Ultra Maniac ep.19-21

August 1, 2004 | 6 Comments

I've been a bit lazy to complete this series lately because there are other interesting series that I would rather watch/read. But I'll try to complete this sometimes before the end of this month. Anyway, after a mixture of plot and fillers, this series finally decide to completely ditch the filler elements and go for the main story of the series. I think this also has a lot to do with the fact during the production of these episodes, the manga finally came up with several important plots that the anime can use. Having said that there are certainly certain deviations that the anime decided to take. This is necessary mostly because the anime gives Nina a whole different reason for being in the human world to begin with.

Episode 19 starts with Nina awaken from her sleep with a bad feeling that something bad is going to happen that day. True enough, when she and Ayu walk to the school, Ayu for some reason can't run fast enough to reach the school gate before it is closed. It seems someone has been holding her hair from behind but neither of them can see who did it. Things get from bad to worse when Ayu lends Nina her homework so Nina can copy it. For some reason, all of Ayu's homework is magically transferred into Nina's book, making Ayu thinking that Nina used a magic that makes it seem that Ayu has not done her homework. Eventually, however, they both realised that this is the work of Nina's grandfather (or uncle, I forget which one).

Nina's grandfather apparently is not happy that Nina is very close to Ayu. He thinks that their friendship will hinder Nina's chance to become a Princess of the magic kingdom. Because of this, he attempts to break the girls friendship by pretending to be Kaji, and then telling Ayu that Nina is the girl that Kaji likes. Because of a slip-up, however, Ayu realises that the person talking to her is not Kaji but Nina's grandfather. Ayu lets Nina's grandfather know that even though Nina is not a very skilful witch, she is a good friend who won't reveal her feelings to Kaji to anyone else. After hearing this, Nina's grandfather realises that Ayu is a good girl and allows her to continue her friendship with Nina. He, however, reminds Nina that if she still wants to become a Princess of the magic kingdom, sooner or later she will have to bid goodbye to Ayu.

Episode 20 is the first of a two-part arc that is actually based on the manga. The story begins with Ayu hoping that she knows which girl that Kaji likes. Upon hearing this, Nina decides to produce a truth-chocolate. Anyone who eats it will say their true feeling. Unfortunately for Ayu, she fails to make Kaji to eat the chocolate because Kaji thinks that Ayu deserves to eat it more. Ayu, of course, freaks out because she then starts to tell her true feelings to Kaji and decides to flee away from him before she embarrasses herself even further. Once Ayu leaves, however, Kaji reveals his true nature. He apparently is the sort of person who will smile and accept present from strangers but then later on throw those presents (in this case being cookies from his fan girls) to the bins. Nina, who happens to be nearby, is shocked to see Kaji's not so good behaviour.

Unfortunately for Nina, Kaji realises that she has seen the whole thing. Kaji tells Nina that he'll make her life miserable if she ever tells this to anyone. Nina, however, feels that she at least have to tell Ayu about it. The problem is, Ayu doesn't believe the story. Feeling miserable about the whole thing, Nina decides to confront Kaji. She finds out that he simply thinks that it's weird to receive presents from people that he doesn't know. But at the same time, he also doesn't want his 'nice guy' reputation to be ruined by refusing the present. Upon hearing this, Nina wonders if Kaji may not be a bad guy after all, especially when he ends up giving the cookies to her. The cookies, however, leads Ayu to think that Nina really does have a crush on Kaji especially when she hears Nina mutters Kaji's name while she asleep inside the library.

Continuing from the previous episode, in episode 21, Kaji continues to terrorise Nina especially when he thinks that Nina has told his secret to Ayu and Tsujiai. He doesn't realise that Nina simply attempts to protect her identity as a witch. Meanwhile, Tsujiai is interested to see more of Nina's witch power so Nina comes up with a thermometer-like device that can tell if a person likes another person. Anyway, after some more misunderstanding with Kaji, Nina eventually finds out that Kaji tries hard to protect his 'good guy' image because he doesn't want the girl that he likes to be disappointed when she finds out that he's not as 'perfect' and 'nice' as his public image suggested. Upon hearing this, Nina deduces that the girl that Kaji likes is actually Ayu. Happy to know about this, Nina tells Kaji that Ayu has always like him as well.

Nina then tells Kaji that she is supposed to meet Ayu in the library later but he should be the one who come to tell her about his feeling instead. Happy to hear this, Kaji decides to come to the library and tells Ayu about his feeling. Ayu, at first is happy to hear about it. But then she remembers that Nina also likes Kaji and feel that she doesn't want to hurt her best friend's feeling and decides to tell Kaji that she doesn't like him. Kaji ends up feeling dejected and tells Nina that she lied to him because it seems Ayu doesn't like him as well. Confused about this latest development, Nina tells Kaji to wait while she confronts Ayu in the library. Nina eventually finds out about the truth and tells Ayu that she's not interested in Kaji romantically because there is someone else that she likes. She then produces the love thermometer to prove that her romantic interest in Kaji is barely non-existent.

Upon realising her foolishness, Ayu decides to run out of the library to tell Kaji about the truth. She manages to catch up to him and tries to tell him about her feelings but she ends up crying. Kaji, however, understands what Ayu tries to say and simply hugs her. Oh well, I feel sorry for Kaji because he ends up with the boring girl of the series. And he actually becomes a bit more interesting in these last two episodes. Anyway, Ayu eventually thanks Nina for all of her help in making her wish come true. She, however, wonders if the person that Nina said she likes is actually Tsujiai. Upon hearing this, Nina turns as red as a beetroot and tells Ayu that she got it all wrong. However, Ayu decides to use the love thermometer on Nina to find out the truth. The result shows that Nina really does like Tsujiai a lot and therefore Ayu wonders why Nina tries so hard to deny her own feelings.

Impression:

These 3 episodes are quite good, especially episode 20 and 21. The characterisation are far stronger, especially that of Nina and Kaji. Kaji, who normally got stuck as the normal boring guy, is finally revealed to be not so perfect after all. He's actually quite an interesting guy now, especially when he interacts with Nina. There is actually some chemistry between the two characters and it's a shame that he eventually ends up with Ayu because Nina simply makes his character more interesting. Kaji seems to be more honest and open when he's with Nina and as a result, their relationship doesn't feel as 'fake' and 'forced' as that of Ayu and Kaji. Interestingly enough, in the manga, Nina really did like Kaji and pretended that she doesn't like him so that Ayu will have a chance with the guy. At the end of the day though, in both version, Nina eventually fall for Tsujiai as well.

© memento 2003