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“The Girl That I Forgot”Kureha and Ginko: It was pretty obvious last week, but we got confirmation that Kureha is indeed the Moon Girl and Ginko is the Forest Girl. Reia clearly wrote this story based on these two unlikely girls encountering one another and becoming friends in their youth. Not only that, but tying in Lady Kumalia is a smart move – both Kureha and Ginko are familiar with that concept, but for different reasons. Everything is coming together now, after seven episodes of Kureha and Ginko seemingly being enemies, and for that I’m grateful. The scenes where Kureha watched over and looked after Ginko were sweet and touching, and the differing colours throughout the episode helped signify the passage of time as well as the mood of Kureha at that moment. Yurika, however, continues to provide a counter to all the happiness between Kureha and Ginko’s relationship, and has now made Kureha swear to take down the bear that now wears Reia’s necklace. At this point I’m not sure if Yurika is aware of Ginko and is purposefully making her Kureha’s personal target, or if it’s all coincidence and she just wants to get rid of the bears. Personally, I think there’s something very final-villain about Yurika, her actions, the framing in her scenes, as well as her general demeanor. I can’t ignore that dream sequence between Kureha and Ginko. It’s reminiscent of when Ginko and Lulu “eat” her after the Severance Court scenes, but this one was all stars and ribbons and there was a certain sweetness to it. The lesbianism is powerful in this one, and Ikuhara clearly has zero intentions of hiding that. Ginko’s Flashbacks: The flashback scenes with Ginko in the bear world were very interesting to me. First of all there’s the scenes where Ginko seems to be an orphan amongst a village of bears with happy families playing games (though Ginko didn’t seem to think it was a game?). Ginko hasn’t had an easy life, especially once it cuts to the scenes of war. There is a mixture of silliness and seriousness to that conflict, but we see now that Ginko was abandoned by the other bears by the law of the animal kingdom – the weak drag the strong down, and so they should be left behind. Funnily enough that’s what seems to be happening in Kureha’s classroom as well, expect much more focused on isolation. The Next Victim: Speaking of the classroom, Kaoru is the next to fall by the hands of a bear. In all honesty I’m glad to have her out the picture, but I wasn’t really expecting it at this point. I thought she would be conspiring with that other girl in bed and they’d continue working together, but as it turns out that girl was in fact a bear and now Kaoru has been shoved in Yurika’s drawer, where all dead girls go. The big question now is: who was it? Mitsuko is the first that comes to mind, but it might be a new character or someone we wouldn’t expect. It’s all predictions at this point, but I expect a reveal within the next few weeks. Overview – What’s Next? A fairly quiet episode, but a nice breather away from the action that has allowed Kureha and Ginko to finally come together and now hopefully be the friends/lovers that they seem destined to be. Yurika is standing in the way of that, and there’s still a bear on the loose, so I don’t know how this is going to twist and turn, but I’m excited to find out. |
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Information Digest:Synopsis:
Previously:
Details Digest:Adressed to: Criminal Bear:
Little Touches:
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ED1.07 Sequence
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https://randomc.net/image/Yuri%20Kuma%20Arashi/Yuri%20Kuma%20Arashi%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2018.jpg
Ice Shave da doo
I had the bad feeling about the teacher already few episodes back…
Yuri Kuma Arashi is enjoyable but I’m still quite disappointed about this show.
it’s not as great as Mawaru Penguindrum :/
Many thema that ran thru out the story got nicely was sewn into this episode. It’s good to see the coming together start mid-series rather than trying to do it all in the last three like many anime stories. I think the story writers and animators are doing a fantastic job on this series.
If Mawaru Penguindrum truly is better than this as Maniko says, I really very much want to see that show!!!
KUMA SHOCK!!!
Show Spoiler ▼
… looks like the comment system doesn’t like Photobucket html so much. Just click in the link below. ¬_¬
Show Spoiler ▼
I thought the last scene was pretty shocking when Lulu picks up the envelope addressed to Ginko… The first thought that comes to my mind is that Yurika sent it for Ginko because she thinks (or knows) that Ginko killed Kureha’s mother. Although I don’t know why that would be… so I guess we’ll have to wait and see. The episode finally made it clear where Ginko came from which I thought was pretty significant because we had a whole episode dedicated to Lulu and then Ginko just waltzed in and always played a more “mysterious” role. I’m glad they took the time to explore that and mirror the differences between Lulu and Ginko’s life so I’m pretty satisfied with the way this has played out so far.
no comment on the fact that kureha already forgot about ginko BEFORE her mother died?
it pulls a large curveball on things and dampens a lot of the theories concerning the reason for the amnesia.
initially, it sounded like kureha just forgot about ginko due to her mother’s death, either through trauma of the event or the death causing kureha’s views to be twisted making her hate for the bear overcoming her friendship with ginko.
basically, a lot chalked it up to something mundane, but now its clear that kureha forgetting ginko was unnatural, some sort of magic/supernatural thing caused it to happen.
I think another really interesting thing that came up in this episode was that, contrary to almost every other instance so far, the recurring line “We hated you from the beginning…” actually comes from Kureha this time, as opposed to Ginko. This is relatively significant because, when it was strictly coming from Ginko (or once from Lulu in episode 4, when the pronoun was changed to “I”–but I think that specifically pertained to Lulu’s own backstory), it ostensibly seemed like the “we” she was referring to was herself and Lulu. But when it’s uttered by Kureha here, there is no obvious “we” anymore, leading me to think that she, then, is talking about humans as a whole, meaning that that statement has likely always been pertaining to humans and bears rather than to Ginko/Lulu and Kureha as individuals. (It’s gotta carry some significance if it’s being uttered every episode!) Maybe Ginko and Kureha’s coming together in the end is supposed to be a symbolic event of, or even a catalyst for, the breaking down of the divide between humans and bears–essentially, the possibility of transcending the Wall of Severance, which could potentially be a manifestation of the prejudices/animosity and thoughts that prevent the two populations from coexisting in the first place. Regarding this, I think it’s also an interesting observation that the Wall of Severance is almost always depicted as being under construction (I feel this must have been done purposefully, as it certainly would’ve been easy enough to portray it as a solid wall if it didn’t serve any further meaning). Just some food for thought!
I also get this final-villain vibe from Yurika, but I can’t exactly put my finger on why I feel that way (aside from her juxtaposition to Yurizono in the OP). Honestly, before this episode, her advice for Kureha has largely been positive (e.g. trying to get Kureha to come out of her isolation by making new friends after Sumika dies), which is why my thoughts about whether her character is going to turn out to be a positive or negative influence on Kureha is mixed right now. However, to me, she also does seem like suspect number one when it comes to Kaoru’s killer too.