding?! |
So, with the second half of Nichijou having begun, I'm very excited. I really like where this anime is headed; the story seems to be picking up a little bit, and still retaining the randomness that had me hooked for the last handful of episodes. Now that Nano is at school, the two different worlds are starting to come together, and that's always fun. (Poor Nano, though... She needs to learn, somehow, to be flexible enough to remove the key herself.)
~Aaro
