[Anime] Ano Hana

Ok, its been confirmed. Menma's mother actually hates the group and has gone a tad loony. I had some suspicions of this prior to episode 8.

Menma's brother's take on his sister's death and how it has impacted the family was quite interesting as well. His opinions about his mother and how he said he sometimes was embarrassed to even call the woman 'his mom' was a little disheartening.

Totally reveals that after Menma's death, her mom became obsessed with the past and hating the future where her daughter no longer exists in. Along the way, she had practically forgotten about Menma's little brother.

It was also quite astonishing to see how the group was preparing the fireworks in order to fulfill Menma's wish in the beginning and all end up dropping out and blaming Jintan by the end. Quite a change in the plot for one episode.

As for Menma beginning to truly reveal herself to everyone else, it got me excited.

Can't wait for episode 9.

Yeah, the scene with Menma's mom was pretty intense, although a bit understandable. I also felt really bad for Anjo after she confessed her feelings to Jintan, but he seemed like he didn't care at all. I'm kind of hoping that they get together in the end, but we shall have to wait and see.

Also, I loved the reaction on Yukihatsu's face when he saw what Menma wrote in the diary. So, it can be pretty much ruled out at this point that Menma is a ghost, and not just a disillusion of Jintan's, (since she can affect reality). And I'm very excited for episode 9 as well.

Just as I feared has come to reality. This episode has been a huge and utter disappointment for me. There are several things this episode did well, but I want to concentrate on the bad, as this outrage has obliterated my good opinion of the show.

In addition to far too much melodrama and several occasions of poorly written dialogue, the method Menma used to reveal her presence was possibly the worst thing that could have been done at this point. It was too damn easy. A key point of the climax (which, this is) of a show is that the climatic decision has to have stakes higher than anything else in the story prior, be a hard decision, and could not have been made at any other point in the series. Menma could have done something like this (with, say, the food at the barbecue, for example?) at any time, easily, and made her appearance known. It, very literally, makes the conflict up to this point almost completely meaningless to the audience, if it could have been solved in episode 1 (or, 5, as the episode I personally believe Menma should have revealed herself). And trust me, I am very aware of the fact that many people will say that the friends breaking up after finally having gotten together is a big enough stake. I do not argue that, however, in that case, it's arguable whether Menma, who has been displayed as a kind person up to now, would want Jinta to go through all that trouble beforehand, when it could have been prevented easily. This only leads to one conclusion: she doesn't want to disappear, and thus holds off her reveal. However, in this case, a degree of selfishness prior to the episode, other than a possible hint of her wanting to stay because she would disappear, would be suitable in order to suggest grander ulterior motives. As such, we're faced with two separate sides of one coin, in Menma's character. On one side, she wants her friends to recognize that she is there, as proven several times by her interactions with Yukiatsu and Popo. On the other, the aforementioned logic assumes that she really didn't want them to see them, despite there being almost lack of subtext and action implying such until right before her reveal, and it's now this final moment that forces her to play her ace card. This is a character contradiction, recified far too late, made in order to push forward conflict for the last several episodes, which is not something to be done. I would be 100% OK with this development if it was hinted at by Menma's actions that she truly, truly, wanted to stay with her friends because of some ulterior motive before episode 8. That would have provided a gradually developing motivation for Menma not having proved herself to the rest of her friends.

This is why I hate the finales that Mari Okada writes. Toradora is another good example, as the final episodes completely ruined it. While it is possible that the remaining episodes can end up being excellent, the fact that we essentially wasted 3-7 episodes does not, and will not, sit well with me. Goddamnit. I really want to like this show, so someone, please play Devil's Advocate and convince me otherwise from my opinion. I may be missing something in my anger.

EDIT: Oh, and don't get me wrong, I still love the show. It's definitely still the best of the season in my opinion, because I actually do believe this episode did very many things right. However, I just wanted to express my anger at this particular development.

Why are you attempting to lecture me on grammar in a thread about a show? I believe there is a much better thread somewhere in Random or Serious Discussion regarding grammar that you may participate in. Your pointing this out does as much for the discussion as arguing about the nature of a split infinitive does for Star Trek.



I do not believe my posts are self-important. I am simply expressing my view on the show, and I wish to discuss it. What you may perceive as self-importance, to me, is only what I perceive as true. What parts of my posts make me seem as though I am a "hack"? Instead of blurting out accusation, I would much rather you talk about the show. Perhaps, in the process, you may be able to show me what I claiming incorrectly that leads you to deduce that I am, as you say, a "hack"?



"When you assume, you make an ASS out of U and ME." Why would you assume I am a failed writer, when I have mentioned nothing of my own work or my failures/successes thereof? I am 21, with a full head of hair, and currently studying intensely to enter an M.D. program. I believe that you may find me rather mellow about my hobbies in real life, and not so much what the term "weaboo" implies.

As a side note, I believe it's rather interesting that you can't choose between "which is more sad," between a failed writer and a dilettante. A failed writer has at least given his profession/hobby effort, and most likely knows his craft. A dilettante, on the other hand, is implied to have not put much effort into his thin area of knowledge, and only boasts of his "craft". By saying that you cannot decide which is worse, are you implying that the former category as a whole may be as deplorable as the latter?



I have not said that I am an expert on cartoon shows. My particular areas of knowledge lie within medicine, screenwriting, and literature. It is from my education in screenwriting that I draw my sentiments about anime.

Let us not further derail the thread. If you wish to continue this irrelevant discussion, we can discuss it over private messages.

So you think that a show that has wasted "3-7 episodes" is still the best show of the season? Does that mean you have an extremely low opinion of every other show you've watched this season? I certainly wouldn't be able to forgive wasting so many episodes of a show I really cared about.

I really wish Menma had been kept a delusion of Jinta's. Or at least used some method other than the diary to show that she exists. The reason being more or less the same as what Catcher has said. The "more" being it should have been done earlier, and the "less" being the odd characterization of Menma. Additionally, it bothers me how out-of-the-loop Menma has been until now, despite the characters focusing/trying to focus on her wish.

Good episode all around. It looks like we're developing that Menma cannot write anywhere else besides inside her diary. It still doesn't justify why she didn't just lift a pot or a piece of beef earlier, but I do like that we're at least getting some kind of justification. Still nothing implying that Menma had ulterior motives by holding off the reveal, which I was wholeheartedly expecting from this episode.

I had a hunch that we were going to have Yukiatsu confess to Anaru this episode, since conversations like the one that the two had on the train are usually brought back in the "I wasn't kidding" fashion. The previous episode did a good job of setting this up to happen, since now we have Anaru doing the "rebound" relationship. While I have an itch to pick with the dialogue in the scene of Yukiatsu's "serious" confession, the fact remains that it has been coming from a long way off. Though, it has to be said that I do not agree with this pairing (my OTP is Jinta and Anaru), even though my OTP was essentially ruled out by this and several previous developments.

Poor Tsuruko and Jinta. The former just doesn't display any synergy with Jinta, and Yukiatsu has pretty much NOPE.bmp'd her unintentionally. Jinta looks like he's going to be stuck dawdling about the past, and I wonder how this is going to turn out for him if Menma disappears by the end of the show? I do so love how Jinta finally realized that Menma doesn't have shoes on, and what that means.

Whoever scripted this intentionally delayed the "reveal" of Menma. This is hinted at around 4:05 (depending on sub) when Poppo says something like "If she was able to write, I wished she would have done so earlier." and then Tsuruko says something like "She could have spoken to us, and we would have believed her right away." then Poppo replies "Well Jintan and Menma aren't the brightest now, are they?" Maybe this means something greater, or maybe it was just an inside joke acknowledging it was done to make the rest of the story fit together.

Anyway, she seems to be able to write anywhere closely related to her childhood, as she could also scratch messages into the wall at the "Secret Base" around 16:15.

And yeah, all the characters kinda-sorta seem to be slowly moving on, while Jinta kinda-sorta seems to be slowly moving backwards? Sort of.

I really do hope that it ends up being something greater, but I just can't see that happening, since Menma's contradictory characterization hasn't been elaborated upon yet. I believe that, like you suggest when you mention that it's an "inside joke acknowledging it... makes the rest of the story fit together," that scene was the writer's attempt at Lampshade Hanging, so that she could say "well, I know she could have done it earlier," and brush it off. It still doesn't justify why it didn't happen earlier.



I am waiting on this aspect of the show to come full circle and possibly have some incredible consequence on the ending of the show. Thursday can never come quickly enough.



I think it's less that Jinta is moving backwards so much as he's stagnating his thoughts in the past.

What I'm wondering is how the fireworks guy is going to react to them all reacting and talking to someone who isn't there (as far as he can tell). They weren't exactly being careful.

The whole forgiveness thing they all talk about, seems to keep implying that they had some hand in her drowning, even if unintentional. I'm wondering where that's going to go.

The timing of the confession this episode is even more hilarious than the last, and we still have no clue how serious Yukiastu is being. We have established at this point that Yukiastu tends to be a pessimist and that he unintentionally talks about himself a bit. Two people pining for others getting together? Why would a guy like Yukiastu be seeking a relationship that wouldn't work?

Also, we still don't know too much about Tsuruko or Poppo. Poppo just has this rather generic "I feel bad about what happened" thing going on. Tsuruko is sending conflicting messages. Things thus far have implied that she likes Yukiastu, but she doesn't go out of her to be with him or help him or anything. She has Menma's hairpin, but she keeps it entirely to herself.

One thing I think might be worth mentioning, Yukiastu complains about having to talk to Menma through Jinta. This sounds fine, until you realize that we've already established that Menma can do whatever she wants in her diary at the very least. Sure, the diary isn't an optimal solution, but it's hardly worth it to get angry at Jinta for anything other than Jinta seeing grown-up Menma.

I don't think they all feel guilty about the drowning in particular. Jinta and Yukiatsu feel they indirectly caused Menma to drown. Naruko feels guilty because she was happy that Jinta called Menma ugly. Tsuruko probably feels guilty over being happy that Menma drowned. As for Poppo ... no clue, he might just want answers.