Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia – 09

「星合アルタイル・ベガ」 (Hoshiai -Arutairu・Bega-)
“Altair and Vega”

This certainly counts as one of the most slice-of-life episodes of Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia (which has a fair bit of it). Nevertheless it’s an important one in terms of planting a lot of seeds for how this season will spend its final four episodes. I fear those will be the final four period – there are a lot of one-court shows this season I’ll be pining for sequels with, but I don’t think Insomnia is one of the stronger possibilities. It hasn’t generated a big bump in manga sales and doesn’t seem to be tracking for big disc numbers (and the promotional impetus may be behind the live-action version).

The realities of being 16 and broke hit hard as Ganta finds out the student council won’t fund the astronomy club’s proposed summer training camp. Tao is as true a friend and wingman as you could want, and he does his best to prop Gan- chan’s spirits up as he dips a quivering toe into the labor pool. In fact he suggests that Ganta just ask his dad, but he refuses. This is another little piece of the puzzle with Ganta – his father feels guilty about his mom “no longer being around”, Ganta says, and thus tries to overcompensate in other ways.

Ganta has budgeted ¥100,000 for this trip, which is in fact laughably short. But his job-hunting falls laughably short too (his lack of social skills being an issue here), and he winds up commiserating with Shiromaru-san at Betty And cleaning the place up when she goes to the onsen to clean up, which inevitably leads to her offering him a job. It makes sense from her perspective, even if this is just to fund his “flirty time” with Isaki – she knows Ganta well enough to know that he’s a workhorse of the highest order. And we all know what they say about rented mules.

Meanwhile, Isaki and her friends head off for a beach trip, though only Kanikawa-san has more adult pursuits in mind – for the rest of them it’s just a play day. They get hit on, in fact – by elementary schoolers (I guess that’s admirable ambition). Isaki uses this to get a rise out of Ganta, though if that was her main intent she’d have been better off leaving out some of the details. Isaki keeps her T -shirt on the entire time to hide her scars, and at this point it’s still not absolutely clear whether her friends know about her medical history or not.

The headline here, though, is Isaki’s contribution to the training camp affair – which Ganta has flatly refused to allow her to use her own money for. Her grandmother has a house in the middle of the Noto Peninsula – one she’s not using, as she’s in a home – and if the pair of them sleep (and cook) there they can save an inordinate amount of money on their travel expenses. That will allow them to hit all the photo glory spots on Ganta’s list – especially the Mawaki Site, where Yui took her most spectacular photo. One of the best-preserved Jomon ruins in Japan,Mawaki is where Ganta hopes to get the photo that will bring glory down on the club and truly put it on the student council’s map.

It all sounds a little too good to be true, so enter Magari Haya (Amamiya Sora). Haya doesn’t exactly make a great first impression, and doesn’t seem to be especially considerate towards her sister. on said sister’s planned training camp trip? One can imagine any number of reasons, but the immediate impact is to put a considerable damper on Isaki’s enthusiasm for the entire venture.