Binchou-tan 4
Binchou-tan wakes up to the sound of rain on a dreary Sunday... Meanwhile, Chiku-tan also gets up. She doesn't seem to be a morning person, and her hair's quite a bit messed up. Anyways, she gets an idea for a new invention -- bamboo stilts!...not exactly something new, though. She has a bit of a fit on the floor, and Chikurin (her little sister) mimics her. kawaisu~... Kunugi-tan wakes up and is attended to by her maids who fix up her hair (I prefer it down, though.. much cuter that way), then goes to have breakfast by herself...
Binchou-tan, sits inside her very leaky house (poor thing...) listening to the frogs and such. For some reason it gets in a mood to make some music, so she uses her charcoal as a xylophone of sorts. After that, she goes out to the bird bus stop to head to town, but there's no service for the day. Chiku-tan comes by on her stilts and asks her if they can play together. They sit together in that old car and Chiku-tan asks Binchou-tan what she wants to do? She doesn't know... Chiku-tan suggests shiritori... some odd animal walks by while they're playing, apparently a friend of Binchou-tan's, but that's all we see of it..
Kunugi-tan's day goes as you'd expect for an ojou-sama -- piano practice, then tea ceremony, then a walk around with her butler. She wants to see what's outside the gates of the mansion, though... The rain finally lets up and Binchou-tan and Chiku-tan head to Chiku-tan's house, stopping at a bamboo grove... Kunugi-tan's butler says that he's got something to show her and takes her out to the balcony, and there in the sky are two beautiful rainbows. Kunugi-tan seems to be a bit happier :)
But poor thing, not being able to go out... her butler does seem a pretty nice guy, though... Chiku-tan was pretty funny this time with her "new" invention and all. Little hissy fit she had was really cute :) Next time, might we see Binchou-tan and Kunugi-tan talk to each other for the first time?
Say, what was Kunugi-tan wearing on her head? Although this is horribly... horribly cute. :D I don't recall if Binchou-tan told Chuku where she lived last time, although there was quite a bit of the party that wasn't covered.
That looks like two pieces of charcoal of some sort on Kunugi-tan's head to me. :)
Now why would she need two pieces of binchou? Kunagi-tan's apparently the opposite of Binchou-tan here, after all - she's rich, comfortable... and unhappy and lonely, and doesn't seem to use the 'charcoal' for much, unlike Binchou-tan.
Still, it's a bloody cute episode.
Quoting my friend:
"Seem to me she's so happy-go-lucky kind of girl. She worries about nothing."
Another nice episode after the very nice relaxing episode 1.
OK, a bit of research and I have answers for you. You can read more details at Manhole Fansub's release notes page located at http://www.manhole-fansubs.com/index.php?tlnotes=binchoutan
The names appear to all be puns, tan in kanji can mean charcoal, it's written in katakan to distinguish the puns of the names. Binchou-tan's is most obvious, she wears a piece of binchoutan charcoal on her head. Chiku-tan would be bamboo charcoal, she wears a piece of bamboo on her head to make her ponytail. Kunugi-tan is oak charcoal, I'm betting those are two pieces of oak charcoal on her head. :) Ren-tan is charcoal briquette, I'm not sure if those are charcoal briquettes on her head or not but I wouldn't be surprised if it is. They're not sure on Aloe, but say it's "quite probably aloe vera". And to make things even more fun, Ubamega-san comes from Ubame oak (or ubamegashi), that's the wood used to make binchoutan charcoal. How appropriate that Binchou-tan get a birthday present including binchoutan charcoal from an Ubamega-san. ^_^
Also to note, the charcoal on Kunugi-tan's head is soley decorative, we've never seen her use it and probably won't. We see Binchou-tan use her charcoal from the first episode on. Kunugi-tan doesn't even put her own hair decorations own either. :)
I have to admit this was such a cute but funny episode. The whole deal with 'Chikutan' and the stilts. So that's what that whole thing was about. And 'Chikurin' is so "kawaiii~! They're both becoming my faves. I must have watched this episode like 5 times already. :)