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| Took you long enough to reveal your existence, Menma |
Things just got real. With Menma finally showing her existence to the others, the next few episodes should play out nicely in terms of tension and drama. If only she had done this earlier... But then again, the rest of the story would be have to be stretched to cover the excess number of episodes. I guess that having this episode near the end was a good way to allow tension to be built up through the first seven episodes and have the last few episodes (assuming that this is a single-season anime) deliver the drama that many people have been waiting patiently for. As for me, I am curious to see what Menma will do after this. Instead of trying to guess what will happen, I prefer to sit back and wait for the next episode, allowing me to avoid disappointment if I had thought about an outcome that I desired.
The fact that they think Menma's father is against their fireworks plan is unfortunate. However, the fact that they think Menma's mother will support them in their quest to grant Menma's "wish" is even more unfortunate. After Jinta and co. reach Menma's house, Menma's mother opens the door and greets them with feigned happiness. As the conversation veers towards Menma, Menma's mother's feigned happiness slowly melts away. Once Jinta mentions that he thinks Menma will be glad if they launched fireworks, Menma's mother loses it. She then begins to explain that she is angry at how they can all act so friendly together while leaving Menma out, only using her as an excuse so they can have fun. As the sadness and anger rages inside her, Menma's mother, amidst tears, starts gripping Tsuruko's arm tightly, shaking her back and forth. After calming down a bit, she questions why Menma is the only one who is not growing. The chance to get away from this crazy lady seems to have been given shortly after as Menma's younger brother enters the room as Yukiatsu tells everyone that it is time for them to go. After leaving Menma's house, the group decide to take a break at a shrine. While sitting together, they discuss how insane Menma's mother looked. Yukiatsu, who didn't say anything for a while, finally speaks, telling them all that they should stop all this nonsense about Menma's wish. Turning to Jinta, Yukiatsu tells him that everyone else was just being nice when they played along with this "Menma's wish". However, when he continues lecturing Jinta about not pushing one's pain onto others and being stuck in the past, he is also, ironically, talking about himself as these are problems that he is also facing. Anaru immediately realizes that after hearing it. That night at the secret base, Jinta announces to Poppo and Anaru that he will grant Menma's wish alone because the fact that Menma is not here anymore makes the phrase "all of us" useless (referring to the time when everyone, or "all of us", more or less agreed to help grant Menma's wish).
With the jobs taking its toll on his body, Jinta progressively grows weaker and weaker. Then, one day, while he is working at the video game store with Anaru, he collapses from fatigue. After waking up, he takes some water and vitamins given to him by Anaru. Since the two are alone together, Anaru takes the opportunity to, firstly, convince him to stop all this as she thinks he is hurting himself over nothing. However, he doesn't listen to her and proceeds to walk to the door, wanting to return to the job. Unable to take his insanity anymore, Anaru suddenly grabs and holds on to his shirt from behind, stopping him from walking any further. While pressing her face against the back of his shirt, she starts telling him how she was relieved when he called Menma ugly that day. Through tears, she tells him that she has been in pain ever since that day because, by running after Menma, she believes that is no different from saying that he loves her. Her emotions then get the better of her, causing her to confess to him. What happens after really shocked me. Even after being confessed to, Jinta simply walks away from her, implying rejection. His cold attitude causes her to rage at him, reminding him that Menma may disappear if he grants her wish. Despite this, Jinta continues to move forward, opening the door and returning back to work, leaving Anaru to wallow in her own misery.
After returning home from yet another long day at work, Jinta sees that Menma had been waiting for him all along as he finds her sleeping at the dining table. Upon waking up, Menma sees that Jinta's there is some residue beneath Jinta's nails and rushes to get a toothpick to clean them. While she does that, Jinta can't help but think about what Anaru said about Menma disappearing if he granted her wish. In the end, because he put Menma's wants above his, he decides that he will grant it because it is what she wants. However, the thought of Menma disappearing appears to be too much for him as he doesn't notice that tears are streaming down his face. When Menma notices this, she asks him if her cleaning is hurting him too much. With his head unclear because of his emotions, Jinta lies about his tears, saying that he is crying because he remembered a A Dog of Flanders. Even though this is a blatant lie (even he realizes it), believes him and tries to comfort him, telling him that Patrasche was happy in the end because Nello was really, really kind to him. In saying that, Menma doesn't realize the connection between the situation in A Dog of Flanders and the situation she and Jinta are in now. As Jinta continues to sob, she begins to stroke his head but stops when she suddenly remembers time time when Jinta's mother had stroked her head when the both of them were still alive. This memory brought tears to Menma's eyes. She then rests her head on Jinta's and the two remain together in silence.
The next day, Jinta wakes up and realizes that he is late for work. Fortunately, he reminds himself that his father doesn't know that he is working and says that he will be late for school instead. However, Jinta's father then reminds his son that today is...(he doesn't finish the sentence but it has something to do with someone called Touko-san). Before going downstairs, Jinta reminds himself that, as the only person who can see Menma, he is responsible for granting her wish. Once outside, father and son walk and end up at a cemetery. It appears to be the anniversary of Jinta's mother's (a.k.a. Touko's) death. There, he learns one important lesson through the conversation he has with his father: you can't beat your parents. Meanwhile, Menma is in a bit of a foul mood as Jinta had left without saying good morning to her. In order to calm her anger, she decides to go out for a walk. Along the way, she sees Poppo's motorcycle parked in front of a newspaper printing shop. There, she hears him talking about her on the phone and how, even if Jinta is the only one that can see her, he still believes in her. After hearing that, she quickly runs out of the store, causing two flyers to mysteriously fly off its holder. Later that day, right when Yukiatsu returns home, he gets a call from Tsuruko who tells him that she had received a silent call earlier with the caller ID showing the number from Jinta's house. Normally, this wouldn't be of any significance but since Jinta has only been working and accompanying his father to the cemetery throughout the day, there can only be one suspect: Menma. Right after she tells Yukiatsu that she thinks it's not Jinta trying to play a trick on them, his home phone rings. He isn't shown picking it up but I'm assuming that it is a silent call just like Tsuruko's. Meanwhile, while Jinta is at work (proves that he can't be making the silent calls), Menma's brother comes up to him and the two meet up at a local park to chat later in the evening. During the conversation, Menma's brother apologizes for his mother's behavior as he explains that he thinks she is crazy. A short flashback later shows him and Menma as children and how she had told him to protect the house while she protected the peace in the world with the other Super Peace Busters. Being told to protect the house when the atmosphere there is so depressing sounds like quite the joke to Menma's brother.
Later that night, Jinta goes to the secret base, with the goal of apologizing to Anaru for his actions. However, upon opening the door, he sees the rest of the group there as well, foiling his plan to talk to Anaru about that matter. Once inside the secret base, he is pestered with question by an annoyed Yukiatsu who is curious about where Jinta had been today because of the silent calls he and everyone else received at around five in the afternoon. When Jinta thinks about this and comes to the conclusion that it had to have been Menma who made those calls, Yukiatsu snaps and walks up to Jinta and starts choking him, demanding to know why everything he says has to be about Menma. After Yukiatsu is restrained by Poppo, Jinta feels a slight breeze and turns around, seeing Menma standing in the door way of the base. Forgetting the fact that Yukiatsu is pissed off about him being able to see Menma, he calls her name, causing Yukiatsu to struggle against Poppo's restraint. Even Anaru and Tsuruko seem to be sick and tired of how he is pretending to be able to see Menma. Seeing this, Menma apologizes for all the troubles she has caused, prompting Jinta to ask why she is apologizing. His questioning enrages Yukiatsu once again, causing Anaru and Tsuruko to plead for him to stop talking about Menma. After breaking free from Poppo's restraint, Yukiatsu immediately grabs Jinta by the front of his shirt and prepares to punch him. However, instead of being punched, Jinta sees that Yukiatsu has started to cry. Yukiatsu then tells him that Menma would never forgive them because what he and everyone else did to her. All of a sudden, Menma's diary suddenly drops to the floor, with no wind to blame for this. As Poppo and Anaru read the diary, they see a new entry that tells of how Menma played with everyone grown up at the secret base today. She also tells them not to fight. Upon seeing that the handwriting is definitely Menma's, even Yukiatsu is quite shocked. Then, as all eyes turn to Jinta, Poppo asks him to confirm that this is really Menma. Once Jinta replies with a "yes", the episode ends with Menma smiling. The episode preview didn't give much information but I'm guessing that it will focus on Tsuruko. Really looking forward to how Menma proving her existence will change the lives of these five young friends.
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