Natsu no Kaori Reviews: Kiniro Mosaic

Generally, as a rule of thumb, animes should only make Christmas episodes at Christmas time, and if the anime isn't airing around Winter, then please just make a movie/OVA and release it around Christmas time. Since this episode aired in the middle of September, I just couldn't pick up on the festive vibes, or the traditional Christmas feelings.

Not to mention my mood got ruined by Alice's phone call, in which she said 'Have a happy holiday, Mum'. No, No, NO! First of all, if it's Christmas, then you've got to make it so that the word actually makes it into the sentence, and the conventional manner of the seasonal greeting in England goes 'Merry Christmas'. In the Christmas Spirit of Forgiving, I suppose I'll let this tiny mistake drop. Anyhow, what actually happened in this episode?

Christmas Spirit of Giving and Receiving

What do you want for Christmas? These days, when someone asks me that question, I simply reply 'Anything anime and manga related'. In Kiniro Mosaic, the girls take it to the next level, especially Ayaya, who subtly requests for Yuri. As for Karen's wish, I think that has already been granted. Sure, I may be astronomically overestimating, but I'm sure everyone watching Kiniro Mosaic loves her, and that combined love is equal to the planetary wish she requested that didn't involve world peace. Moving on, England, being more of a multicultural country these days, isn't so centered around religion as it used to, though not so much in the countryside where Alice originates from. What really stood out for me was spending it with family... because that embodies the Christmas Spirit. Also, that's a pretty unfair comment that stereotypes Japan, since many couples over here see Christmas as a dating chance.

With Christmas comes Santa, and with Santa comes Christmas Presents. Christmas came early in the form of Karen in a Santa costume, while I don't think it ever arrived for Alice, who received a slab of rock for her present. Even I was reduced to tears of frustration, and I hadn't even been on the receiving end! Everything continues to worsen for Alice, who then gets a nightmare on New Year's Eve that Shinobu hates her for being more Japanese than her! Leading onto the following section of this review...

Alice's Ploy of Going Mad as a Hatter

When Alice truly lost it, she truly lost it. Well played, I wouldn't have guessed myself, save for the telltale hint when she still understood any words of Japanese being said. Ironically, her endless torrent of English just seemed completely gibberish to a native speaker like myself, although there was a great improvement in her spoken English. To begin with, the clumsy attempt at being elegantly poetic, matched with the poor choice of adjectives strongly screamed 'Non-Native'. However, a positive aspect was how everything seemed eponymous in her monologue, with many references to the title thrown in. That is to say she used various gold (Kiniro) related words (I'm a fan of subtle implication).

Unfortunately, just as I'd been left thoroughly impressed, and unconcerned about any mistakes happening, a mistake happened in the disastrous form of 'So, she's now into a more British Girl'. I don't know the context relating to the statement, but that makes no grammatical sense, unless there was some action in the night that was NC-17 (which is next to impossible in such a innocent show). Anyway, I also wanted to add how Alice arrived to the same epiphany I did last episode, the one where she's a full-on Weeaboo. Being more Japanese than the Japanese isn't seen as being that bad within the culture, unless it revolves around anime, manga, gaming, and other subcultural aspects, the like of which Alice hasn't been exposed to.

Looking Ahead

As the episode drew to a close, I suddenly realised Kiniro Mosaic has one more week left to go, no doubt owing to the effective storytelling technique they slipped in. With a year having just ended, and a new one having just started, the audience are allowed to cast a wistful gaze back in retrospect at the series itself. Reinforced by the fact the girls are just going into their second year of Middle School, I see potentially around 5 seasons of animated goodness chronicling their school life up until their High School graduation. I'll leave the sentiment for the final review, so here's the post episode recap.