Posts in Mahoraba Category
February 7, 2005
Asami keeps track of her and Sayoko's finances and things are in the red again... they'll have to ask the boss for more work now to make ends meet. Asami's friends offer to help, but Asami says things are fine - her mother should be working hard at home now.
Well, she's trying, but Sayoko can't seem to put these artificial flowers together.. Shiratori comes home tired from school and wants to sleep. But he notices a trail of flower petals leading to where Sayoko's hiding under the house crying. Momono says it's a usual thing so to leave her alone about it. Shiratori of course won't and when Asami comes home he's trying to convince Sayoko to come out. She hasn't made any progress making those flowers so they could use someone to help.
Shiratori goes to school, but because of the ruckus he's had to go through he never got around to doing his homework... so he faces the wrath of Shirogane-sensei and will never, ever do that again ;) On the way back from school with his friends, Shiratori runs into Kozue and Tamami who are coming back from their school. Shiratori's friends seem to like Kozue, but they don't take notice of Tamami... Tamami takes care of that, though. They won't ignore her again...
Added scans of 4-koma and why Kozoue changed personalities in the manga ;)
Once upon a time, two princesses lived in a castle. Today, on the small bridge over the castle's pond, it's plum time. "Ummm, sour!", said the princesses. However, one plum fell into the reflection of one of the princess' in the pond and the reflection ate it! Both princesses fell into the pond... and when they came back above the water there were 3 princesses!
ji~~~~~~~. Nanako-chan stares at Shiratori, full of interest. Momono introduces him to Nanako and she takes a closer look at him. It seems she won't leave him, so Momono and rest leave it up to Shiratori to look after her. But he's got a project he's got to finish for school... Momono tells Shiratori to do his best until Nanako becomes つやつや. Tsuya-tsuya?
Okay kids, you'd better listen to Tamami and sit far from the TV and watch in a bright room... or else ;) Anyways, getting on to the story now...
Kozue suddenly changed personality at the end last time, and Shiratori has no idea what's going on. Momono and Tamami come over to see what's going on because of the ruckus.. And they call Kozue Saki-chan. Saki-chan's a very rough gal with that Yankee personality. She orders Shiratori to go out and grab some things for his welcoming party they're gonna have. Momono goes with him to get some things, and on the way back, Shiratori asks what the heck is up with Kozue.. he still doesn't get it, so she explains more about Kozue's "secret". Whenever she's surprised or receives a shock of some kind, she changes (the Japanese word used is 変身 henshin, but this isn't the mahou-shoujo kind of henshin here). She's got 多重人格 tajuu jinkaku multiple personalties, or to be even more technical, 解離性同一生障害 kairiseidouisseishougai "Dissociative Identity Disorder" (shows up on the first page of the manga).
Back at the party, Shiratori stays by himself in the corner trying to figure things out. Saki-chan doesn't like that, so she comes over to try to get him to join in the fun... well, more like insulting him, then getting him in a headlock when he doesn't listen. Momono and Tamami finally calm Saki-chan down by giving her a sniff of some beer. She gets drunk just by smelling it ;) And when she wakes up in the morning she'll be back to the good ol' cute Kozue.
Shiratori spends the whole night worrying about stuff and doesn't sleep. When he gets up he sees Kozue outside, but isn't sure if she's Kozue or Saki, so hides. Doesn't hide very well since Kozue comes to talk to him, and it is the normal Kozue. She's going to work on her little garden, so Shiratori helps her out with things. The others come back with a little surprise for Shiratori, sneaking up behind him and setting off some of those party cracker things. It's their way of welcoming him :) Kozue wecolmes him again, and as a gust of wind comes.... her skirt flies up... no pantsu. That's definitely a shock, so down she goes. And when she gets back up, she's talking with a much higher voice and runs over to "Momo-chan". Momono introduces her as Nanako-chan, 6 years old...
More fun for Shiratori to come :) But first things first, talking about the opening. I rather liked it :) But I'm sure the first question y'all have is "WTF is this!?"... That's how the manga-ka draws himself in the manga :) And you also saw more of Kozue's personalities in the op as well. That's gotta be rather taihen for one seiyuu to do 5 different roles :)
It looks as if the anime will be following the manga pretty closely as the episode titles line right up with chapter titles, which means we'll be going at a pretty leisurely pace. Also, I forgot to mention this last time, but some of the more ecchi scenes from the manga were left out last episode (Shiratori sees Kozue changing clothes, etc.), but that didn't really hurt things. Anyways, looking forward to more -- Shiratori's gonna have his hands full taking care of Nanako-chan next time :)
Shiratori Ryuushi has come to Tokyo to go to an art school. He wants to do picture books -- that's why there was that story at the beginning of the prince (Shiratori)... and he meets the "princess" at his new residence, the Naritakisou, a traditional Japanese-style apartment, run by a relative of his mother's, Kozue. She's a high school student and rather kawaii :) Kozue knows Shiratori from a while back, but Shiratori doesn't remember her at all. While those two talk, somebody is watching, and 2 somebodies are doing a very bad job of spying from boxes very badly "disguised" as bushes.
Kozue takes Shiratori to his room, where she sees one of his sketch pads. She's really happy that he's going to go after his dream, so happy that she grabs his hands and tells him so. Then realizes what she's doing and walks out a bit embarrassed. For Shiratori that might have been the first time a girl had held his hands. Kozue is the daughter of one of his mother's cousins so they can marry, right? ;) While he's babbling about that in his room he fails to notice that one of the people spying on him earlier is there with him. She's Momono, and likes to drink just a bit. Since he doesn't know Kozue he doesn't know about her "secret", so she gives him a warning -- he shouldn't do anything that would surprise or in any way cause a shock to Kozue.
Those two in the boxes earlier are Asami (kawaii~) and her mother, Sayoko. Another girl there that kinda lengthens out her words as she speaks, Tamami, comes up with a way to see what kind of person this new guy is. See if he can take the trash out the right way. And who's going to be the trash? -- Sayako, who goes ahead and puts on a garbage bag, and Asami ;) There's also another guy there, with a dog puppet on his hand that does most of the talking.
Shiratori thinks Kozue's "secret" might be some kind of illness, like a heart problem or something, so worries a bit. Kozue comes up to him and offers to make him something to eat. She'll do whatever she can for him as the landlady... which isn't exactly what Shiratori wanted to hear ;) They talk some more outside, and Kozue talks about how they used to do this exact same thing about 10 years ago, and how she never thought she'd be able to speak to him in the same way again. It's almost like a dream..
Kozue goes off to make something as she promised, and Shiratori goes back to his room again, where he draws pictures of Kozue. When Kozue comes with his food it happens... she trips and falls right on top of him. And when she opens her eyes again... she's talking very rough and asks who the heck he is.
And we haven't even gotten to the fun part yet ;) But anyways, after reading the manga I've been looking forward to watching, and this first episode turned out pretty well. Pretty much everybody in this show is crazy in one way or the other so it should be interesting, especially Kozue's little problem :) Since I've only read one volume of the manga there'll be some surprises in store for me, I guess. Like why does Kozue remember Shiratori, but Shiratori doesn't remember Kozue at all?.. and such.
J.C. Staff did a nice job with the animation and such, and the use of the picture book idea in the show and the ending was nice. Hopefully there will be a good opening next week :) Definitely looking forward to more.
