A secret is that I may or may not have accidentally watched ep26 before ep25. No wonder some things didn't make sense...
Final episode! It's been a really long 26ep, I must say; I remember beginning this series and not liking it so much. Part of why I kept going was because of Rho; if I hadn't watched beyond the first handful, then I wouldn't have come to like the characters and understand the
Nichijou world better. This episode ended the series on a feel-good note - it's Nano's birthday. To be fair, it was just a harebrained scheme that Yukko came up with, to throw Nano a surprise birthday party (with Professor thrown in after Mai's insistence), but it turned out at the very end that it
was her birthday. What a world.
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| Happiness blooming! |
After the pre-OP (even though there was no OP this episode) scene of Yukko, Mio and Mai talking about throwing Nano a surprise birthday party, the scene shifted to Nano as she was leaving for school in the morning. Professor suddenly took off Nano's key, which took her (and me, actually) by surprise. Professor had apparently made a smaller one, which made Nano over-the-moon ecstatic. However, after losing it and then Sakamoto accidentally stepping on it, it looked like Nano's day would be miserable. Professor, unable to stand Nano's tears, promised to have a new one made by the time she got back from school.
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| Getting caught red-handed must suck. |
The two top dogs of the school were finally shown in the same scene, where it seemed that the vice-principal (the disgruntled old man seen in previous scenes throughout the series) disliked the principal. It also turned out that the vice-principal had once actually been the principal, which led me to wonder what had happened. Demotion? Old age? The scene was about the vice-principal playing a (cruel) prank by moving the principal's statue and replacing it with one of him; he was caught when the movers came to ask him if his instructions were complete. Other than seeing the two men mumble and fumble, what was most amazing about this scene was that the principal's last name was Shinonome. Was this ever mentioned before? What's the relation with Professor? Is this why Nano got into the school? So many questions!
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| A near miss. |
After a quick scene of Sekiguchi and Daiku (they're cute; it's so obvious they're on the verge of
doing it dating), another one focusing on Yukko, Mio and Mai came around. This time, Yukko's amazing luck was showcased with the backdrop of her heading off to make sure with Nano that it was okay to visit after school. When she playfully slapped Mio's back, she did it too hard and Mio lurched forward - just barely missing the baseball hurtling for her head. When Yukko bowed as apology, she bumped into Mai, who was pushed to the side - just barely missing the chalk eraser falling from the rooftop. This continued for the entire scene, with moments like Yukko's tugging keeping Mai from stepping on ants and gum. It was a must-watch to really see what
Nichijou is about.
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| The setting up! |
Of course, one thing of note with Yukko's shenanigans is the Tachibana-Sasahara pairing. Essentially, Yukko bumped into Sasahara, causing him to drop his coffee. She ran hurriedly passed Tachibana, which caused her to hilarious misclick black coffee on the vending machine. The machine heralded her a winner and gave her a free drink - the same thing that she initially wanted. Their scene ended as the two of them looked at each other (awaiting the next season?!). Yukko continued through the halls, eventually getting to Nano - and accidentally pulling her hand off. However, in typical Yukko manner, she simply asked if Nano was okay and then went straight to her point. This moment was very important for Nano later.
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| The poor cat... |
An almost-wordless scene followed, of Mio and Yukko trying to break open a watermelon. I can't say much about this scene; it was just an escalation as the girls attempted to get at it but the melon was just a resilient fruit. It's not like it wasn't funny, though. The next scene was actually a very surprising one - Sakamoto ran into Nakamura-sensei and it turned out that he used to be
her cat, one named Taisho. I really didn't see that coming, although I knew that Sakamoto had escaped a house in one of the first episodes so he wasn't really a stray. Apparently, Nakamura-sensei was not a very intelligent pet-owner, feeding her cat instant noodles (for instance), and so Sakamoto ran away with the first chance he got. He continued to evade the teacher in this scene, although he served as a means for Nakamura-sensei and Nano to become closer, with the latter promising to visit the teacher's house to see the cat. (Lies! Deceit!)
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| How many cakes can you destroy in one day? |
Upon getting home, Professor was still making the smaller key, since Sakamoto had stepped on the second one as well (which means that the earlier scene where he was out of the house made sense). She did take off Nano's larger key, though, and the robot waited in anticipation. However, as she thought about it, she realized that she had been accepted for just being herself (especially with the earlier scene of Yukko not caring that her hand had come off), so wanting to become more of a normal girl was not necessary. Just as she made her (obvious) decision to keep the larger key, though, Professor revealed that the smaller one was actually just an upgrade, meant to go
under the larger one. The deception didn't matter, though, as the other girls arrived and happy chaos ensued with cakes being destroyed.
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| Even a tiger can't open this watermelon. |
This last episode of
Nichijou really embodied what the series was about; a larger story was shown from different viewpoints and different scenes that actually connected together. With this season over, the development can clearly be seen - Tachibana and Sasahara are closer together and Nano has been accepted into the group, for example - and there's even a lot of plot points left open - Sakamoto being Nakamura-sensei's old cat and the principal being a Shinonome, for example - so I'm actually easily hopeful for more at this point.
~Aaro
