First Impressions / Myself; Yourself

Summary:

Although Shuri is back to normal and coming to school, Sana notices that Nanaka has started ignoring him again. He follows her to the library after class and tries to get her to tell him why she’s angry, but she claims that she’s not. She eventually admits that she saw him embracing Asami, so Sana attempts to explain that it was an accident. Unfortunately, he makes the mistake of comparing it to when he and Nanaka embraced during the festival, and him saying that there was nothing between him and Asami since it was an accident just makes Nanaka madder due to the implications. It doesn’t help either that Asami comes to thank Sana and invite him to volunteer again at the nursing home. Sana doesn’t give up though, and on the way home, he questions why Nanaka has become this way – she’s not the Nanaka he used to know. In response, she points out that he’s changed too and runs off.

At his apartment, Sana thinks back to his past with Nanaka and how they secretly shared a mailbox that wasn’t used anymore. They had used it to send each other messages, and each of them had a key to the mailbox. Sana tries looking for that key now, though he gets interrupted when Aoi comes into his apartment and panics after seeing all the erotic magazines and manga strewn everywhere. In trying to go after her to clear up the misunderstanding, Sana kicks open a canister that contains the key. When he later takes the key to the mailbox and opens it, he is shocked to find it full of letters addressed to him. Even more disturbing is the fact that there is one particular letter with “Help” written in red ink all over it. Because of this, Sana tracks down Shuusuke the next day and demands to know what happened while he was gone. Shuusuke at first tries to dance around the subject, but he eventually reveals that there was a fire that claimed Nanaka’s parents’ lives three years ago.

Nanaka had grabbed her violin and the bracelet that Sana gave her before jumping from the second floor. She broke her leg in the process, and the shock of the fire caused her to forget certain parts of what happened on that night. The police questioned her, and when she returned to school, Nanaka had become a different person. Shuusuke had been frustrated by how he wasn’t able to do anything, and this thought stays with Sana as he contemplates about what to do. When Yuzuki finds Sana in the playground looking depressed, she gives him a caramel, and this leads to Sana asking why she does that. Yuzuki’s explanation starts with how both her parents worked when she was a child and left her money to buy snacks with. She had wanted her mother to be home and to share the snacks with, but in the absence of that, Yuzuki had to do it by herself, and she preferred caramels because she could get a lot of them.

Yuzuki hadn’t started giving them out to others until high school when she had seen a boy practicing on some horizontal bars in a playground. Though she doesn’t remember the boy’s face, she remembers how happy he had been with the caramel, so she began giving them out to encourage and cheer people up. After hearing this, Sana decides to do his best, and his face reminds Yuzuki of that boy. Although he’s still unsure of what he can do, Sana calls Nanaka to the mailbox and tells her that he saw what was inside. He also reveals that he heard about the fire and tries to apologize for not knowing about her pain. Nanaka, however, lashes out at him for not being there for her during her most painful times and tries to leave, but Sana stops her. Since he won’t let her go, Nanaka at first accuses him of forgetting about her and making new friends, but then she runs to him in tears because she had wanted him to come save her and be by her side. Sana vows that they’ll stay together no matter what, and that night, he talks to his mother over the phone about getting stronger because he’s got someone he wants to protect.

Preview:

As expected from all the hints they’ve given us, Nanaka was indeed traumatized from the fire that killed her parents. They didn’t cover who the guy in the OP surrounded by flames was, but maybe that was just her father or something. In any case, the letter Nanaka had put into the mailbox with tasukete (help) written all over it in red ink was quite creepy and an effective way to show her unstable mindset back then, but it seems like we’ve been seeing a lot of that kind of stuff lately.

The scene at the end between Nanaka and Sana was just dripping in emotion – almost overly so – and despite Nanaka angry with him for not being there for her, she runs into his arms. I guess that means they’ve made up, and there probably won’t be any more doubts or jealousy over Sana being with Asami anymore. However, that makes me wonder if Asami has a part to play aside from being just the girl Nanaka gets jealous over. I also have to say that Yuzuki’s background felt like it was just tacked on since it didn’t feel very fleshed out and didn’t really impact the story.

The preview shows more Nanaka next week, but it appears that we’ll see more of Hinako in an amusement park setting too. The presence of her and the super sentai bunch makes me think that it won’t be that serious of an episode. Regardless, we’re two-thirds of the way through the series now, and considering the two key shots of the wristwatch that were in this episode, we should be pretty close to finding out the significance of Sana’s wristwatch (aka. if he slit his wrists like everyone thinks he did).

64 Comments

  5. Finally it’s getting to the juicy details!!! I mean this show really peaked my interest since the first episode with its mystery and all, and well I guess the drama is a given, but I hope there’s an ending of who Sana ends up with (although its quite obvious already).

    X
    Reply

  9. Okay the fire mystery has been resolved so she survived, Sana and Nanaka get together again. (Asami should back off). Preview the watch is being shown again (want to know what happened to Sana during his stay before returning to his childhood place.)

    Many unresolved issues still and there are 5 episodes left to go……

    arigatou
    Reply

  19. Indeed, this show is really picking up speed with this episode. Emotionally powerful of what happened to Nanaka and her tragic loss of her parents in the fire. That solves why she can play the violin and why she is always wearing black clothing almost every day.

    @ Jezreel:
    Si, esta serie es excelente, pero la diferencia es que “M;Y” es mas concentrado en los misterio y secretos, mientras “Clannad” es mas concentrado en lo emocional (tipo para llorar).

    Ren90270
    Reply

  22. To those who wonder about the violin, it’s pretty simple. The violin was a gift from her parents, and they probably really loved her playing etc. With them gone she just doesn’t wanna play it anymore. It doesn’t have to be anything complex, playing it makes her remember her parents and this in turn makes her remember the fire also. Now maybe the fire somehow started due to the violin, but that’s a stretch at this point I think.

    Also as to why they do these side Hinako eps. It’s because with episode 8 out of 13 total, we basically know what’s up with Nanaka now. We don’t know how the fire started, but that’s just one little bit left at this point. All that leaves us is Sanas story. And it won’t take 5 episodes to explain his part if it just took this one to cover Nanakas. So what i’m saying is, if we just got right to the main story, this show would be over in 6 episodes heh. They’re just trying to space it out.

    And about Nanaka being mentaly unstable, she isn’t right now. She doesn’t fall back into any sorta crazy state at the drop of a dime. Only when she remembers the event does it show, and because the others tried to push her to play the violin it started to get to her a bit more. She’s perfectly fine now imo. Remembering the night both your parents died would effect anyone emotionally like it does for her. But aside from feeling scared for the most part, she doesn’t have a mental breakdown.

    GP
    Reply

  23. Oh man, I can’t beleave I didn’t notice it until after I posted. She has the violin when she jumps out the window. So it can’t be the source of the fire. Then it has to be my original argument that she just doesn’t wanna play it because her parents are gone etc.

    GP
    Reply

  24. OMG love is SOOO WONDERDFULL……I WANNA FUCK SOMEBODY NOW……..OH yeah…oh no…
    oh…ohoooooooooooooooohhhHHHHHHHH…OMG….er………
    ” Please ladies and gentleman MR. tensai Otaku has lost his mind for a few seconds!!!”
    ” Please stay calm relax and enjoy the sissy drama anime momments!! ”
    ” Thank you and stay toon for more secret agent Clank !! ”

    😀 😀 ( I am sorry I just can´t get hold of myself!!! )

    Tensai Otaku
    Reply

  27. I wouldn’t say Nanaka is mentaly fine, shes been holding this gruge of Sana not being there for her for 3 years but at her age she should realise that Sana’s life was not his own at the time and moved because of his parents desision… how in the hell was he sopose to know what happened. Now why Sana did not stay in touch with his friends back home is another mater and probably has something to do with some trauma related to the watch.

    As for why Nanaka doesn’t play the violin anymore I still thinks its more then just her parents dieng in the fire… it just doesn’t seem to be enough of a cause to stop her from playing. However if you look at the pic were she jumps out the window you got to notice that the fire has progresed into a much more later stage were its almost completely consumed the entire house. Why didn’t she leace the house before it got that bad? I think she may have gone back into the house specificaly for her violin and bracelet (The two most important material posesions she had), her parents probably tried to stop and lost their lives in the process. The emotional damage from knowing she intervertantly caused their death because of this would seem more reasonable to explain her stoping playing. Her selective amnesia over the event also begs to the credibility that theres more to the fire.

    Needless to say the next few eps promice some good content ^^

    Neko
    Reply

  28. I’m still intrigued of one small scene: picture zooms in to Sana’s watch during the emotionally powerful scene between Sana and Nanaka.
    What is the truth behind this wristwatch? and why Sana doesn’t want to take it off at all to show off, remember when Shuusuke was asking Sana to see it and he refused?
    Most are saying it’s a treasure for him, while others are saying that he might be slitting his wrist, hence the blood phobia (probably).

    Ren90270
    Reply

  33. @Neko

    It’s not a grudge man. I don’t see how you can call it that. First off she was little, and at the time of writing the letters she was going through the shock/trauma of just losing her folks. She’s still sad/angry about him not being there, and bitter until now because he came back and he’s acting like everything is fine and nothing happened. But Nanaka doesn’t know that he’s probably got his own trauma etc. And you’re right, it’s not his fault or anything, but this happens at times, specially the more younger you are. She feels a bit betraid by him not being there like he promised he would be etc. It’s really normal imo, but it doesn’t mean she’s going to lose it one night and stab someone or start a fire. That’s what i’m trying to say. Yes she still has the pain, but it’s not the same as her having a mental break down that would mean she’s somehow dangerus to others.

    As for the violin, like I said, and you said it yourself just in a different way. The violin isn’t the cause of it directly, but if it somehow, through whatever connection it has with her parents life or death, reminds her of that scary and painful night and she doesn’t want to play it. We don’t know the details fully as to how the fire started or how they died exactly. But it’s clear that the violin wasn’t the cause (i.e. it wasn’t set on fire itself like someone else said), it’s still around somewhere. So like I said, it’s because remembering/playing it brings her pain still, she doesn’t want to.

    GP
    Reply

  34. Seems nanaka was right in saying that while she was suffering, sana has already forgotten her and has found someone else at his old school.. This is what I’m guessing when sana looked at his watched after what nanaka said…
    Girl gave sana the watch as a present, girl dies for some reason, sana couldn’t save the girl and slit his wrist, sana didn’t die so now his covering the scar with the watch…
    Or it could be something entirely different…
    Let’s see what the next episodes show us…

    This was a great episode…

    Hagiri
    Reply

  37. As most of you, I believe Nanaka herself believes she is somehow directly responsible for the fire that caused the death of her parents. What roles the violin and bracelet played in that fire, I’m uncertain. I still think Shuusuke is still hiding more than he’s willing to share with Sana. And, just to add to the drama, I’d like to think that Nanaka might’ve already written that foreboding letter before the fire. Perhaps something else was already horribly wrong with her private life at home that she felt she couldn’t share, but was trying desperately to reach out to someone, by putting that letter in the post stand.

    Ask for Sana’s reaction and the watch, I believe Sana was not as successful at making new friends as Nanaka seems to believe. In fact, Sana may have even be picked on relentlessly at his new school, humiliated, and bullied to the point where he wanted to kill himself. Which was probably why he choose to return back to his old hometown, the last place where he/whoever sent him there felt Sana would feel the most at ease and can emotionally recover.

    Or, and this would be cool, Sana could’ve been part of some mercenary death squad before he came back. He was fatally wounded and that watch is actually a highly advance, life sustaining device, in disguised. Removal of it from his body could put him in jeopardy. Thus, why Sana was given time off from duty to recover. ‘Mom’ might just be a codename form his commanding officer.

    Remy
    Reply

  41. Jealous girl is very annoying.

    Watching a jealous nanaka displaying bad attitude is unbearable. Her attractiveness point has dropped dramatically after this jealousy outbreak, before this she is my most favorite girls in myself yourself.

    nanakaka
    Reply

  42. @ Hagiri:

    I would agree with you about what Nanaka said to Sana that he have forgotten about her with his old school friends from the big city, but the possible scenario of “girl gives Sana a watch” could be very different, maybe not the same of what you think, now that I’ve just saw the subbed version of this episode.

    Now we know that an arsonist lit up Nanaka’s household, claim her parent’s lives
    (That explains the mysterious figure in front of the flames in the OP scene of the series).

    Ren90270
    Reply

  44. What I think about the watch and the little sudden incident of his face going “Oooh shi-” could probably mean some girl gave it to him during the time he was away from his hometown. Though this girl probably kissed him, who knows maybe…after the bullying she felt sad and wanted to comfort him? We don’t know just yet. Can’t wait to see more. That Help me just screamed EF there and the link to SD LOL. Were seeing too much of it *Sigh*.

    Jason Isenberg
    Reply

  46. OK think back to the watch when shuusuke asked sana to take it off, sana said it was an important gift. Now think to when he saw the blood he got scared. now look when nanaka said “i bet you were having fun with your new friends at the far away school”
    Hmmm can you guess what im saying? If not then here it goes…

    Sana’s watch was given to him by his friend who had an accident thus he wears it, he couldnt protect his friend then so now he will be come stronger for Nanaka.
    Thats my hypophisis on the story. 🙂

    Lying on my side
    Reply

  47. No, Sana just refused to take his watch off. It was Nanaka who pointed out that it ‘seemed’ very important to him and Shuusuke made it out to mean that it might have been a gift from a girl.

    I think we’re all making too huge of a deal about Sana’s watch. I believe it’s solely an accessory used to hide where he’d slit his wrist. I don’t think Sana’s as overly complex, emotionally, as many of use seem to think he is. The mentioning of ‘new friends’ that Nanaka made did jarred something within Sana, however, I think we’re over romanticizing Sana’s situation a bit. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t believe that Sana got along very well with his peers after moving a way. The assumption that Nanaka made probably forced Sana to relive that little fact.

    Remy
    Reply

  48. My guess is that Sana slit is wrist due to peer pressure or bullying. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have reacted that way when Nanaka was mentioning “him having fun with his new friends”. And when he told his mum he’ll be stronger because he had found someone whom he wants to protect, he did not mention “again”, so I’m ruling out a dying ex.

    Although I was really looking forward to his wristwatch flying off when Nanaka was struggling to get away from him. Wonder how her face would look like if she sees what I think is under the wristwatch.

    On the other note, the pairing is going to be hard. Even though it seems like Nanaka is in the lead, if she DOES end up paired with Sana, I wonder how they’ll make it seem like it’s not out of pity but true love and care for each other. Asami on the other hand have been getting so-so screen time, but COULD end up with Sana if the storytellers decide to go for the “everyone gets on with their respective lives” ending (… thinking of KGNE for some reason).

    Personally, I really want Sana and Nanaka to end up together. They’re both empty shells of their former selves, but I think they complement each other nicely. A pair of broken souls who find comfort in each other’s presence.

    Damn,… have not gotten so emotional over a series in a looong time… which was why I have been avoiding this kinda teary shows for the past 2 years.

    Jayars
    Reply

  49. Btw, since we’re already so close to the end, with so many untied ends (what’s in the box? what’s with the old lady? The fire guy? Shuri’s dad and the whole city hall thingy?)…

    I wonder if the ppl behind Myself;Yourself are going out for a huge bang kinda ending? Eg, string a bunch of things/issues together, let that be the climax, and the series end with the protoganists overcoming all the problems, and avoiding the “who pairs with who” as much as possible.

    Jayars
    Reply

  52. im just praying to god this isn’t going to be like school days. D: That was a horrible horrible twisted fucked up anime. >.> Makes you think its going to be a romance with a happy setting fuck no everyone dies D: I will be sooo pissed if this is like that

    Daiske
    Reply

  53. It’s official Sana has a medical condition plaging him. Given that he says he wants to get stronger I am guessing it has something to do with his heart. That Wristwatch must be somekind of special heart monitor.

    Jubei Himura
    Reply

  55. If this anime turns out for the saddest possible outcome this is what will happen.

    Sana gets to close to Asami or Nanaka.

    Sana finds out that it was really Nanaka who is the arsonist.

    Nanaka did it because she was raped by her father or something.

    The person in the fire is her uncle who witnessed it all but keeps it quiet.

    Obviously her uncle didn’t die.

    Nanaka goes crazy and kills Asami because she witnessed something she didn’t like.

    Old chick goes crazy and kills Nanaka and burys her under a sakura tree or some other crazy shit along thoughs lines.

    One of the twins (most likely the girl) kills her father and her step mother but her brother tries to stop her but gets killed in the process.

    The white haired 11 year old girl (forgot name) kills herself because she’s an emo or some shit or she possibly kills the boy twin then kills herself.

    The book chick with the big tits (forgot her name too lol) lives probably…or some horrible thing happens to her.

    At this point only sana is left alive but he only probably knows about 3 of the deaths…if that.

    He then kills himself.

    The end

    That’s only if the worst possible School Dayish outcome happens lol hopefully not….

    Daiske
    Reply

  56. It’s getting intresting indeed. I guess that Sana was bullied in the new town. And maybe someone else cut his wrist. Tried to kill him. But maybe that’s not correct 😛 It would be so simple (and boring) explanation that he did it just because he was so despressed and missed Nanaka. Ok, if the Nanaka thing is in it’s “cute”, but anyway… Nanaka x Sana!

    Chiyo
    Reply

  59. Anyways, my crazy theory would be that Sana used to be a drug addict and killed his friend over some heroin of something, he went to the rehab and was sent back to his old town to forget his past,that watch was probably given by his dead friend.

    Slayer
    Reply

  60. If the wrist watch does hide a slit wrist, then why is it in the wrong direction?

    Simple, because people like us don’t take courses on suicide. It’s more of a spur-of-the-moment thing. Throw in a bunch of old movies, and the first way of slicing our wrists that we can think of is to cut across everything. Heck, it usually takes 2-3 tries before we find out why it isn’t working (plus the adults aren’t really helpful either), but by then, we’re usually too tired to even try (those who DO give it a try usually succeed at this point). For us, it’s much easier to just go into a deeper level of disassociation.

    NanakaXSana
    Reply

  61. The speculation are running wild. Ehm, I don’t know much about suicide case, but, if he cut his wrist multiple times, there would be many scars, right? Is a watch sufficient to cover it? Anyway I disagree with this suicide theory, I prefer theory about the watch being a gift from someone who died or something like that. I just not thought he is a type of person who surrender to bullying and try suicide that easily.

    ramiel_salbazier
    Reply

  62. Hmm… In the end of the episode Sana’s talking with her mom and says that he will become stronger. That would mean that indeed someone else was killed or died and he couldn’t protect him/her or that the watch was a gift from that person or something like that… If that’s the theory, then the person must have died right before Sana’s eyes. Then Sana’s “fear of blood” would also be explained. By the way… Have they said anything about his father? He talks with his mom on the phone, but…

    Chiyo
    Reply

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