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「祈り Prière」 (Inori)
“Prayer”
Even without knowing Yune’s past, I’m hard-pressed to imagine that Claude wouldn’t miss her if she returned to Japan. You’d have to be a robot not to feel something if an adorable and extremely helpful girl like her left all of a sudden. Oscar was probably right about Claude masking that fact when the latter claimed he trusts Yune and doesn’t need to pry into her past, but I get the feeling that there’s some truth to what Claude said, seeing as Camille picked up on his trusting nature and was jealous of Yune. (Evidently, he doesn’t trust her enough to let her go to the Grand Magasin though.)
That pretty much marked the start of a fairly drama-filled episode by Ikoku Meiro’s standards. Claude looked like he felt bad about taking his hatred for Grand Magasin out on Yune, while Yune seemed to be onto something about how it might be related to Claude’s father. The only thing missing was actually delving into Claude’s past to learn exactly how he feels about his late father. In lieu, the shift to Yune’s relationship with her sister was interesting in its own way. If I were trying to comfort her, I probably would’ve told her that her sense of guilt was unwarranted and that there’s no way she could’ve worsened Shione’s eyesight. The practical side of me would’ve taken over, which is why I have to hand it to Oscar for sugarcoating it the way he did. That, and the way he spiked Yune’s drink and got her drunk. From his fairy tale-like explanations to his way of spreading the festive “joy”, he really is like a big lovable French Santa Claus — armed with a drinking flask and all.
Surprisingly, Yune’s worries came off a lot more profound than I gave them credit, thanks to the soundtrack and some heartwarming screenplay. It seemed pretty trivial after learning that Shione didn’t go blind while protecting Yune, but the delivery enhanced the emotional impact a fair bit. Once the instrumental version of “Tooku Kimi e” from episode 4.5 started playing, I was pretty drawn to Yune’s sincerity. Given the somewhat somber yet uplifting mood seen in this episode, I’m actually not sure how I’d like to see this adaptation conclude next time. Part of me is hoping for something similar, but another part of me thinks it should go out on a completely cheerful note. I’m torn. :\
Preview
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Show Spoiler ▼
I’m really interested to see how they wrap this series up, considering it’s almost up to the point the manga is at. Which makes me wonder if there is a season 2 in the pipeline. :3
Probably finish it at 12 and then in 2-3 seasons pick it back up again depending on if it did well or not. This season really seems to have a lot of “open” endings. Three series off the top of my head all just “sort of ended”
The seasons will be named “Ikoku Meiro no Croisée The Animation”, “The Natural”, and “The Origination”. 😛
It would be really wonderful if they do that. That means we will have at least 36 episodes to look forward to. 🙂
Excuse me the part where you wrote Camille being jealous of Yune doesn’t really fit right here considering the fact that there is no romantic involvement between the two only a friendly brother sister relationship. Even if they were it wouldn’t matter to Camille because even if she’s married to someone other than Claude they can still be friends.
+1 for Divine
Hahaha, … that reminds me, I have Aria around…. somewhere <> <<;;? *scurries off to find it*
Nothing much to add, as I agree with Divine’s assessment. If they are going to follow the manga, it will probably take a year or two or more before we see a sequel. One more episode, and we are done.
thought this is based on a LN? or is the LN based on the manga?
There’s a LN? I didn’t know that. All I know is that the manga is an original story drawn and written by the same person. There’s a side story done by another artist in collaboration with the author (as co-author as well), but I’ve not heard of a LN. Know anywhere I can find info about the LN?
This episode was so sad!!! T_T
Awesome series! This and Usagi Drop set mood for me this season! =)
aww man baby yune is sooo cute
Maybe I got lost in translation, but isn’t the ep implying that the bohemian grandfather who wrote the song an ancestor of Shione. There’s the blue eyes and the fact that people shun those who are connected to foreigners. This reminds me of the girl who attended to Townsend Harris during his stay in Japan. The name eludes me though.
I loved the outdoor scenes in this episode — puts me in the mood for Fall foliage!
Instrumental “Tooku Kimi e” almost had me crying. Kudos to the genius musician/s who made Ikoku’s OST!