For those who have watched Asobi ni Iku Yo, they will surely remember episode 9, for which my mnemonic is "Grandma". At first it seems like filler. But it's actually a character building episode for Eris, and even more so for the assistaroids.

There's a song in it. Pieces of it get played at various times in the early part of the episode, and then near the end Lawry sings it, standing on the Okinawa beach at night time. It's a very stirring moment. (Especially if you know why she wants to do it.)

I have wondered where that song came from. In the story, it's claimed that it came from the anime series Captain Future, and at first I wondered if that even existed. Well, it did.

Then I wondered if the song really came from it. And now I know: yes, it did. Which makes it a truly awesome call-out, because when Lawry sings it, eventually everyone else does, too. Even Jens!

That episode stands alone, but it's probably my favorite single episode in the series. It's also played completely straight. It's not dark. It's actually quite warm. But there isn't any comedy in it. And there isn't any fan service. They didn't want to distract from the (really quite deep) story of that episode.

It doesn't directly contribute to the story line in any way, but it adds depth to nearly every major character in the series.

UPDATE: Which leads to the third question: there are a couple of scenes where Muttley is ostensibly watching the series, and we do hear some cheesy dialog. Is that really dialogue from the original series? At this point, I'd bet that it is.

UPDATE: I take it back: there is one funny scene, with Isozaki-sensei thinking about Lawry, who is a humanoid android. "So close! So close!"

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 04:19 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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