Cause that's today's plot device!
With the motto better a bit late than not at all, I present to you the Kobato episode 5 review. The 6th episode has been aired a while ago, but this episode deserves its own review. Don’t worry that much, episode 6 will soon follow. That being said, let’s have a good old feel good episode with a bitter sweet touch to it.
The episode starts at the nursery, one of the kids hands Kobato a picture book. While Kobato looks at the cover, Toshihiko teases her saying she probably can’t read it. Quite a strange remark if you ask me since she just read the title out loud…
Probably the ghost story Sawako learned about.
And after the opening, Kobato is reading the book for the kids. She fails miserably because she keeps on skipping pages. Mr. Cool gets inside and remarks that she’s being dull as usual.
Puppy-san is watching the scene from a distance, same as Sayaka who suddenly receives a call. She answers the phone and tells the one who’s calling they’re busy with classes now, then put the phone down while sighing.
Later that day when the kids are heading home and giving Kobato advice about reading a picture book, Sayaka is watching over the finances of the nursery.
Why not call the Sanzenin estate for help?
Sayaka closes the notebook as soon as Kobato enters the room. Dobato asks Sayaka if she can borrow the book to practice her reading skills. Sayaka, who’s feeling slightly uncomfortable, allows it.
In the local Loser’s park, Kobato reads the book again. Suddenly a man walks over to her and tells her to stop reading the book.
"yes, a head"
"It contains +18 content!"
Kobato wants to know why, but the man seems to have super powers and is already walking upstairs after the camera switch. While walking back home, Puppy-san notices the same Mr. Cranky sitting on a bench. This time he looks sad instead of angry. Kobato wonders what’s wrong with him and decides to run over.
She thinks the man doesn’t have a home like her when she arrived in this world, then comforts him saying how Sayaka and Chitose took care of her and gave her a place to sleep. The world takes a weird spin when Kobato asks the old man to stay over at her place (…Yeah that’s right), but ofcourse, the man refuses. He gets up and walks away after noticing the book again.
At night, Kobato is still practicing and… failing. But! the girl shows her genki spirit saying she’ll try better the following day. However…
Watching picture books all night~ picture~ books~
She arrives at the nursery, but instead of the usual chibi crowd greeting her, she’s greeted by some middle aged punks. The naive girl greets them friendly and asks if they need something. One of the tugs answers that they’re here to collect a dept. The tugs are picking on the kids, when Kobato wants to help them she gets pulled back by the hair. Kobato is being strangled, but then gets released when the tug himself gets owned by…
Call Mr Cool, that's his name, that name again is Mr Cool!
Accompanied by a nice Spanish (almost Bleach Espada sounding) theme music, Mr Cool owns the tugs together with a small bite help from Puppy-san. Then Sayaka appears on the scene telling them to stop fighting. She also tells the tugs that they agreed on not coming by day, but the tugs aren’t impressed. One of them even gets close to her saying they want the cash now. Mr Cool tries to stop him, but Kobato is the one getting in between Sayaka and the guy.
"or I'll sing a song!"
The girl is shaking all over while shouting that, but it seems to have effect on the tugs. Toshihiko helps them a hand by crying and calling out for a police officer. The tugs run off without money.
Kobato, still shaking, asks if they’re alright. Toshihiko tells Kobato he wasn’t crying, but figured that if he’d call for the police they’d get scared. While Kobato’s comforting the girl and complementing Toshihiko, Mr Cool is looking at the worried face of Sayaka. Oh yes… and Puppy-san, well…
I bet Kurimu would like you
After work, Puppy reasons that the tugs were the ones calling Sayaka the day before. Kobato worries about her and wonders if she can help them somehow. She suddenly takes out some cashing booklet, but that idea gets blasted away by Puppy-san.
While crying over that, they walk past the same spot as where they mad Mr Cranky yesterday. And again, he’s sitting there staring into space. Kobato runs over again and asks him if he’s hurt somewhere. The man replies that he’s feeling fine, but Kobato continues asking if there’s something she can do for him. He suddenly mentions the book again and tells that Kobato shouldn’t read it anymore. He seems to surprised by the impact of his own words and apologizes while walking away.
Back at her home, Kobato sees Mr Cool entering his room. She didn’t know he also lived at the same apartment, but he tells her it’s obvious (for some reason…). Kobato tells him about how a man in the park told her not to read the picture book. He says that the man is probably the writer of the book, Mori.
Ba**monogatari : Firefly author sono ichi
Kobato then finally reads the book for us. Shortly summarized, a firefly who’s so old that he has forgotten about being a firefly, meets a girl firefly. She reminds him of how fireflies make light and then they both fly around in the night~
"Here's some uranium ma boy~"
Puppy-san wonders if the man has forgotten how to glow. Kobato wants to find a way to cheer him up and the following day, they head to the library. There, Kobato searches all the books about fireflies and starts reading.
In the evening, Kobato talks to Mori again. She invites him to go watch the fireflies on Mount Hachiman.
At the mountain some hours later, Kobato is reading her picture book again. Puppy-san tells her she’s gotten good at reading it, but mentions that the man still hasn’t arrived. Like always… the man appears soon after the statement. Mori walks over and sits down beside Kobato asking her why she invited him with those words. Kobato doesn’t understand what he means until he explains that those were the exact same words his girlfriend used to invite him over. He continues saying she was the one who drew the pictures for the book.
A flashback starts… Mori is busy working, while a girl is standing behind him inviting him over to watch the fireflies. He answers that he doesn’t have time, but the girl responds by saying she’ll wait for him at the mountain and leaves. In the end, he didn’t go… Mori explains that she drew the pictures with a sad tone to them, but they were beautiful. So he decided to make a story the same way as the pictures were drawn. When the book was ready, he had time to watch the fireflies and invited her, but then destiny struck hard…
This is ef all over again ;o;
Naoko ( the girl) survived but lost her eyesight…
Back to reality, Mori was mourning over the accident, he gets up and walks away. Kobato tries to stop him, but trips and falls down. Luckily, Mori was able to catch her just in time. He cleans the cover and suddenly notices they arrived at the spot where Naoko drew the cover of the book.
He drops his flashlight and suddenly the fireflies appear…
A small flashback reveals Naoko’s face and that Mori has never seen fireflies before.
Naoko~
As the flashback ends, the forest is filled with tiny lights of hope.
Now it's Clannad all over again ;o;
The following day, the man isn’t sitting at the bench like usual, Mori’s busy working on a new book and remembered how to glow again…
Kobato received a third konpeito for her efforts to heal the scarred heart of a man who lost his passion. Puppy-san praises Kobato for her efforts, but since she gave him a hard time she gets a…
_
Thoughts :
Such a cute episode~
I liked the music a lot in this episode too, the ost is something to look forward to! Still it seems that all the stories are handled separately. Well, better keep the rest of my comments for tomorrow! Kobato 6 is on the schedule book.
Kyon, at your service~
Birthdate: 20 December