Seven of Seven: Episode 9 Commentary

Sweet Temptation! Love, Secrets, and Crib Notes?

This time it’s a Nanarin episode. While Nanarin may be emotionally a crybaby, she has no problem putting herself in danger to save others. It does help to be able to fly and have super-strength. (Was there a photographer hanging out nearby when Yellow-Green Ranger stopped the train? How else would there be a photo of the event for the newspaper?)

Is it wise to simply leave ones Seven Ranger costume in the bushes? I think I recall Nana herself doing this at one time, unless I’m remembering incorrectly. Akane could easily have taken Nanarin’s costume and used it to blackmail her, were she the malicious type. And what about Mr. Maruoka checking bags on the way in for anything not allowed? Was Nanarin able to avoid this, or had Mr. Maruoka already finished and closed the school gates?

I don’t seem to say much about Hitomi. Maybe that will change once she gets an episode of her own. Her main scene up until now has been when she told Nana it wasn’t right to look at Kamichika’s high school choice paper. This time around, her scenes are limited to minor conversation, and laughing at the thought of Nana getting a fever from over-studying. One thing to note is she was also one of the last students to finish the pop quiz. This is probably due to going as slow as she could so she could be in the classroom as support for Nanarin, but eventually she had to finish.

Akane Sugiyama is this episode’s other starring character. She made it into the fast-track class for the same reason as Nana, and under similar conditions of “somehow I made it in”. Mr. Handa and Mr. Maruoka acknowledge that Nana and Akane are always the last two to finish tests. I don’t recall seeing Akane prior to this episode. I’ll have to check the fast-track class photo from when Nana passed the test, and see if Akane’s in there. I wouldn’t imagine they’d let someone who just barely passing a fast-track entrance test to join later in the school year, and Akane’s goal was to enter the fast-track class alongside Kamichika, which suggests getting in at the same time as Nana.

Nanarin says she’ll do poorly on the pop quiz because it’s Nana who always goes to school, but she doesn’t pick up a lesson from this: the other Nanas should keep up with Nana’s studying, in case one has to go in her place. If nothing else, Nanasama should have gone in Nana’s place. While it would have been cheating for Nanasama to score highly on a test, she could have gotten various answers wrong to meet Nana’s general level. Additionally, if Nana reviewed what she learned from school that day with the other Nanas at home, they’d have a general idea of what she’s learning, and she’s better understand and remember the work due to having had to teach it herself.

Kamichika made it to class shortly after Nanarin, and alongside Akane. Does he always get to class just as the bell tolls?

Mr. Handa shows his good side again, while keeping it hidden under his gruff exterior. It’s hard to tell if Mr. Maruoka is the same (with the comment wondering how Nana and Akane even got into the fast-track class). Maybe Mr. Maruoka just likes to pay the bad guy, as he’s the one to suggest demoting the two to regular classes. The two go into conversation about summer vacation, the English dub mentioning a student exchange program. When the Japanese version was in production, I wonder if they had yet thought that far into the series as to know they’d have such an episode for the summer vacation. It’s easy enough to slip future-references in a dub when you know how the entire rest of the series will play out (and this future-reference seems harmless.)

When Yellow-Green Ranger writes her message on the classroom window, one student asks what it says. The English dub had another student say something to the effect of, “I don’t know, it’s in Japanese.” That was rather lame. The series takes place in Japan. Don’t try to hide that the characters speak Japanese as their native language, even though you the viewer hear them in English. Japanese is on the chalkboard all the time, and none of the students have been seen complaining that they can’t read that. Likewise the Japanese on their tests. This reminds me of an episode of Sailormoon where the girls are looking at a letter from Neo Queen Serenity, and they poke fun at how Usagi’s always been bad at kanji. The dub instead has them comment on how her writing’s just a bunch of scribbles. (It’s unfair to compare the Seven of Seven dub with any of the earlier Sailormoon dubs, though. About the only things fair to compare with the Sailormoon dubs would be the original Cardcaptor Sakura dub, and the original Nausicaa hack job of dub.)

Nana apologizes for having Nanapon hang the laundry to dry. (Correction: Laundry and one fish pillow.) Don’t the other Nanas ever help out? Or was it Nana’s turn this time, and her fever kept her from it? If the other Nanas expect Nana to get into the same high school as Kamichika, then they really need to help out more, so Nana has more time to study. (On the other hand, taking a break from studying to hang or fold laundry makes for a nice break.)

Kamichika takes another stand, to keep Nana and Akane from being kicked out of class, even with an intimidating Mr. Maruoka standing tall over him. He must have a strong sense of justice and helping others. He can’t maybe actually like Nana a little, can he? We don’t get to see if he helps out others and gives them encouraging comments as he does Nana sometimes. Then again, none of the others seem to do as poorly as Nana, nor do they have the bully trio to get in their way.

My favorite part in this episode? I think it has to be when Nanarin is crying while asking herself how the other Nanas can expect her to cry on cue.