She crashed because the girl in the hospital room, is her. Presumably this is why she ages when the others don’t - she’s still alive, in a coma; I’m guessing the whole thing will slowly be revealed over the course of the series.
That is my guess to.
I like your theory of the Ikiryo, ShawnMerrow. It seems plausible.
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Episode 5 -
spoiler
Interesting opening scene of the “Beautiful and Cruel Poet, Mr. Mika Kirameki” who believes that the world can be separated into two parts – beautiful and ugly.
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Fumika has to deliver a Shigofumi to a cat, Schroedinger (of Schrödinger’s cat?), and meets Chiaki, who has a Shigofumi for the same cat. They determine that the letters are from and old man and his wife that probably died around the same time and Fumika thinks that it was a blessing because “being left alone is incredibly cruel”. I wonder if this has something to do with her.
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Kaname is still trying to find the girl he knew and discovers an old article that says a poet was shot by his thirteen year old daughter, and has the picture of the poet from the opening of this episode, but no explanation is given as to why. Kaname starts calling his old classmates from middle school.
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Chiaki asks Fumika why she ages and says again that mail carriers are dead and tells Fumika that she should look the way she did when she died. Chiaki also finds out that Fumika is afraid of cats.
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Kaname speaks to a girl named Natsuka and tells her that he needs to reach Mikawa. Natsuka remembers him and ask if he was going out with Mikawa. She says that if he tells her the truth, she will give him a hint to where Mikawa is. Natsuka knows that Kaname had a crush on Mikawa and there is a flashback of Kaname speaking to a girl that looks like Fumika. It looks like a confession of love and it also looks like the girl rejects him. Kaname tells Natsuka that Mikawa turned him down and not to tell anyone. Natsuka says that Mikawa might be at Yuzawa General Hospital. But Natsuka is puzzled by Mikawa’s rejection of Kaname, since she was under the impression that Mikawa liked him.
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As Kaname arrives at the hospital, Schroedinger runs onto the hospital grounds with Fumika still chasing him. She becomes startled as she flies by the room with the unconscious girl in the bed and crash lands right into Kaname. She recognizes him and covers his eyes, asking him to be quiet and he wants to know if she’s running away from the hospital. The cat chooses that exact moment to come to Fumika and rub against her. This makes her jump and the cat runs off again. So does Fumika.
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Chiaki and Fumika finally corner the cat in a building that’s about to be demolished and it was nice to find out a little about Chiaki as well. Schroedinger scratches on one of the doors. The cat once lived here with his humans and both Shigofumi contain a key to the apartment. Fumika opens the door and the cat goes right to his little bed and falls asleep. It’s very sad and made me tear up. The old couple’s last thoughts were of their cat. However, the cat will still lose its home since the building is still being torn down. Fumika tells it to “say all your goodbyes in this one day.” I wonder what will happen to the cat now. Chiaki asks Fumika if she has family and Fumika cryptically says – “I ended it.”
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As Kaname is about to enter the hospital room where Mikawa is, his father shows up and they enter the room together. Kaname is surprised by the girl’s appearance and his father tells him that she hasn’t woken up since the incident three years earlier. Kaname is really confused now and wonders just who he saw on the roof that day. I love how this show keeps giving hints about Fumika but always leaves you wanting more!
I am in total agreement with you, Wicca. I thought this was going to be a totally episodic show with very little to connect the episodes. What we have here is a show with two different story lines the individual episodes shigofumies and the back story of Fumiko. I can’t wait to see where it goes next!
Actually Newshawk, I think the individual episodes may end up connecting somehow too.
I already think the first ep of the girl shooting her father might be a similar situation of Fumika and her father. The other eps may tie in too. I do see little connections here and there. But you’re right - I can’t wait to see where it goes too!
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Episode 6 -
spoiler
The detective tells his son that he couldn’t possibly have met Fumika, since she’s been asleep in the hospital for the past three years. But Kaname is still pretty sure that it was Fumika he saw on the roof that day. However, he does ask his father why Fumika is asleep. Detective Noji can’t tell him, but does confirm that she shot her father. But now I wonder if her father is actually dead. I had thought his appearance in the last episode was a flashback, but now I’m not so sure.
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Kikukawa is being bullied at school and calls himself “Half-Dead Person” in a chat room, but Morishita figures it out and Kikukawa begs him for help. Morishita refuses and runs away, thinking Kikukawa is crazy, but the bullies saw them talking and accuse Morishita of being Kikukawa’s friend. They ask him if he’d like to take Kikukawa’s place or else prove they aren’t friends. Morishita lures Kikukawa to the school roof that night and Kikukawa sees that he’s joined with the bullies. They want him to walk across a steel beam and I think Morishita was relieved when the night guard showed up; he really isn’t cut out to be a bully.
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The next day, the teacher announces that Kikukawa has died. Morishita feels bad, but the bullies only look annoyed at having lost their fun. It looks like the school is going to suppress the truth too, so as not to embarrass themselves, since this is the second incident since the hostage situation. It also looks like Morishita will be taking Kikukawa’s place as the victim of the bullies and he’s also become “Half-Dead Person 2” in the chat room. He now realizes the torment that Kikukawa had been going through and how hard it is to endure the mental torture.
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The bullies take Morishita to the roof. They want to blindfold him and make him walk across the steel beam and Morishita knows they will never give up until he’s dead too. Fumika interrupts them to deliver a Shigofumi to Morishita from Kikukawa. The bullies try to bully her as well and she knocks them all out. However, the letter brings no comfort to Morishita and once the bullies come to, they torment him even more. How convenient that there just happens to be a screwdriver nearby and Morishita uses it to stab one of the bullies. The other two run from the screaming, seemingly insane Morishita, but Fumika knows he did it to survive “as an animal” would. And now he will have to go to reform school. The bullies have also moved on, to a girl this time and in the long run, nothing changes. It’s a vicious circle and it’s really sad that people feel the need to be that way.
What annoys me about Episode 6 is that it appeared the teacher(s) did not notice any of the signs of the bullying of either student. Graffiti on the desk tops? Did the teacher(s) think the victims did that themselves? That doesn’t speak well of a school system where blatant signs of bullying and hazing are ignored. Not to mention the custodian who interrupted the first “game”-didn’t he notice the steel I-beam laid out on the railing? Even more so, why was it still there days later?
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I know there will be those who take me to task for pointing out these plot holes, but it just smacks too much of either sloppy research and writing or a too rushed schedule for churning out scripts. Either way it is an annoyance in an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable series. I hope it’s just a singular occurrence that will be overshadowed by the upcoming episodes.
I was bullied more then a few times in grade school right in front of the teacher with them doing nothing. To many teachers will turn a blind eye to bullies.
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Actually -
Except for the steel beam, this episode was pretty spot on. Bullying like this goes on all too often and nothing is really done about it. There is an article somewhere on this forum about a recent suicide that was the result of bullying. Teachers rarely do anything anymore. They don’t have the authority to enforce strict discipline anymore and some of them are just too overworked (or even scared themselves) to care. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. The stories I could tell you!
OK, I guess I’m just showing my age. Not having any children in school any more, I seem to have lost contact with that segment of the population. I’ll take your word for it.
Episode 5
I believe it’s implied that the girl in the hospital bed is supposed to be Fumika. So I think it’s fitting the cat’s name is Schrodinger.
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Schrodinger’s cat is a thought experiment where a cat is put in a sealed box along with a container of poison, and a sealed radioactive source. if the Geiger counter inside ticks, then the container breaks and the poison kills the cat. The idea is, that after a while, the cat is both alive and dead at the same time. (something like that anyway)
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Fumika delivers Shigofumi, so in theory she should be dead. However, she’s also alive in a coma. So in a way, it’s kind of funny that she’s chasing a cat named Schrodinger.
Episode 7: we get confirmation that the girl in the bed is Fumi-chan. And by the end we find out that episode 8 will reveal her origin -
Ep. 7
First what do people in this series have against stairs? Sure it takes longer then jumping but its better for your health.
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I think Kirameki Furikawa writing on Haruno arm has some connection to why Fumika shot him. I just have a feeling that writing on people has something to do with his creative process and it has been four years since he wrote a book the same time Fumika been in the hospital. The next episode should show if I’m right or wrong.
I think you are right ShawnMerrow -
spoiler
Kirameki did say that he doesn’t use word processors or ballpoint pens, only glass ones. So maybe he doesn’t use paper for his initial concepts, but skin. And the skin that inspires him to write is probably Fumika’s. And since he hasn’t found a replacement for her, he’s been unable to write all this time.
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Episode 7 -
spoiler
Funny that the episode opens with another suicide. This time by a fan of Kirameki Mikawa’s books. Strange too that after three years as an office assistant, Haruno gets a job out of nowhere to be Kirameki Mikawa’s manager. And Fumika has to deliver a Shigofumi to her father.
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Kaname meets with Natsuka and tells her that he saw Fumika and how it couldn’t have been possible. Fumika stops at the hospital to visit the sleeping girl and tells Kanaka that the girl is a “fragment” of herself. Kaname tells Natsuka that he wants to find out why Fumika shot her father and why she won’t wake up. He finds out that Haruno is now Kirameki’s manager and decides to visit Kirameki to find out the truth about Fumika.
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It’s odd that Kirameki hasn’t written a book in four years – the same amount of time that his daughter has been in the hospital. It turns out that Ochiai only gave the job of being Kirameki’s manager to Haruno because she’s young. She really thinks Haruno is useless and doesn’t care if Kirameki “breaks” her. Just what does this man do to people?
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Haruno arrives at Kirameki’s strange house for her first meeting. Kirameki shows off his collection of glass pens that allow him to write more “beautifully” and almost everything else is glass too. He tells her that he doesn’t use word processors or ball point pens. When Haruno reaches out to hand him some manuscripts, Kirameki grabs her arm and starts feeling her skin. He begins to write on it and seems really excited, but then puts the pens down and acts like nothing happened. Kirameki wrote “sparkling within the light” and Haruno doesn’t know what to think, but Kirameki says “it’s not the same.”
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Natsuka tells Kaname about their first meeting and that they probably became friends because she wasn’t into books and Fumika was probably tied of being Kirameki’s daughter. She says that Fumika hardly spoke and was always in the nurse’s office. Natsuka also tells Kaname that Fumika once asked her what her father was like. Haruno asks to see Kirameki’s workplace and he flat out refuses. Genius or not, he seems quite insane at times.
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Fumika finally shows up to deliver the Shigofumi and Kirameki accepts it, but after reading it, he walks out leaving Haruno and Fumika alone. Haruno reads the letter, thinking it’s from a fan, but once reading it, realizes the writer is dead and Fumika tells Haruno about Shigofumi. Kirameki returns with a lighter to burn the letter because it isn’t beautiful, but Haruno won’t let him. Fumika says that he hasn’t changed a bit and never thinks of anyone else’s feelings, especially those of the women that were once part of his life.
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Fumika reveals her face and Kirameki seems excited to see her. Kaname and Natsuka arrive just as Fumika points her gun at Kirameki and tells him to remember. Kaname knocks the gun from her hand and gets thrown back as well. Fumika says that she wasn’t going to shoot, but only wanted Kirameki to remember. Unfortunately, the gun ended up near Kirameki and while everyone else was distracted, he picked it up. Kirameki must have remembered something after all, because he now shoots Fumika! Great cliffhanger!
Ep. 8 This will pretty well explain what’s going on… the end is very sweet, kleenex alert -
Ep. 8
The guy was even more twisted then I thought. He not only wrote on his naked daughter but caused her pain on purpose. I can see how that would cause a split personality. I just wonder how the second personality got its own body? The rapid healing is a nice ability and good for her to know she has friends. The editor turned out to be a lot tougher then she looked. I think she will whip(maybe literally) the jerk into shape.
Episode 8 -
spoiler
Kaname beats up Kirameki and then he and Haruno shut Kirameki up in a room while Natsuka watches Fumika heal herself. They are all surprised to hear Kanaka speak and Natsuka asks Fumika to tell them what happened.
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Fumika’s mother divorced Kirameki soon after Fumika was born and Kirameki raised her himself. Besides glass pens, he also has a collection of antique weapons consisting of guns and swords. He seemed to be a doting father, but then he would tell Fumika that it was time for art and as suspected, he used her skin as his draft paper. He also took out his hatred of Fumika’s mother on her as well, cruelly hurting her with those glass pens of his.
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Fumika realized what he was doing was wrong and became two personalities to deal with it. Fumika tells her listeners that she is really Mika, the “wicked child” that “pushed all the bad things into Fumi.” But they were there for each other and I can see how this could happen and be a comfort to an isolated, abused child. But the really sad thing is that Ochiai knew that Kirameki was insane and abusing his daughter and covered it up so that they could make money off Kirameki’s books.
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The first time Fumika got to leave the house and see other people was for middle school. Fumi was scared, but she liked school. Mika watched over her and she was the one that rejected Kaname and tells him now that Fumi did like him. As Mika tells her story, there is an explosion. Kirameki has used gunpowder to break out of the room they put him in and now goes to choose a gun to “punish them” with. But Mika corners him there and locks everyone out.
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Mika was the one that shot Kirameki to protect Fumi when it looked liked Kirameki was going to kill her with his abuse. But Fumi thought she was the one that shot him and “closed herself off”. The others break into the locked room and Haruno won’t let Mika kill Kirameki. Instead she wants him to work to pay for Fumi’s hospital bills, but Kirameki says he can’t write without Fumika and Haruno tells him not to be a baby about it.
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Kanaka figures out that Mika became a mail carrier in order to wait for Fumi. Mika says that she promised Fumi that they would always be together. Natsuka says that she and Kaname would like to wait too and Mika thanks them. As heart wrenching as it was, it’s finally good to know the story behind the story. I really hope Fumika can wake up now.
Episode 9 -
spoiler
Kaname, Natsuka and Mika visit Fumi in the hospital and Mika talks to her, telling her about Kirameki and Haruno and how Mika would like to go back to school with her again. She tells Fumi that she’ll wait for her. Natsuka asks if it was Fumi or Mika that she met for the first time in the nurse’s office and now Kaname wonders which of the personalities he had a crush on. Chiaki joins them and learns the truth of Fumika as well and now knows that Mika still ages because she isn’t actually dead.
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Chiaki suggests that all four of them go on vacation together and Mika agrees as long as she can pick the location. On the way there, Chiaki tells them that she’s dead and that it was due to a head-on collision which was the scene in the beginning of the episode. I wonder who the man was and if he was asking Chiaki to marry him. It looked like he did from the way Chiaki was holding her hands right before the crash.
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This turns out to be Mika’s very first vacation and Chiaki promises to teach her how to have fun as she starts a pillow fight. The girls and Kanaka are in one room and Kaname and Motoma are sharing another. But there was another girl on the boat with them and she’s now asking directions to Suitengu Island, which is deserted and it turns out that Mika wants to go there too.
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Natsuka teases Kaname about having another chance to confess his feelings to Fumika, but he says it’s all in the past. Natsuka tells him that there’s no time limit on love and it’s funny that Mika and Chiaki can hear every word through Kanaka and Motoma. Chiaki asks Mika if there is someone she loves and she answers “Fumi”. Chiaki says that she can’t be in love with herself and Mika admits that she doesn’t know what love is. She asks Chiaki if she had lots of romance in her life and Chiaki says yes, but it’s a long story.
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Meanwhile, Haruno delivers Kirameki’s manuscripts to a very surprised Ochiai. The girl from the boat, Shirakawa, ends up at the same hotel. It turns out that Mika is here to deliver a Shigofumi to someone on Suitengu Island that happens to be dead. Natsuka panics when she hears this and falls down the stairs - right into Shirakawa. Her suitcase opens and Natsuka thinks that it’s full of murder weapons but she’s mistaken as Shirakawa explains that she’s there to tend a family grave and that it’s also a chance at love for her.
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I like how Chiaki tries to get them all drunk and that she calls Kaname “Specs”. She knows that Natsuka likes him too and she wants all the girls to talk about who they like. Poor Kaname is in the next room and can hear everything. It seems that he gets along rather well with Motoma too.
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The next day, they all head to the island and Shirakawa tells them that the grave is her grandfather’s and mentions the name Kiyosumi which Chiaki seems to know. She asks Shirakawa for her grandfather’s full name and she tells her it’s Saizou Kiyosumi. This answer seems to affect Chiaki deeply and she murmurs “he got married”. Once on the island, Kanaka and Motoma look like they’re water skiing and it was funny to see. Kaname and Natsuka swim too, but Mika and Chiaki decide not to.
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Chiaki tells Mika that she tried to visit the town she was born in, but it was gone. She feels that after being dead for fifty years, things are bound to change and it’s only natural. It seems her lover survived the car crash that she didn’t and went on to live a happy life. Mika tells Chiaki that they should visit the grave. Shirakawa has fixed it up nice and some cats even come to visit, which of course scare Mika as she and Chiaki approach.
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Chiaki pays her respects, but as she turns, she finds a stone Shigofumi next to the grave with her name on it. This was Mika’s job all along. Shirakawa wonders who Chiaki was and tells them that her grandfather never married and that he adopted her mother when her parents died in a car crash. I wonder if that was the car that hit them. The flashback of how Chiaki and Saizou met and fell in love was very sweet and got me all teary eyed. It turns out that he did propose to her right before the fatal accident.
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Chiaki says that he should have forgotten her and found someone else and she cries. But she’s really touched and now accepts the proposal she never got to accept before she died. I wonder what Shirakawa thinks of all this, but at least she got the confidence to confess to the boy she likes as well. On the way back, I wonder how Kaname got stuck with drying and polishing Kanaka and Motoma. They seem to have become really good friends! It was so nice, but just really sad to see Chiaki’s story too.
This may be my most favorite episode to date. Learning the backstory of Chiaki was interesting. She seemed so much younger than she really was, but i guess that’s just the way they chose to illustrate her. It was sweet to see her accept his proposal and fir the ring to appear for an instant. This series has really grown on me, more than I thought it would.
Episode 10 -
spoiler
This episode was definitely tissue worthy. Takehiko has terminal cancer and quits his job, letting everyone think he’s a loser. Then he gets mistaken for being a child abductor. But he was happy to see that little Fumika was playing a game he worked on and that her favorite character was one he created, based on his childhood dog. I think he was happy too that he died saving Fumika’s life, instead of in a hospital.
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Fumika is just too young to understand death. The scene at the funeral was just too much when she told Takehiko to wake up and the look on her face when she touched him. Mika delivers a Shigofumi to Fumika from Takehiko and it’s a sketch of herself. With Mika’s help, she finally understands what death is. And in the hospital, Fumi opens her eyes!
Ep. 10
A sad episode but he had a much better death then cancer would have given him. Also thanks to the little Fumika he got to be happy again before the end.
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Wonder what will happen now that Fumi is awake.