I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but the opening animation for Nanatsuiro Drops ("Shining stars bless" performed by Kaori Utatsuki) makes me feel all hanyaa~n and quite incapable of using the vast majority of my vocabulary in describing it, other than "cute" and "sparkly". The overall feel is that of a Typical Magical Girl show, with nothing special or surprising, and yet… happy. After all the excitement and all the adventure, when all the Macguffins have been collected and the series heads towards its extremely standard conclusion, Everything Will Be All Right.

It is comfort anime. Being unsurprising should be its entire raison d'etre.

This episode does not have a whole lot of action, but it does have a bit of insight into Sumomo's friendship with Nako. Not a lot, but a bit. I have to say that Yuki doesn't really trigger my "why is the magical girl mascot even there" gut feelings for some reason; possibly this is because he's not perverted, arrogant, or hyperactive, and his voice isn't an odd falsetto. Besides, it's not like he's a Real Magical Girl Mascot in the usual sense.

Tsuwabuki wakes up, thinking that it's all a bad dream, and he should be able to continue his usual life from now on. Of course, comedy being what it is, he turns to see Sumomo's sleeping face next to his.

Jumping out of Sumomo's bed, he realizes that a) he has turned back into a human, and b) Sumomo is waking up, thus making it imperative to Think Quickly and come up with a way to explain why he is in a girl's room. Sumomo takes a while to get there, but she finally wakes up all the way, and has an utterly predictable reaction. Tsuwabuki jumps forward, assuring Sumomo that this is all a dream, and nothing more. Sumomo blinks, smiles, accepts this explanation, and then goes back to sleep.

I know I'm not at my best every morning, which is why I can't even say that I wouldn't do a thing like this myself.

Putting aside any and all explanations about how Tsuwabuki managed to get out of Sumomo's house and into his own, all in time for school, he nevertheless does so, and spends most of the morning pondering his new situation. He ponders deeply enough to ignore his friends greeting him, which is apparently a normal occurrence, but he does notice Sumomo coming into class and being all shy and withdrawn. Whether she is usually shy and withdrawn in general, or only with regards to Tsuwabuki in specific, is left as an exercise for the viewer.

Scene skip to the end of the day, when Tsuwabuki is watching the sun set, and promptly turns back into Yuki-chan.

Enter Kisaragi-sensei, who explains that at night, Tsuwabuki turns into sheep mode, and daytime means human form. While this would probably have been best explained the night before, at least Kisaragi does elaborate on a couple of other factors: during a new moon, Tsuwabuki would remain as a human at all times, with the reverse being true during a full moon. And with an additional warning never to let anyone see them doing their Magical Girl business, Kisaragi-sensei sends him on his way.

Meanwhile, Sumomo has received a package from her mother which contains clothes which said mother had allegedly worn a long time ago. Um, yeah.

Sumomo changes into her new costume (the viewer sees nothing, as the view cuts away to Yuki attempting to remain a gentleman and not peek through the window), spots Yuki, and cuddles him. Yuki vaguely says something about only being able to be around at night, and not letting anyone else see them when collecting the star drops. I suppose Sumomo has seen enough Magical Girl anime to readily accept this without questioning.

Since Yuki is in a convenient plush sheep doll form, Sumomo decides to spread the dress up love, which raises the question of whether Sumomo sees Yuki as male, female, or neuter. The use of "ore"/"boku" indicates male-ness, but the dresses may be a bit minty.

Yuki notes that Sumomo is very different At Home than In School. A very, very small flag has been set.

Locator ring activation interrupts this cosplay exercise, and Sumomo rushes out in her costume, apparently not embarrassed in the least at the possibility of being seen. I wonder whether this would be seen as a good or bad thing from the costume creators: on the one hand, the subject is happy to be wearing the dress, but on the other hand, the moe~ of the embarrassed expression is lost.

Well, for them, at least. Personally, I don't really care that much for the "hazukashii~" aspect, so I can take it or leave it.

Chasing around the star drop, Sumomo trips and falls into a puddle. Note that the rain has been going on for some time now, and Yuki has not said anything about it, but now appears worried about Sumomo's clothes getting wet. A bit late there, methinks, although possibly he's more worried about her clothes getting muddy.

An umbrella is offered, which turns out to belong to Nadeshiko Yaeno, aka Nako. Sumomo warns her about the star drop inexplibably heading her way, and Nako smacks said star drop into the sky with her umbrella. Sumomo captures the star drop (which falls back down on the same path on which it was hit up), and traps it in the bottle. (Orange, by the way.)

The celebration at the successful capture is interrupted by the realization that they have been Seen.

Nako calmly smiles and offers to have Sumomo change at her house to get out of her wet clothes. Considering all the activity in the rain, this would probably be necessary sooner or later.

While Sumomo takes a nice long bath, Nako cleans and dries Sumomo's costume. Yuki attempts to sneak around her, but is soon caught and cleaned. Nako appears unsurprised at this moving and talking doll, and Sumomo fails to explain the situation. Nako does not appear to mind, and offers to send Sumomo home in her mother's car.

Back at Sumomo's place, Yuki checks the Big Red Book, and finds out that the consequences of being discovered while on Magical Girl business involves wiping out the discoverer's memory (via a tap on the head with the spoon-wand; exactly how much of a "tap" this is will be left unsaid). I get the feeling that this is so standard as to be boilerplate in the EULA.

Sumomo, as can be expected, is unwilling to wipe out Nako's memory, even just the more fantastical bits. Cue a montage of flashback scenes, set to an image song (not sure whose it's supposed to be), where it appears that Nako is kind, caring, and able to shield Sumomo from pretty much everything unpleasant. Yanno, the whole "strong loyal best friend" bit.

The next day, Nako acts as though nothing unusual happened, all the way until Gardening Club time, when she tells Tsuwabuki to walk Sumomo home that day, being that she has something else to do. She also adds that Sumomo should not overexert herself like she did the night before, so on and so forth. Essentially the "I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to act like I don't care and we're still friends the same way we have been" routine.

On the way home, it starts raining (again), and so Tsuwabuki and Sumomo share an umbrella, in a very classic and standard romantic scene. It's been a while since I've seen this played wholly straight, without even the slightest bit of Lampshade Hanging.

Tsuwabuki clumsily attempts to initiate conversation, and Sumomo haltingly asks him if lying to a childhood friend is always bad. Tsuwabuki states that yes, it is in fact all right to lie, provided that there's a very good reason behind it. I don't think this is meant to be the Moral Of The Story, but more a specific case and consideration.

This does seem to cheer Sumomo up, just as a clock in the distance tolls the time. Tsuwabuki hurriedly excuses himself, runs off, and then remembers that it's a new moon and he won't be transforming that night.

He rushes to the school to look for Kisaragi-sensei, only to find that he is (obviously) not there. However, the Big Red Book starts glowing, and opens itself up to a page containing the loophole they've been looking for.

Basically, as long as two people strongly believe in one another, then the whole Magical Girl secret may be revealed, but only once. There's a magical spell involved here which entails even more shiny sparklies.

Spell cast, trust proven, and Nako is now in on the Magical Girl secret, as the episode ends on a… pan up?

As mentioned, it's not exactly an action-packed episode. If anything, it's mostly just the characters settling down into their respective roles in the story, taking the premise for granted. I do have to wonder whether we'll see more of Nako's personality, since thus far we don't exactly have much first-hand experience in what she's like as a person in her own right, rather than "Sumomo's best friend". Maybe I'm worrying overmuch.

Next episode, it looks like our mysterious Magical Girl Rival will appear, along with her black spoon wand thing. I suspect she will be the tsundere type, which should provide for some interesting interactions with the Mikuru-esque Sumomo.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 10:58 pm and is filed under nanatsuiro drops. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.