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Now in Japan
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Tuesday, 09 January 2007 00:00 |
 One 'proper' episode of Densha Otoko to go, and Yamada's got another fine mess to get himself out of - Saori's found out about his posts to the message-board, and although she hasn't bothered to read them she's feeling very much betrayed. Does the internet's best-known otaku have it in him to try and win her trust again, or is it time for him to finally admit defeat..?
Keisuke's reaction on seeing Yamada is to give him a good kicking - but that's not half as painful to him as hearing Saori tell him not to show his face near her again. To the folks on the board, the solution's simple: somehow explain to Saori what the board was about and why he was posting there - but Yamada already knows that Saori's in no mood to listen, so for what he plans is the last time he says farewell to the board and turns off his computer - it's the end of the line for the train man. Not everyone's prepared to give up, though, with Jinkama being particularly keen to try and patch things up - so while Saori visits Italy on a business trip, back in Japan the effort to get Yamada to try again gathers pace...
More and more of Saori's friends are finding the board and taking the time to actually read it, instead of just flying off the handle - and Kaho in particular is impressed by what she finds. She tries to show Saori, but she's initially not interested. It finally falls to Yuuko to persuade her, on the grounds that if she's that determined not to forgive Yamada for what he's done, she should at least bother to confirm the facts.
The online efforts to get Yamada back in the game also continue, with Osaka-man leading the effort. His motivational speech leads to a series of messages in the real world - posters, TV, radio - to try and persuade him to come back to the board. There are a lot of neat little accidental run-ins between Yamada and the board members, but he's completely oblivious until his top-rated idol Karin-chan makes a personal appeal from the States for him to come back to the board. I confess I may have gotten a little teary-eyed when Yamada realised the messages were aimed at him, and was running through Akiba reading all the signs. That doesn't happen very often.
Jinkama continues to steal the show comedy-wise, first giving Keisuke the Darth Jinkama treatment over telling Saori about the message-board - he hadn't seen that side of her before, and kowaii doesn't begin to describe it - followed by her efforts to help Yamada heal his broken heart by jumping his bones. Sakurai's also now firmly in the comic relief department, as his continued scheming to get Saori for himself only manages to get him a wedding interview with her mother. Would that count as being a sugar mommy? :)
We're left with Saori picking up a voicemail message from Yamada asking her to read through the message thread, to see what he's had to say about her. She begins to read, the episode ends... and if I didn't already have the next episode on hand I'd be raging about cruel cliffhangers. As Densha Otoko draws to a close, it just gets better and better at drawing you in and getting you to care about what happens next. Yamada still hasn't made the transformation from hopeless otaku to normal human being that I'd hoped he would make, and I'd guess it's too late for that to happen now, but for the most part this has been a genuinely enjoyable ride. Now just to see the ending. And the alternate ending. And the DX ending. Trust the Japanese to milk it for all it's worth... |
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