Secret Messages in Art
We are roughly halfway through this collab with Yomu now. Art Club! has had some ups and downs but it has been consistently enjoyable once it got over a bit of a hump at the start. This episode we got introduced to a new character, a lady Otaku who grabs Subaru’s attention. Tsk, tsk, Mizuki, you should have just taken some interest in his hobby when you had the chance, I mean he offered to lend you this cool thing he liked but you turned it down for being, “a boy thing” which was pretty stupid. Anyway, this episode I’m actually talking about the secret whispering of the art featured this time around. What shall we uncover?
Turns out, not much. I had the misfortune of picking another dud theme. There has been abundant art each episode and the one time there isn’t is the time I go for this. What luck, huh? Well, don’t fret! I still have a few things I can gleam from the episode so maybe I can salvage this yet.
I’m going to slightly adjust the angle of the theme to talk about references to stuff they bring up that I caught, both to other shows and stuff from within the show itself. That way we still have a bit to talk about.
The first thing I noticed was the, “Dark Eye” talk which immediately had me thinking about Chunibyo. We’ve seen that this show isn’t afraid to make calls to other anime and manga thanks to Aria, so while this isn’t a perfect reference, it may still be something they were going for. This new girl is obviously a bit of a chuni from how she talks, so it wouldn’t surprise me terribly anyway.
Later, when the three go to the bookstore, Mizuki is suggested to purchase a strap of a bunny themed character by Subaru. However, the new girl, Maria, tells Mizuki that the character is evil and she gets mad at Subaru since he said that it’d be perfect for her. Not gonna lie, as much as Subaru is not the greatest, that was kind of a funny joke and Mizuki has earned a bit of a reputation for managing her emotions poorly.
At a more meta level, the episode is art itself. The, “message” this episode seemed to convey is that it is easier to make connections with people when you have common interests. I wouldn’t really call that secret, hence why I just say message, but that was my only real thought there.
As an aside, Collette was in the episode but didn’t do much… She had her magician’s outfit on, so maybe she is gearing up to show us another, “magic trick” later? I wouldn’t mind that at all.
Well, that’s about all I can think of for this one. Sorry it wasn’t overly exciting but that’s the risk of taking a theme blind before watching the episode. Still fun to try and get it to work out even when it doesn’t really. Until next week!
Did you enjoy this episode? How about the other posts by the folks in the collab, which you can find on Yomu’s site? Be sure to stop by for them and say, “Hi!” as well. If you’d like to support my work here please click the donation button below. Lastly, thanks so much for taking time to visit today and I hope to see you around again soon!
Jon Spencer Reviews 
Am I really the only one who’s pointing out (at minimum, perceived) references to other anime and manga??? (Now that I think about it, I might be…) By the way, you see a magazine called Haou in ep 5, when Subaru picks up his reference manga…the magazine Konobi was serialised in was (Dengeki) Maou.
Maybe you should’ve gone meta and critiqued the art shifts…? That shot where Maria, Subaru and Mizuki are shown as thin figures with pointy limbs was pretty effective at conveying the mood at the time, IMHO.
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Yeah, pretty much.
Oh, that would have been a good idea! I really should have done that >.<
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It really is unfortunate that there was a lack of art this episode for you to work with. I too noticed Collette and was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to see a magic trick from her. I liked how she was mimicking President during the pillow fight though!
Hoping we get more Collette next episode, this one was severely lacking in that area and the episode suffered as a result.
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Yeah, that’s true but at the same time they had to introduce this new character. I suppose some compromise had to be made…
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I’m feeling bad that I haven’t gotten to the last couple of episodes. Things have been a bit tiring in real life and I’ve barely got my standard posts together on time so unfortunately Art Club is the one that is kind of getting pushed to the side for a bit. Hopefully I’ll pick up in a few weeks and be able to rejoin the collab.
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No worries. I’ve been having stuff going on too, so I can relate on that front. Though, when life happens it can be exhausting, so take time for yourself. I’ll look forward to when you catch up 🙂
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Take all the time you need! I’m glad that you managed to find time to join in as much as you have already, so you definitely don’t have to feel bad about putting this collab on the back burner.
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