The House of AnimeJB

Episode Summary

Yorito has left his home while it’s still dark out so he can take a picture of the sky as the sun is rising. As he sets up, he notices a girl kicking a drink machine as it has ate her change. He tells her why he’s out so late as he tries to get her drink from the machine, but by the time he gets it out, she’s disappeared and he misses his picture, and is left holding her tomato bean-paste drink.

That day he relays the events to his friend, Mana, and tells her he can’t give up taking pictures of the sky because the sky is always changing. After school, they both go out to buy a cake and a gift, and visit his sister, Aono, who is sick in the hospital. Mana’s sister, Koyori, is also there. In the middle of their get-together, Yorito peeks out of the blinds and runs outside to take a picture of the setting sun against the church.

Later, Mana scolds Yorito for abandoning his sister and sends him to the store to buy ginger. On the way there, he gets caught in the rain and encounters the same girl as the night before. Her money is stuck in the machine once again, and they get the drink out once again. She gets him to taste the weird drink and as it thought it tastes awful, though she thinks it’s good. She gets him talking about the sky again when she shows him a picture, and as he does she really gets into it.

Suddenly it seems as though the girl is transported into a clear, sunny field instead of the rainy night that it is, though it seems to just be her imagination. As it fades away she’s left crying. She tells him her name is Matsuri and she leaves her sky-print umbrella with him as she runs off.

The next day, a middle-aged man, who we see looking for someone earlier in the episode and found her (a little girl) curled up in a box, has returned from a convenience store with food. She asks if he found their target, and when he says yes she asks if she can meet it this time, to which he replies, “Probably”. Yorito scans his own picture collection and realizes that the picture he took of the sunset and the church the other day is a close match to Matsuri’s from last night.

The scene shifts to the church, where Matsuri is sleeping, and someone has obviously just entered it. It’s the man we saw earlier, and he draws a sword on Matsuri and attacks, though she manages to keep dodging. Outside, Yorito hears the commotion and runs to the church. As the man is about to kill Matsuri, Yorito enters the church and sees the scene, recognizing Matsuri immediately.

Characters

Yorito

Calophi: Yorito seems barely functional in the real world, being constantly distracted by the sky to the point where he neglects his own ill sister. It isn’t that he’s a bad guy, just a bit obsessed and fixated on the sky. He doesn’t seem to have any family besides his sister. I think that the reason he was worried about Matsuri enough to check out the church to begin with is because he had associated her with the sky during their last conversation. I also think that he doesn’t have any particular powers, and just happens to have managed to input himself in a strange situation that he now needs to learn to deal with.

Will It Work: I still don’t have a good opinion of this guy. He seems entirely disconnected with life an the universe. He tries, but obviously seems to have an eye that is different than everyone else. Note the doll in the beginning of the episode. He thinks it’s cute. On the other hand, is is observant enough, and thorough when he is sufficiently motivated. Hopefully, the experience with Matsuri will shake him up and connect him with ‘reality’. My prediction: look for him to be a combination of the absent-minded professor and the artist goes to war. With a new focus in life he will attack it in the same way he does his photography, while at the same time providing dramatic scenes angsting about how he just Wants To Go Back To His Art. As an (apparently) main character, expect him to be a plot point.

Matsuri

Calophi: Though she seems to be very kind and dynamic, I think Matsuri is very lonely and maybe depressed. I also have suspicions that she is a vampire, as she has never seen the sky - or at least not since she was very young - and has a very strange sense of taste. She only appears at night, too, which is suspicious in conjunction with the other evidence, and then it’s apparent she’s being hunted. However, there isn’t much more we know about her at all.

Will It Work: Well, we’re given to believe she also has the artist’s eye, and she is able to pick up and remember abstract information quickly (the clouds). She seems to have an attraction to beautiful things, note the amount of time she spends looking at the stained glass windows of her church. Are all anime females either brawlers, protected pacifists, or trained in Olympic level gymnastics? Oh well. Actually, the first thing I thought when I saw her is ‘What a great outfit!’ She has youthful style and a very young approach to life sometimes (like her arguments with the vending machine). It reminds me of a certain famous Captain (later Major) Misato. Like Calophi, I believe she is some sort of supernatural being, likely a vampire, and not a yuan-ti. Further, I think Yorito is going to trade on his relationship with her to introduce her to his sister. Lastly, I think despite what I said earlier about her youthful style, I think she is desperately unhappy, and puts up a façade of cheer, like so many other sensitive anime girls, but I’d especially like to point to Mai at this point. Watch for her to ‘adopt’ Yorito and argue with Mana (the hot vs. cold personality conflict).

Mana

Calophi: Mana is the girl-next-door type of girl, and has graciously taken Yorito into her home, which they seem to be sharing alone, and has possibly also taken charge of the care of Koyori, who is supposed to call her Onee-san. She doesn’t seem to have parents either - or if she does they’re rarely home, as she seems to do the cooking. There’s a possibility that Mana has some feelings for Yorito other than friendship, but then again she may also just see him as close family.

Will It Work: Why does she look out for him? Somewhere in the back of my mind I’m thinking step-sibs. Who knows? Like so many other youth shows, the Parents are Absent. We know at least some of them are dead. Mana to me is a cypher right now, she’s little more than her junior mother stereotype, but without the peace and traditionalism of a Yamato Nadesico. She also has a younger outlook on life: she seems to be popular at school, and cannot articulate social mores to Yorito. Maybe the grown-up artist with the Chinese sword will chop her in two.

Aono

Calophi: Aono is sick in the hospital and we aren’t told with what, though it could be that it’s related to why Yorito is currently living with Mana (as in, her parents died from the same cause). She is very quiet and soft-spoken, and seems to hold her emotions inside. I think there’s a good chance that she is a vampire or will become a vampire through the course of the series.

Will It Work: For the most part, she is presented as the Emotionless Girl, with slightly dark overtones. She’s repressing, there seem to maybe be some winces of abandonment or long held pain in her scene. If she were happier, I’d call her a Hotaru Tomoe clone, but she’s not happy, and isn’t that the point of her character? We know she’s fairly intelligent, but also perceptive. Remember the scene with the drapes being closed? Is this a sign of rebellion against Yorito? Does she have porphyria and be hurt by sunlight? Or, my guess, she knew not to let her brother see the sky. Forethought people. She has an entire basket full of discarded toys to learn how to deal with her brother. Prediction: she’s not going to become crucial until past ep 8, but watch for her to be part of, or make herself, the grand revelation.

Koyori

Calophi: Mana tells Koyori to call her “onee-chan”, but Koyori feels uncomfortable doing so, possibly because they aren’t blood related and Koyori is being taken care of by Mana (though there is no proof of this as of yet). She’s very polite - almost to a fault - and cheerful. She spends a lot of her time visiting Aono in the hospital.

Will It Work: Shinobu anyone? She’s the cute little girl. Watch her either be a pawn of Artist-with-Sword, or to makes friends with his little Hunter Girl (I wonder what her creed is, anyway?) to stop the whole countdown to zero. We haven’t seen a lot of her, but it’s kinda obvious her character type. She’s the nice kind girly girl who has the traditional genre roles, and politeness. Merge her with Mana and you’d have a Yamato Nadesico. Usually this kind of character exists to be solely the cute kid, or as a contrast to a tomboy or tsundere main character. I’m hoping that won’t be the case here.

Hunter Guy

Calophi: This guy is probably totally badass, but a nice guy when he needs to be, as evidenced by the little girl he seems to be taking care of. We don’t know exactly what he is hunting or why, but it’s sure to be an interesting discovery.

Will It Work: He’s obviously a caretaker of the little girl, and possibly a servant of someone else. Usually this character type doesn’t start wars, they just very, very efficiently finish them on someone else’s orders. Look at the glasses, and yakuta. Those are the signs of a gentle man, and an intellectual, artists and doctors wear those in anime. Honestly, when I first saw him, I thought he was a nice guy doctor. In my Ranma-centric world, if Koyori is the future Kasumi Tendo, this guy is Dr. Tofu. If he doesn’t end up becoming a recurring threat (see the Dragon) watch him mentor yorito, and leave him a sword. Not likely to happen though.

Hunter Girl

Calophi: This girl seems to be a bit of a rich brat, but at least she’s a quiet one and not a loud one. I don’t think she’s related to the Hunter Guy at all, so her origins should be interesting, and I predict some sort of special powers for her as well.

Will It Work: If she’s not a mage, she’s a token. Sorry, Cal. I doubt she’s a mage. She also game me the ojou brat feelings. She might be teasing, but there is certainly a feeling of… shall we say entitlement? The whole Foie gras scene though shouldn’t be taken to seriously as a character indicator. It has all the smoothness of a frequently and well played conversation. My guess is she’s another orphan, possibly the daughter of Artist-with-Sword’s boss. I do see her future association with Koyori to have some mellowing effects on her.

Storyline Thoughts

Calophi: I was actually afraid for a bit that there wasn’t going to BE a storyline, so when the hunter stuff came up at the end I was pleasantly surprised and no longer disappointed in the series. We don’t really know what the storyline really IS, but at least we know there’s a hint of one and that it won’t be a boring romance/slice of life thing.

Will It Work: I totally thought this was going to be a slice of life drama like Aria the Animation, but it wasn’t! Most of my predictions are listed above. It could go one of two ways. Hopefully I’m wrong. This happily follows the trend of having a completely written story before they animate, they don’t seem to be floundering or reaching for gags to carry the ep. That might just be the genre though.

Final Verdict

Calophi: I was on the verge of ditching this until the very end of the episode. The art is great, but the characters on their own were…mediocre at best. This is passing to my 6-episode test due to intrigue alone, and I have no idea how far it will get if it doesn’t keep up with the supernatural stuff.

Will It Work: We already know there will be more supernatural stuff, they just have to set it up. Since I’m not allowed to comment on production quality or values, I’ll watching this, it’ll be interesting, and I’ll be seeing what our Defender does with his life. Not on my top list, but…I’ll follow up on it. If for no other reason than to see what else Matsuri has besides that great hat.