Sarazanmai

I appreciate Google Translate’s version of track 4: “Ass Child Egg Exploitation of Desire”

Edited by Bur on Apr 19th 2019 at 10:26:05 AM

Oh something I noticed Nyantaros ears were normal before he was kidnapped. Kinda suggesting to make him come off as a stray Kazuki chipped his ear. Which furthers a connection between him and the cat zombie.

Episode 2:

Today's episode... Is about chasing a cat with more dark secrets from the MC+ Some weirdness. And damn thaat ending tho!

Edited by ElfenLiedFan90 on Apr 19th 2019 at 11:44:35 PM

Well, this episode was less mind-fuckey than the first one although I hope we won't have to sit through that exact same kappa sequence every goddamn episode…

Now I don't get why Kazuki was the only one who had his secret exposed this time around… He's kinda getting the short end of the stick in all this…

Between the crossdressing, Kazuki's brother being feminine down to his name, the two cops who came straight from a yaoi fanfic and that kiss at the end, it seems like there's gonna be some queerness in this show, but from what I heard it's par for the course with this director. Let's see how it turns out.

It’s not Ikuhara without recycled animation!

I’m wondering if Kazuki’s brother is a trans boy and hasn’t told his parents, and Kazuki wants a wish so that he can help with that somehow.

Not sure how Kazuki cross dressing plays into this, though.

Huh… I had the impression Haruka could be a trans girl, but if "Haruka" is his birth name (I'll stick to "he" for now) then… you might be right. A bit early to tell anyway.

Speaking of which, does their world have real journalists or are all the news reports done by a goofy catgirl…?

The soundtrack confirms _Leak songs for the other two. It just is doing Kazuki right now. And Stock Footage is a Ikuhara staple with Kappa transformation.

In both occasions, he was the extracting the shirikodama and he was the one receiving the Dish of Hope.

Didn't Tôi also get a bit of his secrets revealed the first time, though?

I don't remember. Enta saw Tooi stealing the car but that's because Kazuki was there when it happened and that scene played in Kazuki's leaked memory.

Oh… right.

Second verse, just as good as the first, huh... This episode was fun. I can kinda respect Kazuki's dedication to being a good brother, even if I stealing cats is a horrible thing to do. I'm surprised we're going into the gay friend's story so soon, but given how obvious he was, it's probably better to get that out of the way soon. And yeah, I'm starting to think this story might be a bit on the queer side. Good stuff.

Also, gotta love how everything makes at least partial sense in their world, but then there's the fact that apparently everything entertainment-related goes back to the goofy catgirl, who can apparently deliver news reports instantly with matching costumes to boot.

Oh, and the two cops are fabulous.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Apr 21st 2019 at 9:50:19 AM

I mean, the general implication is that we're in One Nation Under Copyright, and Sara is the public face of Not-Amazon.

I never watched Utena but from what I hear that was a subversion of fairy tales/gender roles. I don't remember the them/message of Penguindrum but Yuri Kuma Arashi was about the negative sides of the yuri fandom so I wouldn't be surprised if this shined a light on the negative sides of yaoi in addition to the more blatant themes of connections/secrets.

I don't really think Haruka is trans though it's a valid interpretation. Maybe I'm taking things at face value a bit much but I personally think it's more that Kazuki just doesn't know how to get along with his brother so he's pretending to be Sara to get to know him better. It might be deeper than that though...

I'm admittedly basing this on the observation I made that their parents never explicitly refer to Haruka as a boy, I guess?

I might just be jumping to conclusions, though.

I mean, even if Haruka was trans that wouldn't really explain the whole Kazuki/Sara thing… That's going to pretty great and risky lengths just to give your brother a friend to talk to…

As for the "real" Sara (assuming she's a person and not an AI or mocap character à la Kizuna AI), it does seem to tie with the omnipresence of not-Amazon… Hell, those figures in the background might be walking ad signs for all we know…

Sara is real as the Cops spinoff showed. Shes their kid.

The real question is how they went from sweet adoptive fathers to killers.

These two things aren't mutually exclusive.

Well she was a baby when They first got her ]and magically ages up real fast. so plenty of leeway for it to happen afterwards.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Apr 20th 2019 at 2:28:51 AM

…What… Where? When? How did I miss that?

Edit: Okay, I read it. It was freaking adorable. I have no idea what happened in that dream (?) sequence though.

Edited by Lyendith on Apr 20th 2019 at 12:20:37 PM

Sara is real as the Cops spinoff showed. Shes their kid.

Historically, manga related to Ikuhara shows tend not to be in-continuity. I would not take anything from it as canon to the TV series

Edited by Hylarn on Apr 20th 2019 at 7:13:29 AM

There's a shot in their nightmare that eerily ressembles a shot in their musical number though…

This is my first Ikuhara anime and this. certainly is an experience. The thing that's most interesting to me is just how cohesive all these seemingly random and disparate concepts have been tied together.

The sheer offbeatness of Keppi has made him my fave so far though Kuji certainly has a hell of a lot going on from these two episodes that makes him the most intriguing of the trio.

Oh you poor sweet summer child. You do not know, cannot know, what you're in for. I will give you a few hints though. Ikuhara treats plot and symbolism interchangeably but you won't get and sort of key to the symbolism until late in the plot, if at all. Second. Sometimes Ikuraha is just being a Troll. Lastly, he can and will double and triple bluff about whether something is important or not.