Moé Moé Rabu

The day starts with Yuuichi, Akiko and Nayuki in Makoto’s room. Everything packed up neatly, Yuuichi asks Akiko if they could keep the room as it is, and she and Nayuki agree. Walking to school, Nayuki asks Yuuichi if he remembers anything from his past, since he remembered about Makoto. Unfortunately not as he only remembered the things about Makoto. Since Nayuki has a day off from her track club, she and Yuuichi promise to walk home together.

Later that morning, Yuuichi meets Shiori again. Shiori explains that it was boring at home not being able to see him, but her stomach ends up growling. Yuuichi tells her to go home, but Shiori refuses. So Yuuichi asks her what she wants to eat and is surprised to hear she wants ice cream. He ends up getting it for her. Sitting down, Yuuichi suggests that they go inside, but Shiori says that if she is seen by a teacher, she’ll be in trouble. She also starts to say something else, but says that it’s nothing.

At lunch time, Yuuichi goes off to find Sayuri and Mai, but discovers that they aren’t at the usual place. Wondering around, he overhears a couple of girls talking about the broken window and a particular girl. He realises that they are talking about Mai and that she has been sent to the teacher’s office. Rushing over he sees Sayuri waiting outside. Sayuri tells him that Mai has broken a window before when she was a freshman, but Mai never gave a reason why. Since then, Mai has been suspected whenever something happens. Mai finally emerges from the teacher’s office and says that she only got reprimanded. Since Mai is hungry, Sayuri goes and fetches their lunches telling them to wait at the usual spot. Walking along the hall, a couple of guys see Mai and comment on how she’s the one being rumoured about. But once they sat down to eat; they ended up passing the bento around.

With school over, Nayuki gets ready with Yuuichi. Walking along the hallway, Yuuichi asks Nayuki what the secret to popularity is. Though Nayuki claims that she isn’t popular, then Yuuichi asks what makes a girl a girl. Not exactly sure what he is asking, Nayuki spots a poster for the school dance festival, and suggests entering that. Though she suddenly remembered that she forgot some homework and went back to get it, promising to meet Yuuichi at the door. Yuuichi decides to take the poster and goes to show Mai and Sayuri. He explains that the plan is to get Mai dressed up and attend the dance festival, hoping to boost her popularity. Though the problem is that neither Mai nor Sayuri own a dress. Yuuichi thinks that Akiko might and Nayuki wouldn’t, but then he realised his promise with Nayuki. Rushing over to find her waiting, she calls him a liar.

So to make up to Nayuki, Yuuichi treats her to 3 servings of strawberry sundaes. Surprised to see her eat so much, Nayuki tells him that she could eat 3 more. Outside Yuuichi asks Nayuki about the dress, but she thinks that Akiko doesn’t have one either. Whilst thinking about it, Yuuichi is tapped on the back by Ayu. Though he doubts Ayu would have one and confirms by asking her. Ayu doesn’t know what he is talking about, though Yuuichi being his occasional rude self is scolded by Ayu and Nayuki. This is the first time the two girls have met, since Nayuki was always absent whenever Ayu was over to visit. This leads to Ayu coming over to their house. Upon entering, they are all greeted by Akiko, who tells them that Piro has returned. Seeing Piro, Nayuki wants to hug her but is stopped by Yuuichi. Yuuichi suggests Ayu stay over for dinner, though Ayu asks if it’s okay. Yuuichi tells her that she’ll get an instant approval, and of course she does. Akiko suggests that she call home in case her parents are worried. As Ayu called them, no one is picking up, but then she suddenly remembers that they are out of town. Yuuichi finds it odd how she could forget something like that.

They decided that Ayu should stay at their house until her family return. During dinner, Ayu eventually asks where Makoto is, but Yuuichi simply answers that she returned home. Later that night, Yuuichi comments how happy Nayuki is to have Ayu over. Nayuki explains that since they recently lost a family member and even her mother was feeling lonely until Ayu came. With Ayu and Nayuki going to the bath together, Yuuichi heads over to see Mai. Whilst eating, Yuuichi asks Mai the reason why she fights alone, but she explains that no one would believe her if she said anything. Yuuichi thinks otherwise and thinks Sayuri would listen to her, but Mai doesn’t want to make Sayuri worry. Yuuichi then enquires about the demons, but Mai reveals that she doesn’t know what their objective is or if she’ll know if she defeats them, but then she changes the subject to Makoto. At first Yuuichi thinks that Mai wouldn’t believe him, but he changes his mind and tells her what happened. After finishing the food, Yuuichi goes back home and finds that everyone is already asleep.

The next morning, everyone finds that Ayu had attempted to make breakfast for everyone as a thank you, but it ended up as a failure. Yuuichi and Nayuki ended up running to school without breakfast, leaving Ayu behind as she wants to clean up. When Nayuki thinks Ayu will be late for school, the two realise that they don’t know what school Ayu attends. Arriving at school with 10 minutes to spare, Yuuichi thinks that it was a miracle. Kaori appears behind them and comments how Yuuichi makes miracles sound cheap and they don’t occur easily. During class, Yuuichi is staring out to Shiori, who is standing outside, remembering an earlier conversation asking her if she had a dress, with Kaori looking from behind. During lunch, Sayuri visits Yuuichi in his classroom and reveals that she acquired a dress from someone she knows. She also arranged a dress for herself and a suit for Yuuichi so the three of them can go together.

That night, Yuuichi brings Mai some gyuudon (beef bowls), but she is only able to eat after putting her sword down. Yuuichi comments on how Sayuri managed to get a dress and thinks that she must come from a rich family. Whilst Yuuichi was telling Mai how to respond in a yes and no fashion, Mai senses something and starts scoffs down the rest of the gyuudon so she can pick up her sword again. With her mouth full of food, Mai rushes down the hall and swings at something in the air, but it appeared to have escaped.

Preview:

Impressions

Well the answer to the Makoto gap has been answered. Ayu is now staying at the Minase household to fill in that gap. I found it rather nice how they didn’t just completely forget about Makoto completely (unlike in Air) and that she was brought into the story 3 times: at the start, when Ayu questioned Yuuichi, and when Mai questioned Yuuichi. In a way at least it shows that her presence is still felt.

So now we open up a few more mysteries about Ayu, like what school does she attend and the part of her family is out on vacation. But of course we know that Ayu’s mother is dead so I assume it’s her father and stepmother, or other relatives looking after her, but it still brings the question of why Ayu would forget such a thing. (Well obviously I know why but I’m not going to spoil it). Speaking of Ayu, I actually never realised how short Ayu is, or should I say how tall Nayuki is as in the Toei version, you never see them side to side, let alone talk that much together.

I found this to be a very light hearted and enjoyable episode. With the recent sorrow from the last few episodes, this was a welcome change with many comedic and very cute moments. Such moments as when Yuuichi is macho talking with Kitagawa, or making Ayu dance during dinner and even the bento shuffling, all which are rather random. Cutesy moments such as Nayuki eating strawberry sundaes ( I can tell you this now, I was doing exactly this last year in Japan during Winter, lol), and with Nayuki and Ayu sleeping together. Though with the randomness of Yuuichi, it feels that he has gotten over the death of Makoto rather quickly. Though not very surprising due to the fact that there are still four arcs to cover. Though now I do have my predictions of how this will slightly play out. Since it is now obvious we are in the Mai arc, the Shiori arc will be next but the Nayuki and Ayu arc will probably play out together as we are drawing rather close to the halfway point of the series.

Well next week is the School Dance Festival and we get to see Mai and Sayuri in dresses *drool* and we are introduced to the Student Council President Kuze.

Note: I probably wrote too much this time, but goes to show HOW MUCH I enjoyed this episode, lol.

Kanon Merchandise of the Week

Since we are starting a new arc, which is most likely the Mai arc, I thought we’d kick off with a Mai focused merchandise item. This here is a clearfile. Now there is a difference between clearfile and pencilboard. Clearfiles tend to have just one sided prints but are see through, where as a pencilboard has double sided prints and isn’t see through. Generally they both are used the same way.

I bought this from Tamarket WAY back in 2003 during my first Animania. What I have done with this one is kept it in the plastic sleeve, placing a white sheet of A4 paper behind it, and it hangs on my wall, kind of like a mini poster.