Sora no Manimani episode 11

I suck at speed blogging Sora no Manimani. Every single episode, without fail, is blogged quicker by THAT and Rabbitpoets before I can even open my laptop. The annoying this is that I like reading both their blogs and they are both regular commenters on here so I can’t get angry at them. They’ll probably beat me to episode 12 as well.

Oh well, might as well return to what I’m good at. That being Hime fascination (obviously).

The Astronomy club are on a trip to some cold place where they can see the stars better. Oddly for Sora no Manimani, that was one of the very few Astronomy references made in this episode. Most of the time they were far more focused on how to survive in the freezing cold. The basic rule: try not to look sexy. That’s exactly why Hime had so much trouble, she has such a hard time trying not to look sexy. That must be why the club president didn’t go with them either. It had nothing to do with the fact that he had exams, nor had it anything to do with the fact he was trying to find time with that navy-haired. 1920’s English School Teacher whose name I’ve totally forgotten. No, it’s because he has such a hard time trying not to look sexy.

She knows exactly how to diminish her sexiness.

You do realise that the picture above this text is an underage girl in only her underwear? Do you remember those laws that were being passed all those months ago in reference to child pornography because some guy owned lolita manga? Well there was words spreading about that the laws regarding drawings of minors in sexually provocative positions should be looked at, possibly even mirroring the laws that cover real-life minors. This would include pictures of minors in swimsuits and underwear? This would mean that if any member of law enforcement caught me watching Azumanga Daoih or Kurenai, I would be shoved in jail for several years? OK, this is a highly simplified and modified version of events, and an episodic post about Sora no Manimani is really not the place to be discussing this, but just keep that in mind next time that debate raises its head. And I assure you, it will.

The gods heard my prayers for another Hime-centric episode. However, in true god-like fashion (or the monkeys paw, for those of you watching Bakemonogatari) they delivered a Hime episode in which she was tortured the entire way through. But giving credit where credit is due, it worked surprisingly well. Drama in a comedy can often feel forced but for the most part it worked in this episode. What I loved was her thought process while stuck in the blizzard. For example, when trying to remember what to do when a blizzard hits, she remembers that you’re meant to dig a hole to hide in, only to realise how impossible it would be to actually try accomplish that. Even better, we got a Hime-through-the-ages clip.

Hime back in the days when her nickname was Drift (I heard somewhere that Drift was the name of a band full of people with giant afros. Yeah, thanks Mr.Mangaka for that really obscure reference) and boy was she the cutest little thing ever. Baby Saku and baby Mihoshi have nothing on her. Heck, baby Mihoshi looks the exact same then as she does now. D’awww, I just looked at the picture again, don’t you just want to poke her little face?

Hime as a bratty and noticeably flat-chested middle-school girl. She still looks mightily fluffy. It’s odd that even though she fell for Saku because he praised her fluffilicious hair, she still tried to make it look less fluffy in the coming years. I actually prefer Hime looking fluffier than her trying to make it all straight. Which is actually my exact opposite in taste in real women (yes, those things that exist outside your computer screen. Crazy eh?).

BTW, liking fluffiness does not make me a furry. Neither does liking Horo. However you are a furry if you thought this was hot.

That rival Astronomy club has odd fetishes. Remember these were the same people who were discussing which constellation they thought was the hottest. Astronomy clubs attract the oddest people.

As much as I like Hime, I have to admit that the best part of the episode was when Mihoshi re-appeared and had her little conversation with Hime. I thought Mihoshi and Saku were a great duo but now I’m more inclined towards a Hime X Mihoshi combo. They played off each other so well, Hime being that constant panicker and Mihoshi being the head-in-the-clouds character. Actually, didn’t Hime call her a cloud in the episode? Yeah she did, wow, that wasn’t even planned. Mihoshi is the character with her head in the clouds and Hime is snow, all light and fluffy (I’ve got to stop using the word fluffy). But their best moment was that scene in the picture above. There’s something about Mihoshi’s eyes in that picture that I’ve never seen before. It almost makes her look like the anti-christ or something equally sinister.

And suddenly she no longer looks like the harbinger of evil and back to her usual hair-brained self.

That was certainly an improved episode of Sora no Manimani. As I’ve said before, it’s still hurt badly by its total lack of originality, but that doesn’t stop it from making an episode work. It isn’t as funny as some of the earlier episodes but by this stage the characters have really grown on me. I’ve always called that the Azumanga effect, when the characters grow on you so much that the could spend the entire episode simply acting as they always do and yet you’ll still love it. That’s the stage that all slice-of-life series strive to obtain. Sora no Manimani is gradually reaching that stage. A bit too late though, the series is almost over.

With only one episode left, a highly doubt that any couples will be formed. If they did, the above scenario is highly unlikely. We all know that Saku will eventually end up with Mihoshi. If they wanted to get that ending in, they would have used this episode to take Hime out of the picture, or at least let Mihoshi know that Saku likes her. Instead they only opened the door a bit more for the possible Hime ending. The only couple I can see happening before the end is the club president and that navy-haired girl. Oh well, at least the next episode preview showed a hot-spring scene. There’s always one in every series.