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「ねむりひめ」 (Nemuri Hime)
“Sleeping Beauty”
Being in love often reveals the darker parts of ourselves that we try to pretend don’t exist.
Love and romance are difficult at any age. The difference is that at younger ages, it’s harder to understand just how much one’s psyche is bound to change. Feelings you never thought you could feel, thoughts you never thought you would have, all of these things develop and surface from places you never gave a thought to before. It’s not uncommon to realize, upon reflection, that you’ve become someone you never were before; for Miuna, it’s not just her feelings for Hikari that are coming to light more clearly, but also how she views the world in relationship to her love.
As Uroko-sama already insinuated and we’ve already guessed, Miuna isn’t too eager to see Manaka back, and less to see her awaken. That’s not because she hates Manaka, or because she is indifferent (she actually cares quite a bit), but because Manaka is as always, at the center of Hikari’s attention. In that sense, she doesn’t wish any harm or suffering for Manaka herself, but rather towards that which keeps Hikari’s world and Miuna’s world from coming together properly. Before Manaka, it was the world of the sea that stood in the way, but even once Miuna has slipped into that bubble, it changes nothing about her position as an outsider to Hikari’s life and emotions. Miuna is jealous, she resents Hikari’s unwavering attraction to Manaka to the point that she begins to wish, deep within herself, that Manaka won’t wake.
But it’s also a sign of Miuna’s development (and of her age), that once Sayu points it out, she begins to dwell on what she’s become. It’s painful to realize that you’re capable of hating someone or being callous enough to want them out of the way for your benefit, and that’s no different for Miuna. It’s a sort of harsh self-pity, one that doesn’t allow you to find comfort in feeling bad for yourself because you’ve been driven to such an emotional extreme. It’s Tsumugu’s wisdom and experience that helps Miuna see that her feelings are normal for her situation, and that though she may feel upset with herself for her selfish inclinations, she can (and will) feel better once Manaka is actually awake.
But Miuna is not the only person dealing with difficult realities. Hikari showed some of his frustration this episode in form of his short temper as well as through pushing himself too hard. Manaka is so important to him that it’s as if he’s had blinders put on; he can only see what’s right in front of him, and that’s his goal of waking Manaka again. He’s especially snappy when Miuna insinuates that Manaka may not wake up because he refuses to believe it. He’s afraid, and to counter that he’s forced himself to be as positive and as cheerful about it as possible.
Even without all the optimism (or maybe because of it), Manaka does wake up, and in the most casual and un-dramatic way possible. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’ve come to expect a decent level of soap opera level drama in this series, so I found myself laughing at how easily she awoke; it wasn’t overly done, nor was it out of place. Manaka is still being herself, and even her last look of surprise fit in perfectly with the situation. It’s up til next week to see how and if she’s changed, and what her awakening has to do in the larger scope of things.
Preview
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Really great episode! But wow…I really wasn’t expecting that ending. It happened so suddenly and randomly.
I guess that’s the point?
The way Manaka finally woke up was hilarious. All it took was a little argument.
That surprised face at the end! <3
MANAKA IS BACK! OH FUCK YES! I AM SO FUCKING HAPPY! THANK YOU BASED OKADA!
I loved the way Manaka woke up. It was so unexpected. All the tension build up to be broken so nonchalantly.
I also loved how the ending sequence became so colorful after Manaka woke up, it really highlighted the positive atmosphere at the end of the episode.
her way of waking up is sooo manaka-ish <3
One way to wake up an unconscious seagirl: bickering about a kiss, and getting flustered over it.
And the ending sequence: its more colorful than before!
That was just about the best way they could have made Manaka wake up. Very well done, indeed.
Wow Chisaki, what a fine women you are. You even make two teenage boys blush furiously…
Chisaki is kinda becoming the cougar of the show! Especially since she admits that she still likes Hikari (15 year old let’s not forget!).
In the end, Manaka woke up not by some epic singing or losing her Ena, but because someone had to make a ruckus while she’s enjoying her sleep. LOL’ed at her first reaction: “Hue??”
Despite Hikari’s fears, I think her optimist klutzyness may just be the thing to carry her through the shock from the lost time.
Meanwhile, this episode focused a lot on Miuna’s struggles, her feeling disgusted with her own selfishness, and Tsumugu revealing he too had the same dilemma when Kaname woke up helped her channel her feelings positively. (Fancy the first signs of the Tsumugu x Miuna “crack ship”, anyone?)
Pretty much shoots down Guardian Enzo’s baseless accusation last week that the intellect of an episode is inversely proportional to Miuna’s screentime.
Oh and Miuna is so cute with her hair down. <3
https://randomc.net/image/Nagi%20no%20Asukara/Nagi%20no%20Asukara%20-%2020%20-%20Large%2021.jpg
Good lord Miuna- how do you do it? Is simply letting your hair down is that effective?
Enzo’s accusation was harsh, certainly, but I wouldn’t say it was baseless. I’ll say the same about Nagi as I did about Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta: it does much better when it focuses on its main characters. While Miuna is definitely a main character in this 2nd cour, the way the story was set up from the very beginning placed her on the sideline, for better or worse. I think the story’s always been about the 4 from Shioshishio (+1 Tsumugu), so sometimes Miuna’s plot lines feel a little forced.
BUT BUT BUT! Her development this week was certainly good, and Kairi put in a good light and explained it very well.
The thing is, Miuna was always a part of the main cast. With a larger cast, not everyone gets equal time in the spotlight, but that doesn’t make Miuna a side character, nor should she be treated as such. Miuna was certainly the first obstacle that the sea kiddos faced, getting her to reconcile with Akari, and Hikari played the central role in this, which obviously kicked off Miuna’s infatuation with our main hero. And then the two little girls were almost glued to the side of Sea Kiddos+Tsumugu.
I respect Enzo’s opinions, but I’ve become very disillusioned with them as of late. He can be overtly harsh when something doesn’t go the way he feels it should go and doesn’t adjust to the show he’s watching. Why is Miuna getting screen time? Because She’s a main character, and she is as every bit important to the story right now as the other five characters. I think his detesting of Miuna stems from that over-the-top sobfest very early on. I fully agree that that was bad. But to say from then on that the intelligence of an episode is inversely proportionate to Miuna screentime, from my perspective (and I’m not stating this as a fact, just as an ignorant person spouting ignorant opinions), is just holding a grudge and not moving on.
She’s a key character that had the misfortune of showing up in a bad scene. She isn’t by any means bad. Saying that this episode was 22 minutes he wanted back because of one character, that’s just downright insulting for a show of this caliber, especially for the people who worked on this. This isn’t some stale, bland, and poor quality romance light novel anime. To me, this show gets masterpiece status if it can properly wrap things up. Since when is a masterpiece, heck even a 8 or 9 on the MAL scale, a waste of time?
Of course, I’m voicing my opinion on another person’s opinions… How silly is that?
That’s not silly at all, lol. I respect your opinion. I think Miuna will come into her own in the coming episodes (I really hope she can), and I think the show has masterpiece potential, too. I get so giddy right before each Nagi episode comes out! It’s the best part of my Thursday evenings (is that a bad thing?).
And I must apologize because I think I may have been unclear about my position on Miuna. I wanted to express that I believe the first cour treated Miuna as a side character considering the primary focus on the Shioshishio friend/love pentagon. So now in the 2nd cour, I think some people feel that Miuna is intrusive. And even though that is kind of the point (Miuna trying to break into Hikari’s friend circle and getting him to notice her as a friend/potential love interest) in terms of the creators’ intent, some members of the audience find it annoying (enter Guardian Enzo).
So to summarize this post and my last, I do agree Miuna has been a main character, but really only since the time skip—an unfortunate result of the story telling, in my opinion. I do think some of her scenes were handled a little haphazardly, and by design she’s not one of the original 5 main cast members. That’s why I can understand Enzo’s view point, though not to the same degree where I would say she drops the show’s intelligence. And personally, I very much like the direction in which Miuna’s development is heading, especially with her potential connection to Manaka and the Sea God.
God, I feel like I’ve been so analytical about anime lately. Maybe I should just sit back and enjoy, eh?
Couldn’t have said it any better J_the_Man. I normally enjoyed reading Enzo’s post, but sometimes he really lets his bias gets in the way of a good review. Even on his blog, one example of where I was particularly annoyed by was how quick he was to dismiss Psycho Pass, declaring everything he saw as bland and cliched, and all that in just the first episode of that series.
(And then there’s of course his smug attitude regarding the controversy that is SAO, but the less said of that series the better. )
Finally, his cheap Miuna quip last week represented one of his lowest points by his commenting standards.
forget about enzo. i usually like his stuff, but he is way too biased with NnA. it almost feels like an agenda. he has his view of okada, and nothing ever seems to change it.
even with perfectly normal episodes, he will somehow manage to bring his usual opinions about okada.
notice how he writes way more about okada than the series itself.
i think he has trouble enjoying the show for what it is. he just keeps obsessing about okada.
or maybe he just holds her to a high standard.
I don’t even know what to say, this made things so much easier!
Manaka please don’t wake up!
Oh crap … she woke up ~_~ …
Everyone … brace yourselves … shit’s gonna happen!
I don’t know, but I thought that the reason why Manaka didn’t wake up earlier was due to Miuna’s mentality. She was inwardly jealous and not truly supportive of waking Manaka, and only at the end of this episode does she really seem to place Hikari’s interests over her own.
Besides what the other comments have already stated, this only proves that Miuna and Manaka are undeniably and strongly related in terms of their wishes coming true and the Sea God. Every situation thus far has been juxtapositions of those two. Although it may be obvious to say so, I believed this episode confirmed it with Manaka waking up with Miuna accepting her return. Only question now is where does that leave both (or one) of our heroines towards the end?
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think it’s that obvious. It seems like a really subtle connection not everyone might catch. However, it does totally makes sense. I started entertaining those ideas in regards to Miuna and Manaka since Miuna gained her Ena, and really started considering the connection seriously when they retrieved Manaka from Shioshishio.
When characters provide narration, I generally take that as a cue to them “making out all right” in the end. So Miuna’s been narrating… wonder if that could mean anything for Manaka?
To reflect Manaka’s return, the ED sequence has now changed to an optimistic vivid colour scheme, in contrast to the previous melancholic desaturated colour scheme.
I’m only one who understood that Miuna has the same hairstyle as Manaka ?
Manaka & Hikari !!!!♥
That nightmare…..foreshadowing?
Priceless ending XD
That last part >.<
Can't wait to see how Manaka will react on her losing her ena and how Hikari'a gonna comfort her
Oh well, she woke up and I can hear Manaka fans praising Okada. Someone seems to have forgotten that this is prepped up for subtle suffering.
Chisaki starts to irks me. From my personal point of view she doesn’t care that much about Manaka, only visiting her once. Also not make any effort to solve the mystery of the sea village, instead Tsumugu work hard there investigating and such.
Not true, not true. She was there quite a few times, they only showed it once (maybe twice)thought. Remember Akari saying how it was nice that Chisaki was around more.
I loved the scene between Miuna and Tsumugu. It’s nice to see him finally share some of his own thoughts and feelings, as well as acting like a guide or maybe like a mentor of sorts to Miuna. I would love for them to keep this kind of relationship in the future.
Also, I’m starting to like the Sayu/Kaname ship more and more. I really enjoyed their interactions in this episode.
Even Tsumugu’s aware of his lack of expression compared to the rest, but expression definitely does not equate to emotions.
i’m glad we have our Tsumugu today, even though he speaks lesser, he still seems to tell a lot.
Less is more!
Now I’m dying to know what’s going to happen next
Well, that was unexpected but still really good.
Manaka’s awakening was utterly perfect. Just utterly , randomly perfect.
And Tsumugu in this episode-I feel even more justified in having him as my favourite male character in this series …. not that I don’t think Hikari and Kaname are great in their own way…
darou~ its like, Tsumugu from the plain character to someone who is particularly wiser than any of the male casts there! its like: Tsumugu<–Hikari<–Uroko<–Itaru<–Kaname for me!Kaname's inferiority against Tsumugu really got him to that underdog state imo…he was cool back then, but because of Chisaki and Tsumugu have been spending the frozen 5 years together really made things unfair for him…but regardless, he shouldnt act too possessive of her…really creeps me out though! what happen to the cool-cat kaname?! :/
anyway, Tsumugu is currently my fav male character right now! XD
Ah , so I’m not the only one creeped out by Kaname’s current attitude. Hoepfully it won’t amount to anything tragic…but you can never tell with this series.
Damn Miuna, you look a lot like your birth mother with your hair down! I have a feeling she’s going to change/cut her hair soon, since she kinda looks like Manaka….
Sayu seems to be acting unnatural around Kaname, being more mature and having a stiff way of speaking. I like her a lot, and wonder how Kaname will react when he sees her true personality hehe. Sayu’s a little ball of adorable spice and fire, watch out!
Hilarious that the “familiar sound that could trigger Manaka waking up” turned out to be Hikari yelling. Shows a lot about their relationship haha.
Chisaki have grown to such a fine woman and even the guys around her notice that ehem Hikari and Kaname.
Miuna struggles to find happiness i think the way for her happiness is to let go of Hikari rather than holding on something you can’t have. I’m glad we finally see Tsumugu’s feelings towards Chisaki and how he wanted Chisaki by his side but he’s glad that Chisaki’s happy kinda like saying “Her Happiness is my happiness”
Love how Manaka wakes up and the first thing she does is scold Hikari in the cutest way “Hii-kun!!” asdfghjkl finally we get to see Manaka energetic self.
All ships have gathered, prepare for the final battle to commence!
Tsumugu X Manaka standing by!
Tsumugu X Chisaki standing by!
Hikari X Manaka standing by!
Hikari X Chisaki standing by!
Hikari X Miuna standing by!
Kaname X Chisaki standing by!
Kaname X Sayu standing by!
…
Red 5 standing by!
Red Dwarf standing by!
Red October standing by!
Simply Red standing by!
…
oh boy I hope I listed them all…
The relationships are as tangled up as it was in AnoHana, at least that’s what this show reminds me of… Only this time Menma (Manaka) is alive. Very eerie foreshadowing of things to come and relations with friends are hitting critical points everywhere. So where do we go now?
Manaka wakes up and all the sunken ships and its drowning crew of HikarixMiuna’s fleet will look up and shout “Save us!” and Okada looks down and whispers “No”.
ahh…just dunno what to expect from this anime anymore. So many speculations and at the end, just keep on being trolled and trolled and trolled….hahhh XDD
anyways, am soooo happy that Manaka woke up! Okaeri Manaka~ XDDD
no new episode next week due to olympics
What are you talking about?
For starters, the Winter Olympics end tomorrow, so it’s simply not possible that anymore programs could be delayed by Olympic coverage. I would have understood if it was a live event, but it would be quite retarded for stations to pre-empt existing programming slots just to show Olympic RERUNS.
Second, NagiAsu is shown mainly on independent local stations in Japan. Bigger news and sporting events like the Olympics are covered by the bigger national networks, whereas the independent stations are largely unaffected, which explain why late night anime thrives on such stations.
Third, perhaps you’re confusing this with Silver Spoon’s postponement, as Silver Spoon is shown on Fuji, a national network, and hence the next episode won’t get shown till next Thursday night due to Olympic coverage.
Finally, just to be safe, I looked up the official website, there WILL be a new NagiAsu episode next week.
Let us not forget that Hikari, Kaname and Manaka are still 19 years old in record, I don’t find HikariXChisaki is bad at all.
Throws away his betting card. There goes my ships. *Thumbs up*
okaerinasai, manaka-san!!!! ^_^
I know love makes you crazy and all but when it’s a childhood crush on someone you barely spent time with and the biggest impression they imposed on you was “I want to force my way into your world” that doesn’t make it okay to wish bad things upon someone in a life threatening situation. I don’t think she’s a bad person but I can’t find sympathy in myself for her when she sets herself up to fail. Why do people feel bad for her when she gets hurt forcing her way into someone’s heart when she won’t even take the time to build an actual friendship to base any of her feelings on. I feel like everything she does is with anterior intent, for Hikari. She “loves” him so much and won’t even take the time to get to know him. All the other characters, omitting Tsugumu because he doesn’t have much of a backstory yet, are so dynamic in their authentic raw emotions. Compare the beginning in how Hikari felt towards Tsugumu when he saw how interested Manaka was in him, and how pained Chisaki was to have a jealousy towards Manaka for being the object of Hikari’s affection and Kaname’s face when he saw Chisaki holding Tsugumu. Compare that to Miuna’s NTR moments of “Oh you know, Hikari’s always liked Manaka” and I just don’t understand any parallel as to how her story is even relavent besides her many misplace eps of her POV. Everyone’s got a story and they’ve all been throught a lot most more then her but yet no matter how much she’s given she still wants the easiest way of getting more. She’ll never be happy because she’ll never be satisfied with what she has.
Are you forgetting the Akari arc of the series back before the Ofunehiki? Hikari was instrumental in resolving that. It’s understandable that Miuna would be attached to him to an extent as a result-and thanks to the hibernation , all she really had until he returned are these memories. So you can’t blame her for not knowing him properly , she just didn’t get the chance.
Not to mention , I think she is somewhat predisposed to having a quietly troubled personality. If you remember , her birth mother is also from the sea , and reconciling these two sides within her seems to be something she struggled with even before meeting Hikari , so it could be said that her feelings for him just added fuel to the fire.
I love how they sort the characters through the color of their eyes XD
Blue for sea people
Brown for land people
and a mixture for the children of land and sea people
Man, how do you do it?? 0.0 I have not even once batted an eye about this tiny detail but looking back, it’s true! kudos to you my friend :3 That as some awesome observation skills!
Why, I don’t mind Manaka waking up and it looks very interesting next episode, but why Okada, why! Get half of the fans to jump ship to Miuna x Hikari and then sink it, that’s just too cruel! Trolling you fans on a whole new level! :,(