「謎のフャーストデート」 (Nazo no Faasuto Deeto)
“Mysterious First Date”

Fanservice fanservice fanservice fanservice…but of course there has to be more to this obligatory beach episode than just that!

Various facts have been revealed this episode, some more important than others. The ones I picked up on are:

  • Urabe actually interacts with her parents or family. Up until now we’ve been exposed to little to nothing of Urabe’s life outside of school. Although this new information brings up more questions than answers, such as the existence of a mother, whether her parents are together, or who exactly Urabe’s parents are, at least the issue is finally addressed.
  • Urabe, for the most part, seems to lead an entirely normal life…or at the very least lead a life with SOME normal activity. We’ve seen previously she pays attention in class, does her homework, and now we know she swims like crazy and wears nice sundresses on her days off. It’s information that causes us to question Urabe’s true nature…alien or human. She may be mysterious, but other than that…is she just a weird yet normal girl?
  • The question now arises whether or not Urabe tasting Tsubaki’s sweat will have an effect on her, and whether or not any other fluids can achieve this effect. However, if a good majority of people who dropped this due to the drool…what of every other fluid? Hopefully we won’t be going vampire and exchanging blood through transfusions…Tsubaki just might end up becoming Urabe as more viewers wave goodbye.
  • Tsubaki’s nee-chan is quite an observant person when it comes to the not-so-subtle subtleties of her brother. She’s an understanding older sister…but now I’m wondering about her own life. Does she have future aspirations, or is she content watching over her little brother and his newfound shenanigans? The lack of parents in the home is quite ironic…we now know more information about Urabe’s parents than Tsubaki’s…
  • The preview has shown us what’ll end up being the most dramatic episode to date. With Tsubaki shedding tears, pictures reappearing, and portrayals of distance…the couple’s relationship indeed will seem to step up soon, as the title suggests.

Alt-text yay ^^

 

Preview

37 Comments

    1. Naming her as my waifu doesn’t count as being a lolicon right? She is in highschool right?(will someone refresh my memory on this…)

      Anyway tanlines is hawt no matter what type of girl it’s on… provided it ain’t a granny or a toddler, LOL. XD

      The Moondoggie
  1. “alien or human.” well…
    Show Spoiler ▼

    I’m really having a good time. The shuffling is getting crazier each week (there’s like 5 manga chapters combined in this episode) but Hoods is coming off extremely well.

    What saddens me is that we have only 8 episodes left and there’s still so much from the manga that I want to see animated. 🙁

    obligatory DAT TAN :O

    TRWOV
  2. scissors + saltwater…..maybe that’s why she didn’t have them with her the second swim day. Also….I thought she was just going to kill him when he grabbed her bike. :O
    crazy skirt design for beachwear…bats and was that a cross or something on the front? interesting choices. That smile she gives after so many minutes of no emotion is uber powerful. ahhhhh i love this show.

    Breedo
  3. that scissors tan line made me lol…
    oh and is that me or Urabe makes us remember own early teenage days when girls were mysterious creatures acting in strange, inexplicable ways?

    ewok40k
  4. i’ve read the manga and all i’ve got to say about Urabe’s nature is that…
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Nitro
    1. The saliva thing serves no purpose? Then why is it there? One can’t introduce something so poignant and influential on the characters and the plot and then just say: ‘Oh, let’s forget about it. We can’t figure out where it should lead and how it should resolve so let us just drop it towards the end and hope the viewers won’t mind.”

      The saliva thing used to be intriguing, because I thought there was a discovery to be made. Now it’s just disgusting. I can’t stop thinking about all of bacteria and germs involved.

      petitorenji
      1. Show Spoiler ▼

        TRWOV
  5. @Zanibas: I don’t doubt that Tsubaki does not have Urabe’s power. Think there are some people in the world who can sense through each other’s saliva e.g. Tsubaki, Urabe, Oka and those who cannot e.g. Oka’s boyfriend, soccer guy who confessed to Urabe, and the rest of humanity. It is like the X men, only teenage version without Lasers and Flying.

    deafvader
    1. P.S. Urabe is just like Professor X. She knows more than the others but that does not make her any more powerful. Her skills with the scissors on the other hand… is just… ninja training?

      deafvader
  6. I don’t mind if you guys going to hate me when I say something bad.

    I did plan to watch this anime but this guy “Irino Miyu” voiced Tsubaki Akira make me don’t want to watch this anime ever.

    Animesetsuna
  7. All I gotta say is that Tsubaki is patient – to wait a whole year to see a swimsuit again!

    “…is she just a weird yet normal girl?

    The story is told from Tsubaki’s perspective, I believe. Given their ages, as I recall,
    everything about a girl was a mystery when I was about that age. So, while the narrative
    provides us with Tsubaki’s wonder and awe, the piece missing is Urabe’s point of view, which
    may be quite different and normal-ish.

    We live in a chemical world (in some parts) – perfume, artificial hormones all affect how
    a girl smells – and how a boy would smell to her. Our brains are wired to react to things
    just below our conscience perception. We think we make choices based solely on appearance
    and intellect (she’s cute and smart), but this is not wholly true.

    Meet the right girl and she always smells like she’s wearing perfume, even though you
    might not consciously realize it.

    I like how this story line is exploring other sensory aspects about a relationship; the
    exaggeration, of course, adds the humour and interest. I have theories what the scissors
    represent about a girl, but I’ll wait for more episodes to see if I’m close…

    Anyone catch the advertisement in the show? The part when they’re returning in the train
    speeding by the line of “parked” cars on the highway – take the train – it’s faster!

    mac65
    1. + infinite

      I totally agree with you. Although she is quite mysterious on her own, we only hear Tsubaki’s thoughts so the only way to know what Urabe is thinking is through Tsubaki’s reactions to her drool and her body language… she is a mystery not only to Tsubaki but to us as well and I think that’s part of the charm of this show.

      I think that when Urabe smiled on the train was because of how Tsubaki is shaping up… if she had told the earlier super-eager Tsubaki that he had to wait a year for another glimpse he might have become depressed or something but not only he didn’t react that way, he is quite happy about it… as if the prospect of a long term relationship with Urabe pleases him.

      People might think that there was no substance in this episode but I think that’s quite a level up right there…how many of us didn’t screw up because our eagerness got the best of us and rushed in our relationships Leroy Jenkins-style? *snif* our Tsubaki is growing *snif* :’)

      TRWOV
    1. If I’m reading the clues right, Show Spoiler ▼

      TRWOV
  8. The black with magenta bikini is preferred over the dream sequence white with blue bikini. And we got to see Urabe in so many dresses. That was really nice. Of course, now it’s not just about the saliva. Tsubaki could sense the sea from licking her sweat. What else?!

    bertman4
  9. I’m starting to get impatient with Tsubaki here. Slow pacing works fine if the characters grow every week, but it seemed like the only defining moments this week was when Tsubaki stopped being a wuss and just planned a date (as Urabe was clearly waiting for him to take the reigns here) and when Urabe said she would show him the tan next summer (implying that she likes the prospects of the relationship enough to see it lasting through the next year). But Tsubaki just sat in silence through so many opportunities to get closer to his girl, that it’s bordering on unrealistic. He was so badass in the first episode when he showed Urabe that picture of the old crush (and caused her to cough up that nice pool of saliva <3) but now it's as if he played his only card.

    And what's this of a love triangle appearing soon? I hope that only means other characters with give him a little drive to work harder in this relationship, rather than actually having someone swoop in and steal Urabe's interests.

    Still looking forward to more, but I wish I could still call this my favourite of the season.

    Eclipse
      1. Actually this episode improved on the chapters it’s based on by adding more interaction at the beach. Also, stuff that took up a panel or two on the page takes up minutes on screen so it feels more fleshed out.

        Bruce
  10. Urabe seems normal in many ways but there is no mistake that there is something that keeps your attention around her, I can´t really explain it but aside from her wierd hobbies she has a kind aura that make you want to know more about her. If she is this misterious I can´t even imagine how her parents are.

    haseo0408
  11. I noticed after watching it, they made a mistake in the story, probably from changing too much stuff around for this ep. Tsubaki’s goofy “lovestruck” expression after making plans makes no sense in the anime, because he’s already received the drool before the converation that would have caused those emotions in Urabe.

    I didn’t realize it until looking at the manga, which makes a lot more sense, in the context of him receiving her emotions even if he doesn’t understand that’s what’s happening.

    I’m pretty disappointed they screwed it up this badly. I can see where moving some chapters around might make sense in the story, but in messing with events, they’ve made some goofs. It’s a minor nitpick overall, but still sucks. Guess it won’t be following the manga very closely other than certain scenes. Ah well.

    The rearranging makes even less sense after watching ep 6, where they use material from the same chapters they borrowed other stuff from. What the heck? It’s not like they are arranging them better to make more sense, if anything, it’s like they are making it to be random stories rather than one consistent sequence of events. It’s a dang shame too, because otherwise it’s a near-perfect anime version of the manga.

    A.Crush
    1. It’s not like they are arranging them better to make more sense, if anything, it’s like they are making it to be random stories rather than one consistent sequence of events.

      I really think that the anime is actually “improving” (maybe that isn’t the right word but I can’t think of another one) on the manga in that regard. The volume 2, 3 and 4 of the manga DO are random stories with almost no connection (except the some stories that span two chapters); we see several chapters jumping to random points in the timeline (it’s summer in one then winter then summer again)and repeating events with different outcomes. From volume 5 onwards the chapters have better cohesion though.

      I think that Ueshiba didn’t had a set storyline when he created Nazo and made up things as he went. This ep is a good example of that: Show Spoiler ▼

      but several chapters later we learn that they went to the beach in that period too, so what was first then?

      I think that you’re looking at the episodes as a string of random stories because you know what the “order” in the manga is but, really, if you hadn’t read the manga before watching the anime it makes perfect sense. The smile Tsubaki is bearing it’s his own and not Urabe’s: he just got a date to go to the beach alone with her, wouldn’t you be THAT happy?

      Now what I don’t like is Hoods trolling… if we don’t get the Show Spoiler ▼

      I’m going to get mad. They’ve been drooping hints left and right in the OP, ED and this chapter’s preview.

      TRWOV

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