Nichijou Ep09

My plan with Nichijou at first was to take it from a 4-episode post to a 2-episode post, but doing just this one episode made me realize that I can do a weekly post. Considering I had once thought this anime inferior to A Channel, I'm really startled.

How is that not right...?!

I'm not sure what the connecting factor of this episode was (food?), but it was extremely funny. It kept up the style of humour that I've gotten accustomed to, and there were plenty of signs of continuity throughout. No new characters were introduced, and no "minor characters" got screen time. I'm hoping that'll change in ep10, but it won't be a dealbreaker if it doesn't. I'm really enjoying the comedy.

This is like watching a shoujo from a different perspective...

In keeping with the solid humour, ep09 got off to a solid start with a quite hilarious short about the outrageous celebrations of students after exams. The shorts of this episode were pretty funny; I loved the continuity of showing the (dismal) aftermath of using the strange drawings done by Yukko and Mio as visual aides for the test. (On a side note, that's an extremely difficult and questionable test, considering I'm sure you don't get a word bank. How are you supposed to just "guess" the word with such shady pictures? Silly teacher.)

There's cake on her head!

The first scene was about Mio and her older sister, Yoshino. Living with that kind of person would get pretty annoying; I'm surprised that Mio can still stay (mostly) calm. I have a "friend", let's say, to whom everything needs to some kind of elaborate game. It's amusing only to a degree; after a very short amount of time, it gets pretty tedious. Needless to say, we don't have much contact anymore. But, back to the episode, Mio's wild reactions to Yoshino are both hilarious and just. (At the same time, I have to give kudos to Yoshino for getting those strange ornaments onto the cake.)

Maybe the old woman died...?

The second big scene of this episode was mildly confusing; it was the trio heading to a special soba place where Yukko proceeded to order something strange ("a rice dish at a noodle place", as she put it). The crux of the scene was that her questionable order took much longer to prepare than the other two, so she got her food when Mio and Mai had already finished eating and were ready to go. I only think I have the joke right; I didn't actually fully understand it. Why was the waitress crying? Was the old lady that had to go get the summer vegetables okay? So confused...

Parental justice at its best.

Yukko's difficulty in sleeping at night due to the many, many mosquitoes was only a slightly okay scene for me. When Rho and I got to her relatives' house in rural-ish China last summer, the mosquitoes seemed to prefer our foreign-dipped blood. The insect spray that was used to fumigate had instructed that we weren't allowed to go into the room for a few hours, and we had to even clear out our pillows and blankets. What was in that spray...? At any rate, my point is that it's pretty difficult to sleep with mosquitoes. The end.

What'd you win? What'd you win?

The Professor-Nano-Sakamoto segment of this episode was so-so, slightly resurrecting my question of the Professor's ethics. Her cuteness still helps me overlook much of her problems (damn, I'm so whipped), and this segment was not much different. Nano was tasked with playing the "bad parent" (must be hard when there's only one parent...) since the Professor ate her entire month's supply of snacks, leaving no room for her omurice (I'm so getting Rho to make me that...). The segment was playing out just like a slice-of-life series until the Professor conned Nano into giving her the strawberry juice with the promise to take off the gadget on her back. While Nano was turned away, the Professor just took another box of juice and walked off. Sigh. Poor Nano. I just want someone to take that stupid thing off already. She's so close to being a real boy girl...!

Disrupting public peace?

The episode ended on a very positive note, with Mio having to help at a strange "neighbourhood association" stall selling daifuku. The horrors of misleading marketing led to some hilarity, especially when she announced that, instead of Daifuku-kun, the mascot was simply a daifuku, and when she was chastised for destroying the mascot's image. The climax of the scene was extra-hilarious, due to the absurdity of the situation, and left a very good taste in my mouth for the next episode. (Of course, there's a short after the credits.)

Confidence makes the mascot.

Nichijou has really surprised me this season; I didn't expect to like it nearly as much as I do. In fact, it was actually the thought of blogging about Nichijou that had me decide to introduce the batched posts, so it's extra amusing that I'm now going to do a post every week. I really misjudged~

~Aaro