Summary:
Minamo has no cyberbrain so she still has to do book reports and read paper books. The first book, Silver Sword, is too shounen for her, but then her grandma recommends Love Letter. However, when Minamo checks the book out, she finds an envelope inside. Turns out that Love Letter is so freaking good that everyone who reads it wants to write a letter, and so the last page is blank so the reader can write a note to his or her loved one.
At first Minamo thinks the book must have originally been her grandmother’s, but actually it belonged to Kominato Saori, the former chairman of the board of NeoBrain (which makes sentinel beds). Saori died 2 years ago, but by contacting her adopted son Minamo is able to retrieve the letter and discover some of Masamichi’s backstory. Saori must have been in love with Masamichi, and had written a confession letter to Masamichi. In the tear-stained letter that was in the book, Masamichi wrote that he’d answer her confession after his next dive. Unfortunately, he answered the confession by going into a coma for 50 years, and not waking up until after she passed away…
Reaction:
Although this felt like Toshokan Sensou crossed with Aria the Animation, this episode was awesome. It was basically like hearing a flip of the loli-cat episode, except in this case the sender was the one who had already passed away. I like the angle that was covered in this story, and it makes Masamichi so much more interesting. I wonder if future episodes will cover how he feels about everything that has passed him by.
The librarian in this episode made me realize that while pencils are gone in the future, pens will always remain. By the way, Souta scored a part-time second job as a part of the Minamo hiring, but what exactly does he do? Is Souta now Masamichi’s goon or something? Also, I can’t believe that Minamo has to treat Sayaka (and Yukino) to lunch just for a search that took less than 30 seconds. Sayaka didn’t even have to type anything!
Related posts:
7 Comments
Sayaka was probably just kidding but the cake might have taken over her control. I also liked Minamo’s WTF face when Holon analysed the book and brought Minamo’s organism to a crushing halt.
I can just imagine Holon and Masamichi mind-texting each other “LOL” and “WTF is she talking about?” as Minamo talked about how the missing pages were a love letter. It really sucks for Minamo how everyone can just look up facts instantly while she has to just pretend she knows what she’s talking about.
Maybe I’m off here but I thought that Saori read the book, and wrote the letter to Masamichi, who read her letter/confession of love, returned it, and told her that they’d talk about it after he made the next dive. When the dive put Masamichi into a coma, Saori kept returning to the place where she saw him last, where he’d promised that he’d see her again, but he woke up too late to keep his promise. Of course, my interpretation is based entirely on the Ureshii translation, because I have no Japanese skills whatsoever. Either way though, it was a great episode.
Ahhhhh, you are right, as the letter was Masamichi’s reply to her letter. I was thinking it was her reply to his reply and she didn’t send it. Thanks for the comment, I’ve fixed the post.
He was probably going to reject her anyway (I guess I am a heartless bastard).
I’m not so sure that Masamichi was going to reject her out of hand (optimist here,
), but I think that his decision to put her off until after the dive showed where his priorities were at the time. I hope that we see more of these moments in Masamichi’s old life, places where he could have made different turns, viewed in the context of his long sleep. In broad terms I think that’s part of the reason he dotes on Minamo so much: she is extremely impulsive, and lives in the moment, something which I think Masamichi wishes he had done more often.
I think he also likes Minamo because she is full of hope. She doesn’t get all down that she has no cyberbrain and has to buy her “friends” lunch just to get them to do a search for her. Minamo keeps her eyes on the prize no matter what the obstacle is. That probably speaks to someone like Masamichi who could easily just sit around in a demoralized funk all day.
Your mention of the turns that Masamichi could have taken interests me. Although this turn sucked for Saori, I guess it worked out pretty well for her adopted son.
Which is what it seemed he was doing until Minamo came along and started pushing him… though how anyone could stay in a funk with Holon around is beyond me. I just hope that this show continues to live up to its amazing potential.