Burning desire.
What They Say:
Episode #11: “The Story of Cold, Flames, and Well Wishes”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
It’s Hikari’s sweet 16! Or not so sweet as it would seem that a cold has caught her at the worst possible time.
To say that she is disappointed is an understatement. Futaba is elected the official friend representative to go to her house and deliver the birthday goods and well wishes. Not like she wasn’t going to go visit anyway, but now she has a good excuse. On the way there Futaba encounters Kokoro also trying to deliver a birthday present. How adorable! The two head off together and Futaba tries to establish a truce with the young admirer.
Hikari’s whole family makes an appearance in this episode! She also has an older brother and intact parental unit! After how often in anime do we end up seeing kids with no parents or missing parents this is quite a shock. I like how the family members trade-off in hair colors between green and blond. I also like how the biggest issue they’re having is that they all brought cake.
Kokoro, to shy to admit it, wants Hikari to come to the Mountain Burning Festival, where they’ll be working to tend to controlled burn. So the story skips ahead a month to the event and we are given a good animated look at a pretty unique festival. (Here’s a really good article about it!) Of course, the girls get separated from each other and Teko makes a huge discovery about Kokoro-chan.
No, the translators haven’t been making a mistake this entire time about Kokoro’s gender, but Teko and Pikari have! The poor kid straight up told them he wanted to be a great man of the sea, and yet Kokoro’s name and cute face just made Hikari and Futaba assume he was a she this entire time. (Plus the whole thing where his sister dressed him in a kitty princess dress for Halloween. She’s in this episode as well, and Futaba and her have a moment of hazy recognition after the dream escapade.)
All Kokoro wanted was to show off his manliness in front of Hikari and he finally gets to during the event. It’s a bit unfortunate that a bit of that coolness is tempered by Hikari finally realizing Kokoro is a boy, but the impression is still made. Hang in there Kokoro!
In Summary:
There’s a lot going on in this episode of Amanchu Advance! Hikari celebrates her sixteenth birthday with her family, closest friend, and admirer by her side. Then it’s off to the burning mountain festival for a bit of pyromania to usher in spring. I still feel bad for Kokoro though, there’s nothing like having your crush spend nine months misgendering you. We’re inching closer to the start of a new school year and that means that there’s only one episode left! We were having so much fun though…
Episode Grade: A –
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
