Natsuyuki Rendezvous 07

I’ve been blogging Natsuyuki over at my beauteous and divine blog Something Eternal. So I decided to bring those posts over here. Just as a tiny disclaimer, by episodic posts are much shorter and less eloquent than what most of my fellow writers do. Now that’s that’s done, on with the post.

What would I give if I could live out of these waters?

Hazuki hasn’t made too much (if any) progress in the Little Mermaid. But there are a few things that fantasy Rokka said that I found interesting:

The first is when she realizes that Hazuki is “sexually attracted to the manager.” She said ‘the manager.” meaning that she seems to acknowledge that she is not, in a manner of speaking, real.

The second is her line: “[The dreamworld] won’t last forever. It’ll only grow sadder if it’s drawn out.” Double meaning? Drawn out as in duration, and drawn out in Atsushi’s sketchbook. After all, we did see Atusushi-Hazuki gazing at his sketchbook at the end of the episode.

What would I pay to spend a day warm on the sand?

Meanwhile, I’m perpetually town between pitying Atsushi because both his life and afterlife just suck. But he’s also an immature and selfish jerk who just can’t let go and move on. This week I was much more on the “I don’t really like you right now” side because he stole Rokka’s first kiss and time with Hazuki. That ghost is the biggest cock-blocker I’ve ever known.

Bright young women, sick of swimmin’. Ready to stand?

Just when it seems that Rokka has, at least for the most part, moved on from her deceased husband, she has a vision of him in the flower shop. Goddammit.

The Little Mermaid

This entire anime kind of feels like Hans Christian Anderson’s original story. Except genderbent. Atsushi is the mermaid who loses the love triangle and dissolves into foam. Rokka is the prince who mistakes the identity of her true love and rescuer, which leaves Hazuki as the other girl who wins the prince over in the end. Was the disinitegrating Atsushi vision at the end foreshadowing future events?

Etc.

• It seems like Atsushi and Hazuki are inheriting each other’s traits: Hazuki asked Rokka to have sex with her and now he’s embarrassed to see her (nipple-less) bosoms. Atsushi is growing increasingly cynical and broody.
• The music is so damn effective.