Midori no Hibi ep.9

May 30, 2004 | 0 Comments

This is a rather light episode, which includes Days 38 and 46 of the manga as well as a storyline that is similar to the one featured in Days 76. Thankfully, despite its filler nature, this episode is an improvement over the last one. It has a lot of comedic moments, most of which come at the expense of Takamizawa. Because of this though, the one character development the writers managed to give to Takamizawa in this episode ends up destroyed at the end of the story. Interestingly enough, just like episode 4, this episode once again shows the darker side of anime/manga fandom. At any rate, it's kind of amusing to see this particular episode using the Midori hand-doll as a base for the story, especially given the fact that said hand-doll is actually on sale in Japan at the moment. Does that make this episode a cross-promotion attempt for the doll or an ironic take on the merchandising part of the series?

The episode starts out with Takamizawa trying hard to figure out why he keeps remembering the word 'Midori'. While doing so, he bumps into a cupboard in his room and subsequently got his head hit by multiple objects, including a small flashcard-like disc. Upon opening that said disc, he finds multiple pictures of Midori posing in the garden and his memory of her is immediately restored. Back to Midori herself and Seiji, the two just got out of a shop when Seiji feels that he's being followed. Unlike the manga, however, Seiji immediately finds out that Takamizawa is the one who's been following him and it's actually Takamizawa himself who ends up showing Seiji the Official Midori Homepage. Unfortunately for those of you who really enjoy this particular section of the manga, there isn't a 'Whack-a-Midori' game seen in the site nor other internet-related jokes that were featured in the manga. Anyway, Seiji is pissed off about the site but calms down after Takamizawa promises that he'll close it down on the condition that Seiji will help him.

Takamizawa then decides to drag Seiji and Midori down to the local manga/anime convention where Takamizawa reveals that he actually has his own booth, which is created to sell Midori dolls. This particular story is actually kind of similar to Days 76 of the manga and yet, it's rather different as well in terms of how the story ends up progressing. Anyway, Seiji once again is pissed off because Takamizawa jeopardises the anonymity of his and Midori's existence and delivers a very cool sideway kick to Takamizawa. However, after a little bit of persuasion from both Takamizawa and Midori, he ends up helping the guy selling the Midori dolls. The doll sells very well especially because Midori herself helps to advertise it by talking to the potential buyers. Soon, however, they got into trouble because they run out of the dolls even though there are still a lot of Otaku who want to buy the doll. The Otaku soon end up bidding for Midori herself, who is mistaken as the most exclusive version of the dolls. The bidding war then escalates up to 500,000 Yen, which is roughly equivalent to 4,500 US dollar. Midori has to be one of the most expensive doll I've ever seen.

Seiji, however, becomes angry at the highest bidder and tells the guy that Midori is priceless and is not for sale. His rousing speech ends up impressing the Otaku and the highest bidder himself. So they end up only asking Seiji & Midori to pose together with them for a group photograph, much to Seiji's horror. Later on, Seiji and Midori are seen shopping for a food. Seiji decides to buy an expensive meat because he just got some money from the sale of the dolls. Before he can finish shopping, however, he is interrupted again by Takamizawa who asks him for his help. It turns out that Takamizawa likes a girl but he doesn't know how to approach her. Seiji at first couldn't care less but after being persuaded by Midori decides to come with Takamizawa to the middle of the city. After they got there and see the girl with their own eyes, Seiji and Midori realise that the girl look quite similar to someone but they can't exactly remember who that person. Takamizawa then reveals that he likes her because the girl reminds her of Marin-chan.

Upon finding out about this, Seiji and Midori are crept out and their mind start to unconsciously playing Takamizawa no Hibi 3. This time Takamizawa stars as a psychotic guy who kidnaps the girl so he can dress her up in Marin-chan-esque anime costumes. Seiji and Midori then get carried away by their imagination and start visioning future newspaper headlines where Takamizawa is captured by the police for kidnapping that said girl due to his obsession with Marin-chan. Oi, this is skirting quite close to real life cases now, especially the part of the story where anime obsession leads a person to commit a crime. Having said that, I am actually not sure where the writers want to go with this particular point of the story. Anyway, Seiji and Midori become paranoid when Takamizawa begs Seiji to give him pointers on how to look cool so that the girl will fall for him. Seiji, however, unexpectedly agrees to help Takamizawa much to Midori's surprise. However, it turns out that Seiji agrees to help Takamizawa so that he can sabotage his chance to get to know the girl.

Seiji achieved this by dressing Takamizawa up to look like a gangster so that the girl will be afraid of him. Of course, in front of Takamizawa, Seiji assures him that 'tough look' will actually impress the girl. Unfortunately for Seiji, even though the girl is startled when Takamizawa first introduces himself to her, it doesn't take long before she starts to enjoy his company. Seiji and Midori then panic and believe that if they don't do something, the girl will be in danger. Because of this, Seiji decides to dress himself up as a gangster as well so he can scare off the girl and Takamizawa. He hopes that Takamizawa will run away in fear and the girl will see his cowardness and therefore refuses to associate herself with Takamizawa. Takamizawa, however, unexpectedly grows a spine and decides to confront 'Seiji the gangster'. To make matter worse, the girl turns out to be quite proficient in fighting as well and she ends up beating Seiji up. However, after seeing the girl looking tough, Takamizawa becomes afraid of her and realises that she's completely different from the girl in his imagination and decides to run away to the safety of Marin-chan.

Well, I can't help but thinking that this episode ends on a negative note for anime fans in general. To begin with, anime fans are portrayed as a bunch of scary, obsessive types, who are willing to throw away money just for a doll replica of their favourite character. And then there is Takamizawa himself. This episode tries to build his character up by showing him being interested in real life girl. However, even when he likes that real-life girl, he likes it merely because she reminds him of Marin-chan and not because she's an individual on her own. To top it off, whatever character development they have for Takamizawa when he decided to be brave and protect the girl, is destroyed when he runs away in fear when the girl that he likes turned out to be strong and can take care of herself. Takamizawa, in essence, is the stereotypical anime fanboys who always like the 'strong' female character types in anime but when it comes to facing one in real life, they run back to their non-real counterpart because it's safe and not 'threatening'.

I am actually not sure if this is the message that the series try to convey or if they actually tried to build Takamizawa's character, but failed miserably because they prioritise making the show funny first before developing the character. At any rate, just like Ayase, Takamizawa joins the ever-increasing supporting characters who are great for the comedy aspects of the story but are not developed very well and as a result, fail to gain my sympathy. In fact, of all the supporting characters, Kouta is probably the one who's most developed in the series, followed by Shiori, who despite being annoying, is actually given some meaty storylines in the series. And thankfully, next week's episode finally features Kouta. And given how his role in the manga becomes even more important, as suggested in Days 78, I'll say it's about time that he shows up in the anime. Anyway, I have a little bit of info on that particular chapter below so if you don't want to be spoiled, then don't read the two paragraphs below.

The chapter begins with Kouta becoming confused as to what he supposed to do with the information that Midori is now physically grafted onto Seiji's right hand. While he agrees with Seiji and Midori to keep it a secret for now, he does wonder if it's such a good idea for the two of them to be living that way. Kouta becomes even more worried when he arrives at Midori's house and finds out that Midori's real body is now connected to some kind of liquid transfusion. Obviously this is done so that her body can receive nutrients that she hasn't got lately due to the fact that she hasn't had any kind of food ever since she fell into a coma. On top of this, Kouta realises that despite putting on a strong front in front of him, deep down Midori's mother is in deep anguish over what happened to her daughter. Never the less, she has an inkling that Midori is no longer in her body and that Midori is somewhere trying to achieve something important to her. Upon departing from the Kasugano's house, Kouta weighs the ups and downs of seeing Midori happy with Seiji and compares it to the sadness that Midori's family is feeling at the moment.

While wondering around trying to decide what to do, Kouta suddenly gets an idea when he looks into a reflection of himself in front of a mirror. He then decides to contact Miku Nekoba and her female gang and asks them to dress him up as a girl once again just like when they did it to him back in Days 36 of the manga. Upon dressing up as a girl, Kouta shows up in front of Seiji and Midori, and proclaims that 'she' has always liked Seiji and that 'she' wants to get to know him better. In other words, Kouta ends up acting out the sort of confession that Midori should have done months ago before this whole freak of incident happened. Anyway, Seiji of course ends up blushing profusely after hearing such an outright 'confession' from 'a girl'. Kouta, however, silently observes Seiji reaction and hopes that his action will start a chain of reaction, which will force Midori to return to her real body. Having said that, I can't help but laughing my ass off when I see Kouta manages to pull off the very thing that both Midori and Ayase have failed to do thus far. I don't think his plan will go far but I hope he'll end up telling Midori about the current condition of her body.

© memento 2003