There’s all sorts of personalities in each group, and in our group of demis we already got both the loud and the cute one. So normally, it was time for Episode 5 of Demi-chan wa Kataritai to bring the introvert and create a new challenge for Takahashi-sensei: that of helping the snow-woman get over her anxiety around others.
Japanese Original Episode Title: 雪女ちゃんは冷たい
Plot
Yuki has decided to trust Tetsuo and is now having interviews with him to help her understand her nature as a demi. The reason why she decided to trust him is still unclear to me – probably because of his massive arms and sensual voice that has the unique ability to sexually echo into women’s heads. Tetsuo uses his research skills and finds ways to help her.
Yuki is having a hard time adapting in school. She confesses to Tetsuo that the reason why this happens is because, at some point when she moved here, she made the hot water freeze while she was taking a bath, and that makes her worry that if she is that strong, she might unintentionally harm the people around her. After numerous uncomfortable questions on how she takes baths, Tetsuo seems to be deeply interested in how her sweat glands work. According to her, she never sweats.
Tetsuo then goes on hard-core research mode and uses his sexy academic skills to resolve the crisis. Somehow his reading of fairy tales and myths about snow women makes his realize that it would be a great idea to experiment with Yuki in the first place. Great idea, experimenting with someone who feels absolutely uncomfortable having people on their case. And his genius idea is to offer her a hot foot-bath, while she reads embarrassing stories about her kindred. REVELATION OCCURS! She get cold, sweaty feet, and produces ice in the hot water. Apparently, she is not dangerous, just really stressful, and she literally gets ‘cold feet’ when in an uncomfortable situation. Now here’s a new thing to fetishize about. Cold sweaty feet. Ew.
Excited about not having to worry about whether she can accidentally kill her peers, Yuki invites her friends out for ice cream. The have a deep talk with Hikari about her lack of personal boundaries which unexpectedly ends up in Hikari playfully munching on Yuki’s shoulder. Great breakthrough there.
As the girls sit and have lunch on the rooftop, minding their own business, Tetsuo decides to barge in, and then the most incomprehensible of conversations happens, where they discuss how they refer to each other. Tetsuo call Hikari just Hikari, but Himari is Himari-chan, and calling her Takanashi or Hikari-chan is awkward. Calling Kyouko, well, Kyouko, is too informal, so Kyouko prefers to be called Machi instead, because Kyouko is too embarrassing. And then Hikari calls all the teachers with their name and appropriate suffix, while Tetsuo is just a ‘sensei’ and Satou-sensei is just Sakki. I literally got a headache.
The episode ends with Yuki inviting a boy out. His expectations are high, only to later find out he’s been invited to hang out with a group of girls… Not bad eh?
Themes & Trivia
Yuki-onna: The snow-woman is a spirit in the Japanese folklore. She appears and punishes men in the snow, and is a very common character in literature and film. I personally remember coming across them for the first time watching Tatsu no ko Tarou, a 1979 film.
Japanese Honorifics: Cause you can’t just call people using their name only! Depending on your relationship with people, you need to apply the right honorific after their name.
Pretty uneventful episode again, but I guess it had to happen, to get Yuki’s situation out of the way. Hopefully the next one will be more to the point.