Greetings everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend! I had the first snow in my yard on Sunday! It was very cold, but the white and innocent-looking snow which covered all of my city in its blanket, would just clear and erase all of the worries and trouble that one could have! Nevertheless, it was really cold, and if you are in the part of the world where it’s also snowing and getting colder with each passing second make sure to dress warm and stay healthy!

Being a person who really loves snow, I can say I had an extremely enjoyable weekend! But another factor that made my week amazing was Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari’s latest episode! I can guarantee you this was the best episode of this anime so far. I am not even sure if they can beat it with the remaining episodes. It made me cry, weep, sob, and smile and laugh. It give me the taste of bitter-sweetness, but at the end it left me with a feeling of relief and joy.

Since I do not want to get you all bored with my introduction, let’s not lose any more time and get right into the review of the episode! GO!!!

Japanese Title: ため池

Plot

 

It is a regular day in the world of our anime: Souta, Nakajima, Souta’s older sister Rinko, and Poco are spending it together. Rinko has arrived at Souta’s place because the following day is the day when they are supposed to pay their respects to their deceased mother. However, one thing is off about Rinko. Both Souta and Nakajima notice it. She starts cleaning the place, makes it practically sparkle, she even offers to cook, even though she isn’t very good at cooking according to Souta. She refuses to drink alcohol, and at a later point in the episode she doesn’t let Nakajima smoke next to her, even though she never seemed to have minded before. Guess why? But we won’t be talking about that now 😉

I do not want to spoil the episode too much for you, so you can enjoy it all by yourself, but I will say that at the end Souta was wondering if he is remembering all these stuff from his childhood and teenage days just because he is back to Kagawa, or maybe because it has some connection to Poco? At least that was the vibe I got from him, when he was questioning himself about all this.

We also learnt that apparently our little tanuki boy Poco, can do much more than just turn into a human. He can project the memories of people dear to him, and let them relive some moments of their past.

Another thing I really loved about the episode was that we saw the bond between Souta and Rinko. The two have always been great siblings and cared for each other, and apparently Rinko was a sort of mother figure for Souta.

Themes and Trivia

After watching the episode twice, I can conclude that the main theme of the episode was that events in people’s lives can be repeated, and that there people can find meaning and importance in seemingly tiny things.

First it was Nakajima following a crying Rinko, on a certain road that was right next to the reservoir in their town. Both times she asked him how long is he planning to follow her, and both times Nakajima stayed with her until she calmed down. This of course revoked more memories, like Souta’s accident, and even Nakajima’s quite belated confession of love to Rinko (of course he had those feelings for her while they were both still teenagers). As a reply Rinko told Nakajima that he has always been, and currently is a family to her, even though they are not connected by blood. You could basically conclude from her words that there are things that are much more important than being connected by blood. Need an example? Look at Souta and Poco, they aren’t even of the same species!

Second it was Souta telling Rinko that her cooking is terrible, and that she shouldn’t cook. Of course the setting was different, the first time Souta was a child, and they had just lost their mother, and this time Souta was a grown-up man, who was worried if something bad might happen, considering that Rinko doesn’t know how to cook things. You know, like food poisoning? Haha…

Either way, in both cases Rinko ended up crying, and in both cases Souta regretted what he said right away and apologised. This is a proof of a completely healthy and functioning sibling relationship! At least that is how me, a person who has never had siblings, imagines one.

Well, with this the review is over! I do hope you enjoyed the episode, and I do hope that you enjoyed my review on the latest episode of Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari! Do not hesitate and let us know, here on Manga.Tokyo, what your thoughts are on the latest episode and maybe what do you expect from the following ones! See you next week folks! Stay warm!

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