Urusei Yatsura 98 - 99

SPOILER Summaries/Synopsis:

うる星やつら episode 98

A frustrated Ran attempts to ruin Lum's life by kidnapping her and making a perfect copy of her, which she orders to break up with Ataru and cause him pain. The copy ends up refusing. Ran ends up making six copies, all fails. They all escape, meaning Ataru has seven Lum's to deal with. His plan to have Lum's Stormtroopers take some fails, so Arartu ends up fleeing to Ran's residence to get rid of the copies. Shuutaro orders his military to stop Ataru but their efforts end up helping him. Eventually, Ataru gets to Ran's house and all of the Lum's are trapped. However, Ataru pressing some buttons causes an accident, leading to a sky full of Lums.

うる星やつら episode 99

Megane and Chibi are working at a soba restaurant when Lum, Ataru, Kotatsu-Neko, and Cherry arrive to be fed. A stranger also comes in and Cherry identifies him as a professional fast-food warrior, who can destroy a restaurant and indeed, this pro walks out having defeated the owner and scoring free food. When it is revealed that the town is being invaded by more of these pros, Shuutaro is found to have hired them, wanting to clear the small restaurants in town for his mega restaurant. As such, to defeat him, Ataru organizes a group to face the pro eaters in an eating competition which ultimately Sakura-sensei wins with no problem, meaning Shuutaro's plans are flushed.

Thoughts/Review: I decided that since these episodes of Urusei Yatsura mostly defy much analysis, I'd start fast tracking them. Obviously, I could simply not blog the series and just watch it, but for some reason, I kinda felt like the old school anime titles should be blogged.

Episode 98 was more like a linked, 2-part episode. The first part was mildly amusing and the second half ending up being funny in places, especially with the seven Lum's electrocuted the big-talking Lum Stormtroopers. Episode 99 was rather tedious with the ultimate nonsense about fast-food warriors and an eating contest. I found nothing amusing or interesting here.

Toradora! 16

とらドラ！Episode 16

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Taiga is making her threats of what she'll do if she's elected president of the student council when Yuusaku arrives. Other of their classmates play-act on how bad life will be under Taiga rule when Yuri-sensei arrives. Privately, Taiga and Ryuuji explain to her that this is part of their plan to convince Yuusaku to go ahead and run for student council president. She agrees to their plan and even offers to assist by showing them how to use the printer to make the fliers and posters for Taiga's campaign. However, no matter what they do, Yuusaku shows no interest in running for president and time is running out.

One evening, Ryuuji gets a phone call from one of the student council members which causes Ryuuji to leave Taiga at his apartment. He finds a bruised Yuusaku by the river, sitting on the steps. Yuusaku explains that he's in love with the president of the student council (Sumire) and he was going to confess to her after he was elected president. However, because she's going to America in a few days to transfer, that plan won't happen. Further, Yuusaku's father got fed up with Yuusaku over his attitude of late, which accounts for the bruising. Their conversation is interrupted when they hear Taiga calling for Ryuuji at which point they go home.

The following day at school, Taiga's doing her normal thing but Yuusaku comes up, his hair redyed black, and indicates he will run against Taiga which pleases the students. However late that afternoon, Ryuuji learns that Yuusaku hasn't submitted the paperwork yet to run for president, so Ryuuji confronts Yuusaku. Yuusaku isn't interested in running, so Ryuuji agrees to walk home with Yuusaku as Yuusaku tells of how he joined the student council following Taiga's rejection at the request of Sumire. They are met in the stairs by Sumire, who challenges Yuusaku to take a step forward by becoming president. Upon hearing her challenge, Yuusaku goes to get the paperwork submitted before the deadline.

On Saturday, Taiga drops out of the race as Yuusaku is now running. At the school assembly, Yuusaku is introduced to make his speech for the elections, but chooses the opportunity to confess his love for Sumire. Sumire does not answer the confession but instead tells the student body that Yuusaku is an interesting guy. Therefor, someone so interesting is sure to make the school more interesting. After the assembly, Ryuuji chases down Sumire to demand why she didn't answer Yuusaku properly. She responds that she told Yuusaku to run for office not confess and after some other words, tells Ryuuji to remain good friends with Yuusaku before walking away.

Ryuuji is going to go after her again when he is stopped by Taiga. She wants Ryuuji to go to Yuusaku since there's nothing she can do for him. She assures Ryuuji she's OK, so he does what she says. Taiga has come to understand that Yuusaku doesn't love her, but she's going to punish Sumire for what she's done to Yuusaku. Taiga produces her wooden sword and challenges Sumire who accepts. Sumire borrows a bamboo sword and they fight with those until Taiga is disarmed. Taiga attacks again and disarms Sumire where they exchange blows. Taiga gets Sumire pinned but is pulled off by Ryuuji, who's been apprised of the fight. Two others grab Sumire to prevent more blows from being exchanged. Taiga screams at Sumire for hurting Yuusaku. Sumire screams back, saying that she couldn't acknowledge Yuusaku's feelings because then Yuusaku would do something dumb like try to follow her to America. So even though she wanted to say something, she couldn't. This is heard by Yuusaku who's in the classroom at this time, who then thanks Sumire and bows.

After the classrooms are cleaned up, some of Taiga's classmates find her student ID holder wherein is a picture of Taiga and Yuusaku. Ami takes it and says she'll give it to Ryuuji. As they walk past Minori, Ami quietly asks if her feelings of guilt are gone. Sumire went to America, Yuusaku became president, and Taiga was suspended for two weeks from school, tasked with writing an apology letter to Sumire. Despite not wanting to do so, Taiga writes her letter on the provided postcard and mails it. In America, Sumire gets the card and reads it. It contains one word -- "baka" (idiot). Sumire has a heart-felt laugh at this.

Thoughts/Review: I'm not really a fan of these cliched moments such as Sumire coming in at the last moment and convincing Yuusaku to go ahead and run for student council president. For me, it would have been much more interesting for Yuusaku to have gone a different path and to have Taiga win the election by default. Being thrown into such an unexpected situation would have been something I would have enjoyed seeing Taiga do (with Ryuuji by her side of course).

That said, I will concede that the confession of Yuusaku to Sumire in his speech was not what I expected and as such, made his winning the election OK. While Taiga has always been the violent sort, when she pulled out the sword, I knew it wasn't for comedy effect as it had been when she attacked Ryuuji with it. She planned to beat Sumire with it. Even when Taiga was bested with the sword, I loved how she still pressed the attack and won the fight (Sumire getting the last hit in with a shoe toss doesn't count). In the end, Sumire and Taiga respected each other for what they'd done. I loved the "BAKA" post card apology Taiga sent Sumire in America.

I do have a question though -- I didn't understand Ami's statement to Minori over Minori's guilt. Was that because Minori wasn't there for either Yuusaku or Taiga? I didn't get that and feel that something is missing. I will say that I did like that Ami put an end to the girls looking at Taiga's ID holder with its picture of Taiga and Yuusaku at the dance. I guess that's another one of those little markers that indicates how much Ami respects Taiga and is a friend of hers, even if they bicker.

So, what does this mean for Taiga? I don't see a way for her to continue to try to win Yuusaku's heart. I certainly don't see Yuusaku going for Taiga as a rebound nor as anything other than a friend. If Taiga did continue to try, it would seem to make her weaker in my eyes, especially after having understood the situation so well in this episode. Maybe she'll look more to Ryuuji, but I don't know. They have had nice moments together and likely will have more in the future. However, until Ryuuji is shut off completely from Minori (meaning he understands he won't get anywhere with her), then I can't see Ryuuji looking too closely at Taiga in that way.

Should be interesting to see where things go from here.

White Album 04 (or How to Keep Missing Each Other in the 80's)

ホワイトアルバム Episode 04

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Rina calls Touya at 5am to tell him that Yuki wants to meet him at 10am instead of 11am for their date. Touya doesn't remember all the details so when he arrives at the station, he doesn't know where to go. Meanwhile, Rina is in disguise at the meeting place she'd told Touya about, but he never shows. Touya bumps into a high school girl who accuses him of being a pervert but for some reason, she does help him, even though she doesn't believe he's dating the idol Yuki. Touya and Yuki keep missing each other and finally catch each other after the sun goes down. They embrace and Yuki tells Touya the news that she's going to release a single. She invites Touya up to her apartment and after they passionately kiss, she goes to take a shower as he waits sitting on the bed.

Thoughts/Review: This is such a strange anime to me, and yet there's just something about it that I will admit has its hooks in my, like some STINKING SOAP OPERA! *lol*

You know, this anime is set in the 80's and yet the characters don't appear to be from the 80's, nor has there been any 80's music to be heard (even in Japan, the J-pop groups had music that could easily be ID'd today as coming from the 80's). However, this episode, more so than the others, made me realize from a technology perspective that they are most certainly in the 80's. The use of those green pay phones (which is something I remember seeing a lot of in Japan) didn't trigger that much of a response to me before, but for this episode, I realized, "Hey! They don't have cell phones!"

Yep. The lack of cell phones and the use of corded phones (as well as some other technological touches here and there) are the only real ID markers this series has that it was set in the 80's. As I watched, this, I realized just how much the cell phone has become such a useful tool. Heck, I don't use mine that often, but even the other day when meeting some friends for a pinball outing, I used my cell phone to call a late buddy, who'd been caught in traffic. I had his number saved in my cell phone so I wouldn't forget. However, back in the 80's, that wouldn't have been possible and likely we would have assumed that our friend wasn't coming. So if Yuki and Touya could have had cell phones, they wouldn't have missed each other. Aren't you glad you have a cell phone today (those that have them)? ^_~

Finally, Touya and Yuki felt like a couple. It only took four episodes, but I finally felt it this time. Yeah, I know that last episode, Yuki embraced Touya from the back, but Touya still felt like a guy who had placed Yuki on a pedestal he could not then reach. He chased her and wanted to be with her, but there still felt like there was a wall between them. This time, that wall didn't appear to be there as Yuki and Touya kissed. What's somewhat strange is that while Touya calls Yuki his girlfriend and he goes to great effort to be with her, going up to Yuki's apartment was something he was hesitant to do. Even as the episode ended, he seemed hesitant. Maybe he's just a nice guy though nice guys rarely get girls romantically interested in them.

While talking about Yuki, at least we now know what Yuki was crying about in episode 2 -- she is getting a single released. Well, now that scene makes sense but back then, I honestly wasn't sure if Yuki was telling the truth about being happy or was crying because she'd been chastised and was simply covering. I chose to believe the former, but I wondered why we couldn't be told what brought Yuki to tears of joy. I guess the writers wanted to keep the audience in the dark like Touya.

Speaking of Touya, looks like he's finally starting to wonder a bit about some of the girls he's been in contact with lately. We'll see where that goes. Also, I guess his dad kicked Touya out after Touya's mother died. Well, I guess that explains Touya's dislike of his father.

Poor Haruka. She did Touya's slave work to stay in college and even bought him a candy bar.

So, why did Yuki have Rina call Touya about meeting early? Clearly, Rina had an ulterior motive and initially, I thought she did this all on her own. However, when Yuki mentions that Rina suggested moving the date time up to 10AM to insure Touya was there by 11AM (the planned date time), that meant that Yuki was down with it from the start, though I doubt she knew that Rina planned to spend that extra hour with Touya. Considering how Rina goes overboard on trying to disguise herself in public (and Yuki doesn't), I wonder if Rina is envious that Yuki has a boyfriend she can trust. Rina may be trying to gain a pseudo boyfriend. Despite this, she still covered for Yuki so that Yuki didn't have to have a singing lesson. So she's an odd one to figure out.

Finally, there's the high school girl. I would have blown her off as a one-time entry, but since she was shown for the teaser combined with her looking almost as if she recognized Touya, I wonder if she's the tutor student.

So, as I said earlier, there's just something about this anime that has me interested despite its presentation failures.

Slayers Evolution-R 02

スレイヤーズ EVOLUTION－R Episode 02

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: A village under nightly assault from a headless dullahan (think "headless horseman") is visited by Lina and company. Upon seeing Nama-chan, the villagers attack, feeling she is another dullahan. This causes Lina to blast a nearby mountain with a Dragon Slave to get them to stop their attacks. After learning the situation and feeling that maybe they can find another clue to the Hellmaster Jar, Lina agrees to help the villagers. Sure enough, the headless dullahan comes to town that evening, demanding to know where his head is and is followed by an army of zombies and skeletons. The dullahan sees Nama-chan's head and goes for it, but sees it isn't his helmet-head so he tosses it aside. It is then that Lina springs her trap, whereby they ensnare the dullahan.

After Amelia dispatches the dullahan's undead army by threatening them with purification, the dullahan gives up. He says his name is Hans and that he lost his head as part of a dullahan meeting. After somehow getting drunk off adult beverages, he woke up to discover his head missing. He mentions his large jar collection, which Lina can see if she helps him. Lina has Hans summon the dullahan for a meeting in order to get everyone back for the investigation. The hero dullahan Dune returns on his chariot and when Lina learns he's now wearing a hood, she discovers Dune has Hans' helmet. Turns out that Dune had lost his and took Hans' to protect Dune's status. Lina gets frustrated, more so when she discovers that Hans' pots are actually used as octopus traps.

Thoughts/Review: This episode was only mildly amusing, and just "OK." The octopus element at the end reminded me of Slayers Premium. However, as a joke, it didn't really work for me.

By not having the normal conflict between Nama-chan and Lina this episode, that removed a good bit of comedic material. I was disappointed by this. Nama-chan's use as bait worked for the episode but then the episode was kinda boring to me. After getting over the surprise that the dullahan weren't evil, things were rather "meh."

That's not to say that I didn't get some enjoyment from this. The best laughs came from Amelia threatening to purify the undead, then threatening to do the same to Dune.

I do look forward to the next episode and I do apologize for this lack-luster blog entry. Blame some setbacks on the job-hunting front which have me off center as I write this (which is Jan. 27). Hopefully, I'll recenter and get back on track.

Minami-ke Okaeri 04

みなみけ おかえり Episode 04

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Kana comes home and learns that Haruka has made Kana's favorite snack -- Cheese Lemon Custard Chiffon Pie. Kana finds Touma is already eating some and decided to steal some of Touma's, leading Touma to head-butt Kana. After Touma leaves, Kana and Chiaki talk about this over dinner. Chiaki wonders if now is the time to make Touma more lady-like, but after Kana thinks back to her conversation with Touma's brother Akira, she decides that Touma must be raised as a gentleman (English work was used in the Japanese). Chiaki understands where Touma is coming from and relates their own family situation to a pack of dogs with Haruka as the leader. Kana wonders which of them is the stronger and a fight breaks out just as Touma arrives for dinner. Touma enters their house, where she discovers Haruka has both Kana and Chiaki by the forehead and chastising them for interrupting dinner. Touma sees this as the feared killer technique of Haruka's -- the "Iron Claw." Haruka releases her two younger siblings, who fall to the ground. Touma goes to check on them, but they start to attack Touma for getting them into this mess until Haruka firmly asks if they are back to fighting instead of eating. That brings the Kana-Chiaki attack to a stop as they then hug Touma, telling Haruka that Touma is their best friend.

Touma is chastised by her brother Natsuki for being late and thus the cream stew he'd prepared is now cold. Touma tries to headbutt Natsuki, but only ends up injuring herself, leading Natsuki to explain that men will not yield to the attacks of their little sisters. So, next time Touma is over at the female Minami residence, she complains about Natsuki's strictness to Kana. Haruka enters and asks if Touma will be staying for dinner. Touma declines, citing Natsuki's strict behavior of late and recounting how when she tried to come over, Natsuki blocked her path for not having cleaned the bathroom and further, had avoided Touma's punch. Haruka recounts how Natsuki mentioned to her that Touma had become more boyish of late. So, Kana has the perfect defense, which is a picture of Touma after having awoken from a nap. If Natsuki chastises her, Touma is to show him the picture. So Touma goes home and Natsuki is irritated that Touma is late. Touma shows the picture and is amazed at its effect -- Natsuki's wrath is stopped by this photo.

The male Minami family discuss what to buy Touma for her upcoming birthday. Each recounts what they'd bought her in the past and feel their present is the one she liked most. Natsuki decides she'll buy it. Meanwhile at school, Hiroko-chan asks Kana about "banchou's" and the conversation leads to Natsuki. Hiroko wonders if Natsuki is a relative of Kana's, which Kana states is not the case. Over at the high school, Hitomi sees Natsuki deep in thought and somehow knows he's forgotten his lunch. So she offers him some of hers -- an octopus-shaped sausage. He declines but does borrow money from her for a hot dog. Natsuki eats in the hall as he talks with Hitomi when he sees Maki and Haruka walking down the hall. His eyes look at Haruka, whom he's attracted too but Hitomi thinks he's looking at her with eyes of love and ends up running away as she's "not ready." Maki wonders if Natsuki did something to Hitomi and seeing Haruka's look of concern, Natsuki tries to assure them that it was all a misunderstanding.

It is a rainy day at school when Hitomi approaches "Maki-senpai" for advice on being mature. Maki is happy that Hitomi came to her for advice rather than Haruka until she learns that she was chosen because Hitomi thinks Maki is still trying to become mature. Hosaka arrives and is soaked but holding an umbrella. Maki wonders why Hosaka is there, so he recounts his fantasy of bringing an umbrella for Haruka and giving it to her so she could go home. As he tells his story, he slings water at Hitomi and Maki. Hitomi is prepared and uses a handkerchief as a shield but Maki gets wet. Hitomi takes from this that being mature means giving your umbrella away, so she tries to get Natsuki to take her small, pink umbrella to walk home with, something he doesn't want to do. Fortunately for him, the rain stops and the sun comes out. Hosaka's plan for Haruka is also foiled by this. Making it home, Natsuki gives Touma a birthday present -- a compact, black umbrella.

Thoughts/Review: Two words -- pure win!

For the first story, we had the return of the Cheese Lemon Custard Chiffon Pie from Minami-ke episode 09. I had no idea this would be returning but back then, I promised to keep looking for the recipe and I never stopped. I now have it and I hope to have a translation from Miwa-sensei this Saturday. ^_^ Unfortunately, I won't be able to make one at this time (tight budget, y'all) but maybe soon, Lord willing. (Update: recipe --> HERE!)

Touma's headbutt of Kana made me laugh, but it was funnier when it backfired on her attack of Natsuki. Indeed, the whole conflict between Touma and Natsuki just had me giggling. Of course the resolution of that conflict with the picture that had Haruka also in it made me laugh as well.

While we are on the topic of conflicts, another great moment was Haruka's "Iron Claw" technique whereby she had Kana and Chiaki gripped by the forehead. Oh man, I just love how Haruka's voice never gets raised, but you know she's ticked and she's all business. *lol* Much better than last season's Haruka I can tell you.

Hitomi is the new character to the series, but unlike Fuyuki-kun from last series, Hitomi is a win. I like how she looks so serious but really likes Natsuki (who's clueless of course). Too bad Hitomi can't tell that Natsuki is infatuated with Haruka. I laughed when she was instinctively prepared for Hosaka's sloshing of water whereas Maki was not. I hope we see more of Hitomi because she has a lot of potential.

As to Hosaka, well the writers are using him to maximum comedic effect. I not only laughed at his drenched self slinging water all over the place, but again his fantasy about Haruka cracked me up as did Maki and Hitomi's reaction to Hosaka's shirt suddenly becoming unbuttoned. *lol* Just another win moment to be sure. I think the Hosaka stuff has been among the funniest stuff so far.

This episode looked a lot better to me visually, which helped. Even the distant shots looked pretty good this time when it came to the characters (rather than some cheaper imitation).

After last week's episode, I'll admit I was a bit concerned about the series since I didn't find episode 3 that good. However, this episode is pure Minami-ke goodness and so I look forward to the next episode with eagerness.

Urusei Yatsura 100 - 101

SPOILER Summaries/Synopsis:

うる星やつら episode 100

Shuutaro is not pleased to be compared with Ataru, so he takes Ataru over to his mansion to feel superior to Ataru. Ataru isn't impressed with the vast collection of WWII weapons, so its off to the giant safe. Again, Ataru isn't impressed and causes the safe door to close and lock. Trapped, Ataru and Shuutaro end up playing games with Shuutaro losing a ton of gold and cash. However, when the two start setting off traps including a water trap that fills the room, does one keep the gold or no? Eventually, the safe drains and they end up in the drainage pipe leading outside. However, it has an unbreakable metal net blocking the hole, meaning they are still trapped.

うる星やつら episode 101

Ataru is spotted going to an old sento (public bath house) immediately after school by Lum's stormtroopers, so they decide they need a bath too. Ataru isn't happy to see them since there is supposed to be a party on the female side. He's also not happy Cherry is already there. Megane and company can't get the truth out of him but when Shuutaro shows up and mentions Ryuko attending the party, Ataru is very happy, since all he knew about were Lum and her friends. Plans for peeping are made and when the girls arrive, the guys are excited to discover that it is every girl from the anime. Their efforts for people keep failing, leading them to eventually knock over the dividing wall accidentally, where they discover the girls are all in swimsuits.

Thoughts/Review: For episode 100, I did get some laughs, notably with Ataru wanting to eat and Ataru winning all the games while they were trapped in the safe. Their shifting usage of honorifics was funny, especially as Shuutaro kept trying to note his differences with Ataru. The dream sequence each had of the other dressed as a girl and using the "sama" honorific made me laugh because it was so wrong. However, the episode as a whole was one of, "ugh." At least there were laughs but I'm not really a fan of these dopey stories.

As to episode 101, I have to say that I had more laughs here. The tradition of men peeping at women in a public bath or onsen has long been documented in anime and manga. This episode did the same things one has seen many other times with the guys trying and failing to peep. However, where this got funny is when the guys got desperate and lost there towels. Since we can't show nudity, the "naughty bits" can't be shown -- they have to be censored. However, censoring the naughty parts with guys dressed in black, holding black circles on long poles was completely unexpected and it got funnier as the guys got more desperate. So kudos to the anime production staff for that clever idea.

xxxHOLiC Manga Chapter 172

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Watanuki tells his female cooking student that the reason she doesn't want to taste her own food isn't because she's disgusted with herself, but she's afraid. She rejects that but Watanuki says he's the same because he can't taste food or remember what he's eaten. That said, although it may be scary to know one's self, staying ignorant is more scary. However, people who have eaten Watanuki's food say it is good and he believes them. The woman asks why she's being told all this, so Watanuki answers that they may never meet again and that their current meeting is hitsuzen. With that, Watanuki says that they should make some onigiri so that they can eat together and learn about each other.

Outside the room, Himawari-chan, Doumeki-kun, Kohane-chan, and Mokona hear a loud noise from the kitchen. They look to find Watanuki yelling for the woman to wait as she leaves. Kohane-chan asks if Watanuki is OK and he tells her he is, though Doumeki looks skeptical.

Thoughts/Review: I didn't really like how CLAMP had the unnamed woman leave. The way the scene was drawn, it isn't initially clear what the heck happened. At first, I thought that Watanuki was running out of the kitchen to go get something, say to clean up a mess. Then after studying the imagery for a while, I came to the conclusion that the woman simply stormed off in a huff. I'm not sure what's up with CLAMP lately but it seems they are big fans of ambiguous or confusing artwork when telling the story.

Frankly, I'm not really gripped by this latest xxxHOLiC story arc, which seems to be marking time to allow whatever crap is going on in Tsubasa to finish. I really don't care about this unnamed woman or Watanuki's attempts to get her to eat her own food. Maybe she'll be gone forever and Watanuki's friends will help him suddenly be able to taste again.

Clannad 08

クラナド Episode 08

SPOILER Summary: Nagisa and Okazaki continue to help Fuko-chan with her starfish carvings, but proof that Sunohara's statement that people were forgetting Fuko-chan is abundant, starting with Tomoyo, who's troubled that she forgot. Others walk right past Fuko-chan, unable to see her or hear her as she attempts to hand out more starfish. This failure begins to depress Fuko-chan. At lunch, they try to cheer her up and when Fuko-chan zones out, she immediately recovers before Okazaki can pull a practical joke on her. After a humorous verbal sparing between Okazaki and Fuko-chan, they see Mitsui and call her over. However, she acts like it is the first time she's met Okazaki and Nagisa and feels they are pulling a practical joke on her since she can no longer see Fuko-chan.

Fuko-chan is upset and runs off, leaving Nagisa and Okazaki to discuss what might be happening with her. When they walk home after school, they try to cheer Fuko-chan up. At Nagisa's home, work on the starfish continue, but Nagisa is finding it hard to contain her emotions, knowing what's happening with Fuko-chan. When a late-arriving customer arrives, Akio-san does not want to leave the residence section to head into the shop, but ends up stabbing himself in the foot, thus leaving Nagisa and Okazaki to deal with it. When the customer leaves, Nagisa breaks down briefly, leading Okazaki to state they need to be there for Fuko-chan until the end of her dream.

Okazaki heads to Sunohara's place, where he's nearly run over by guys fleeing the wrath of Misae-san. Okazaki hands her one of the starfish and invites her to Ibuki-sensei's wedding. Heading up to Sunohara's room, he learns that Sunohara has been doing some investigating and has discovered the fantastic truth about Fuko-chan. As such, Sunohara has decided to pay Fuko-chan a visit in the hospital since that's where she really is. Okazaki is concerned that if Sunohara goes, he will forget about Fuko-chan like so many other have.

The next day, Fuko-chan is having no success at handing out the starfish. When Sunohara arrives at lunch time, he tells them that for some odd reason, he found himself leaving a hospital but he didn't know why he'd gone. When Fuko attempts to offer him a starfish, he apparently cannot see her, nor can he remember her. Kyou and Ryou arrive to confront Sunohara since he was late for school. However, they too apparently cannot see Fuko-chan either and while the carved starfish seems familiar to Kyou, she cannot remember why it does and as such is frustrated.

Later in the day, Okazaki, Nagisa, and Fuko-chan are sitting depressed when Sunohara arrives as his normal, cheerful, idiot self. He invites Okazaki and Nagisa to lunch but Okazaki turns him down. When he starts to flirt with Nagisa, Okazaki gets made, prompting Sunohara to ask Fuko-chan for support. However, he immediately finds the mentioning of this name as something strange and becomes somber. Despite the please from Okazaki and Nagisa, Sunohara finds he can remember nothing but has the feeling this "Fuko-chan" was someone he didn't dislike.

Because things have become so depressing, Nagisa and Okazaki decide to cheer up Fuko-chan and head into town to buy her a gift. Eventually, she sees a birthday party set and goes all spacey for it. So it is settled that this is what they will buy her, which pleases her greatly, enough so that she's moved Okazaki up on her ranking list. The trio then head to a nearby park where after some talking, Nagisa and Okazaki observe the fountain within the park's pond while Fuko-chan observes from a distance approvingly.

Returning to Nagisa's home, Akio-san briefly thinks he sees a person with Nagisa and Okazaki, but then thinks better of it as he heads off. Sanae-san arrives on the shop floor to greet them, including Fuko-chan. She suggest the trio take a bath together, then confesses that she can no longer see Fuko-chan though she does still remember her. Like Sunohara, she too figured out Fuko-chan's true identity and went to the hospital to see for herself. After she returned, she discovered her husband had forgotten Fuko-chan and she couldn't see Fuko-chan. The trio retreat into the night where sitting on a park bench (Fuko-chan clutching a starfish and her present), they decide to head to the school to pass the night.

Thoughts: Well, its getting sadder and sadder as Fuko-chan's story comes to a close. Fuko-chan still had a couple of humor moments, but its sad seeing how so few people can even see her any more, much less remember her. I've got the strongest feeling that somehow even Okazaki and Nagisa will forget in episode 9, but whether we'll get a deux ex machina moment or not, I don't know. Well, maybe Fuko-chan will somehow get better.

The interesting item was Sunohara's continued showing of depth. He cut class just to learn more about Fuko-chan, then even went to pay her a visit in the hospital, only to forget why he'd gone to the hospital at all, much less Fuko-chan. And yet even when he couldn't see her "spirit" form with Okazaki and Nagisa, somehow, the name still came to his mind and it troubled him that the memories he was trying to access were just out of reach.

I guess it doesn't matter, but that's pretty jacked up that seeing the actual, physical body of Fuko-chan in the hospital makes you forget all about her or at worst, makes it so you can't see her spirit form. Weird and as I said, jacked up.