What They Say:
I Can’t Tell You Over The Phone
To use as content for her program, Minare calls her father to find out the origin of her name. Meanwhile, Manager Takarada returns to Voyager along with Toru, Makie’s overprotective brother.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Minare is still depressed over her past failures. For an instant, she wants to convert to a nun. Minare doesn’t know what she wants to do. One day she is a chef, the next day she becomes an exorcist, and the next day she wants to be a nun. It’s refreshing to see Minare just floating aimlessly by on life.
Mizuho has figured out when Minare is being indecisiveness. She calls her out on lifestyle and they bicker for a second. But they instantly forget about it and enjoy each other company. At the end of their discussion, she gives on wanting to be a nun. She wants to get a sex change and thinks this would make Mizuho happy. Her quirkiness is ridiculous but fun to watch.
Minare is unable to come up with a topic for her next radio show. So she calls her father to get material for the show. She comes up with two reasons for calling him. First, she wants to change her name for some whimsical reasons. One of the reasons she picks is that her name has no meaning. This leads to her wanting to know the origins of why he picked that for her. He had three lovers before she was born. The three lovers agreed to break up with him if he named her daughter after them. The Mi part of her name comes from the first lover, the Na part of her name comes from the second lover and the Re comes from the third lover. Minare isn’t thrilled to hear this and wants to kill her father. She wants to kill all men and puts Mizuho and the staff of the radio station in a rough position.
Makie’s brother, Tooru, shows up and creates chaos for everyone involved in her current situation. He almost forces Makie to go back home with him. He says that he never permitted her to out at night. Nakahara attempts to defend her but this unleashes Tooru’s rage. He chokes Nakahara and it’s like he goes Super Saiyan with his anger. He almost ends up killing Nakahara but is snapped out by Makie. Tooru has a few loose screws. He apologizes to Nakahara for what he did. He reveals that when Makie was being bullied, he put the bully and his mom in a bamboo mat and put them in adam to drown. Nakahara’s sister convinces him to let Makie stay with them. He makes a wonderful addition to this crazy cast. But he needs to see a doctor.
I am interested in hearing more about the part-timer who was going to work in the restaurant. Takarada mentions that while he was in the hospital, the part-timer stole drugs and sold them to a drug dealer. That story would work perfectly in this show. Takarada is only upset because he let him touch his butt and he has been arrested. It was a great joke to break the tension.
There is a flashback to the first scene from episode 1. The series had started with Minare facing a bear. This episode explains why she was imagining that she was facing a bear. She wanted to create drama for her radio show. It would have been better if the beginning scene was taken out of episode 1 and placed here. It would explain the context of why Minare was pretending to face a bear. Most of the characters are introduced without knowing anything about them.
I like the direction this episode is taking with setting up the future. The first road is the comedian that Mato and Kureko mention constantly. The comedian reveals that the name “Minare” means “To Make Laugh” in the Ainu language. Maybe the name is why Mato believes in Minare. The second road is that Mitsuo texts Minare and wants to meet up. Mitsuo is finally going to appear in the next episode. Mitsuo has been the bane of Minare’s existence. Whenever Minara mentions him, she wants to kill him.
In Summary:
This episode had the right balance between Minare’s comedy and the seriousness of reality. Minare’s stupidity works best when she is paired up with other characters. The other characters allowed for a chance to experience Minare’s personality firsthand. It has a pleasant flow when she has another character to let out her thoughts. It was a pleasant experience getting to hear someone talk in the Ainu language. It’s one of the languages that is slowly dying but should be preserved in some medium.
Grade: A
Streamed by: Funimation
