Karin ep.9

January 6, 2006 | 11 Comments

Ack, I forgot that this episode is actually on today until someone told me about it. And here I thought that I have another free day since Rozen Maiden Traumend is not starting until next week ^_^;. Anyway, this turns out to be a wonderfully animated episode. I think the animators did a great job here. The story is actually really good as well although I can't remember if this particular story is to the manga version or not. But if this turns out to be an original story, this has to be commended because I personally think it's one of the better original stories I've seen. It's not exactly mind blowing but at least the story managed to make me care about the characters. I do have to wonder how long will the writers able to make the storyline interesting though. So far the episodes have been non-continuous and as a result, it's hard to get excited about some of the episodes.

The episode begins with a flashback of Anju's childhood. In the flashback, Karin was crying whilst telling her little sister not to run away from her again. The two then hug each other in relief. In the present day, Anju wakes up from her sleep and is greeted by her talking dolls. When Anju goes down to the living room, however, she passed out momentarily, causing Boogie to panic. She, however, regains her consciousness when she hears Karin's voice calling her out. But when she opens her eyes, Karin is nowhere to be seen. Anju eventually makes her way to the kitchen and finds some foods that Karin has cooked for her. Karin has also left a message telling Anju that she's sorry she couldn't eat together with her. So Anju eats on her own while remembering how in the past Karin used to ask her if the food tastes good. Not long after she finished her food, however, Karin returns home looking dejected but refuses to talk to Anju about her problem.

From outside Karin's room, however, Anju finds out that Karin is sad because she thinks Kenta was unhappy with her earlier in the day. Meanwhile, Kenta is seen back at his own home only to find his mother in the middle of feeding a bat with dried fish. Kenta is even more devastated when he finds out that his dinner consists of nothing but a basket full of tomatoes. When he goes out for a walk, however, he is confronted by Anju, who asks him what happened to him and Karin earlier in the day. Kenta tells Anju that the truth is this afternoon Karin gave her a bento but it's filled with tomatoes. But since lately Kenta hasn't had anything but tomatoes, he becomes sick of it. When he forced himself to eat Karin's bento, his body became sick so he ended up falling unconscious on top of Karin. This in returns, causes Karin to nosebleed. So the two ended up cleaning up the mess as usual. Because of this, Kenta thinks that the whole think was his mistake.

Karin is relieved upon finding out about it from Anju. Anju apologises for interfering but Karin assures her that she's grateful for her help. Anju's help, however, causes her to lose her strength and almost causes her to plummet to the ground later on. Thankfully Ren is around to catch her. He tells her that she should stop using her power to watch over Karin and Kenta. Moreover, he thinks Anju will be happier if Karin and Kenta are not together anymore. Anju denies this and tells Ren that if Karin is happy then she is okay with it. Ren thinks that Anju lies but Anju tells her brother that it's the truth. However, it does sound as if Anju is trying to convince herself. The next day, Karin apologises to Kenta and as compensation, invites Kenta to go shopping with her since she has some shopping mall ticket they can use. Whilst shopping together, Karin becomes excited that she and Kenta go shopping together.

Kenta, however, is a bit ashamed that he gets to shop for free. But Karin assures him that it's okay since she got the ticket from a lottery anyway but before she can finish her sentence, a young girl runs and bumps into Kenta's legs. Kenta tries to humour the girl but the girl ends up being scared of him. So Karin takes over and manages to make the girl smiling again. Karin explains to Kenta that she's used to taking care of little girl since Anju used to be similar. Speaking of Anju, she is now seen going shopping on her own in the city. But she ends bumping into a post box when she starts to reminisce about her childhood memory. Apparently back then Karin took Anju out for shopping but Anju detaches herself from Karin when she saw a toy in a shop. Back in the present time, Anju is seen looking at a dog-styled stuff animal when she notices Karin and Kenta walking on the opposite side of the street.

Anju then goes to the park that was shown at the start of this episode. Anju seems to regard the park as hers and Karin's park. Apparently after she got lost from Karin, Anju went to the park and ended up being scared by a little dog. But Karin came in time to scare off the dog and asked Anju not to run away from her like that again. Anju assures herself that she is fine now and that she won't cry like she did back then but eventually she can't help herself from crying. Meanwhile Karin and Kenta are having bento box in the middle of a park. Karin warns Kenta that the sauce is made from tomato but Kenta assures her that it's okay. He, however, notices that the food is a bit salty. Upon tasting the food, Karin agrees that it is salty and finds it strange because her own food is not salty. Nevertheless, Kenta doesn't mind about it so Karin is happy.

Karin also blushes heavily when Kenta tells her that she will make a good mother since she's good with kids and a good cook as well. Karin immediately imagines herself and Kenta getting married and then taking their kid to a park. The imagination, however, proves to be too much for Karin to take so she eventually nosebleed again. Heh, I wonder how long will it be before she has one of those naughty first wedding night imagination. Later on that night, Anju finally returns home. Karin is surprised to see her returning this late and asks where Anju went. Anju, however, decides to keep it a secret to herself. Nevertheless, Karin decides to give Anju a present for always helping her. Anju is surprised when she finds out that her present is the stuffed dog that she's always wanted. Meanwhile, Kenta returns back home only to find her mother already prepare a bunch of tomatoes for dinner again. Anju, on the other hand, is now in her room clutching the dog that was given by Karin.

Impression:

I really like this episode and its focus on Anju's feeling for her sister. I can understand Anju's feeling quite well since I have someone who I care about as well and I know how hard it is to let go that person. But I agree with Anju that no matter how hard it may be, if you really care about a person, then you would want that person to be happy. Even if that happiness may not involve you at all. And in the end, Karin hasn't completely forgot Anju as evidenced by her little thank you present. As a side note, I thought it's interesting that the food that Karin made for Kenta is salty. I can't remember where I got this piece of useless and unproven information from, but I have heard that when a girl's cooking is salty, it means the girl is in love with the guy she's cooking the food for. The thing is, I doubt many people actually know about this so I wonder how many people actually got the salty reference that was mentioned in this episode.

© memento 2003