Kamichu! 8
Kenji runs out of class quickly -- there's talk that he's going on a date, so Yurie, Mitsue (or should I call her "Biggu Boin" now?), and Matsuri follow him. Turns out he's only helping out an old man, Gen-san, do some repairs on his house. Gen-san takes a hard tumble and ends up in the bed for a bit. Yurie notices a picture of a huge battleship on the wall -- it's the Yamato, the biggest battleship in Japanese WW2 fleet, and Gen-san served on it. Four months after Gen-san was forced to get off due to injuries, the Yamato was sunk near Okinawa. As they all go back home Matsuri comments that Kenji really likes older people -- Kenji enjoys listening to their stories among other things... As they pass some water we hear a voice say "I've found her!"...
Back at Yurie's home, we see dinner being made from an interesting viewpoint -- inside a nabe. And while Yurie eats from her bowl a ship pops out. Its name is Mitsubamaru, and it's got a request for her coming from Okinawa. A certain Yamato-san wants to come back home. Yurie gets a long-distance seaweed call from Yamato-san -- yes, the sunken ship. It wants to go back to its former glory and go back home. Yurie will do her best to grant its wish, of course. After consulting with Yashima-sama, Yurie does some serious research to find out all she can about Yamato-san so she can bring it back perfectly. We get a history lesson as Yurie tells Matsuri and Mitsue all about the ship. Learn more about it here if you're interested. She even puts in a call to the good ol' PM, much more friendly than he was back in episode 4, to get some classified materials about the ship.
So after one last visit to Gen-san to hear more about how he feels about the Yamato, Yurie's ready to do her thing. With the help of the seaweed girl from earlier -- there's some reason I'm missing that we got a panchira from her, right? (^^;;) -- and after a big "Ka-mi-chu!", Yurie leaves her body and teleports to where Yamato-san is, along with Mitsubamaru. She does her thing and the ship surfaces, back in perfect condition, exactly as it used to be. Back home, Mitsue brings Gen-san to the shore since there's some Yurie wants to show him. All the little gods are around there as well -- Gen-san can see them too since Matsuri put one of those fuda on him. Yamato-san finally makes his return and all there are very happy to see him... though it's got a "Soda here!" flag flying flying from it like Yurie initially drew it earlier ;) Yamato-san does remember Gen-san, and he even knows that Yurie likes Kenji. Observant ship, ne? So with its wish granted Yamato-san once again heads out back to sea...
Matsuri, Mitsue, and Yurie go visit Gen-san and Kenji once again after school. Kenji thanks Yurie for showing him all she did the other day. Yurie blushes a bit after Gen-san asks if they're going out. Kenji says they're just friends...
Poor Yurie (once again)... Well, at least Kenji remembers who she is now ;) So I suppose the moral of the story this time is that even ships have feelings? :P Anyways, not exactly the best this time, though there were good moments -- the way Mitsubamaru surfaced in Yurie's supper was nice. I'd be a bit more surprised if that happened (^^;;) I guess it felt somewhat 微妙 bimyou, to use a Japanese word. Yurie herself didn't seem to be drawn quite as cute as usual, too -- a different animation director this time (same as episode 5, I believe) would be the reason for that. Only a few episodes remaining so I hope we'll get some more like the previous two episodes.. more "normal", relatively speaking, I suppose ;)
added your blog to my links (@ my blog ;p)
thank you very much for this! ^^ i'm a huge fan of Kamichu! and now that i'm here in japan (muahahaahaa) i can watch it... or so i hope. i'm still trying to find it on tv >>;; mehh only 9 channels here in the dorms...
so having you kindly post this is really great! thank you again and i as well look forward to the next episod!
Kenji x Yurie! XD
<3 Mae-chan
There's a new movie being released soon in Japan about the Yamato. The producers built a life-sized mockup of the deck of the ship in the seaside town of Onomichi which is where Kamichu! is set.