AnoHana - Episode 8 Discussion / Poll

[TurkeyPotPie]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Anime posters this week: Working!, Kurshitsuji (I and II), Hourou Musuko.

There were a couple of Sekirei posters too.

The description of the phone calls from Menma creeped me out a bit -- a "scraping sandy noise".

[rockimabal]

Originally Posted by Master Chibi

Oh yeah, a group of friends coming to terms with the guilt they've had for years over the death of their childhood friend, one of them confessing her love for the main character but being equally tormented, and a mother still grieving over the loss of her daughter and her public display of resentment to the group that inadvertently caused it all to the point where she breaks down in front of them IS FUCKING HILARIOUS. Pure comedic gold bro. Totally.

...

The end of Anaru's confession (about 9:50) where she said "Jintan you're an idiot" and "I'm such an idiot' were so narmy it made me chuckle.

[EroKing]

Only 10/10 for this episode? Nah, it deserves so much more. I thought the previous ones were good but this, this one just was too powerful. I felt like I got KO'ed twice, first with the Jintan-Naruko scene and then at the ending. It's been a long since I have watched something this emotionally heavy. With series such as these there is hope for the anime world after all.

[Om Nerabdator]

this show sounds pretty good but ill wait till the last ep is out to see if jinta ends up with anaru if not im not watching it....i hate shows like that

[Khu]

hoooooooooooooly fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkk

MIND = BLOWN

Though, plot hole: if she could influence the physical world...why didn't she do that in the first place. :/

[ahelo]

Episode 8

Fantastic episode. Although I think 11 episodes really isn't enough to finish this and turn out into a masterpiece. But this episode was enough to make up for the series not being 20+ episodes I guess.

[thundrakkon]

Originally Posted by Khu

Though, plot hole: if she could influence the physical world...why didn't she do that in the first place. :/

I was hoping for her to do it episodes ago. However, I think the best explanation is that she never felt the need to. In a way, her mind is still very young.

Jintan was not sure if she is real even after all that time, so he never requested for her to do anything in front of someone else. Plus, he was afraid they may think he is crazy.

In this episode, she finally began to realize things and felt the need to finally act. Before, she just wanted to have fun and enjoy her moments.

[Kakkou]

This episode seriously hit it out of the ball park for me. It was just one finely executed emotional scene after the other until that great ending. I honestly feel sad for all the characters. They're so well written. It was wonderful that they even got Menma's brother to show his side of the story of how he felt his parents (or just mother?) were seemingly grieving so much over the loss of a child that the other one may as well have not existed. I really wonder what Jintan said to him? Menma's mother needs to stop blaming her daughter's friends, move on and cherish what remains of her family before it's too late. But of course, like what AnoHana's been driving home since the beginning, such things are much easier said than done. I gladly await how Mari Okada will solve these issues and wrap up this wonderful story.

EDIT: Of course, extra extra credit out to the incredible voice work by the cast. The crying scenes in particular hold such an impact like when Jintan was crying over 'Patrasche' or Anaru's saddening confession ;__;.

[MeoTwister5]

That's some pretty serious PTSD she's carrying there, and she's probably been projecting everything towards them since the day she died. She seriously could have used some help back then, but nothing we can do about it now I suppose.

The show has done surprisingly well in showing just how differently people handle grief and guilt. Some do it fine while others take it to their illogical extremes. Yukiatsu's anger is justified as Jinta's constant activities keep opening up old wounds, but these old wounds never healed. It's like during surgery, you never close an infected wound because no matter how many times you close it up, it will always open and fester again and again. The only way to put closure is to heal it, finally. No matter how everyone else tries to bury it deep, it'll only open up again. Jinta's attempts may bring back pain to those wounds, but he above everyone else is doing it so that the wounds can finally be healed, and finally be closed.

The ending of the episode of course is one big OMGWTFBBQ cliffhanger. Menma's finally acting and not letting others do all the work. More comments on my blog tomorrow I guess.

[Pellissier]

What an episode. I could swear I've seen some full series with less content and less emotional involvement than this one episode alone.

Everything was so intense, heartbreaking... and piling up, minute after minute. Highlights, the Anaru-Jintan scene, which strengthened my earlier impression that this might be Tomatsu Haruka's career high. Then the last scene, everyone's going against Jintan, Menma comes to the rescue, and then they drop us with the ending credits.

A powerful anime is able to communicate with various means, not only implying direct communication. Jintan's father didn't say much, so did Menma's brother. Yet we could perceive so much about them. We didn't even see nor heard Menma's father, yet we could infer he's not the bad guy they wanted us to believe, he probably just acted out of consideration for his wife, or for his daughter's memory.

The part about Menma's mother was very sad, because not only she's broken in the sense that she hasn't gotten over Menma's loss, but she's broken to the point of damaging the lives of who's close to her. Menma's brother basically never had a mother and is even ashamed that he has one who behaves like this.

Finally, always in theme of communicating through different means, this episode had very little background musics, just some light and mellow arrangements to accompany a few touching scene, but otherwise it was a totally silent episode. It was a great touch, consistently adding to the whole. Silence is the epitome of death and mourning, after all. But despite its silence, this episode was deafening.

[khryoleoz]

I know how beautiful anime can be. But how can the experience of watching a beautiful anime be so beautiful? Crying is for girls and pansies. After watching this, I now need a tampon for the first time ever in my whole life!

I also have to agree with others. Haruka Tomasu's performance is absolutely superb, deserving of recognition and an award. As much anime as I've watched in more than a decade, I haven't heard a crying and protest scene voiced better than this. And yet the whole ensemble of characters is just amazing!

[Airman8]

Originally Posted by SoFarGone

I didn't mean it funny as in comedy. More like funny feeling instead of sad, you know what I mean?

I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had


Anyway... very intense episode. I'm quite impressed. Throughout the series the plot has been very tightly constructed, and it's been balanced perfectly with a level of character development that's more genuine than most other anime I've seen.

I think what actually struck me the most in the last scene was how utterly calm Menma was. Almost no words at all, and a facial expression that seemed to convey a complete understanding and (dare I say) forgiveness of her friends.

I wonder if next week will pick up right where we've left off in the clubroom, or whether it'll segue to something else to give us a break. I'm wired now and I doubt I'll be able to get to sleep!

[Narzia]

Shit is finally hitting the fan. Both AnoHana and C had fantastic episodes this week. Don't worry Yamakan, even without you anime might still be saved!

[CWW]

Shit just got real. Be still, my beating heart.

Originally Posted by Khu

hoooooooooooooly fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkk

MIND = BLOWN

Though, plot hole: if she could influence the physical world...why didn't she do that in the first place. :/

It was brought up in another forum, so I take no credit, and I'm paraphrasing: Menma was happy the way things were with Jinta. By showing her existence, she would have snowballed the granting of her wish, which would have eventually lead to her disappearance. She didn't want that.

However, once she saw Jinta crying and found out about the Super Peace Busters' fights by eavesdropping Poppo and linked the events together, she made the effort to rally everyone by calling them and show the rest that she is in fact real. She cares about Jinta too much to sit idle and watch him get hurt.

She has some common sense in that she doesn't follow him around everywhere. Plus, she must be thinking that her revelation would hurt her mother even more. She wants her to forget about her daughter, not be more obsessed than she already is. Menma is more mature than people give her credit for.

[Haak]

Holy crap, it actually happened.

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by Pellissier

A powerful anime is able to communicate with various means, not only implying direct communication.

Totally this, absolutely this. Nagai's direction was in perfection in this episode. I'm so embarrassed for comparing him with yamakan 2 years ago There was no scenes that is wasted; I was in complete focus on the screen for entire 20 minutes of the episode.

Wonderful episode. This week has been very awesome for many powerful episodes, including Steins;Gate, Control and Denpa Onna.

Plus, I still say Yakiatsu is the best character.

[MeoTwister5]

Originally Posted by Haak

Holy crap, it actually happened.

Did you really think it wouldn't happen? I actually thought this was the best way to do it without being sappy and overly sentimental.

Letting Go

The group itself, after seeing Menma’s mother, had finally reached their breaking point. It would take nothing less than Menma manifesting herself to convince them that Jinta was still in command of his sanity. Manifest she did, if rather indirectly. The group was brought together on what would tantamount to a whim, and one cannot blame them when only one member of the five could claim to see her. At most they could only have faith in Jinta’s word, but after seeing so much lingering pain that festers on the wounds of everyone involved, faith could only take them so far. Did they really believe in Jinta’s words, or did they only follow for fun? Without any proof that their actions would mean something, that it would really do anything for Menma, it’s only natural for them to question everything and just abandon it all. I cannot blame Yukiatsu for his reaction and for everyone else almost following suit.

But proof, practically a miracle, did occur. Menma had finally stopped being a passive observer to everything and decided that she was there not to let others fulfill her wish, but to also help fulfill it herself. She wasn’t just there to watch her friends reconnect with each other, but to also reconnect with them herself. She wasn’t just there to watch other’s pain from a distance. She was there not to just watch, but to make things right. She wasn’t there just for herself but for others. She was there both to be healed and to heal. She was there for a reason, a reason she had finally realized.

And now she is able to act.

[Zeroryoko1974]

Wow, this episode...

[Kopi]

This anime is seriously good.. the music was spot-on when Menma appeared in the hideout and that ending theme song as usual...

Jintan's Dad is awesome with how understanding he is and poor Menma's little brother.. but I assume his Dad do care about him, right?

[Otani-kun]

For all the complainers who said it'd be so much easier if Menma just used her ability to interact with the world to prove herself to the others, there you have it. ;>

I hope they'll finally start trusting Jintan for real now.