Garrick: Forgive me, I have no screenshot this time, because this blasted netbook decides that paint (my normal screenshot capturing device… AKA print screen, paste, and crop) doesn’t want to work. If I ever get my hands on my other laptop, that Minnie currently has, or my desktop… which is so conveniently downstairs… (and my back happened to completely implode on me, leaving me stuck in my bed for close to a week… [okay, more like 4 days, but w/e]) I might get a screenshot in there. If I don’t… or decide to be too lazy… then just deal with the giant block of boring text. Sorry. =P In compensation, I tried to be a bit more exciting with my post… Note. Tried.

Garrick: Ah, yes. Did I just waste 100 words on a random anime-unrelated story about why… I can’t get a screenshot in? Yes, I did. And considering that I normally post about… 250 words… I’ve got about… 110 words to fit it all in. (No, not really, just playing. Not even I could summarize an anime episode in 100 words. Well. I might. But I’m not going to try. Not now, at least.) [Oh, and I just wasted like... another 100 words...]

Garrick: ONTO THE EPISODE, DAMMIT! Anyhow, we’ve got Tsuchida… really on a bit of a depressed/unlively streak. Everybody but the girl in question knows why. I mean, it’s so obvious that even a group of kindergarten students can see it. Then again, either these students are really really perceptive… Or I was just a really really REALLY retarded kindergartener that could never ever ever ever ever see anything like this. (And a loner, but we don’t need to go into that.) Or… times have just seriously changed.

I expect it to be a combination of all three. Since I already know that the last two are true.

Garrick: Anyway. Really, the true point of this second to last episode is to figure out everyone’s motvation… and… well… cheer up Tsuchida. The first few minutes of the episode are really showing us that Tsuchida is really  bugged by something, and pretty depressed and sad about SOMETHING, and of course, the first one to try and help is the ever adorable (and borderline annoying) Anzu.

Garrick: As it so turns out, Tsuchida gets sick from one of his dumb ideas… and… somehow, Anzu comes to his door and decides to help him get over his cold. I’m not sure what times have come to, but I should mention this. She went over alone. Unless Tsuchida and Sakura/Anzu either live in the same apartment complex, or are neighbors… I can not see a KINDERGARTENER going over to her teacher’s house and helping out. Alone. I mean… kindergardeners are usually 5 or 6, right? Hell, when I was 5 or 6… I couldn’t even… Uh. Wait. I don’t remember my life when I was that age. Just that I bit my classmate’s shoulder. ANYWAY! Point gets across, right? RIGHT.

Garrick: After Anzu’s mistakes inevitably end up scaring off Tsuchi’s cold… Anzu decides to fall asleep. And ends up staying the night. Oh, lord, we all know how that’s going to go across tomorrow at school.

Garrick: Anyhow, he gets better, but he’s still depressed. And this is when Sakura decides to help him. I’m not exactly in the mood to go through the speech she gives him while also using him to get some of her work as a writer done (Okay, I made that sound way worse than it was, but… it made me laugh. So that’s okay, people. If you want to know exactly what happened, you can watch it yourself.)

Garrick: This speech ends up giving Tsuchida the courage to stop worrying other people and finally get over his slump. Well, almost. At least, he gets the courage to finally ask Yamamoto how she feels about him. (and might I add… Yamamoto, while the typical perfect girl… really is adorable.)

Garrick: And as he walks up to Yamamoto’s big mansion/house/whatever thing… he starts to get cold feet. What do I say, will I look weird with these flowers, how do I ask her how she feels, and… well… along comes the younger Yamamoto (and I might add… she is ALSO quite adorable…) and tells Tsuchi that Nana isn’t at home, but at the Kindergarten.

Garrick: Of course, this cues a scene between the two… the perfect girl, and the love-struck guy who thinks he’s no good. And… yeah. Tsuchi never gets his question asked, but instead goes around the question using a sort of  “If somebody…” blah blah blah… and, in the process, learns that Nana is indeed also in love with her work, and is truly trying to focus on that. And she doesn’t want to go out with anyone because of that. Even though she would be happy hearing it.

Garrick: All in all, it was a pretty inspiration episode, I just didn’t get into the inspirational parts very much because I’m really really really bad at portraying inspirational ideas and stories. Maybe I’m just not very inspirational myself?

Garrick: It did give a bit of a sort of story I can use for my own college life, also, if that means anything. In that way, I also believe that Hanamaru Kindergarten, as much as it seems, isn’t really FOR kids. It’s just about kids. Actually, not really. It’s about adults. Using kids to portray their stories. Not really “using”… but using. Uh. Never mind.

Garrick: Another thing I have to repeat about this anime in general… is how the heck does a mother let her 5/6 year old girl go out on the streets alone to somebody else’s house? I mean, I’m sure that Japan has its share of lolicons waiting on the streets to snatch a little girl off the streets. Uh. And, no, that’s not me, thank you very much. -_-

Garrick: It’s just a bit confusing to me, but I guess I can accept it, because, as you can tell, all of the characters (and the anime itself) really aren’t looking at anything bad. Not in people, not in story, and I guess that just doesn’t have to be taken into account. I just don’t want to see a little girl on the streets alone!~

Uh. Yeah. Seriously.

Garrick’s Rating for Episode Eleven: 8/10

Garrick’s Anticipation for the Final Episode (I think…): 10/10