This Ugly and Beautiful World ep.6

May 11, 2004 | 0 Comments

Dear Gainax,

Well, this episode feels like one of those holiday home movies that are made by someone's uncle. It starts with Takeru and the others trying to decide where to go for the holiday: the mountain or the ocean. Takeru's two male friends insist on going to the mountain so they can find another Alien girl. Mari, however, tells them that if they want to take Hikari and Akari to go places, then maybe they should ask where the two want to go. Wow, Mari is being so considerate. Maybe next time hell will freezes over. Come to think of it, that's not such a bad idea to see on this show. Oh, sorry, where was I? Oh right, Hikari and Akari get to decide where they should go and the mountain it is, since neither 'siblings' object to the idea. They all then depart in two cars with Takeru's aunt and Jennifer providing the adult supervision that they need.

Upon arriving at the mountain they then start having the time of their life, especially Hikari, who apparently never touch water before so much so she's amazed when she gets inside a river. I actually appreciate this little scene over here because I can see that the writers are trying to depict the 'beauty' of this world so that they can probably contrast it with its 'ugliness' when the time comes. But surely they can somehow keep this scene and eliminated the other unnecessary ones. Elsewhere in the mountain, Akari is swimming naked and manages to catch a big fish. Ryo then decides to sketch her and the fish, much to Kimi's embarrassment. After this then comes the dinnertime. Hikari has made an attempt to create an Onigiri. Now, some Onigiri do have that 'soccer ball' look on them but I think Hikari took the 'soccer ball' part too literally and ended up creating one giant Onigiri.

Elsewhere, Jennifer is drunk as usual and tries to force Ioneous to drink some beer. In its drunken state, Ioneous tells Jennifer that it is there to maintain the connection between Hikari and the Earth. After dinner, the kids decide to play a little game called 'Kimodameshi'. In this game, basically everyone has to pair off with someone and then goes to a dark forest to test their courage. I think I've seen this story before but with a guy in a hockey mask and his chainsaw. It was much more fun there as well. Anyway, Takeru originally is paired up with Mari but when he sees Hikari looking upset for not getting paired up with him, he asks Mari to switch over with Hikari, much to Mari's dismay. As Takeru and Hikari walks inside the forest, Takeru decides to cover up his nervousness by engaging Hikari in a small talk. The two, however, end up having a conversation about Hikari's origin when Hikari informs Takeru that she actually came from a space which contains nothingness.

According to Hikari, the Earth, on the other hand, is different because it offers various different things that can't simply be understood by looking at them. The wind and the water are good examples of this because one has to actually feel them to understand their nature. Because of this, Hikari then wonders if she can understands Takeru better by touching him. She ends up pushing him to the ground so she can listens to his heartbeat. Their little encounter, however, is witnessed by the rest of the group who hide in the bushes while making various comments. The voyeurs, however, quickly get a surprise of their own when a �monster� suddenly attacks them. Takeru then spots the 'monster' coming towards him and Hikari as well and the two decide to flee together. After running for a while, however, the two end up encountering a dead end. Thankfully for them, the 'monster' then reveals itself as none other than a drunk Ioneous.

Upon realising this, Hikari decides to give her 'subordinate' a good scolding or two. Jennifer, on the contrary, quickly points out that the robot has lead them to discover a natural hot spring in the area. So everyone then ends up getting naked inside the pool and we get the obligatory girl on girl action between Hikari, Mari, and Akari. Not long after this, they then see a bunch of falling stars appearing in the sky. Although everyone seems to be happy to see them, Hikari, however, ends up shedding some tears upon looking at them. Later on when the two are alone, Takeru decides to ask if Hikari is okay. Hikari tells him that although her heart is filled with everything that she loves, for some reason she can't help but being bitter, lonely, and sad for some reason. Seeing Hikari's sadness, Takeru decides to cheer her up by telling her that summer break is not over yet so there are other fun things to do and therefore Hikari will not feel lonely.

There are actually some interesting parts in this episode although it's really hard to recognise them due to the amount of the filler scenes in between. Hikari's discussion with Takeru is basically quite interesting to know, especially the part where she admits that the space where she came from only contains nothingness. I wonder if it's because something has destroyed every other living being in that space. I also want to know why Hikari is sad when she sees the falling star. I am kind of hoping that this will tie in with the fact that she feels bitter and sad even though she just had one of the best days in her life as a human. Interestingly enough, some of the falling stars that we get to see this days are actually not that different than our own solar system, the Sun. There is a possibility that if the sun keeps burning like this, one day, it'll eventually turns into a burning space debris like one of those falling stars. Maybe Hikari functions as a catalyst to make something like this possible. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into what maybe a full-on fan service series.

© memento 2003