Note: Clovers aren’t edible, unless you’re a goat, of course. *points at frank*Tai-yuckys. They look horrible here, but they seem so nice and warm in Kanon. >OWell. So far, I’ve watched up till episode 15 of the anime. I used to hate that freaking OP song, but now that they’ve changed the opening sequence, I think I have somehow got hooked onto the song. That’s progress. The song alone is not that bad actually and once you’ve listen to it for a couple of times, you’d get used to it. Plus, I think the cheekiness (from the word ‘cheeky’) of the song fully suits the theme of the anime: humour and drama. And then randomly, I can hear piano instrumentals of the song being used as the background music in scenes throughout the anime. I can use one word to describe that feeling: soothing. The music would slowly play without you noticing as you watch the characters carry out their day-to-day activities, not knowingly developing a special bond amongst them. How I could put it... there are two main story-arcs in the story. One is the Takemoto story-arc, and the other one is Mayama’s. For Takemoto, he himself is not actually directly involved in it (the story-arc) so far. He’s just telling his story from a third person’s point of view while developing a weird combination of sympathy and love for Hagumi. As for Mayama, he himself is involved in a complex relationship comprising of a strong young lady and another weak middle-aged widow while acting as the big brother or adult to the group for being the first in the group to graduate and earn a steady income so that he could treat the group to meals and or being an advisor (though his advices suck) or sort.Takemoto offering to help Hagumi to find her a four-leaf clover. Hanamoto-sensei was going to Mongolia and she wanted to make him a good luck charm or something.Takemoto’s stories are usually about his grieves, melancholies, sadness that he accumulates from looking at Morita who is always seen harassing Hagumi, calling her with weird nicknames like ‘mousey’ while Hagumi controlling herself not to be too emotional, which she miserably failed. Takemoto knew that it was Morita’s way of expressing his love for Hagumi, and he also knew that Hagumi had feelings for Morita as well but also pitied her because she had to suffer from unhappiness due to Morita’s slow respond; Hagumi didn’t like hanging out with Morita, even on a date they'd once went on. Morita is a carefree guy who doesn’t seem care much about his academic performances but rather be away from college doing some other work that nobody knows anything about. He even added a password-powered locker to his own room in the students’ apartment he had rented and sleeps in others’ room because he had never remembered the password to it. The thing that surprises most of those who live together with him is that he never fails to have a lot of money with him when he returns back from ‘work’. He can be seen very tired, as if he had not slept for ages, collapsing the moment he’d return after conveying his final message if he has one to the person nearest to him. And this is also the main reason why he had always failed to hand in his graduation project on time and causing him to stay for another few years in the same year in college (however, Wikipedia reveals that he does graduate much later in the story). In fact, Mayama, once an underclassman to Morita, had graduated earlier than him and had found a stable job with a stable income, unlike him. Takemoto, who is the youngest among the three, even managed to successfully overtake Morita and is now in the same year in the same course as him. It was revealed that one can study in the same course for up till 8 years in the college. In the first chapter (episode) of the anime, Morita can still be seen having the initiative to return back to the dormitory and ask others to wake him up if he were to oversleep the next day so that he can graduate. However as a few years passed, Morita somehow got used to staying back a few more years in college as he decided to put his priority to his money-making works over his graduation project. He’d even left everyone behind to go to places as far as Los Angeles to make more money. It seems that as if money is everything to him. As I have said, Hagumi was badly hurt, again no thanks to Morita who is always nowhere to be found when she needs him. However, Takemoto hadn’t taken any obvious actions, mainly because he also has feelings for Hagumi himself. Looking at Hagumi treasuring the little brooch with a carved image of a duck which Morita had made especially for her, Takemoto can be seen making deep thoughts to himself, sympathetically looking for reasons for himself to avoid saying too much to Hagumi. Hagumi had even fallen sick a whole week after she heard about the news that Morita went abroad, despite saying that she never wanted him to be back. This one-way love triangle (Takemoto > Hagumi < Morita) was formed at the very moment when Takemoto was first introduced to Hagumi in the first episode, and Morita, with his always-thinking-of-money mind, forced her to do weird poses, and then without her permission, took photographs of her. You should have seen Hanamoto-sensei’s facial emotion when he was told that photos of Hagumi can been seen in the internet and someone wanted to buy them! Well, Hanamoto-sensei happened to be Hagumi’s guardian after all and they share the same last name (Hanamoto). In a few episodes earlier, Hanamoto-sensei was away in Mongolia as Hagumi stayed by herself. At first, Yamada offered to let her stay with her but she declined. So, the group would usually go to Hagumi’s house and have dinner with her. However, both Takemoto and Mayama were badly shocked by the food prepared by Yamada and Hagumi the first time they’d gone to her place as they weren’t really edible... who would eat pumpkins with scoops of mint ice-cream on top of them? Yuck. Having ‘creative’ girls make dinner’s like hell. However so, Morita can be seen scooping them into his mouth scoop by scoop as the others hesitated, and then asking for more! Is this the effect of someone in love?!Morita with his 'money, money' face. He seems rather happy... O_O;Morita harrasssing Hagumi. lol, look at Hagumi! Struggling to get her a picture of herself back.Obviously, Mayama and Rika do not seem to feel comfortable with each other.From Takemoto and Morita, let us move on to Mayama; in other words, let us move on from a college love life to a life in the harsh society. Being the first person to graduate from college, he is like the ‘adult’ or ‘big brother’ to the group. However, he’s a person who is afraid of being left out from activities the group would be doing, and that is why no matter now busy he would be, he’d take a short leave from work to visit the college to say hello to his friends. Sometimes, he would even take the initiative to hold some activities for the group. The trip down the canal on a boat to an island with a Ferris wheel would be a good example, but in the end he regretted bringing them on the trip since it was so cold, everyone was freezing, so they ate up all the food they had prepared to keep themselves warm and it had cost him a lot of money since they were bought from a convenience store... and also because he was seasick. He will also be the saviour to the group in moments like when they are really hungry, he’d make a phone call to have a restaurant deliver them some food and he’ll also pay for them. Why? Because he’s an adult, just like Hanamoto-sensei. But being an adult means that you’ll have a lot more challenges than being a student in a college where your only responsibilities are your homework, projects and relationship between your college-mates. As for Mayama’s case, he had been an assistant to Harada Rika under the Hanamoto-sensei’s arrangement. She was involved in a car accident, an accident which had changed her live forever. Her husband, a legendary designer, was killed in the same tragic accident. Rika survived the accident and took over Harada Design which she was also a founder with her husband. However, she was left paralyzed with scars in the back of her body. Mayama, who had been assisting Rika since he was in his final year in college, found himself fallen in love with the women after going through a lot with her, getting to know about the history behind the Harada Designs, and finding out about her scars when she had collapsed in the bathroom. He tried his best to continue working for Rika after he graduated, but Hanamoto-sensei decided it was best for both Rika and Mayama to separate themselves from each other. Rika made Mayama quit as her assistant and then avoided from meeting him anymore, just to avoid hurting his feelings. As they left for their own ways, Rika continued to improve his late husband’s Harada Design as Mayama found a job in Fujiwara Designs, an architectural firm and started to work there till this very episode. He managed to mix himself in with the others at the place he’s working in. Slowly, he found out that he was the only one working in Fujiwara who didn’t know Harada in person. However, he told himself that he can be as good as Harada so that he could grab Rika’s heart. In this very episode, the two once again meet under fate’s arrangement. Rika’s new assistant had fallen sick and was admitted to the hospital. He had told Mayama about it and he had visited him. He then saw Rika, too, nearby. They had a short chat as Mayama tried to convince Rika to take him back to Harada Designs. Rika refused Mayama as she wanted to walk away from him, ending the chat as soon as possible. Mayama then took the initiative to offer Rika to ride her home. He rented a car from nowhere and brought Rika for a car drive...And what do you think are you doing, Mayama... oh okay. *looks away*This is how would Mayama most probably look like in real life. Scary ne? He's Suga Shikao, for your information. XDThis is how Mayama looks like in the live action. Geeky, ne?Despite having a job with a stable income, Mayama had continue to stay in the old apartment where he’d lived with his other college mates in his college days and goes to work on the little scooter he’d been using since his old college days. This is because he’d stop outside Rika’s apartment to have a cup of coffee from a dispenser by the road every once a while when he’d pass by the apartment on his scooter to have a look, checking whether Rika’s at home or not. Everytime Morita had the chance back at the college, he’d spill out Mayama’s little secret in right front of everyone, causing him to be ‘fixed’ by Mayama for his ‘big mouth’. Despite being a weird person with a big, nerdy pair of spectacles and an untidy hair, Mayama also has his own special secret admirer in college: Ayumi Yamada, a young lady who is quite good in pottery. Yamada is the daughter of third-generation owner of the saké (wine) stall in the shopping district in town and was admired by many other boys, including other fourth generation stall owners down the street. Nicknamed ‘tetsujin’ which literally have the meaning of 'iron lady', she is regarded as a tomboy by others as she has been a rough (she doesn’t mind high-kicking while wearing a skirt), tough (giving Morita a ‘good lesson’ when he’d harassed her) and strong (in spirit and soul) lady while having her soft and cute sides as well. Her liking towards Mayama isn’t really a secret as she had once managed to confess her feelings to him despite him avoiding her as best as he could. Mayama’s respond to Yamada was ‘I know’, but he hadn’t taken Yamada’s confession seriously, causing awkwardness among the two whenever they were to meet. As the days go by, the two managed to put themselves together and continued to communicate as normal friends, although Yamada tends to treat Mayama better compared to other boys. However, a notable happening started as Mayama introduced Yamada to create potteries for one of the clients of his company. Mayama’s boss in the company, Nomiya, became attracted to Yamada the moment he was introduced to her by Mayama for her potteries. He offered to start taking pottery making lessons from Yamada. Mayama became uncomfortable as he noticed the two becoming so close to each other and started to develop many ideas to separate them. One may say that Mayama’s jealous, but his reason to his actions was that Nomiya’s a playboy and that he would cheat Yamada’s feelings. I wonder whether whatever he said was true or not.Ouch, that must have hurt. See how Ayu adores Mayama? >D...well, that fractured arm of Mayama was caused by Ayu's father, anyways. And that is not blood... if I'm not mistaken. Or maybe it is after all. =__=Yamada and Mayama under the fireworks. Yamada was wearing a beautiful Yukata. Chocolate curry... eew. I can feel the aura coming out from both of them. Ayu's sure to make weird dishes... :XAno ne... you don't have to add chocolate into your curry at all, Yamada-kun~ And if you do not, your two guests might stay back for lunch after all. ^__^To all young ladies out there: If a member of the opposite gender offered a lift, be sure not to fall asleep. The above is a good example. Note that it's not the worse case yet.When Nomiya and the others asked him why he would be that protective, he told them “it was because I had known Yamada for sometime...”. Obviously, it’s not an answer at all and he tried to loosen himself by running away to make some coffee. “Yamada’s an important friend, that’s why I couldn’t.” he told them as they said, “Don’t say that. If you’re going to protect her, then why not just go out with her?”. Another guy added, “You can't stay in the same mattress as Takemoto-kun forever, you know.” LOL, I like it how they call Mayama a gay. Mayama defended himself as he started to say, “We sleep in different mattresses! And I’m...” but before he could finish, Nomiya added in, “...going after Rika-san?” You are free to guess what’s going to happen next.Sure, the ‘Mayama and Yamada’ pairing is one of my favourite OTPs, but if Mayama decides to go for Rika, then meh, I have no power over him.... On other notes, I've added RunningKid's blog, Rika: The Running Blog (CY: lol) onto my blogroll on the right-hand side of the blog. His blog's design is based on Shakugan no Shana, and it is also the blog's main theme. He writes a variety of blog posts including episode summaries for Code Gleass (which unforturnately I don't watch) and news updates for Shakugan no Shana. As for RunningKid himself, I have known him from a Tsubasa forum sometime ago and have noticed that he had been to almost everywhere I go. He's also a Haruhiist and is quite active in sos-dan.org. I have seen a photo of him which he posted in the Tsubasa forums and he looks cool. He'a also a Chinese like myself, too! He has been in my MSN contact list and we had never chatted through it until today. :D
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