Nanaka’s parents. Father reminds me of Syuusuke.

Guess what. I totally forgot to watch this episode until now. orz.

That surely was traumatic.

We finally get to know the reason of Nanaka’s trauma. Her parents and violin teacher used to be good friends, but her violin teacher, revealed on his deathbed to Nanaka’s father that Nanaka was actually his child. Unable to accept the fact, Nanaka’s father killed his wife and set fire to the house himself, so the long haired man we saw was actually Nanaka’s father.

Knowing this, Sana brings Nanaka back home, but Nanaka starts to withdraw into her room, refusing to meet anyone, even Sana. Despite so, Sana decides to come and visit her everyday. Finally, one day, Sana is alone with Nanaka in her house, and he tries to talk to her, but notices her room is unlocked and the bath is running. Sana initially thinks she’s bathing, but after a while, he starts to suspect something wrong, and breaks in to the bathroom, finding Nanaka in the bath with her wrists slit. Flashbacks of his past appear, but he manages to save Nanaka just in time.

/wrist

After Nanaka is back home, Sana reveals that he also tried to commit suicide back in middle school, as he was bullied badly by his schoolmates. He was saved but the trauma left a big scar in him, so he decided to return to his home town in hopes of regaining his past self. He tells Nanaka that he was angry when he found out he was saved, but now, he’s afraid that if he had died, he couldn’t have saved Nanaka.

Time jumps 10 years, and everyone has grown up, even Hinako who has a boyfriend now, but her chest size remains the same nevertheless LOL. Everyone is gathering at the nature park that Syuuri wanted to save, which is revealed that Asami was the one who campaigned for the nature park to stay, thanks to Aoi-chan, with noticeably longer hair now, yet her Chiyo voice remains the same… ahaha~. Even the Wakatsuki twins are back as well, but we never get a full shot of them.

Adult Hinako looks just the same.

Aoi and Asami.

Dear god, why all the secrecy for the twins.

Yuzuki = Kuroi-sensei at some parts XD

At the nature park, Nanaka is about to perform her violin on stage when Sana decides to propose to her. The violin recital starts, and Yuzuki-sensei is still handing out candy as usual, but she’s still single and laments that another student has overtook her again, XD. Nanaka plays the piece she composed back then at Sana’s farewell party, now completed and names it “Myself;Yourself”.

The End.

Well, looks like my theory was half-right, and Nanaka’s mom DID had a relationship with the violin teacher, but god damn, I didn’t expect Nanaka to be actually their child as well. Also, it turns out that long hair must run in the Yatsushiro family, thus nicely explaining the long-haired guy. Haha.

Sana’s dirty little secret wasn’t too hard to guess though, and most people already probably guessed what happened a long time ago. Man, he should’ve realized faster that Nanaka was going to commit suicide. Wouldn’t it be strange for Nanaka, who’s trying to avoid seeing anyone, actually go take a bath when Sana’s at her home as well. Well, all’s well ends well.

That said, they managed to tie all the ends up nicely towards the end, when it seemed earlier on that they would mess up a few plot threads. I’m glad of that, and also, LOL at the 10 year jump. I kinda didn’t believe that Sana wasn’t married yet to Nanaka after 10 years, wonder what made him wait for 10 years. It’s always fun to see Hinako as well, and it’s damn ironic she’s now going out with a guy 5 years younger, in contrast to her falling in love with Syuusuke earlier on. Aoi… well, thankfully she remains rather unchanged, and it’s good to see Asami is still around as well, making amends to Syuuri in her own way. And damn, why all the secrecy for the Wakatsuki twins… did they actually get married to each other or something? Probably won’t know until the game comes out :P.

In closure, Myself;Yourself has been an okay show, even if it seemed a bit lost on progressing the plot during the middle of the series, with all the nonsense fillers here and there. The many revelations of the past few episodes have pretty much redeemed it up a bit, mostly in terms of providing us with enough shock drama especially episode 11 which was chockful of it. It’s been a good show, yet not too outstanding enough to warrant any special mention.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Wow, almost everyone in this show has a really twisted past or trauma.

The trio left behind try to deal with the departing of the twins, and Aoi’s attempt to cheer them up kinda falls flat. Back home, Sana receives a fishing rod from Shuu, but his address is intentionally left blank. He later goes out for a conbini dinner, wins a free drink and meets up Yuzuki-sensei on the way back home, who’s also unhappy on having the twins run away from home. Sana manages to cheer her back up with the free drink he got… how cheap :P.

“Mom! No more boob massages!

The rod gives Sana the idea to invite Aoi and Nanaka out again to the river for a spot of fishing, in hopes to cheer them up. Both of them accept, but Aoi pulls out at the last moment to give them both some quality time together, which earns a boob-grab and praise from her mom. Did I mention Aoi’s mom is awesome? Miki Itou does have a nice MILF voice…

A blushing Nanaka is pretty fine.

Well, to keep things short, Sana fails at fishing so he partakes in Nanaka’s bento of tamagoyaki (omelette’s) and cookies. Yes, you read that right. After eating lunch and playing around, Sana takes a whining Nanaka up in to the mountains to show her a secret spot of his, inside a cave, where he discovered it together with Shuu in the past.

Oooh… pretty lights!

His torchlight dies soon after showing Nanaka the crystal ceiling, and since it’s raining outside, the both of them decide to rest until the rain dies down. Nanaka tries to ask about Sana’s wristwatch again, but Sana dodges the question by asking Nanaka about the mailbox instead. Nanaka replies that the trauma from the fire changed her and she, afraid Sana would change as well, sent letters to the mailbox as she felt it would reach the Sana she knew as a child, but she’s relieved that Sana has changed at all.

A traumatized Nanaka is not very fine.

Nanaka falls asleep and wakes up later, sans Sana. She looks around frantically, and reaches the cave’s entrance, where’s it’s sunset already. The color of the sunset triggers Nanaka’s traumatic experience in the fire and she walks out in a daze, falling down from the cave entrance, in to Sana’s embrace. Flashes of her memories appear and she remembers back the memories of the day of the fire and starts to shout from the trauma…

Yay, finally ending off Myself;Yourself. This episode was rather less eventful compared to last week’s shocker involving “sweet girl next door” Hoshino. It was mainly some resolving of the departing of the twins and Sana x Nanaka episode at the second half.

That being said, thank god they didn’t touch Aoi as well, and it seems she’ll remain as the only “happily normal” person in the whole series, albeit one who has an awesome mom who likes to grab her daughter’s boobs XD.

Well, they have one last chance to excite us viewers for teh dorama, the final episode which finally reveals what happened on the night of the fire. From the preview… it looks like Nanaka had a violin teacher and I’m guessing said teacher had some relationship with her mom and well… Nanaka discovers it and probably sets the fire somehow. The preview is spoilery enough to guess, but not accurately, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I were correct.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

USOODAAAAAAA!!!

OMGWTFBBQ! Myself;Yourself is truly filled with more twists and turns than a washing machine in spin cycle.

Sana visits Hoshino at the hospital, bringing along flowers and a book. Hoshino jokes that it’s funny that she’s admitted to the hospital while visiting it, so it’s probably her punishment. Sana is puzzled on that, so Hoshino reveals that the anonymous letter last episode was sent by her.

Hoshino further elaborates, saying she had confessed her love towards Syuuri, whom she had nurtured all the time during middle school, one year ago, but Syuuri rejected it of course. However, Syuuri still remained good friends with her all the time, so she settled in to the role of being Syuuri’s best friend.

Yet, during the amusement park trip, Hoshino seeing Syuuri crying in front of Syuusuke triggered her jealousy back, thus she decided to make them suffer, by sending the letter. Yet, she wonders why she rushed to save Syuuri back when she was threatened, when she hates her instead. Sana replies that was Hoshino’s true self, and she couldn’t help but to do so.

Right on cue, Syuuri and Syuusuke visit. Hoshino and Sana act as if nothing has happened, until when they both decide to leave, Hoshino asks to speak with Syuuri in private, so Sana and Syuusuke wait for her in the courtyard. In the courtyard, Syuusuke asks Sana what happened with Nanaka, as she’s slowly warming up, so Sana divulges his pledge towards Nanaka to Syuusuke, who comments that’s pretty awesome. Syuuri finally heads out, crying, and hugs Syuusuke for comfort, while Sana watches uncomfortably on.

Even when running away from home… be~daa!

The second half cuts in, at the Wakatsuki home, where their father announcing that Syuuri’s leaving the next week. Syuuri confides with Syuusuke on the date and also her misgivings, but Syuusuke convinces her otherwise. They attend school the next day, and eat lunch with the rest as usual, breaking the news about Syuuri’s transfer as well, but after lunch they disappear. Sana wonders where they’ve went, and suddenly reaches a realization of their plans.

He rushes to the train station, but doesn’t make it on time to meet them, so he runs after the train, after borrowing a bicycle from Aoi’s mom, passing by. He manages to make it to the railway bridge, where he shouts something to Syuu and Syuuri. Neither both of them hears it, but Syuusuke understands the exact words Sana’s saying, as he did that before when Sana left town… that he was telling them, “No matter where you are, we’ll forever remain friends.”

We’ll always remain friends.

Oh wow. Hoshino’s dark revelations this episode totally, and fully caught me off-guard. I didn’t expect for her to be… well, so bipolar. Here I was, thinking that Mai Nakahara finally got a “sweet girl” role, but damn. DAMN. Gotta be more careful next time.

Also, sad farewell to the Wakatsuki twins, but Sana realizing it at the nick of time was fine too. A bit dramatic at the parts where he was cycling around town to catch-up with the train, though.

Next week, finally coming round back to Nanaka’s arc. Oh dear, I wonder if they’ll shock us even more with Aoi-chan. So far, she’s the only one who has remained “pure”… but I wonder how long…

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

The show finally starts to get serious about the ongoing plot threads.

Syuu and Syuuri visit their mother’s grave on her death anniversary, and take their time going back after that, having dinner and visiting a fancy shop. Their happiness does not last long as later at school, the principal summons them on receiving an anonymous letter stating they both went to a love hotel on that same day. They both try to explain themselves, but the vice-principal doesn’t believe it and it’s only the efforts of Yuzuki-sensei, that they’re both let off the hook but the principal still decides to inform their parents about it.

Back home, the twin’s asshole of a father flies in a rage, angry that such a scandal surfacing right before the elections. (Man, that’s why I really hate politicians.) Even at school the next day, the news of the letter somehow leaks out and of course, Syuusuke is angered, but Sana manages to restrain him.

Trying to cheer Syuuri up, Sana and Hoshino invite her to go along to visit Kaji-san, who’s fallen ill. During the visit, Syuuri tries to peel some apples, but cuts her finger in the process, and Sana freezes up over seeing the blood on the knife Syuuri was using. He excuses himself, with Hoshino-san going after him, leaving Syuuri alone with Kaji-san. Kaji-san asks Syuuri about the legend of the twin hills, and starts to reveal that she was trying to make a wish for her granddaughter to be revived and sacrificed a bird, followed by a cat to try to make the elder sister hill’s sakura bloom, but it seems she’ll need a real human sacrifice and tries to attack Syuuri.

Sana and Hoshino return at that point, and seeing Syuuri in danger, Hoshino jumps in and gets stabbed, in place of Syuuri. Luckily, being in a hospital, she receives immediate medical attention and is saved. Upon returning home, Syuuri’s asshole of a father decides to transfer her to London, in a public school, due to the letter scandal and now her being involved in a criminal case. Syuuri objects but her father doesnt care and she runs back to her room, crying. Syuusuke enters her room to find her crying. Upon hearing on their father’s decision, he decides to run away from home with Syuuri…

Yay, no more stupid incongruent scenes this episode. As expected, this was mainly a Wakatsuki twins episode, although we also got hints on Sana’s trauma. I’m really leaning towards “attempted suicide” for the cause of his trauma now. Shockingly though, was how they resolved the mystery of Kaji-san and Hoshino-san getting stabbed to protect Syuuri. That was kinda dramatic and unexpected.

And back on to the Wakatsuki twins story… yeah I’m already hearing whispers of “twincest” all round, but their feelings are rather more purely about each other than serious romantic love. God I really hate their father, and who’s that bloody stupid enough to believe an anonymous letter with that kind of contents. Well, this will be interesting now that they’ve decided to run away from home, and the next episode seems to mostly deal with them saying goodbyes and such on.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I feel disappointed. Can’t figure out what the producers want of the show. It’s going from serious to funny to serious again.

The first half has Nanaka, regaining a piece of memory on the day of the fire, and she accidently over hears a suspicious conversation between her aunt and uncle regarding her condition. Seems like Nanaka’s uncle is being very dodgy on the issue.

After the mid-point break, with a real eyecatch finally, Aoi invites the whole gang + Hinako to the amusement park, because her father got 6 free tickets. The show takes the 180° turn, and we see the whole gang having fun, mostly Aoi actually. Remember the spa episode? Along the way, they also manage to bump in to Hoshino-san, who’s there along with a relative’s kid, and they join up together.

Having done a full day’s worth of fun, the last item on the agenda is the ferris wheel, and again the show takes the 180° turn. Nanaka and Sana are intentionally given some time together, and Nanaka takes the chance to apologize. Sana accepts and furthermore, proclaims that he’ll be with her forever for now. On another ferris wheel carriage, Syuu and Syuuri are sharing one together as well, and Syuu finally tells Syuuri not to force herself further, leading to an outburst of tears from her, which is spotted by Hoshino-san, making a grave face when seeing so.

So, well yeah, I have no idea what the show wants or is trying to be for now. I’d be pleased if they could just concentrate mainly on the serious parts for now, since it’s already the 9th episode. Aside from the last part, the amusement park trip was just well, out of place, especially the Animeranger portion. Kinda lol’ed at Norio Wakamoto’s cameo role in it though.

Well, next up seems to be more development on the Wakatsuki twins part. I just hope they’ll not make that episode like this one…

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Yes, more tsun Nanaka.

Pronouns is getting weirder. Really weirder.

The episode starts with tsun-tsun Nanaka ignoring Sana, causing much concern for him and he asks her why she is treating him so coldly. Nanaka tells him the reason why, but Sana tries to explain it off as an accident, using the incident behind the shrine as a metaphor, but it backfires on him, causing Nanaka to get more angry. He gets angry with her back, and storms off after a flurry of words.

Yandere, anyone?

Returning home, Sana reminisces about his childhood times with Nanaka and remembers that they used to have a secret mailbox to tell each other things they wanted to keep among themselves. After finding the key back, he opens the post box, and a whole stack of letters pour out of it… some with rather disturbing contents. Worried, he questions Syuu the next day about events in the past 5 years and Syuu finally reveals that Nanaka’s house was set on fire, and she was the sole survivor of the incident. However, Nanaka suffered partial amnesia on the events of that night due to the trauma, and after she recovered, her attitude totally changed to her current one.

Am I the only one who thinks she looks like Nanoha?

Depressed to learn about it, along with Syuu’s painful words that he can’t do anything to help her, Sana contemplates alone in the park, where he’s interrupted by Yuzuki-sensei, who hands him another caramel. Sana asks her why does she do that, and Yuzuki-sensei explains it was a habit she gradually developed from her unhappy childhood, although the exact cause was indirectly thanks to Sana.

Finally.

Realizing something, Sana takes off, thanking Yuzuki-sensei, and he calls Nanaka to the post box. He apologizes for everything, causing Nanaka to break down, and after an outburst, she hugs him and says the things she wanted to say all this while. Later that night, Sana has his customary phone call and tells his mother that he’ll become stronger, as he’s found someone to protect.

Weird, really. How else should I say about this episode. The major thing was finally getting to know the reason behind Nanaka’s cold exterior and trauma, but really, the whole episode was kinda… tasteless. The production team tried to throw in a few plot lines together this episode, but really, it didn’t connect well at all, and in fact, it just really felt wrong. Nevertheless, at least we’ll be seeing a step forward in Nanaka and Sana’s relationship. Seriously, they’ve been playing a zero-sum game of tsun and dere all this while.

I guess the part that felt REALLY out of place this episode was Yuzuki-sensei’s part. I’ll admit she’s an awesome teacher though, but they placed her part in a more awkward part of the show. They should’ve shortened her flashback, and cut it off to the part where met Sana, instead of rambling all the way back to her childhood, which by the way, her younger self really reminds me of Nanoha.

Pronouns is now playing a weird balancing game of win and fail to me, something like Sana triggering Nanaka’s tsun and dere counters continuously in the earlier episodes. This isn’t helped by the fact the production team doesn’t seem to take the mood of the story progression seriously, not with the next episode being Hinako-centric again it seems. I knew it, that ominous shot on the end of the Hinako birthday episode earlier was foreshadowing something; the starting of show going in to fail territory. Will Hinako manage to pull it back up, though?

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

A rather more serious episode this week on Pronouns.

First, we are introduced to Yuzuki-sensei, whom Sana has met before in the past once. A rather cool-type, she has this cute habit of giving out caramel sweets to people as a form of encouragement and thanks.

There’s also a bit of story for Syuuri, who is leading an opposition movement against the development of a nature park in their town, because of her attachment and memories to the place, where she once visited with her brother and her mother, presumably dead now. The irony is that the one in charge of the project is her father and we discover the Wakatsuki twins household isn’t a very harmonious one.

Finally, Sana helps out at the old folks home again with Hoshino-san. Kaji-san asks them for a favour; to bury a box at the roots of the largest Sakura tree in the area, which Sana conveniently remembers where from when he was a kid. They both bury it, but Hoshino slips a bit, so Sana catches her and tells her to rest a bit. With impeccable timing, Nanaka passes by, spots them and her eyes suddenly turn yandere. Meanwhile, a very ominously-looking Kaji-san looks at the two sister hills, while Poe, the cat at the old folks home is missing.

Hmm, a rather messy episode, even though it was dealing with some serious issues, such as the condition of the Wakatsuki household and the weirdly-acting Kaji-san. Not to mention, yandere Nanaka suddenly thrown in the mix, and I’m beginning to go “WTF are they going to do with this show?”

Next episode, flashback of Sana and Nanaka in the past.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

As promised, Hinako episode this time on Pronouns. Sana is sure gonna be popular with kids later on.

It’s Hinako’s 11th birthday and she returns home to find her mom away again. Feeling lonely, she decides to run away from home and bunks over at Sana’s place, causing quite a bit of trouble for him. Seizing a chance while she’s in the bath, Sana searches for Hinako’s identification papers and discovers that it’s her birthday. He decides to celebrate it for Hinako, even if it’s a day late.

The next day, Sana brings her out shopping on the pretext of getting her to choose a present for a girl (read: herself), and he even arranges for Syuu to “coincidentally” bump in to them. The three of them have a fun day out shopping, eating and watching a movie. With that done, the trio returns to Sana’s room, with Syuu following along to “take a look at Sana’s room for the first time.”

When they arrive, Hinako is given the surprise party treatment by Aoi, Syuuri and Nanaka. Hinako is overjoyed and the whole gang spends the evening partying when finally Sana calls on Hinako. Getting the hint, Hinako decides to return home that night, and after a karaoke session to top the day off, Sana walks Hinako back home, and Hinako gives him a surprise kiss on the cheek as a sign of thanks for him.

Overall, not a bad episode. Hinako is pretty likable. Good episode throughout, but didn’t really contribute much to the main plot of Sana and Nanako. Guess they need to give some service for the loli fans :P. The kiss at the end was very touching though, but why did it had an ominous atmosphere?

Can’t wait for the next episode though, from the preview, it looks to be a Wakatsuki twins episode and also some Nanaka development.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

EDIT 01/11: Changed a minor mistake I did.

Nanaka-centric episode this time. Looks like she has had something traumatic happen to her in the past 5 years as well.

Nanaka has been chosen to perform a dance for the Sakura Festival organized by the Yatsushiro shrine, Nanaka’s uncle’s place. While Nanaka herself isn’t really enthusiastic about it, the rest of the gang are excited about it, especially Sana.

Later on, Sana is walking around town, when he coincidentally stumbles on Hoshino-san, who asks him to help her choose a bell for a cat that recently came to the local old folks home, where Hoshino is a volunteer there. She invites Sana to help out as well, while as luck would have it, Nanaka walks pass the shop and spots them both together (Incredible timing… really) Well, long story short, she decides to follow them to the old folks home as a volunteer as well.

Couldn’t resist myself on putting this cap in.

At the old folks home, Sana is surprised to see Syuuri there as well. Sana is forced to play fighting games with one of the residents. One of the residents there, mistakes Nanaka for her dead granddaughter, which resembled Nanaka in a number of ways, including her playing the violin as well. Sana asks Nanaka to play a piece, but she starts to freak out and flashes of a fire appear in her memories. After that, Sana walks her back home and apologizes to her.

Cute!

Time skips again, and it’s the day of the festival. The gang have fun around, and Sana wins a big plushie, that Nanaka wants, but she is cut to the chase by Hinako, who had been collecting the merchandise of that mascot character. Nanaka gets a bit jealous but cools down and performs the dance admirably. Syuuri also explains a lot about the legend behind the dance, and it’s apparently a very brutal ritual in the past.

After the dance, Sana meets up with Nanaka behind the shrine, and invites her to walk around the festival with them, when suddenly something brushes past Nanaka and she freaks out, hugging tightly on to Sana. It turns out to be a raccoon (what?) and Nanaka calms down, and they both head towards a nice atmosphere, when Hinako interrupts them (wow, her timing is awesome. 2nd time of the day already).

Score!

The episode ends ominously, with a shot of the grandmother who mistook Nanaka for her granddaughter earlier, watching the TV report about the Sakura Festival. Hey… wait! Isn’t this a romance comedy show?!!

Mmm.. finally a Nanaka-centric episode. Finally, we get some hints on how she managed to turn from the shy-osananajimi type to the current bipolar tsundere. Seems as she has had some bad experience sometime in the past 5 years as well, which seem to have lead to her stopping the violin and having a phobia for the dark of fire.. Well, it’s good to see she’s getting less and less bipolar and trying to open up back to Sana. I mean, there’s a big difference from being tsundere and being bipolarly jealous.

That being said, is it me or are the timings of the characters here godly? Hoshino bumping in to Sana, then Nanaka bumping in to them both, then with Hinako interrupting Sana and Nanaka twice…. man.

Next week, Hinako episode again. Will Sana fall to “that” side?

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

In before; “Sana is a RORIKON!!!”

Ah yes, the token loli character of Pronouns is introduced this episode, Mochida Hinako, and yes, she is 10 years old, not a “16-but-looks-like-11″ character.

Episode starts with Hinako getting saved from bullies by Syuusuke, passing by after his kendo practice. Immediately, she develops a crush on Syuusuke, and starts to stalk.. er, I mean join Sana and their gang everyday after school.

Soon after, Hinako enlists the help of Sana and Aoi, to help her in her first love, making Sana ask Syuusuke his types of women, etc, etc, and Aoi helping Hinako realize Syuusuke’s ideals, which mainly fall flat. Finally, Aoi tells Hinako to flat out confess to Syuusuke, so with the help of Sana, they try to set up a date between Hinako and Syuusuke at the aquarium.

The plan goes on smoothly, but Syuusuke rejects Hinako’s confession, saying that he has someone else that he’s concerned about so he can’t commit himself to any relationships. Hinako tries to hold back her tears but Sana valiantly hugs her and lends her a shoulder to cry on, saying that even adults cry at moments like this.

+20 brownie points for Sana here.

Surprisingly an awesome episode, and they’ve stuffed quite a lot of development for Hinako in just one episode, from her introduction, her attempts to attract Syuusuke and the final confession and rejection, which was paced pretty nicely for so much story in just one episode. Although I was a bit let-down that the episode was more focused on Sana as the main male than Syuusuke, because I expected it to be a Syuusuke-centered episode as well from the preview last week.

Well, Sana did a pretty nice job himself this episode, with his support of Hinako. He sure gained a lot of brownie points as a “dependable older guy friend” character lol. I especially liked when he ordered the kid’s set to help Hinako’s collecting of mascot keychains and at the end, when he let Hinako cry on his shoulder (in a figurative sense).

One thing though… I wonder if Syuusuke has feelings that are more than just sibling love for Syuuri…. Well, I might be thinking too much, but this episode is a bit too hinting of that….

Next week on Pronouns, Nanaka in miko-fuku! Wai~~~

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.