Midori no Hibi ep.8

May 24, 2004 | 5 Comments

Noooo. I can't believe that they ruined Midori's character development from Days 21 and turned it into this mish mash of a small part of that said chapter, plus an entirely new story and a little bit of dialogue from Days 72. It's bad enough she hasn't got her own episode up until now. But when she finally gets one, this is what she got? I know that the anime writers probably want to incorporate Seiji as often as possible in the series. But the strength of Days 21 is the fact that it is mostly about Midori trying to deal with her shyness on her first school day. I can't believe that they end up making normal-sized Midori acting all cute and noisy in this episode when she's not like that in the manga.

After watching this episode, I doubt that Days 21 will ever be completely incorporated into the anime since some of the dialogues that appear in that chapter have been used in this episode. What is worse is that despite its attempt to inject some humour, this episode is very boring in comparison to the more serious Days 21. The Chibi-Seiji element of this episode has its moments but at the end of the day, it feels repetitive and unnecessary. I think the animator should not attempt to make every episode comedic especially when the original story didn't have many comedy elements in it. And especially not when it is forced and ends up making the episode feels as dry as this one.

Anyway, the episode begins with Seiji waking up next to Midori and realises that their situation has been reversed. He has now turned into a miniature version of himself and is grafted onto Midori's right hand. Seiji is not thrilled with the new development and as a result, wacky-hijinks ensues before the two finally get a hold of themselves and try to deal with the situation. Later on the two go out to get Seiji some clothing and as a result, Midori ends up having to bandage Seiji's body so that it won't attract other people's attention. Seiji realises that Midori's had it quite hard all of these times. But Midori tells him not to worry about it because she's used to it. The two then ended up having a breakfast of baked sweet potato while sitting at the park and Seiji once again realises how being small has its disadvantages. He also seems to get a cold due to the fact that he's not wearing any kind of shirt, so Midori decides that they go back home.

The next day when Midori is awaken from her sleep, she is shocked to find out that she still remains in her large form while Seiji is still grafted onto her right hand. She, however, has to get over her shock quickly because Seiji has been sneezing due to the cold. Midori therefore proceeds to look for clothes that Seiji can actually wear but strangely Midori only finds her own clothes inside the wardrobe instead of Seiji's. Seiji tells Midori maybe they can go to that figurine shop to get some clothes for him. But in the meantime, he has to wear the 'I love Seiji' t-shirt that Midori used to wear so that he won't get any flu. More wacky-hijinks then follows as Midori tries to change from her pyjamas into her daily clothing as well as when Seiji tries to cook some breakfast for the two of them with disastrous result. Let's just say that I've never seen a yuckier version of cabbage and egg scramble and I'm by no means a good cook.

Anyway, the two ended up going to the figurine shop that they visited a couple of episodes ago so that Midori can buy a doll clothing that Seiji likes. The same obligatory 'Otaku zombie eyes' scene is, of course, shown, followed by the cos-play scene, which this time involves Seiji in several cool costume including one of Kikaider. However, while the two are talking to one another, one otaku is seen approaching Midori from the back while holding a mobile phone with a camera. It looks like the pervert is taking a picture of Midori's underwear by positioning his mobile phone underneath her skirt. Seiji wants to attack the guy and starts to imagine himself as a 'knight in shining armour' for Midori. But in reality, he's too afraid that people will recognise them as the freak duo that they are if he attacks the guy. Therefore, he decides to warn Midori instead.

Midori, however, is too involved in her own excitement with the mini costume to notice Seiji's warning. Just as the pervert succeeds to take a picture of her panties, however, Takamizawa grabs the hand of the pervert and tells him that he's caught him in the act, much to the pervert's surprise. Takamizawa also succeeds in deleting the pictures that the pervert has on his mobile phone. Embarrassed for being caught red-handed in front of many other people, the pervert decides to flee from the shop. After he left, Takamizawa collapses into the floor. It appears that he's actually scare to death of the guy but decide to catch him in the act anyway, because it's the right thing to do. Midori decides to thank him and then run away from the shop before Takamizawa remembers her secret. Later on, Seiji is clearly annoyed with the fact that he's not the one who saved Midori and tells Midori that being her right hand is difficult.

The next day the two return to the shop to try their luck again. *sigh* The attempt to pad out the episode is never more obvious than in this episode. After seeing the same mass of Otaku 'zombies', however, Midori decides to not buy the shirt from the shop, much to Seiji's annoyance. Midori then tries to persuade him that maybe they can make one their own. Seiji is horrified about this idea since he doesn't want to end up wearing a 'Midori Zokkon' t-shirt. However, before the two can get further in their argument, Midori is interrupted by a voice, which belongs to a classmate of hers, Iwasaki-san. Iwasaki-san is glad to see Midori again and wonders if she feels healthy now, referring to Midori's absence from the school. Midori ends up having to lie and say that she does feel better now. Upon hearing this, Iwasaki-san tells her that she's happy to see her healthy again now and decides to take her to a cafe so the two can talk some more.

Anyway, the two ends up having a conversation, which started out as pleasantries but eventually turned into a gossip about their classmate, Kimura-san, who confessed her love to an upperclassman, Yoshizaka-san. That said classmate later on finds out that the love is mutual. Iwasaki-san believes that it takes courage to tell someone that he/she loves that person. Anyway, Iwasaki-san ends up having to leave the cafe sooner than she thought because she's going to an art class because she's aiming to go to a university. Upon hearing this, Midori realises that the whole world is moving on while she stays still. Seiji then feels guilty about being Midori's right hand because it prevents Midori from having a future. And after seeing Midori crying, Seiji urged her to follow Iwasaki-san and to talk to her friend a bit more. And this is where the dream ends.

Upon waking up, it is obvious that both Seiji and Midori remember the dream/reality-shift. Later on that day, this leads Midori to ask Seiji if she is a bother as his right hand. Seiji is, of course, curious as to why she is asking about this now. After being pressured, Midori tells Seiji that she had a dream about Seiji being her right hand. The dream makes her realise a lot of things she hadn't noticed before and not all of them have a happy ending. Before Midori can finish off her sentence, however, Seiji tells her that he also had a dream where he became her right hand and that makes him understand some of her feelings a bit better. That is why she shouldn't feel that she is a bother to him because that will bother him more. Midori feels grateful for what Seiji just said but never the less wonders why she cried in her dream and what was her intention in following Iwasaki-san.

This episode is extremely disappointing on several levels. To begin with, I can really feel that the writers try to repeat the ideas that they've used in the previous episodes as well as re-use the same scenes over and over again. Maybe I was right after all when I joked last week that they probably are running out of budget and therefore are forced to reuse some of the backgrounds from previous episodes. Having said that, the lack of new animation may have been tolerable had the quality of the writing holds up well to scrutiny. But unfortunately, this episode is threading on a thin ice as far as the storyline is concerned. The story focuses on Seiji being Midori's right hand for a very long time and yet at the end of the day, nothing comes out of it, with the exception of Midori realising how difficult it is to have a living being grafted onto her right hand. I don't think this is necessary since Midori herself already feels guilty about being Seiji's right hand from time to time.

Like I said earlier in this entry, I'd prefer that they use the time to develop Midori's story prior to her being Seiji's right hand. Days 21 is such a perfect chapter that tells the other side of Midori. The side that is quiet and bashful and not as annoying as the one that currently exists on Seiji's right hand. I think more people will be able to relate to her problem of being shy in school and in general social interaction, and thus, it'll at least give her a little bit of sympathy and understanding from the viewers. Anyway, speaking of the manga, I finally got myself the fifth volume of the manga and it's great to finally be able to fill in the blanks that are empty since I've only read the early chapters and the last few chapters. Interestingly enough, in this volume Kouta ends up finding out about Midori and Seiji's condition. Which makes it a bit puzzling as to why the anime hasn't featured the character at all given how important he is to the storyline.

© memento 2003