Midori no Hibi ep.5

May 2, 2004 | 2 Comments

This is probably the first episode that I don't like thus far. I think the episode feels busy and convoluted due to the amount of manga chapters that are included in it. The '3 manga chapters per episode' format worked quite well back in episode 2 and 4 because there weren't many sub-plots or characters inside the chapters used by those episodes. On the other hand, chapter 7, 9, and 16 of the manga are some of the most hectic chapters in the series. As a result, the combination of these three manga chapters makes the episode feels convoluted and all over the place. It also doesn't help that they tried to insert additional mini-plots involving Ayase and Takamizawa into the episode. I am also disappointed that the emotional scenes in chapter 7 and 9 of the manga end up looking less important in the anime because there are too many plots that they need to cover in this episode.

Anyway, the episode itself starts with Midori and Seiji having breakfast together. Seiji, however, realises that he's almost late to go to school, so he tries his best to make a run for it. Unfortunately for him, the PE teacher, Nishida, managed to close the school's gate before Seiji can reach the area. Seiji is left with no other option but to jump over the gate, land on top of Nishida's face and earn the teacher's wrath as a result. Inside the class, Seiji is not doing any better either. He looks tired and sleepy and eventually, ends up falling asleep while Midori is still busy writing notes on his book. Midori, of course, is in panic not only because the teacher is walking towards them but mostly because I don't think anyone can manage to write something on their book while snoozing off inside the class. Because of this, Midori decides to stop writing and tries to wake Seiji up.

Unfortunately, the effort is for naught because even though Midori manages to awake Seiji, he ends up getting annoyed and starts talking loudly to Midori, thereby attracting the teacher's attention. As a punishment for not paying attention, Seiji is told by the teacher to stand outside the class. The scene then shift to a bathroom. Seiji is seen inside a stall, complaining that he can't even pee easily anymore these days because he always have to find a stall to hide Midori and rely only on his left hand. Upon hearing this, Midori tells Seiji that she'll do her best to help him pee *snicker*. Seiji is horrified to hear this and proceeds to tell Midori that he doesn't need her help. To make things worse, Seiji is then disturbed by a loud knock on the stall door. Seiji tries to tell the person that he's still using the stall. The knocking, however, remains persistent and Seiji quickly finds out the person in question is none other than Nishida who proceeds to kick Seiji out of the stall and use the stall himself.

Meanwhile in the PE class, a volleyball game is in progress and surprisingly, Takamizawa is good at it, thanks to the 'personality change' that happened in the previous episode. It appears though that Takamizawa will soon be back on his way to obsessing about Midori and dolls when a volleyball accidentally lands on top of his face. He hasn't fully regained his memory at the moment, but he starts to remember fragments of Midori's face. Anyway, Seiji has now join the rest of the PE class after being rudely thrown out of the toilet by Nishida. He, however, can't participate in the game because he doesn't want people to know about his 'right hand'. Nishida, however, tells Seiji that he's not going to get any credit for the PE class unless he participates in it. Seiji then tries to argue that his right hand is injured. But Nishida simply smirks and tells Seiji that he can still use his left hand. As a result, Seiji ends up doing push-up using only his left hand.

When he gets home, things get even worse for Seiji and Midori because Seiji accidentally drinks the Tequila that Rin owns. Seiji immediately passed out from the effect of the Tequila, leaving Midori to take care the house on her own. However, while Seiji is unconscious, Miyahara makes a phone call to Seiji and Midori accidentally answers the phone using her own voice. Thankfully, she quickly pretends that she's actually Seiji and 'his' voice sounds different because 'he' got a flu. Miyahara seems sceptical but before he can ask further questions, Midori decides to end the conversation. Unfortunately for Midori, she doesn't have the same luck when dealing with a Pizza delivery guy and a sales lady. She ends up scaring both of them as she tries to 'animate' Seiji's body to respond to their inquiries. It was, however, interesting to hear Midori telling the sales lady that Seiji doesn't need some English books because Seiji's father is an American.

The next day, Seiji finally recovers from his condition. But unfortunately Midori herself ends up getting sick because she overexerts her body last night. Seiji immediately panics and decides that he has no other way but to take Midori to the hospital. Midori, however, refuses to go because if they end up in the hospital, everyone will know Seiji�s secret. Seiji is touched by Midori's concern but tells her not to worry about him when she herself is the one who needs to be taken care of. Never the less, Midori still insists that they don't go to the hospital. Because of this, Seiji decides to buy some Eggs and Sake to create a medicine for Midori. Meanwhile, Ayase is on her way to Seiji's house to deliver some class notes that Seiji missed out because of his 'sickness'. But the truth is, Ayase sees this trip as a chance to get closer to Seiji.

Ayase then ends up getting carried away by her imagination. This time around she plays the role of a perfect girlfriend who takes care of Seiji when he got sick. But in reality, Ayase can't even find the location of Seiji's house. She, however, encounters Shiori and decides to inquire the whereabouts of Seiji's house. Upon hearing the question, Shiori becomes jealous of Ayase. Therefore, she takes away the notes from Ayase and tells her that she'll deliver them to Seiji herself, much to Ayase's chagrin. But Seiji doesn't have the time to talk to Shiori either and proceeds to ask her to go home after she delivers his school notes. Eventually, Seiji can focus on taking care of Midori and while doing so, tells her that even though she's very noisy at times, it feels lonely when the house is quiet like this. Seiji admits that he thought he's already used to being alone since he's been that way ever since he was a kid. But he's not sure about it now.

Seiji then asks Midori to get better soon so she can be noisy again because without her voice he feels kind of lonely. Seiji seems to have got his wish because the next day Midori is fully recovered from her sickness and therefore Seiji can attend the school again. Unfortunately for him, Nishida is not impressed by his absence from the PE class the day before. Therefore, Nishida decides to punish Seiji by subjecting him to 100 times pull-up exercise on a plain bar, using only his left hand. I personally think it's insane to do a 100 repetitions of pull-up exercise with one hand. In the manga, Nishida only requires Seiji to do 50 repetitions. And in my experience, even doing 30 reps with both hands is difficult enough so I can't imagine the pain of having to do 100 reps with only one hand.

Anyway, just as Seiji is closing to his 100th repetition, his left hand slips away from the bar. However, before he falls to the ground, Midori manages to put her body on top of the bar, thereby preventing Seiji from falling into the ground. Seiji tells Midori to let it go but Midori refuses because she believes that she's been nothing but trouble to Seiji so this time she wants to be useful to him. Seeing Midori's persistence, Seiji decides to complete the repetitions to avoid Nishida's wrath. Nishida is still not impressed though, and tells Seiji that at the end of the day, Seiji still has to rely on his right hand. Seiji, however, silently agrees with Nishida that his right hand is very reliable. The next day, Seiji once again is almost late to go to school and to make things worse, it's raining outside. Midori, however, offers to carry the umbrella for Seiji so he can run easily and Seiji happily accepts her help.

Despite its weaknesses, the episode thankfully still manages to show the underlying affection that Seiji and Midori has for one another. Seiji obviously cares a lot about Midori despite what he often says about her. And it's good to see that Midori wants to be useful to Seiji instead of being saved by him all the time. I'm also interested about the identity of Seiji's father. Ever since I read the manga, I've always wondered whether what Midori implied about Seiji being half-Japanese, half-American is actually true. Apparently this story is clarified a bit more in the later volume of the manga but I don't know which chapter deals with this particular plot. At any rate, I like the part where Seiji gets to tell Midori his childhood story. I wish they had expanded that scene but I supposed it's too late to worry about it. I just hope that the next episode doesn't feel as busy as this one.

© memento 2003