「夏のこずえ」 (Natsu no Kozue)
“KOZUE in the summer”

Compared to previous weeks, this episode was a bit of a letdown in terms of plot and humor. I attribute that primarily to ditsy Kozue not being all that funny to me, but things did start off on an interesting note with the mention of Out-Of-Place Artifacts, a.k.a. OOPArts. It’s a bit of a shame that Kozue’s amateurish occult obsession didn’t take off in that area after Maya quickly shot her spoon theory down by mentioning the Iron pillar of Delhi, because most of the episode twaddled over rehashed jokes of Fumiaki getting intimidated by Maya in class, Chihiro preparing a bento of love for Fumiaki and stumbling upon his interest in Mikaze, and Kozue just doing dumb things such as secluding herself in the home economics storage area. Quite honestly, I wasn’t particularly amused by any of the above since they went back to each of them multiple times.

What I did get a good laugh out of was Fumiaki getting chewed out for losing his phone to Maya and trying to lie to the guys in the future that it broke and he’s using Number Five’s one as a spare. There was also him trying to get approval from Maya to let Mikaze sell bread on school grounds to help pay off the loan on her Porsche, which was funny because I was expecting Fumiaki to use the stamp of approval Maya put on his forehead before he actually did it. I gather the fact that it’s mirrored won’t be too suspicious, as that scene was more to reiterate the lengths that Fumiaki is willing to go to for Mikaze. I just love how he had to take an indirect shot at Maya in the process though, by saying he never thought of her in any lustful way before. It wasn’t all that surprising since Fumiaki never once looked like he enjoyed the abuse she gives him, but it came out so nonchalantly and made Maya’s reaction pretty priceless.

For the episode as a whole, it’s probably not a good thing that I took more notice to the mention of the five-second rule as a three-second one when Maya dropped her food and the disappearing lunch boxes when they were lounging around on the rooftop. In relation to the production in the latter, the exaggerated facial expressions were abundant as usual, but somehow seemed a bit off by the series’ standards. I purposely refrained from including screens of those cases, as even Maya didn’t look all that great when she was giving us strange looks — something that usually doesn’t hamper her appeal in my eyes. In any case, I still feel that this episode was rather aimless for the most part, but it did end on a very good note with a class experiment involving a near-death experience that Kozue volunteered for.

Somehow, getting possessed by a spirit and kidnapped by a Tengu wasn’t enough for Kozue to feel like she’s had a real occult experience, so she was pretty enthusiastic about being put into a state of cyropreservation for three minutes. It was trippy how she came out of it abruptly, leaving her ditsy occult-obsessed personality and need for her glasses behind. At first, it looked like she merely lost that part of herself, but the projection of her true self trapped in that other world seemed to indicate otherwise. It was a pretty eery finish to an otherwise uneventful episode, and it looks like Maya’s going in after Kozue next time. Flatliners anyone?

 

Preview

47 Comments

    1. Definitely looking for some explanation on that incident. I don’t think Kozue is that fun of a character (for now) and maybe, I’ll be surprised and her character development will bring her to be a good one. Right now, she’s just filler (Kana is the only reason why I don’t get annoyed by her).
      You’re right, Divine…Something changed with Maya. I just can’t really pinpoint what it is but hopefully, it was just a little mishaps of sort.

      Shinjiro
  1. Wow, they have technology to send someone into the afterlife?

    So, I wonder what this incident has to with the great disaster? Obviously something happened to Kozue while she was in the pod, but how does this connect with something coming from the heavens to attack the Earth?

    On a lighter note, it was cute seeing Maya get jealous over Mikaze. <3

    1. You saw that as jealousy? I saw it as her being pissed at Fumiaki for goofing off with relationships when his primary objective is supposed to be fulfilling his mission. She saw it as just another example of his lack of having any sense of duty. I highly doubt she has any nor will have any romantic feelings towards him since she doesn’t respect him, he’s much older, he represents everything she hates about the occult, and on top of that she hasn’t shown any interest at all in men.

      Booty Hole
      1. Nah, it was definitely textbook jealousy. I might have seen it the same way as you had it not been for the camera switching to Maya right after Chihiro was showing her own jealousy, and that “hmpf” sounded like a jealous “so that’s what he likes!?” one. Also, their dialog later in the episode (when Fumiaki was trying to get Maya’s approval for Mikaze) was suggesting/hinting at Maya feeling something for Fumiaki.

      2. I dunno, I just don’t see it. I don’t see her as fitting in with the typical Japanese female character stereotype of tsundere as she has yet to show anything akin to dere. She is pretty much full tsun. Also, she has absolutely no reason to like Fumiaki – he has been nothing but a failboat since he sailed into her life.

        Booty Hole
      3. I watch too much anime, and I know what you are saying. But usually female characters that fall for male leads for no apparent reason are typically found in poorly written fan-servicey anime. Normally there is a good reason for the female to go dere for a guy, like Ryouko going dere when Ryoushi acts manly and stands up for her in Ookami-san, or Misaki going dere when Usui saves her and supports her when she needs it most in Kaichou wa Maid-sama. Who knows, you may be right and she will suddenly fall for Fumiaki like the other two chicks (who, admittedly, fell for him rather easily) and the show can become a harem on top of things 😛

        Booty Hole
    2. I can’t speak for future episodes, but I didn’t see that particular scene as jealousy at all. Maya was just annoyed that Fumiaki refuted her suggestion that there would be misunderstandings if someone overheard him calling her by her first name by simply saying he’s never thought about her in that way. He didn’t disagree with her, but took an inadvertent shot by suggesting she’s not attractive enough to interest him.

      1. Its the magnitude of the reaction that hints towards jealousy. Just the fact that he gets under her skin so easily is a clear indication that he is more important to her then she wants to admit.

        Znail
      2. Gotta agree with Booty here, does stink of textbook jealousy. I doubt if it was jealousy though that it would develop in the series; its more likely to be just a small joke to throw in and to show some development between the two.

        Tomer
    3. I see it too. I’m surprised people are completely dismissing it, especially since Maya is a pretty textbook tsundere in every other way.

      Anyway, great episode. Kozue is hilarious.

      jill
  2. You say it right Flatliners that was a nice movie and was the only thing I could think off. Too bad we can’t put Fumiaki with a 5 minute timer like Keifer and hope for a “better” resurrection of him. Poor Chihiro doing love bentos and spying only to run crying I felt bad for her. Now if she become truly evil we can blame Fumiaki. If Maya doesn’t solve this mess she is going crazy with all this madness 🙂
    Finally some moral rant how this was allowed to pass censorship and nice plain chikubis always get blurred out! Also she looks nice in this Homura cosplay.

    Island Esper
  3. Kozue got stuck in the afterlife and became Kanade. She had had to get a heart transplant because of an accident involving one of her crazy occult chasing stunts.

    It’s the only explanation that makes sense.

  4. I got a laugh when Kozue started calling out to alien’s. This episode was preety boring, except for the ending. One of the reasons I like this show is that it makes me laugh even when my bong is empty!!!! Thats the difference between a good show and a bad show.

    infinite
  5. So apparently a cellphone stuck inside digestion and crapped out can still work? Must be the FUTURE ALIEN technology.

    As for the episode it’s mostly just a boring set up. The end twist was interesting though. So at least I’m looking forward to the next episode.

    Also I love Flatliners. One of my favorite, classic suspense thrillers! It had subtlety for a horror movie of its time despite all the medical inaccuracies.

    fragb85
  6. LOL’d at the kid who said “I wonder if my Grandma is there..” ^^

    Well, I still liked the episode even if nothing remotely major happened except for the afterlife class. (They allowed killing then reviving students in this school?) Scary, even if it is just 3 minutes.

    Oh and now I understand why Bunmei was never really concerned about high school rumors and just blatantly said he was never interested in Maya in “that” way. (Probably not a fan of tsundere ^^)

    Jaden
  7. I have a feeling that this is going to come back and bite them all, also i have a feeling that the girl who likes the idot teacher from the future is probably going to be related to the end of everything.

    chaos
  8. Kozue irritated the heck out of me! Seriously… the first part of the show was unbearable! The ending was pretty unexpected though; But as we all know, Kozue’s body is now possessed and it’ll create havoc around the school. Fumiaki’ll man up and save them, thus in the process gaining Maya’s respect… or something like that! 😉

    Alvord12
  9. @divine
    I have to completely oppose you because I thought this episode was the best- comedy wise. I just blurted laughing when Kozue started rolling on the stairs as if it was a normal scenario. Her antics are really funny for me. Vice Prinicipal’s also really funny.
    Some of the animation looked off though but that completely changed with the Kozue-afterlife scene which looked abstractly cool.

    ahelo
  10. If Fumiaki keeps going like that, they might pull out the “Reason for all this is because of Fumiaki’s arrival and because he did nothing this time round, all is well.” ending.

    Zaku Fan
  11. This episode was mainly Lulwut.

    I don’t know why Kozue needed an occult experience when one already happened to her mid-episode: the magical dissapearing lunchboxes.

    Indeed, the only real highlight here was Fumiaki on the phone.

  12. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what the point of the entire episode was. It felt like they were trying to push a plot involving Maya’s friends and a plot about Maya’s relationship with Fumiaki together. The whole Nostradamus Key thing seems to never get pushed forward, Fumiaki’s attraction to Mikaze eats up a lot of time needlessly unless she’s somehow relevant to events, the death of Maya’s father and Chihiro’s organization only get mentioned without any kind of exploration and if memory serves this is a 13 episode anime.

    I still like Maya (violence set aside) and I hope that somehow Fumiaki will redeem himself from his growing uselessness but unless they intend to make a second season I just can’t see how they’re going to get through everything satisfactorily.

    Grant
  13. I dont trust Mikaze, she seems dangerous xD She scares me, really xD

    I want Bunmei x Maya, but, man, he needs to be useful and brave and.. well better xD

    haha Im gonna wait for the subs of episode 6 :3

    lol

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