夏のあらし！春夏冬中 Episode 10 Review
Summer Storm! Open for Business Ep. 10
Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chuu – 10

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

With the shock of Arashi and Hajime no longer being connected over, Kanako gets onto Hajime when she learns that the reason for this is that Arashi rejected Hajime’s feelings. With Kaja, Jun, and Yayoi looking on, Kanako’s and Hajime’s argument causes Master to turn up the music to mask the noise and for her to send Arashi to do some chores outside. After work, Hajime reflects on what Kanako and Kaja said to him and stops at an arcade where he gets beaten in a fight game. His opponent turns out to by Yayoi, who has become quite good at games over the years.

Walking home with Yayoi, she says that Kanako was also worried about Hajime and sure enough further up the path, Kanako is with Murata trying to act unconcerned. Yayoi has an idea that might get Hajime to better understand Arashi if he were to see her as she was at his age. Meanwhile, Jun feels bad that her telling Hajime what Arashi told her has caused the rift. Master says that what Hajime is going through is part of growing up. Hearing Master speak about Arashi never having a guy to be with reminds Kaja of something, so she and Jun take a time trip.

Yayoi, Kanako, Murata, and Hajime return to Hakobune where Yayoi and Hajime go to the past. Kanako decides she wants to observe and so they too leave for the past. Arriving in 1940, the group heads to Arashi’s house where Hajime is astonished to see just how rich her family is. Young Arashi is on a horse and leaving without permission, nearly running Hajime over. He grips the horse and rides behind her despite her protests as she explains that she’s going to save a friend who’s being bullied.

After stopping to get some weapons, Arashi and Hajime head to the nearby shrine where Arashi’s friend is being beaten but kids. Arashi enters the fray and rescues the girl, sending her to the base of the shrine on Arashi’s horse. She uses her wooden sword to start beating the bullies but there are too many of them. Hajime evens the odds by firing padded arrows at her attackers which causes the leader of the bullies, the son of a military leader, to enter the fight with a real sword. Hajime takes a beating from the others as the leader readies to attack.

After Hajime sheds his attackers, he takes his beaten self to stand in front of her where he manages to defeat the bully leader and take his sword. The bully defeated, Hajime threatens the others who back down. Arashi takes Hajime home on her horse and wonders why he won’t say her name or where he lives. He promises to see her again in seventy years, so Arashi takes his broken glasses to return them when he returns. She gives him a kiss on the cheek and says he can return that to her when they next meet.

They are met by Arashi’s older brother, who’s also a naval officer. Hajime sees him as scary but in reality, he’s proud of Arashi’s noble actions and asks Hajime to take care of his little sister.

Returning to the present, everyone arrives at Hakobune where Kaja and have retrieved the box containing Hajime’s broken glasses. They’ve realized that Hajime was Arashi’s first and only love and now that Arashi and Hajime know the truth, they are able to reconnect, whereupon they immediately take a time trip.

 

Thoughts/Review:

It has been a long time since we took a trip back to wartime Japan, though this time it is before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. As such, this was a nice change to see Japan during the “good times” of their war period. One thing I found of interest is the punks abusing one of Arashi’s rich friends over class warfare and this false premise that taxing the rich to give to the poor will somehow make things right. While the episode doesn’t preach (thankfully), I was reminded that while these poor kids used their underprivileged status as justification to attack a rich girl, they are nothing more than greedy thugs who crave living off of others rather than improve themselves. Granted, Japanese society made things harder due to class structure, but the underlying principle is the same. Even if one thinks a rich person is greedy and evil, demanding they give one of their riches is just as greedy and evil.

The romance story in 1940 between Arashi and Hajime works for me. Since both anime series have always established that the actions done during time travel simply close a circle, it makes sense to me that Arashi in 1940 would fall in love with Hajime after he helped her in the fight against the thugs who’d attacked her friends. I can appreciate how that after 60-years, she wouldn’t remember the face of the boy she loved (which explains her remarks last episode) and I can understand her feelings of loss and even betrayal at a boy who promised to return but in 60-years did not.

Since it doesn’t appear that Arashi remembered Hajime from 1940 when they first met, I like the closing of that circle — Arashi meets Hajime for the first in the past when she was truly alive and then 60-years later as a ghost with life during the summer, Hajime meets her for the first time. The closed circle is certainly in keeping with how the series has gone thus far.

Question is, now that Arashi knows, where does this leave her and her feelings for Hajime? The two reconnect at the end but can she be in love with this young boy?

I was amused at hearing Arashi addressed as “ojousama,” which is not something that I believe has come out before. I think it was understood that Arashi was from an affluent family but perhaps not quite as rich as they turned out to be.

One side note — Yayoi’s outfit worn at the arcade was quite cute and unexpected. So my hat’s off to the art guys at SHAFT for allowing her to wear something different and interesting.

As I’ve been watching the last three episodes in sequence back-to-back, an idea that came to my mind last episode blossomed fully this episode. I think that the older, long-haired man who’s always in Hakobune is in fact Hajime from the future. I could be wrong of course, but it feels right to me, especially after he has spoken the last couple of episodes.

One day, I really would like to read the manga this anime is based on. It is a shame it hasn’t been licensed yet.

In the end, I found this episode to be quite enjoyable without the normal SHAFT tomfoolery that some episodes are saddled with.