Like it was said in the episode by Nitori, “can things go back to the way they used to be”? I know this is affected by what happened to me this past weekend, but I don’t think they can…ever.
Sidebar for Jon: Also, while I’m wrangling this “previous eps” section”…why are the episodes grouped the way they are? Normally you have an explanation for that.
Previous eps
Impressions
- Did I just see CGI people…? Tsukigakirei put me off on them.
- Who has the right to go around telling others what’s “normal” or not? Nobody, really. Sure, people can be bossy at times, but one person’s “normal” is another’s “weird”.
- Come to think of it, around the world it’s (somewhat?) established that guys should be referred to by surname and girls by first name…I dunno why.
- Ties are tricky. The one time I wore a suit and tie, I had to get my dad to do it for me. (I’m more of a scarf person anyway…)
- Uh…I get the feeling Doi likes older women…(even if the true situation is much more complicated than that.)
- MOS Burger parody, LOL…not that I’ve ever been to one, even though (apparently) the chain exists in my region too.
- The audio clearly says “cola”…just to prove a point about brands. (CR’s subs say “Coke”, that’s why.)
- Uta Ichiba = Song Market.
- …apparently in Japan you can buy (alcoholic) drinks from vending machines, but you need an IC card to use as proof of age as well as the standard ID, so there’s basically no chances of underage (i.e. under 20 years old) drinking. Thus, Chiba probably wouldn’t get her beer, even if Anna got it for her…Yep, these are the truly useful things you learn in Japanese class.
I don’t have any real comments regarding the article proper for you this week. However, I would be happy to answer your question about how the schedule was formed this time:
Usually I use a combination of my personal knowledge and the episode summaries for a series to determine what episodes ought to be grouped together. There are a few exceptions to this process, like last season’s watch where I had Scott affirm my schedule since I hadn’t seen that series, but that’s the first step I take most times.
For Wandering Son, I knew that episode 1 & 2 would give everybody a good sense of what the show was. The first episode is very strong but the second doesn’t have much going on, so I lumped them together as they both fulfill an expository role. As we’ve discussed before, this show jumps into the middle of a larger story vs the manga which goes from start to finish, thus there’s more work that needs to be done to get things setup.
We watched episode 3 in isolation as it was the setup for all episodes up through 7. It introduces a lot of the main themes and concerns for the characters moving forward as well as some conflicts. There are a few other reasons, but the biggest is that I wanted folks to really pay attention to what this episode discussed and what implications that could have for the show moving forward.
We shot doubles for the next two weeks to work our way through the play arc. These episodes naturally kind of do a part 1 and 2 thing anyway while still being the same story, but beyond that there was no real special meaning here. In short, for the sake of a good schedule, it just made sense to group this way here.
For this week’s episode, number 8, I isolated it as it is the turning point in the story. We are introduced to several of the things that play into the conclusion while emphasizing that not everything was truly resolved in the previous arc despite how things are largely presented (I mean, it is obvious that things are NOT resolved, but the show makes them feel like they aren’t that far off or are more-or-less at least at an understanding).
Next week is another isolated episode as it brings episode’s 8 stuff to a head. I also feel like this episode has a lot of potential for discussion and needs the room to breathe. I know this series is slower than most of the ones we have watched in the past, with seemingly less stuff going on, but it’s also fairly heavy emotionally for some and I want folks to be able to process things.
The last week is the end of the series and I mostly didn’t want to leave you hanging there. That’s the main reason for lumping them like that. If I can hunt down the special OVA episode, that will be optional viewing that spaces between the two listed episodes. So more on that if I am able.
Hopefully this answers your question and made some sense. I don’t want to spoil things so I am leaving out a few bits of explanation as well. Thanks again for your participation this week 🙂