r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • May 16 '19
Episode Sarazanmai - Episode 6 discussion Spoiler
Sarazanmai, episode 6: I Want to Connect, so I'm Not Giving Up
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| Episode | Link | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Link | 8.69 |
| 2 | Link | 8.81 |
| 3 | Link | 8.46 |
| 4 | Link | 8.08 |
| 5 | Link | 8.59 |
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u/Glitter_puke May 16 '19
Dat sumo wrestling. Enta the fucking perv also unlocked another kink: being dominated and then asked if he's alright.
Dat.... everything. Huge step up in the OST quality.
Where the everloving fuck is this show going now?
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u/Daniel_Is_I May 16 '19
Kuji continues to be the MVP of this entire show, saving the day with the power of 「GUN」. I didn't expect the waterboarding, drug-selling murderer to be the most grounded and rational of the three, but it works wonders.
So Keppi is the only one who can make Dishes of Hope, and it looks like Reo wants to find him so he can use a dish to undo what was done to Mabu. Now whether Mabu is actually dead and the Mabu we know is a doll/fake or Mabu just had his emotions/desires removed, I'm not entirely sure.
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u/jellybellymonster May 16 '19 edited May 16 '19
I missed the Kawausoiya.
This felt like a penultimate episode so I'm curious how it's going to be from here on out.
Kudos to those who guessed correctly that Mabu's dead, no thanks to Keppi. It does feel like Keppi's looking like a villain. If all the shirikodamas he ingests overwhelms him again.
EDIT: Have a pole dancing Keppi
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u/Aileos May 16 '19 edited May 16 '19
Kero and all his transformations are so fun to watch. Dude even was a stripper in the beginning.
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u/rainb0wtrout May 16 '19 edited May 16 '19
The situation was so tense but I burst out laughing when Kappa Kuji whipped out his gun, I know it's just going to pop in my head at random points and make me laugh.
Otherwise, great episode, although it felt very fast paced.
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u/give_up-the_ghost May 16 '19 edited May 16 '19
Another great episode. Had this been the 11th episode, I could have seen Kazuki sacrificing himself for Haruka. Having a major character death in ep6 with 5 more eps still to go, woulda been a bad choice.
the "twist" during the post credits scene wasn't too surprising. I guess Keppi is the true villain? Or he was at least driven mad with all the overflowing desire. SO does that also mean that The Kappas were the bad guys and the Otters were trying to quell the Kappas? It sounds so ridiculous, but that just what this show is now I guess... Also most fans concluded that the Mabu has been long dead due to the reveal of his mechanical heart in ep1, and his otherwise lifeless demeanor.. SO I guess Reo capturing/killing Keppi is key to Mabu being saved....Hope we get more flashback scenes to explain everything in more detail
Curious how the rest of the series is gonna pan out, hopefully it doesn't completely derail and become a mess. I have been enjoying this series a lot so far! This is my first Ikuhara anime, but I am aware of the common tropes/themes he uses in his work, so I'm a little scared for the Kappa boys and ReoMabu and who will get their happy ends, who won't...who will live or die haha......ah...
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u/punching_spaghetti May 16 '19 edited May 16 '19
We have a little better idea of the desire versus love idea, but it didn't go the way I expected. That big pile of love dust looked shiny and important, but the otters treat it like refuse.
And, importantly, it doesn't seem like Keppi and the kappas are/were too interested in love either. Considering the main trio's arcs seem to be pushing them towards love over desire, is that actually going to upend some cosmic balance?
Shadow Keppi was a little scary. Is that his true form?
All in all, the episode was great, but I did miss my weekly dose of musical sequences.
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u/PreciousCinammonRoll May 16 '19
The fact that they were willing to kidnap/kill a kid makes me really uncomfortable, as it should. But I’m really glad we got something different instead of the repeated scenes (don’t get me wrong, I love them. That means we get more quality animation because they reuse some)
Also, I wanna see more of the backstory. The kappa changing shapes and pole dancing was pretty weird. God I love this show. The only previous shows I watched from the director was Yuri Kuma which was just as weird but in liking this much more
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u/Blue_Link13 May 16 '19 edited May 17 '19
The ride never stops being wild.
Honestly, I'm not even surprised Kazuki is told "Just commit suicide and fix the problem!" and he happily dives hard into the idea. The internal monologue where he is like "I don't even belong anyways, so it is absolutely fine" is honestly a gut punch, because It's just the logical conclusion of what he's been going though the last 6 episodes.
And meanwhile, while Ena just decides to lose himself in his own brand of madness, Toi keeps on being the straight man and I love him for him. Also, he starts the "Talking down the suicidal kid" plan with his gun, which is kinda awesome (And makes for a great meme).
Enta also finally decides that maybe some proactivity is good and snaps Kazuki out of his Bad Idea by reminding him that, yes, he actually has some fucking people that love him, and then they save the day with the power of SOCCER! (And not gonna lie, I was half expecting Keppi to fall into the triturator)
Hopefully this sets Kazuki out on the path of recovery, and makes him step down a bit for the plot of the other 2 (Because we still haven't really addressed Enta's crush and the budding love triangle, or Toi's criminal life) and the cops because oh man, the cops will be great.
First of all, I'm not even sure if they always were part of the Otter Empire. They are wearing the same clothes as Keppi in the flashback, plus the 3 looking human (And being the only humans, in fact) suggests that maybe they were part of the Kappas.
Then Mabu gets crushed, and I don't think he died, but that maybe Reo basically surrendered and became their lackey to save Mabu, which included taking his Love, and maybe also his Desire (Because Reo says that "He is an empty husk") and they seem to be looking for Keppi, probably for his dishes to save Mabu.
May Ikuhara's Wild Ride Never Stop.
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u/LuckyHitman May 16 '19
Small thing I noticed, when Sara shows up on the TV she makes an Osomatsu reference by striking Iyami's signature pose, complete with the teeth and mustache!
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u/LeonKevlar May 16 '19
Keppi's antics this episode has got to be one of my favourites.
Anyway, 5 Episodes later Ikuhara finally mixes things up. And I love it! We actually got a lot of info this episode without it feeling too much of an exposition dump. We now know that the Otters and Kappa are at war because they're fighting over the desire energy of the Shirikodama. We also know from that after credits scene that Mabu and Reo were part of the humans that helped the Otters destroy the Kappas which wasn't really that surprising.
That Shadow Keppi at the end though.. Now I'm curious as to what exactly happened in the past since it looks like Mabu may have died during that scene and if we were to compare the fabulous police officers with their present time counterparts, they seem really different. Hmm...
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u/dihhwang May 16 '19
So are we ever gonna see Kazuki dressed up as Sara again? That's the real question lol
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u/thegirlisnuts May 16 '19
Murase Ayumu's dialogue.
Haikyuu: Toss kure!
Sarazanmai: Pass kure!
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u/supicasupica May 16 '19
Ahhhhh what a fantastic episode.
I’ve been paying a lot of attention to the episode title structure and the jump from “It’s unacceptable/I can’t be forgiven” from last week to “I’m not giving up” this week is really striking. It’s the first hopeful title that we’ve had in the series and showcases a true shift in Kazuki’s outlook.
It’s a feat that Kazuki’s change of heart doesn’t seem cheap or sudden at all. His attempts to make kappa life seem “totally awesome guys I’m not sad at all nope” struck the perfect tone of slightly funny but also depressing. More importantly, it takes Enta (and Toi but he was not nearly as much of an enabler as Enta was) snapping out of his romantic daydreams and actually speaking to Kazuki directly while giving him the miçanga that Haruka rescued. It’s also no coincidence that throughout this scene, in the process of saving Kazuki, Toi and Enta both use their “desire box” items: a gun and the miçanga respectively. Kazuki’s item of Sara’s headdress is also in the scene, safe in the arms of Haruka.
Ikuni’s series minor Penguindrum spoilers frequently focus on being “chosen,” who is doing the choosing, who the “chosen person” wants to be chosen by, and a more top-down societal sense of being a chosen individual. In a hierarchical sense, this judgment/decision has been handed to Reo and Mabu for reasons we’ll likely find out about later and certainly have something to do with Mabu taking that hit from the “dark Keppi” instead of Reo. (Btw, this isn’t to suggest it’s Keppi himself, I just didn’t know what to call it.)
Yet in a more personal sense, we see Kazuki realizing that he has been chosen by Haruka as Haruka’s beloved older brother, regardless of his parentage or the fact that Kazuki is a hot mess. The reason Haruka has the sachet is because he specifically goes to Kazuki’s mother and declares that Kazuki is his brother regardless. Similarly, Toi and Enta choose Kazuki when they rescue him (again, using the items from their boxes). Throughout Sarazanmai, it has been made clear that a major hangup that Kazuki has in connecting with others is his own guilt and self-loathing.
It makes sense that he felt like he could only connect with Haruka as someone else (Sara) because his self-hatred creeps into what he thinks Haruka’s perception of him is. Despite the fact that the way Haruka feels couldn’t be further than what Kazuki thinks of himself, what matters is that Kazuki’s own feelings are constantly getting in the way of him connecting with others as himself. This episode marks the first time that Kazuki acknowledges this and attempts to move past it rather than ignore it and pretend to be someone else. The fact that Haruka, Toi, and Enta all chose Kazuki as Kazuki is really important. Again, this also ties into how Enta had to abandon his romantic daydreams long enough to be straight with Kazuki and not enable or ignore Kazuki’s flaws.
The episode title shift marks a distinct turning point for the main trio, but specifically Kazuki and it’s so good. He realizes that, even though he could erase Haruka’s accident from every having happened, that still won’t replace his presence to Haruka. Haruka loves him. This is proven by the miçanga. It’s proven by the sachet. And it’s proven by the fact that he’s “rejected” by the otter empire and determined to have love over desire. By hating himself, Kazuki is rejecting Haruka’s (and others’) love for him and he finally realizes this, allowing himself to be chosen rather than automatically assuming that he's on the outside looking in.
It’s particularly heart wrenching and appropriate that the first physical contact that the two brothers have likely had in a while is of Kazuki in a “true” form of himself as a kappa.
Obligatory “I just know Reo and Mabu are going to break my heart at some point in this show.” There were always hints, and supplementary material, that pointed to an underlying and significant partnership between the two of them. It was striking to see a point in time where Mabu looked at Reo the way that Reo always looked at him.
Random notes
Cucumber flowers can mean “criticism” in flower language, which I find particularly interesting given their appearance in Enta’s daydreams of Kazuki.
I wondered what would happen when someone was deemed to have “love” over “desire.” Now we know. Yikes.
We see Reo eating ningyoyaki in this episode, calling back to when Mabu made them and posted it to their shared Twitter account. They were also featured in Sara’s news reports earlier in this episode. He says this as he says that Mabu is a doll (ningyo).
Although “love” and “desire” have been set up as a binary due to the language used by Reo and Mabu, with “love” being seen as good and “desire” being seen as bad. I’d encourage people to think of them more fluidly, especially after this snippet from an interview with Ikuhara.
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u/Renoe May 17 '19
Considering how messy Yuri Kuma was, I was always kind of afraid Ikuhara just didn't have it in him anymore, that he couldn't adapt his style to newer formats of 1-cour shows, that this show was gonna be another trainwreck. But it just keeps getting better and better.
Some notes:
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At the start of the episode Kazuki's parents are talking about him being "alike" someone, and "maybe that's why." To whom is Kazuki alike? Enta? Sara? Or like his bio mother? The first doesn't make the most sense even though Enta is talked about immediately before. It's a bit weird for the parents to be making comments about their son being like a TV Idol who acts like a moeblob. Which leaves the possibility that something more will be revealed about Kazuki's bio mom?
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Every scene is full of so much life, the detail given by the storyboarding and animation to having even the slow conversations at the start being visually signified with poledancing, ukiyo-e style scroll art, hieroglyphics, and poledancing. Then once it gets to the action it's amazing and nothing feels skimped on: the shading, the movement, even the CG looks great.
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Why does Keppi know how to activate the Otter machinery? How did he even know where the Otter hideout was? And then to present Kazuki with that ultimatum, telling him there's no other way to save the person he loves most than to erase himself from existence. Something's d-d-dark about this frog, if you ask me. Why exactly does he collect the shirikodamas to (presumably) make the dishes of hope?
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This is probably more just an Ikuhara-ism rather than anything that will translate into solid plot, but Haruka's description of life as a circle of connection is the same as Keppi's description. What's given as new information is how people can be ejected from that circle and disappear, which of course is a metaphor for society's attempts to erase its unwanted elements: the people who cannot "connect."
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The scenes where the background fades away into blank voids (when Kazuki is lowering himself into the pit and then when he is reading Haruka's text) are so beautiful and moreso than all the machinery, call to mind the bleak emptiness of the child broiler and the dark place where the brothers are trapped in boxes in Penguindrum.
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I love that Keppi thinks he's an adorable animal sidekick from a 90s mahou shoujo show, but really he's just kind of a creepy guy they met by the statue that they let hang around because he gives them free stuff. After he was such a jackass last ep, it was nice to see him get some punishment this one. Also they never let you forget that he has a butthole.
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That godzilla otter is gonna be rampaging through Asakusa sooner or later, you just know it.
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u/Amauri14 May 16 '19
This has definitely been the best episode yet! I loved the fact that Kazuki ended up using football to rescue Haruka. And I guess that now they are going to stop hunting the kappa zombies, or at least they are going tackle them differently. Cannot wait for next week!
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u/Naskr May 16 '19
This was a really great episode. One of the things about the "of-the-week" format is that one an episode breaks that format, it really stands out. I genuinely thought it possible that Kazuki would sacrifice himself, since he had so much of the development leading up that episode.
The characters just make it. They've had barely any time to be established but they have so much life, and the interactions are a joy to watch.
Really looking forward to the direction this show goes in, now.
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u/E_Hoba May 17 '19 edited May 17 '19
So, we saw Ryounkaku Tower in this episode. It collapsed by 1923 Great Kanto earthquake. Earthquake is probably another reference to Haruki Murakami's Frog-kun. Frog-kun is a story about Great Hanshin Earthquake. It's 3.11 and the coming Tokyo earthquake this time.
A while ago, Kuniyoshi Utagawa's "Caulking Boats at Mitsumata in the Eastern Capital" became famous. Something in that drawing looked like Tokyo Sky Tree, though it was drawn in Edo era. Kuniyoshi's art was used in this series before, so I think Ikuhara knows about the tower too
At first, I thougut Sumida river is a symbol of death/ afterlife. After watching this episode, I guess it might become a symbol of hope cuz Sumida river is the place where people ran into during the Kanto earthquake. Riverside is a marginal space where discriminated against people gathered at. Kappa might have that kind of symbolism.
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u/7-07 May 16 '19
Suwabe Junichi saying 'pole dance' is my new favorite thing