Zettai Shounen 16
We start off with a phone conversation between two very familiar voices -- Miki Miyama and Ayumu Aizawa -- though we only see Ayumu. Those who wanted to see Miki with only a bath towel on will be disappointed :P As they talk we pan through various shots around town, seeing Okakababa along with two of the fairies, and also Ayumu's room. What's this Zettai Girl manga Ayumu's got on his bookcase? Sounds like something I'd like ;) There's also a very nice photo of Miki and Ayumu on Ayumu's desk. Ayumu looks much, much, much cooler than he did two years ago. Anyways, Miki mentions that her older sister, Mika, lives nearby and also that Mika saw Akira the other day, and that Akira's probably there to search for those Material Fairies. The conversation turns to whether that night two years ago at the Cat Dance was something special or not, and whether what started there is actually over. While talking with Miki Ayumu hears something outside and goes to investigate. Old raggedy Okakababa is there in the garage, along with Dosshiru and Shisshin, who quickly fly away... Cut away to a shot of that huge UFO thing, still over the city...
Makki sits alone in a cafe, still with that picture of Rieko on his cell phone. He gets a call from Akira, who tells him she's happy to have his help and all. She wants to know what exactly he's wanting from doing this -- he wants to find out the truth about the Material Fairies, of course. Akira hangs up, and Makki sends a text message to Rieko, telling her he doesn't understand why she doesn't care about the Material Fairies anymore, and that he's going to find them and perhaps change her thinking. Seems Rieko couldn't care less about Makki, but she did see the fairies...
Akira arrives back at Takimiya and calls her cameraman (well, the guy that used to be her cameraman), Doumaru, and asks how things are going at channel 39 these days. She wants to tell him about what she's doing in Yokohama, but since it'd be rather long he tells her to call back later. All during this we see Akira's rather small and rather messy room, along with all her underwear... (^^;;;) Makki tries calling Kisa, but she doesn't answer, so he sends her a text message instead. He writes that perhaps it wouldn't be good for Kisa to keep that thing all to herself. She deletes the message right after reading it and slumps a bit.. Bun-chan is hers... Akira gets a call from Doumaru while she's eating and tells him to call back later. Hana-san scolds her bad manners, saying she should talk to somebody she can see while eating.
Kisa calls Shigeki and asks him what she should do, and whether it's okay for her to keep Bun-chan. Shigeki says it's okay, so long as she takes care of it... Akira calls Doumaru and explains what's going on, then talks about the two types of fairies she's heard about -- "hot" (the orange colored) and "cold" (the blueish colored) to put it simply. It seems that how they're talked about is completely opposite in Tana and Yokohama. While the hot fairies are considered good in Tana, in Yokohama the cold ones are the ones who bring happiness and such. Supposedly a picture of the cold type of fairy was included in that chain mail Makki got, and Akira got as well, so she sends it to Doumaru. Akira's desktop on her computer is pretty messy (^^;;) Doumaru tells Akira he knows of people who saw those cold colored fairies in Tana -- the couple who were illegally dumping on the mountainside. They also said that those were the real cause of the landslide. As they talk the first snow of the winter starts to fall in Yokohama.. Ayumu wakes up the next morning to find Okakababa gone, so he follows her footprints in the snow, but they get lost in all the other footprints near the sidewalk...
Has Okakababa finally left this world, her job complete? Well, she said she was still alive in the next episode preview, though :P
Anyways, so we finally got to see Ayumu again. Very nice to hear Miki's voice, though we only saw her in that picture. I'm still waiting for Miku-chan to make an appearance ;) From their conversation it would seem that they're more than friends, but perhaps not quite a couple yet (Miki still calls him "Ayumu-kun", and not just plain "Ayumu" as well). And the picture looks recent so he still visits her and such as well... I'd say they'd make a nice couple when they do get there :) Now we'll have to see when Ayumu gets involved with the other characters in Yokohama, perhaps meeting Akira or maybe Kisa...
As Akira said, there seem to be two types of Material Fairies, the "hot" and "cold". They seem to be enemies, as seen by the cold fairies seemingly fighting the hot fairy that Rieko saw back in episode 13 -- the two opposing powers that Hana-san mentioned to Rieko. And their purposes different as well... the hot seemingly there to protect people, and the cold there to perhaps punish. The cold fairies also only seem to show up around piles of human-made trash as well...
I found the fact that most of the conversations this time weren't face to face, they were over phones, interesting. That's a realistic portrayal of things as they are today... but I won't even try to analyze the roles and symbolism of cell phones in the show here :P Anyways, with Ayumu in the mix, and that huge whatever it is once again shown to us above the skies of Yokohama, the tension feels like it's building up, so I'm eagerly awaiting next week's episode as usual.
Who else a bit let down by this episode? I think it re-introduced Ayumu's character well, but the pacing of the episode was off. I hope that it picks up again episode 17.
The mysteriousness was up there well, though. It was just pointed out to me that Okakababa and Kisa have the same ankle marking by someone. Has anyone else noticed this or are we insane? ;p
Hmm... So Miki tries to seduce Ayumu by saying that she's just out of the shower and only has bath towel on her. But the reaction from Ayumu is cold as usual (I mean as expected from Ayumu) (^_^;)
Where is Miku? Please some phone calls featuring Miku instead...
While I'm not much of a MIku fan myself, I do want to see Miku again too. I want to know what it was exactly that caused the personality change.
Anyway, there are more than a few ero oekakis of Miki in a bath towel floating around now. :P
I liked this episode - althoguh it seemed like nothing much happened, I do like Ayumu (Graduated from GLF to WALK.) and Miki and was overjoyed to hear them again. I also don't have problems with ltos of dialogue if it's good dialogue. It makes sense too, since people are so much more likely to talk on the phone... and spend a lot of time doing that and find out important things doing that - not necessarily by walking around and finding stuff anymore.
I wonder if Ayumu goes to school now. With those looks he'd be an instant hit I swear. I wonder if he's become a more outdoor person, seeing that he has some travelling books...