Kamichu! 10
Yurie goes to Izumo for a month to attend the Gods' Convention there. She transfers to a middle school there where she's treated very much respectfully... though she'd rather be just a normal girl first. A few girls from the class want to invite Yurie to do things with them, but when they go to do so InoShikaChou (the boar, deer, and butterfly) arrive with Yurie's ride to the Gods' Convention -- a nice big bull. The convention itself looks like any other convention, excepting the fact that a lot of rather strange and interesting gods of all types are milling around. Yashima-sama's there to see his idol, Benten-sama, and we see Tama/Binbougami chatting with a shinigami and also showing off a bit of her cat side ;) Since Yurie's a new god she has to attend various things and participate in activities to learn the ropes and such.
The staff evidently remembered that Mario's 20th birthday was this week -- among the other new gods is a very kawaii Famicom god :)
So the month quickly passes with Yurie in the same routine everyday, doing her stuff at the Gods' Convention, going to school and not interacting with anyone.. generally a very lonely existance. When the time for midterms comes Yurie studies but ends up dead last, making her even more depressed than she was... While Yurie sits outside the "convention center" Benten-sama comes and sits down next to her, asking if she's a shinigami since she's so dour. Gods shouldn't be so, for themselves and the people that believe in them. But when they do get depressed they can't exactly go to a god for help, so the only things left to rely on are themselves and their friends...
The end of Yurie's month in Izumo comes and with it her last day in the school there. The teacher asks her to say something... I'm sorry... Yurie apologizes for being shy and not trying to interact with everyone there. She wanted to be friends with everyone. Her classmates feel the same, sorry for treating her as a god instead of just another student. They want her to come back next year -- they'll call her Yurie-chan then :)
Yurie arrives home to a waiting Matsuri and Mitsue. They embrace and Yurie lets some tears flow...
Left: Normal omega kawaii Yurie ;)
Right: Yurie in the last scene of the episode
And it was going perfectly.... until Yurie (and Matsuri and Mitsue, too) looked really off in that last scene (see above comparision) -- it was if a completely different animation director were doing things or something... Still, a nice episode this time showing the struggle Yurie has with both being a god and a middle schooler, and the loneliness that comes with the separation from others. If they fix that last scene on the DVD this would be the best episode yet, I think ;) Also, does Kenji perhaps, just perhaps have Yurie on his mind? Asking Matsuri and Mitsue where she was, saying that something was "lacking" without her there, and then writing 神中 kamichuu...
I've read on blogs and such that Kamichu! will be ending next week with episodes 11 and 12, but we'll see. Certainly be sad to see it end if that's the case. No more kawaii Yurie... :( (Ed: Episode 11 aired today (September 20th) with episode 12 next week to end things. Though the actual ending episode might be one of the extra episodes on the DVDs)
Too bad to see depressed Yurie-chan. :cry:
Cheer up, Yurie-sama!!!
yatta! XD i can't wait to download these episodes! this series is just too cute ^o^ sankuu very much! honto arigato gosiamasu!
<3 Mae-chan
As I understand it the TV series will be 12 episodes long but the DVD release will have another four unaired episodes. This seems to be a common marketing exercise in anime these days; several other recent series have had unaired episodes in the DVD release too (Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu, for example). The anime makers get a sale to the TV companies and then catch the otaku/fanbase for the complete DVD sets since the unaired episodes are issued one per DVD, plus extra footage in the broadcast shows too.
Yurie looks different in the final few cuts because the last rays from the setting sun are streaming in through the doors of the station, covering her with an orange light.
I had a real laugh-out-loud moment watching the raw of this episode when Yurie saw her desk in her new classroom. She really really didn't need that right at that moment... I won't spoil it for the rest of you who haven't seen it yet.