Posts in Binchou-tan Category
March 31, 2006
Everybody wakes up and goes about their morning routine -- Binchou-tan heads to the school to work, Kunugi-tan goes to school, excited about seeing Binchou-tan, Chiku-tan heads to town to sell medicine, Ren-tan rings the bell at the temple, and Aloe doesn't feel like getting up and going to school. Chiku-tan's has a pretty tough time selling stuff on the street. Ren-tan walks up and tells her she's in a bad spot and that she'll show her a better spot to do business. At the new spot on a bridge Chiku-tan completely sells out. Ren-tan's got pretty good business sense :) To thank Ren-tan, Chiku-tan offers to take her somewhere... Ren-tan of course wants to eat her favorite food, dango. Turns out that Chiku-tan thinks they're pretty good as well. Aloe passes by, in need of water as usual. Poor thing...
Meanwhile, Binchou-tan and Kunugi-tan meet after school and play.. well, first, Kunugi-tan teaches Binchou-tan how to write since she apparently doesn't know how. So can she read the work postings she gets?.. Anyways, after that Kunugi-tan takes Binchou-tan's hand and takes her to look at some flowers. While walking a rather large flying beetle attaches itself to Kunugi-tan's skirt. Binchou-tan wants to say something about it, but she keeps quiet. After looking at the flowers the beetle flies off on its own, relieving Binchou-tan. It's time for Kunugi-tan to leave -- she had a lot of fun :)
Everybody goes back home as the sun sets. Before bed Aloe looks through a catalog of vinyl pools -- if she can't take a trip to an island somewhere then that'll have to do. Just normal wish from a normal girl (as Ren-tan said)... Binchou-tan writes a letter to Kunugi-tan, and the next morning the delivery bird gives it to Kunugi-tan: "Hello, Kunugi-tan. The end". Kunugi-tan's very happy :) Out in the forest Binchou-tan's lets out a shout -- "It's great to be alive!"
And that about sums up the show. Binchou-tan loves life, despite all the hardships she has to face. She's got great friends so she's not alone at all. Happy that her and Kunugi-tan finally were able to start playing with each other. Chiku-tan and Ren-tan seem like they'll be good friends as well :) And Aloe.. well, poor thing needs some luck. Somebody buy the girl a pool that can't be punctured by her hair ;)
This is the last episode on TBS and BS-i though there are 12 episodes in all, unfortunately. There might be more episodes on MBS, but I'm not certain of it. At the worst we'll have to wait for the last DVD to be released to see episodes 10-12. Quick wrapup just in case we do have to wait. If you've been reading you know I've really enjoyed watching Binchou-tan so there's not much to say here. Beautiful artwork and music along with kawaii characters made it fun to watch, though there are those times where you really want to cry because of the situation Binchou-tan's in. But she keeps on going with a smile, so after every episode I'm smiling as well. That's about all for now... if episodes 10-12 do air then I'll be back with them in a week or so when they start, otherwise, just wait a while ;)
Binchou-tan finishes eating and notices that her rice bowl is in rather bad shape, all cracked. She heads off to town as usual, and Kunugi-tan goes to school as usual, thinking about Binchou-tan. While walking through town Binchou-tan runs into a dog that seems to want a croquette from a bakery, so Binchou-tan buys one for it. How nice :) She then stops by a shop that sells rice bowls. The person working there asks Binchou-tan where her mom is... Binchou-tan walks off without saying a word. She passes by a kindergarten where the kids are singing a song outside. Binchou-tan follows along and does the motions, but she notices that her hands are worn from all the work she's been doing （ノД`）
Back at home Binchou-tan makes some rice and puts it in her cracked rice bowl, then walks outside. She goes back to the door and smiles, saying tadaima, then goes to the table and plays the role of a mother welcoming her child back, saying okaerinasai 。゜・（ノД`）・゜・。
Binchou-tan wakes up to hear the sound of fireworks in the distance. There's a festival that night. Chiku-tan, meanwhile, has a new invention -- a portable house that she can use so she won't have to walk so far to town everyday. However, it's a bit too heavy to carry (^^;;) Aloe@Momoko Saitou (note that there's no -tan) swims happily in one those of blow-up vinyl pools, but she puts a hole in it with her rather sharp spiked hair (deadly weapons, those) and it deflates. Poor thing... she goes to her mom and asks for another one, even if it means not having a birthday. She really likes swimming if you didn't notice... however, her mom says no -- she's already done the same to 3 pools before it (^^;;)
Ren-tan writes a sign for her booth at the upcoming festival then goes to draw for a spot. Of course, she gets the golden ball and picks the best spot... Aloe goes to the public pool to swim, but as she takes out a coin to pay she loses it in a drain. Awwww, poor thing.. Ren-tan, give her some of your luck ;) Kunugi-tan waters flowers along with her butler, who tells her that there's a festival that night, and that people will be dancing and such. It's not a dance party, though, Kunugi-tan (^^;;) While walking out of town Aloe falls down from lack of water as Chiku-tan walks by. Chiku-tan pours the contents of a bottle on Aloe's head, and that perks her up a bit... but it's actually her grandfather's sake. Ooops.. poor Aloe (^^;;)
Binchou-tan goes to town and finds some work as usual. On the way to the place where she's working she sees a TV with one of her favorite shows featuring that weird Pukashuu character on. However, someone changes the channel right as Pukashuu is being chased by a shark, so she goes on... We are then introduced to Ren-tan, daughter of a Buddhist family that has a temple. Binchou-tan happens to be working at that temple, but Ren-tan leaves before they can meet. Meanwhile, Chikurin and Chiku-tan enjoy some snacks and try to hit a drawing to get some more chocolate, but both end up not. Ren-tan comes by and tries her luck... and of course she gets the prize, two really big pieces of chocolate which she gives to Chikurin and Chiku-tan.
Binchou-tan works around the temple cleaning statues and such. The monk there tells her to do her work joyfully, as even the stone Buddhas there have a heart. He thanks her for her hard work by giving her some dango that are apparently Ren-tan's favorite, and she heads home. On the way she sees a statue of the Buddhist bodhisattva Ksitigarbha (jizou in Japanese) and clears some leaves that were on it. She offers it a prayer and some of the dango she received... Ren-tan finishes up her snack (how many dango did she eat?) and heads home, passing by that statue and noticing the offering that Binchou-tan left.
Binchou-tan heads to town by bird bus as usual, while Chiku-tan is in quite a hurry to leave as well. Chikurin wants to go along, but of course she can't. She's also interested in playing with the flint her dad had, so she starts striking it together and... ouch, that had to hurt. She starts crying and Chiku-tan tries to calm her down. She blows up a ballon with itai ("pain") written on it then releases it... literally making the pain fly away. Smart idea there, Chiku-tan ;)
Binchou-tan's looking for work again (as the narrator nee-tan says), and this time she manages to get through and grab a work posting. Chiku-tan's got a new invention to help her this time -- she uses one those sticky hand-like things to grab one, but the paper won't unstick. Oops (^^;;) Binchou-tan's work is to help out at a bakery the next day, and Chiku-tan's is to help with lunch at a school the day after that. However, Chiku-tan wants to go to the city market that's coming up the day after next to buy things so she can't help at the school. Binchou-tan and Chiku-tan swap jobs, not paying any attention to the receptionist. Binchou-tan catches the last part about dressing up a bit since she'll be working at a pretty high class school.
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..
Binchou-tan gets a package from the delivery bird from a certain Ubamega-san (who we only see as a sihouette). Today would be Binchou-tan's birthday. She claps and says "Happy birthday to me"... so sad to be alone on your birthday （ノД`） Anyways, as usual, Binchou-tan rides the bird bus to town with acorn in hand. Another girl, Chiku-tan@Mai Kadowaki, also heads off to town from her house.. and another girl, Kunugi-tan@Sakura Nogawa, apparently a rich ojou-sama, rides in a carriage to town. While on the way, Kunugi-tan sees Binchou-tan being carried by the bird. And at the bus stop outside of town the bird promptly drops Binchou-tan from pretty high up, right through a tree, and she lands face-down. Talk about bad service (^^;;) Binchou-tan, dazed from the fall, walks right into Chiku-tan. Binchou-tan only ended up with a scratch from that drop, and since Chiku-tan's family runs a drug store she's got a bandage and medicine for her. They both introduce themselves to each other -- seems both of them are going to town to look for look for work, so they decide to go together.
After getting all ready to go out Binchou-tan hitches a ride with a bird (for the price of an acorn) and goes to town to find some work.After looking through the window of a toy store, she goes to the job posting board, but she can't quite make it though the crowd. However, she manages to get some work that the others didn't want to do. What kind of work? Cleaning, gardening... then there are some things that only she can do -- staying in a shoe for some reason, staying in a bottle of water... interesting work, there. And how does she fit into places that small? (^^;;) For working she gets a good bit of rice. On the way home she stops by the toy store and finds some cute pantsu with various prints on them that she really likes. But she doesn't have enough money... luckily, she manages to find what she wants on sale. Binchou-tan goes back home and makes dinner then heads to bed. She then has a rather odd dream.. first dreaming that the frog she liked was somehow spitting out bags of rice.. then another one where she was on a raft in the ocean with lots of those other weird things around. Binchou-tan seems to be sleeping soundly :)
Well, I've got pretty much the same thoughts as last time so there's not much to say -- extremely kawaii and the quality of the animation is still quite high. Next time it looks like we'll be introduced to Kunugi-tan, Chiku-tan, and Chiku-tan's little sister, Chikurin. Looking forward to more cuteness :)
Opening: "iroha" by CooRie - A very pretty OP introduces us to Binchou-tan and her friends. kawaii~. Being a big fan of CooRie, of course I like the song. Probably my favorite OP of the season :)
First of all, could somebody please tell me why this is paired up with REC? Talk about different... Anyways, I had already seen this episode over animate.tv, but that was low-quality (badly compressed) streaming stuff, so watching it in full quality made it that much better.
Binchou-tan@Ai Nonaka lives alone in an old house in the mountains, surrounded by nature. This first ep shows us what she does during the day: walking in the forest, going to the lake and getting a ride on a duck, going home and taking a nap, eating yummy rice, just really simple everyday stuff. And that's about it ;)
Like ARIA, Binchou-tan is an 癒し iyashi ("healing") anime, focusing more on enjoying the small things rather than having some big story, so if you liked ARIA you'll probably like this -- which means this is definitely my kind of show. Production values are very high. 3D panning and such usually really bothers me, but the scene at beginning looking around Binchou-tan's house didn't since the CG quality is so high. Backgrounds are meticulously drawn (as they should be for a nature-focused show), and Binchou-tan herself is terakawaisu ;) GJ, Studio Deen! Music is also quite good and relaxing, enhancing the soothing mood of the show.
Next time, Binchou-tan's going to be doing some work. Wonder when we'll meet some of Binchou-tan's (very cute) friends :)
