there are so many different ways that
anime can draw us in pulse-pounding
action heart-wrenching crap I can't
handle an or who crying sorry I need a
minute okay I'm back this week a look at
an Ohana
to unforgettable Opie's on Ohana is
worth talking about for a lot of reasons
not the least of which is that it's one
of the only animate ever make me cry but
what's really interesting for the
purpose of this series is that it's also
one of the only single core shows with
two Opie's our cherie
Ann Ohana's first Opie preceded the
show's original run back in 2011 when
the show was rebroadcast during the
lead-up to the motion picture sequel a
new Opie was created using the film's
new theme song circle game both Opie's
of superlative self-contained stories
but on top of that the second Opie works
as a continuation of the first we open
on the super piece busters lined up as
children frozen in time and a brief
flash we see the hill where Menma died
within their silhouettes and time leaps
forward
forget-me-nots takes men must place in
the lineup as teenagers we see that each
of the kids on the Left has changed a
great deal
Popo was clearly self-conscious as a
child but now as an air of apparent
confidence around him by contrast jintan
once relaxed and self-assured now looks
tense and reserved annaroo was stealing
a shy glance at jintan in the past but
now can't bring herself to look at him
on the right side les has changed su
Rico appears to be more aloof but still
seems cool and collected while Yuki Otsu
spose one hand in his pocket glancing at
Menma hasn't changed at all in the last
10 years interestingly jin tans new pose
mirrors it they both seem to be holding
their hands back from Menma spot hinting
at their unresolved feelings toward her
the general composition of the lineup
gives us an idea of how men must passing
has affected the group their eye lines
are now all over the place indicating
they don't see eye to eye anymore and
men m'as absence has thrown them all
off-balance we see a flash of blue sky
something that we'll find is quite
important as this Opie goes on and Menma
reappears to throw her forget-me-nots up
onto the title Menma stands on the
bridge the secret base overlooking the
river where she died and recalls
childhood memories of playing with her
friends
these memories are represented in a
striking manner as ghostly figures with
blue outlines on the same frame as their
older counterparts but while the shot of
the kids running gives us a sense of
their youthful exuberance and tells us
roughly what the pecking order is in
their group it's not the only thing that
this shot conveys pay attention to how
men
is framed under an open sky because it
sets her apart from the rest of her
friends
take for instance jintan who is stuck in
his room moping about separated from the
same sky by a window when memories of he
and his friends playing legally distinct
from Pokemon creep in he appears to be
irritated and tries to put them out of
his mind only natural given how much
pain those memories bring him this shut
of Honor ooh hanging out with her
so-called friends uses positioning to
imply a disconnect between them while
her friends are overlapping there's a
distinct gap between her and them their
heads being cropped out of the frame
implies that none of them are really
present in the conversation either as we
pull back we see that they aren't
instead they're buried in their cell
phones the bars of the guardrail behind
them are framed like a cage around them
hinting that annaroo feels trapped and
isolated from her real friends again it
also separates her from the blue sky in
the background if that visual metaphor
weren't clear enough she then sadly
grafts one of the bars as though or a
full-sized bar of a jail cell and we pan
away in a seamless edit to the roadside
where Popo sits idly beside his motor
scooter this wide open establishing shot
would seem to indicate that Popo has a
lot of freedom that would make sense for
a world traveling high-school dropout
but look at how the trees around him box
him in like the rest of his friends Popo
was cut off from the sky with four shots
like this already it's safe to say that
cutting characters off from the sky is a
motif in this Opie but what exactly does
it mean to me it symbolizes how in one
way or another all of these characters
have become trapped in their own little
worlds apart from each other since their
friend died they stopped moving forward
which is reflected in the fact that
every one of them has been entirely
stationary up to this point despite
being lavishly animated Yuki Otsu and
sewer hose introduction would seem to
cement this interpretation they sit
together in the shade of a local shrine
again boxed off from the sky and while
they've stayed closer than the rest of
their group there's still a tangible
divide between them I mean literally the
support pillar of the shrine creates a
sharp line between them that only Yuki
Otsu crosses and even then only barely
and while suru Co wit's her head around
to watch images of her old friends
running off into the shrine Yuki Otsu
seems nonplussed he only turns when he
spots Menma going the other way
men must cheery smile launches a
firework off into the sky a signal that
draws all of her old friends together
they all run to meet up at the old
bridge where she was standing catching
to one another under the open sky
finally moving forward instead of
standing still when Popo joins up with
them they form a single connected shape
on the screen but the shot is still out
of balance without jintan in it and they
all look back to see if he's ready to
catch up initially this surprises him
and he looks to men most for reassurance
she gives it to him with a warm smile
and they turn to discover that their
friends are already with them their
positions are flipped from the lineups
at the start of the opie their body
language is much warmer and friendlier
and their eye lines all connect
plus with Menma they're the group shot
is properly balanced on top of that the
shot is closer and more intimate and the
camera is a handheld shake to it
suggesting a less detached more
subjective viewpoint that coupled with
the blue outlines on the characters
would seem to indicate that this is
taking place inside someone's head
probably Jin tans the last scene shows
the super piece Buster's hanging out
together in their secret base having
made peace with and found comfort in
their memories this shot is balanced
even without having men met in it though
interestingly Yuki Otsu seems to have
taken up her position which those who've
seen the show know is foreshadowing of
his proclivities everyone's attention is
drawn to something by the door and in
the next shot we see that it's the
ghostly Menma normally only jintan can
see err but the blue tinge interlined
work indicates that this is a recent
memory like the kids rather than a real
incarnation at this point in the story
Menma has already moved on everyone else
in frame disappears as Menma moves into
her own ghostly monochromatic world and
then she fades once more into memory
leaving only a symbolic forget-me-nots
behind the second dopey picks up one
year after the end of the series we see
jintan hanging up his old hiki Komori
t-shirt while wearing a new shirt that
says freedom it's not exactly subtle but
it does tell us how he's changed in the
last year when he turns toward the scene
in his memories it's replaced by the
grown-up Menma not a ghost but another
fond memory that fades as he moves his
gaze up to the sky and reminisces about
the events a year ago a younger man mo
rushes to catch up with her friends
bringing us to a Naru standing by the
train crossing and waiting for a friend
the train rushes by carrying Yuki Otsu
and Sirico on their school commute
they're each absorbed in their own thing
but judging by their faces they seem to
be in a decent mood as the train pulls
into the station they're both pulled out
of their reverie panning up the hill to
the secret base we see Popo returning to
it with a nostalgic look on his face
note that Popo
jintan and annaroo are all framed under
open skies with little to no obstruction
showing that they've started to move
forward the Opie flashes back further to
the beginning of the series the moment
when jintan and Menma came out of their
loneliness and realized they were beside
each other again
jumping back further we see them in the
same position as kids
Menma takes hold of this memory
symbolized by another forget-me-nots and
turns it into a torrent of warm happy
memories that blows over the whole town
on aru's sewer KO Popo and Yuki Otsu are
all standing at the shrine looking
sullen when men m'as memories touch them
their attention is drawn to their
younger selves and together they look
upward uncertainly as though they think
Menma might be watching over them one of
the memories finds jintan as well and as
he takes hold of it he finds himself
united with his friends in the base as
one they look up toward the super Peace
Buster's inscription on the upper
platform we pulled back to see Menma
looking at it too and she seemingly
swells with pride over having brought
her friends back together note that she
has a black outline indicating that
she's actually there and she's delighted
to find that all of her friends can see
her from their outfits we can tell that
this definitely takes place during the
epilogue movie but in that movie they
don't actually reunite with Menma it's a
curious choice and I'm not entirely sure
what the meaning is but it's touching
nonetheless as is the final shot of
their mugs gathered on the table men was
included in terms of music composition
editing and animation both of these
Opie's are beautiful with just a few
shots they let you get inside each
character's headspace and once you've
seen the whole series just watching them
can bring you dangerously close to tears
take it from me of the two I'd say our
Shiori is definitely stronger if only
for the fact that it's better able to
stand on its own but if you've already
seen the show circle game is just as
capable of tugging at your heartstrings
at any rate and the astounding effort
went into crafting both of these Opie's
and they both deserve your appreciation
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behind welcome to the NHK well my
channel statistics tell me that
literally all of you have already seen
it this week's highlight is part one of
my super best friend approved JoJo's
Bizarre Adventure breakdown if you liked
that be sure to check out last week's
episode where I dug into the influence
of Dragon Ball Z's opening on other
Shonen anime and if for some strange
reason you want to
me in person I'm going to be hanging out
at Anime Revolution in Vancouver BC this
weekend so if you see a pale lanky
awkward with glasses it's
probably a Vash the Stampede cosplayer
but say hi anyway because there's a
small chance it's made for now this is
Jeff through professional shitbags
signing out from my mother's basement