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「大きな壁の中と外」 (Ookina Kabe no Naka to Soto)
“Inside and Outside the Large Wall”
If there’s a book girl that needs to be played, Hanazawa Kana is poised for the task regardless of whether or not the series is titled Bungaku Shoujo. For this first episode of Shiomiya Shiori’s arc, we didn’t really get to see too much of the girl behind that quiet, intellectual, and shy exterior though. In lieu, there was a fair bit of spillover from Elsie’s episode last time, which I rather enjoyed given all of her quirky interactions with Keima. As a result, the pacing did feel a bit slow compared to prior arcs, meaning that Shiori’s story may span three episodes as well. Compared to Kanon’s one, I actually don’t mind if that’s the case, since a lot of the time has been spent on Keima’s “hardships” with the ever-so-adorable Elsie. However, I definitely feel that Shiori needs some more focus next time, because Elsie’s attempt to educate herself with some common sense in the school library basically stole the show once her new-found fascination with firetrucks kicked in. In addition, my highlight of the episode didn’t even involve Shiori, and came from Keima’s spiel about knowing exactly what quiet girls are thinking, only for Elsie to pull him out of his video game context and cause him to give up on capturing Shiori’s heart. Not a whole lot was revealed about Shiori herself other than what Keima thinks about her librarian girl stereotype, so learning more about our latest target is something I’m looking forward to seeing next time.
For introductory purposes, her inability to engage in conversation and extremely long thought process showcased her cuter side really well. There was also the revelation that she absolutely loves books and immerses herself in them as a substitute for interacting with people directly, which probably makes her the most sophisticated target to date. Upon learning exactly how scholarly she is — having read every single book in the library — I couldn’t help but see the irony in a girl like Shiori being an ideal match for Keima (since he hates dumb people), yet he’s not all that interested in her because he finds librarian girls overused to the point that only the very best ones are worth his time. Granted, he’s not interested in real girls to begin with, but Shiori is the type of girl that I can actually picture him going after if he were. The question is, does she meet his standards of being a worthwhile catch? At this point, it’s pretty hard to say since Keima never really reveals what he’s thinking about any of the girls outside the occasion blush. Personally, I get the sense that the Shiori’s ability to gather all the books they have on firetrucks in a short period of time impressed him on some subconscious level though. It’s just a hunch I have after Keima was met with silence while Shiori contemplated telling him that she didn’t need to use the library system to find all the books.
Coincidentally, it looks like her silence is the “biggest wall” Keima will have to overcome to get through to her, which was both awkward and funny to see when he was standing there for a long time to see if she’ll say anything to him for catching her from falling. I thought for a moment that he was going to walk off without a word and hope that she comes looking for him later to thank him, though I’m kind of glad he didn’t since Shiori was pretty cute when she fumbled her “thank you”. Hmm, who would’ve thought the quiet girl would be this interesting.
* Not to be left out, Kanon gets her version of the “Symbol of Love” ending theme two episodes after her arc already ended. I guess she did have a small PFP commercial cameo of sorts…
ED6 Sequence
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ED6: 「コイノシルシ」 (Koi no Shirushi) by 神のみぞ知り隊 feat. 中川かのん starring 東山奈央 (Kami nomi zo Shiri-tai feat. Nakagawa Kanon starring Touyama Nao)
Watch the 6th ED!: Download, Streaming ▼
Preview
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i wonder how anime will make this a better arc than the manga
It is worth saying that Keima was completely correct in his assumptions about Shiori. It is also interesting how, even from their first meeting, Keima can just stand there in silence waiting for a reply from her for minuets on end without losing interest or playing games.
Kinda funny to see his preference in women manifest itself in his patience levels for each capture. Kanon had to work pretty hard just to get Keima’s attention away from his games.
your forgetting that keima purposely ignored kanon to find out her problem, he was really listening but he pretended to ignore her
This episode almost got me angry. I was hoping for something to come out of Shiori, and while nothing that I wanted happened, the ending brought it home for me.
I just read a depressing article about how TWGOK isn’t doing terribly well – something which I hope changes quickly 🙁
I also love it when she starts talking to herself in her head. I wish I had the courage to pause in real life to think to myself :X
I think u misunderstood a forum discussion of twgok of it being an article lmao. =_=;
I would really like to see that “article” please thank you. A link would be much appreciated.
Just google around. I’m not sure of the validity of the articles, but a lot of different articles seem to be pointing in a general direction. Again, I’m not trying to incite a war. I LOVE THIS SHOW 🙁
Which isn’t doing well? Manga or DVD? All I know is that the DVD sales would ultimately determine how much episodes they’ll make.
The anime isn’t doing well generally. The manga sales are decent enough (haven’t had a significant increase after the airing though) but the preorder’s for the DVD are very worrying, and the viewership for the anime is simply not good (latest results show that it had a 0.1%, which is quite bad for even a late night anime) There’s is already a second season set to air in Spring (it’s actually one season divided in two) but it might end up facing a fate similar to Mitsudome and have the second season episode count be cut down.
I think many have already surrendered to the possibility that next season might be the last one for the anime, such a shame. I really love this show too.
Much anger you have within you 😛
The episode itself was great, but I also fear that it wont turn things around for the poor results …
Damn, so the anime is really doing terrible in ratings? Man, I just dont get japanese viewers, if only they also air directly in other nations like in north america, hell their ratings would boost up like crazy. Or do they? Sorry I’m an ignorant fool.
Anyways, I was thinking or ordering the dvd or maybe bluray when it comes out (if there is a bluray ver) of both seasons. I was also expecting that they might continue to cover more of the plot like with Show Spoiler ▼
in the future, but man the future is grim for the anime in this awesome series.
I just cant believe the low ratings, is it because of the time slot? or just the damn viewers preferences switching to all time low moe blob shows (i dare not mention them…).
SHIORI IS FINALLY HERE
AND THEY MANAGE TO MAKE HER EVEN MORE ADORABLE THAN THE MANGA
HHHHNNNNGGGGGGGGG
Elsea was definitely trying to steal the spotlight in this one. But nonetheless Shiori is pretty cute translated to anime. I’m with you Divine, I LOVE how Elsea just brought Keima back down to Earth when he said he could freely read the heroines’ minds.
In reality, a quiet girl is really harder to deal with than a boisterous girl. At least with a boisterous girl, I’ll know where I stand – friend, jerk, potential one night stand. With a quiet girl, it’s always guess work. Do I give up on her now? If I do, I’ll never know if I’m just one cheesy line away from opening her up. If I keep going, I might not get anywhere at all and miss a real chance with another girl!
Damn you cute, but quiet, girls!!!!
In the manga, each new arc generally is longer than the previous, so if the anime is ‘faithful’ to the source, each arc should in general be longer than the previous.
Hmmm, a small part of me expected Shiori’s inner voice to be a bit more…hectic? Oh well.
I also felt that her “I love books” monologue around the middle of the EP was too long…you could probably chop off a good quarter of that without losing the meaning.
Well, your not the only one that thought that. I think the manga was WAY better at doing the things you said. Shiori is one of my favorite arcs but I’ve been dissapointed with the anime since episode 3.
Kana Hanazawa = Bungaku Shoujo = Shiori
FIRETRUCK YEAH!!! I’M GONNA FIRETRUCKING SAY FIRETRUCK THAT WAY BECAUSE THAT’S HOW FIRETRUCKING GREAT THIS EP WAS! CAN BARELY WAIT FOR THE NEXT FIRETRUCKING EPISODE!
KANA HANAZAWA IS JUST REALLY FIRETRUCKING ADORABLE!!! FIRETRUCK YEAH!!!
HELL FIRETRUCKING YEAH!!!
Ahhh Elsea, I love you so much. Your all the moe I need!…and Mio…can’t forget Mio. Looks like a good episode. The quiet girl is the new capture huh? Sounds interesting. 🙁 I wish Elsea was on the banner, but that might change soon when I watch Ika Masume.
My fondest childhood meories are books-related… I was a total bookworm. This probably is going to be my fave girl of the series.
I can easily understand shiori’s nature, im practically the same but not to that extent and im not a librarian or work in libraries.
and im not a girl.
I also find her capture pretty cute, keima can easily understand her as well.
Anyone else baffled by the “COBOL Conversations for Beginners” book she looks at near the end? It’s as if they needed a language book, but forgot to specify spoken what kind of language…
That was a bit jarring, COBOL is an old programming language…
I had some laughs when I noticed the title as well. 🙂
US Mainframe programmers think this is hilarious. It shows that people in general really don’t understand what “languages” are. I had Data Center manager tell me once when he at a party (and for really) the CEO of his firm requested once the he and one of the programmers have a conversation in COBOL to see what it sounded like. Took 15 minutes to explain and he thinks to this day that the CEO thought that they were just trying to blow him off. Very subtle joke.
re:“COBOL Conversations for Beginners”
it was probably a joke meant to show level of reality-detached knowledge she digests in the books…
Thankonomics!
aww I hope Shiori starts saying more soon..
I feel like the only person who doesn’t like Elsie ):
Show Spoiler ▼
Common Business Oriented Programming Language Conversations for Beginners? Strange book, I would read it if I could still program, LOL.
Yeah, this was a strangely paced anime, and Keima’s capture just even started, they should’ve cut that I Love Books Montage which is freaking creepy. Loved Kanon’s unusual cameo here. They’re probably trying to stretch this season to fill in the remaining episodes.
Also.
I felt like this episode title was reference to Pink Floyd, like the 2nd episode’s 2nd part’s title and the 3rd episode’s 1st part’s title are a reference to The Beatles.
I met some girls like shiori, hard to imagine what they are thinking …
I realize now that Opening Theme is English? I do not remember any other anime with this.
The ef series featured an English version of the OP on some episodes, which was also sung by ELISA. There was also RAINBOW’s OP last season.
Eden of the East as well, but Oasis singing it probably had something to do with this
Kaiba’s opening is in English.
Shinigami no Ballad also has whole opening in English.
This show started off barely okay, and is now terrible. These arcs really suck (I found myself skipping through the last idol arc to stop from falling asleep). Standards for rom-com in anime have been lowered. When is the last time anyone even laughed during an episode, instead of being bored…
This should have been a 5 episode show…instead of 12 dragged-out boring eps.
read the manga, it gets better….
long runners like this tend to get better later
Lowered??? This is top class rom-com. It’s even a little artistic.
Finally one of my fav girls….
WIsh she has one of the goddess spirits in her XD
if anyone knows what that means.
shhhh what are you doing
Nah she’s got an egg inside her which the egg eater comes to get. Soon they’ll set off to mount doom where she’ll have a BM to dispose of it. Or so i’ve heard…
And thus the beginning of Elisie’s firetruck infatuation begins.
It’s not like she really needed to be more easily distracted…
I dont usually like quiet/shy girls, but i quite like this one, probably because the show tells me what shes thinking, rather than just… blush blush hide occasion word in a cutesy voice then go and blush more (like sae in amagami, i absolutely detest)… but only time will tell if shiomiya will prove to be an annoyance afterall, so far so good >:D
Yakumo’s ability -from school rumble- would be very helpful to Keima in this arc.
When I first saw Shiori reading that book I was expecting her to rip a bit of the page and put it in her mouth.
Interestingly enough, in the manga, I found this arc to be the most … well … not difficult to understand, but since it was just so long and played out, it got more or less uninteresting towards the tipping point.
Maybe the anime will go along, maybe not, I hope I’m surprisingly delighted during the continuation of this ‘arc’ perhaps, I suppose the only way to find out is to continue watching 😀
finally saw the episode…
it is a bit slow paced in the middle, but did manage to show the “love” Shiroi has for books…
So Keima become the silent type as well 😀
still fun to watch though 🙂 thanks for the post
Fuko Ninja =O
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZc7gCPvK6A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-qEznnPdaE&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uozvqVkUk0k&feature=related kanon concert!!!
“books are the sun books are life BOOKS ARE THE OCEAN”
why so insane?