Atri – My Dear Moments Ep 3 & 4

Natsuki finally figures out on how he could positively contribute to the island!

Today we meets some kids and Ryuuji! It was rather adorable how they called Natsuki “HITMAN” and he just embraced the role and played his part till they figured out how to access the building. It was pretty funny to watch.

Unsurprisingly, there are no teachers at the school, and it’s Minamo who has taken it upon herself to try being a teacher for the kids. Since the children had lost their parents, Ryuuji has taken them under his wing in attempt to help them as much as he can. He had previously taken them to the mainland, but they were all treated like outcasts and ultimately returned to the island.

Despite his good heart, Ryuuji didn’t really leave the best first impression with the way he kept yapping at Natsume, calling him a traitor for having left the island. Though it’s rich of him to say that considering he’s a hypocrite considering he had left the island and came back at one point too. The only difference is that Natsuki had the privilege to attend the Academy, but in the end, he too couldn’t stick around. So contrary to what Ryuuji believes, they do share more in common than he’d probably care to admit. When Natsuki was showing the kids a method of how they can store power to later uses, unfortunately Ryuuji was quick to bark at him about it not being enough. Seriously dude, chill.

Fortunately thanks to Ririka attempting to use wind to run electricity, Natsuki finally found inspiration to positively contribute to the island, and that’s using his knowledge to figure out how to rebuild their infrastructure with re-utilizing parts that were previously abandoned or discarded it failed. The plan is to build a Tidal Power Generation system that can restore the island’s electrical grid. However to do so, they need to salvage whatever parts and tools from both across the island and what’s left in the sea.

Much to my relief, that tension between Ryuuji and Natsuki didn’t drag out as were quick to get past their presumptions when Natsuki had apologized for thinking he was stupid and asked for his assistance. Though I will admit, it did feel a bit rushed and cheesy how quickly it happened, but you know what– I’d rather they get it over-with than to waste time on it. It was good to see Natsuki’s maturity of understanding his own limitations. He knows from past experience at the academy  that on paper, his plans may seem good but once applied in practical use they work the way he thought they would. That’s where Ryuuji can step in. His family previously ran the Mojima Manufacture which had all sorts of machinery and resin they are planning to use to build the tidal power generation system. The problem right now though is that they can’t find anymore spare batteries, even in the ocean. So they are in a real pinch. Atri had volunteered to not only give her consent to Natsuki to sell her (he refused), but also to use her own battery (something he also immediately said no to).

This saddened Atri because she’s really struggling with finding a way to be considered “useful” to Natsuki. Right now, she feels like she hasn’t been able to contribute in a positive way, but we the viewers know, and probably even Natsuki and the others too recognizes she already has been. Without Atri, it would be more difficult and time consuming for Natsuki to restock his supplies like carrying the water container, to retrieve the resin from the factory with just the submarine alone, without Atri they wouldn’t have had a delicious batch of crabs that she decided to nab on the side. Without Atri, they wouldn’t have been able to scare off Catherine after punching her in the face she took Minamo hostage in attempt to get Natsuki to hand over Atri. So while Atri may not be doing things she may considers to be useful, she has certainly contributed in a number a ways.

But that’s not the only thing that’s been pressing Atri. Ever since they’ve started hanging out around the school, Atri’s been feeling off, like she doesn’t feel like she has the right to be there. It does raise a lot of questions as to why she feels that way in the first place. And to further the mystery of her background, when shopping around for batteries, the shop keeper they had initially went to have Atri appraised for her value told them that someone really wants to get their hands on her, and is willing to pay any amount to do so. Considering she’s from a discontinued and so-called “recalled” line of 4th Generation Humanoids, and the fact that Natsuki’s grandmother has gone through such lengths to keep both Atri and the data hidden that it does smell fishy as to what’s the big story behind the whole thing. Even Natsuki’s becoming a lot more aware of the situation, especially since he recognizes that Atri’s behaviour is something far more intelligent than a robot, as she so accurately depicts Human emotions and breaks the rule of “robots can’t hurt humans”.

And lastly, we have Catherine. After being MIA for the past two episodes, she’s back and and she’s more desperate than ever to get the debt collectives off her back. However as Minamo noted, even when she was held at knife point, Catherine wasn’t particularly convincing when she was threatening to hurt her if they didn’t hand Atri over. I suppose one part of that has to do with how things were brushed over really fast in this episode, and it didn’t feel like there was really anything at stake to put Minamo in danger. The other, it was very apparent that Catherine really didn’t want to have to resort to such methods, and she was forcing herself to try to be intimidating as possible– which really didn’t pan out as she hoped. But thanks to that, we unexpectedly got to learn a little bit about her when she had dropped her wallet. Inside, Minamo had found her teaching license, which revealed her real name is Hanako Osada, and she previously taught as a grade school teacher. We don’t know how she ended up being neck deep in debt, but if by anything we know of by now, it’s probably related to trying to get off the island to begin with.