Ah Cocotama, you have turned doing nothing and yet making it feel like something into an art form. And, unlike in Girlfriend I actually don’t give a crap that nothing really happens. I mean..it tells a story, but…it isn’t really that big of a deal…but hey, stuff still happens. I don’t get mad about it, I can just relax and watch the show. And that’s exactly what I like about this show. I can just relax.
Speaking of relaxing, let’s just jump into our Japanese raw series and see what happened this week.
So the episode starts out with Kokoro’s friend Hina having a birthday party. Kokoro and her friend seem excited about it and are going to hang out at her house.
Unfortunately, Hina’s birthday happens to fall on Girl’s day, and that irritates her because she doesn’t like the idea of having to share her birthday with that holiday.
Now, as I say at the beginning of every review, if I get any part of this explanation wrong, forgive me, this series isn’t subtitled and i’m doing my best through my own translating abilities. (which aren’t the best)
Hearing about this party however, the 6 of the Cocotamas want to go to the party secretly and see the dolls and eat food. She agrees and takes along everyone but the book one and the shampoo twins because they want to stay behind and make dolls out of their eggs for when the gang comes back.
Okay. Before I go any further, there are probably a few of you going “the fuck is girls day?” Okay. there is a holiday on March 3rd called “Hinamatsuri” which is basically “Girl’s Day”. You leave dolls out and take them down after the holiday is over to avoid back luck. Yeah I know, it’s not a very exciting holiday.
So anyway, basically all the shampoo ones and the book ones do are try to make the egg dolls…and the shampoo ones get dirty because…you know, that’s their main schtick.
I hope you enjoyed seeing them because you won’t until the end of the episode.
Meanwhile, back at the party, Hina gets really pissed off about the holiday and starts venting about how the dolls ruin her birthday. (once again, this is what i’m assuming).
The old Cocotama even shows up and tells them something similar. The cocotamas then decide once she leaves the room to take the dolls off the display to make her feel better. However, since the girls start to come back before they can finish, the makeup one uses her magic to make Lucky and Merori the new dolls.
Eventually the other four manage to get the dolls out, but, once Merori and Lucky leave, she sees the dolls are gone and freaks out rushing to try to find them.
She of course does, and realizes that the dolls actually mean a lot to her and she doesn’t hate the holiday like she said she did.
Kokoro returns home with the Cocotamas to find the place decorated for the holiday. And that’s where the episode ends.
This was one of those episodes with a pretty lame conflict. The entire conflict was “I don’t like this holiday!” (someone moves her shit) “oh wait! Now i do!” That’s really all it boils down to. It actually got to the point that during the episode I found myself asking “Why were they doing this?” There was nothing really at stake here other than “Will this girl stop whining about her birthday?”
Yes this show tends to have easier problems to resolve, but there seems to be a bit more…emotional weight to them. Like with the old man and the pigeons, or the Cocotamas being stranded in the woods. This one was just….not very epic.
There isn’t a whole lot to say about this episode. I just found myself bored this time around. Not in a bad way persay. I really am not ANGRY at this episode, I just kind of sat here with a big “meh” on my face. All the Cocotamas acted in character and fine, and there was definitely an ATTEMPT at a story, it just felt….. uneventful. Like I didn’t really need to watch this. Like I could have been doing something better with my time. This episode just kind of enveloped me in an air of not caring wondering when the episode was going to end. And that’s almost worse than disliking it. Because that way I can have a strong opinion and feel awake. This time around even remembering this episode has just made me tired. All in all, if you’re bored, sure why not, go ahead and watch it. But don’t expect anything fantastic.
Episode 4.5/10
-Hideki