Miu asks Chika about her mental health, citing increased yelling frequency. (Miu, by the way, has bleached her hair, as a note informs us, lightening it to the color you see for the rest of the series. She's also eating something, I'm not sure what. The squared-off part reminds me of onigiri, but it's brown and I'm not sure if it comes like that.) Chika, apparently tired or something, guesses it's okay.
Episode 4: Violent Night
This is the first episode to put some of the story on the same page. It's not the only episode to do this, but it is the only episode in this volume to combine the episode page with the first page of story. The episode page image part is a little surreal. Let's see how well I do describing it. The upper right is an exterior shot at night, with one lighted window, and bush silhouettes transitioning into a starry sky. But in the middle of the sky is a four-pane window shape looking out into the night. It's as if the night sky is a wall, with a window in it. Miu is standing to the left of the window in pajamas with strawberry images on it and a frill on the bottom of the top. She's standing with her body facing the left of the page, but her face faces the left of the reader while her eyes look to the reader's right. She has her hair down, and is carrying a bedroll or something. It has lines making a large-squared grid. There are thinner lines crossing each square. Her feet are planted in a patch of light that arcs through the scene, intersecting with her thighs. On the floor/ground is Chika, asleep with pillow and strawberry-patterned blanket. Her pajamas are striped. There are Zs in speech bubbles coming from her head. There are three... capybaras(?) standing around, colored brown-white-brown (okay, so it's dark grey, because it's a monochrome manga. I'm guessing). They have speech bubbles, too, with Z-subscript-O in them.
(Upon further anime and manga consumption, I am led to believe that those animals are supposed to be baku, spirits from Japanese mythology who, in some versions of the myth, eat bad dreams. How effective they are versus small hoops with webbing, beads, and feathers is unknown.)
Okay, I'm done describing this thing now.
Continuing the story, Miu figures it's not good, and cautions her to control herself.
We see that the two are watching TV. The announcer mentions baseball, which causes a chain of thought that Rube Goldberg would find excessive. Baseball. Broken bones. (Broken bones? wonders Chika.) Skeleton. Ghosts. Things that disappear. David Copperfield. (Not the Dickens character or the musician/comedian, but the magician/illusionist.) Burned out on magic. Reveals how tricks work. And finally, birthday. Miu asks for the date, and is given it. She asks for tomorrow's date, and is told to add one. Miu says that tomorrow is Nobue's birthday. Chika is not particularly impressed by this bit of information. Miu is upset that she wasn't told. She decides that they're going to give her a present, but Chika points out that they're broke and out of time. Miu suggests making something, but before they can decide what, Nobue comes into her room. (A note points out that Nobue cut her hair and dyed it black, bringing it to the appearance you see for pretty much the rest of the series.) She asks what they're up to, and Miu denies being up to anything. Then she notices Nobue's cigarette, and looks over at the ashtray with disgust. Nobue points out that her room is pretty much a smoking zone. Miu says that she and Chika were just leaving. Chika is heading to bed... or so she thinks. Nobue offers tea, but they decline. Nobue takes off her socks and flops on her back on the bed, bored. She looks up at the calendar...
In Chika's room, Miu suggests making an ashtray, as her current one is getting rather grodulated. Chika suggests cards to go with it. She says they can get started after school, but Miu insists on doing it that night. Poor Chika.
10:46. Miu shapes the ashtray, while Chika writes her card. Chika is nodding off, and falls asleep. Miu thwaps her on the head with a paper fan.
12:13. Miu nods off. Chika's turn with the fan. They go wash their face. Miu notes a somnambulatory sensation.
They try sucking on ice, but Chika's cube falls out of her mouth, and Miu resorts to the fan.
They try drinking coffee, but Chika is feeling the opposite effect.
1 AM. Miu decides on the punch method, but when used, it just angers Chika.
Miu rubs menthol under Chika's eyes, but then she can't open them.
She uses black pepper to make her sneeze. It works for that purpose, but...
They put bowls of ice water in front of their faces. (At some point, I think they forgot why they were trying to stay awake. This method especially seems like it would be in the way even if it worked.) They soon have their faces in it.
Same with pie.
Rubber band snaps. Forehead flicks. Chika declines the wasabi. They even try singing.
Nobue notices that the light is still on. She looks in, and finds them... sleeping? She finds the ashtray, and the cards. The ashtray has a couple of flowers, a heart, and a no smoking symbol on it. There's also some kanji, but I don't know kanji, so. They didn't translate Miu's card, except for the "Happy Birthday" part. The picture is a lovely image of Nobue (more realistic than the manga depicts her), with hearts around.
She realizes that they remembered. She pulls a blanket from Chika's bed and covers them with it, noting that they didn't have to torture themselves all night for her. Then she sees Chika's card. Not such a flattering image, and things about her getting fat, and her breath and general smell, and her health. The picture of her is even saying "Go buy me cigarettes!" Nobue takes her sister's deep slumber as an opportunity to write "Homeless Orphan" on her cheek.
Episode dividers!
It's Miu in the summertime! This time, the appropriate checkboxes are adorned with flowers.
Miu is looking just adorable in her sleeveless spaghetti-strapped shirt with a bit of belly around the bellybutton showing, and her three-button shorts, knee-high socks, and... I don't know shoes. And just look at her adjust that straw hat of hers! It seems she's let her hair down for this occasion.
Again, Matsuri's checkboxes are filled in.
And here we have Matsuri, sitting with her hands propping her up, in a sleeveless strapped shirt and pants, spotted socks, and thick-soled sandals.
Next time: Episode 4!
