Deaimon – 07

「秋色に舞う」 (Shūshoku ni Mau)
“Dancing in Autumn Colors”

I’m quite liking Deaimon, as it’s slowly becoming a drama not about the intricacy detailing Nagomu and Itsuka’s father-daughter relationship, but about the shop as a whole, and that’s also really satisfying to watch. As it seems in each episode Deaimon tries to give one or two life lessons.

In essence, it follows the Disney formula almost to a T. I’m confused as to their acquisition’s this season where Black Rock Shooter and Summer Time Render, the former leading with the struggles of amnesia and a war-ridden world, while the latter follows the Re-Zero formula with quite a bit of gore. There are more Disney anime this season with the likes of Healer Girl, Dance-Dance, heck even Kongmin is a good fit for their streaming service, and let’s not forget about Deaimon itself. It seems to me like they need a better advisor on which IPs they should buy for streaming, furthermore let’s not forget that seasonal anime is also appointment TV. Meaning you sit down with certain shows at certain times of the week. But this is only one person’s opinion screaming into the ol’ internet void.

My point is that Deaimon is a very light-hearted series, even when it has heavy emotions to deal with. A good segway into this week’s episode.

Having a new internet join the fray, Hiiro Kisaichi (Hayami, Saori) is a new person who has been accepted into Ryoukshou as one of the new apprentices, she quickly sizes Nagomu up and down, and positions herself above him because of her previous training, however, her world comes crashing down once she realizes she has literally zero people skills, something she gains as she continues to work at the shop.

Fun fact! Hayami-san is also the VA for Yor Forger from Spy x Family. Girl work!

Anyway, Hiiro quickly learns the ins and out of the shop and becomes acquainted with the truth that she still has a lot to learn, furthermore she gets to work alongside one of her sugary-idols, Tasumasa (Iwasaki, Hiroshi) who has made a sculpture of an eagle using only confections. That’s what inspired Hiiro to follow this path in her career, but because she has had zero interaction with customers her cracking moment comes a little early. Whatever the case the episode quickly flows into the B part, which follows Nagomu, Hiiro, and Heigo giving a special candy class at Itsuka’s school, because the home ecs teacher sprained an ankle or something.

Of course, Nagomu quickly makes Itsuka feel mortified with shame because she won’t be able to keep her private life from her work life separate anymore. But isn’t that what’s dad’s do? A tiny story takes place with another girl and her mom. Naruto was it? Her mom is very passive-aggressive with her, saying stuff like ‘you’re so clumsy’ she never does it in a way that’s mean or bad-spirited, but she does make comments that feel out of place, for a young girl like that. Then, of course, Naruto-chan makes a small scene, and then her mom is like ‘I only say those things because you’re so cute, and I love your smile.’

Look if I can interject here, my family situation is very much the same, where my dad is the one who is always giving passive-aggressive comments even though I didn’t ask them. I mostly ignore them at this point, whenever we talk, but it does feel like I can never have a normal conversation with him, and I’m always hypervigilant about what I say because I never know what or how he might respond. And that’s on Trauma. But the point here is that Naruto’s mom basically gaslighted her into not believing her own feelings as true, and gave her an excuse as to why she’s always judging whatever she does. The mood lightens and Naruto starts having fun again. But still a sour taste in my mouth proceeds. Not after Nagomu gives some words of wisdom of course, from the principal herself!

It’s a minor thing that can be considered only as a side story, yet still, there’s a point to be made for both parties, both Naruto and her mom. I mean the show treated it as a throwaway thing – however, the tone she used was not one of wanting to tell Naruto that she loves her because of her smile. It felt like she was talking down to her. And then flipped the script.

As a kid is hard to talk up to adults, but Naruto should start going to therapy because that’s some trauma right there she’s going to have to deal with.

It’s a minor detail, and once again I’m hyper-fixating. Yet still, a reminder that what family says can turn us down or push us up, not because of what they say, but because of how they say it.

Full-length images: 36.

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