So here we are, folks. One last warning that by reading this you are landing on spoilers all over the place and that they will come suddenly. Though the post itself is more about little interesting tidbits rather than large plot summaries.
Well, I watched 11 out of 11 of the episodes (I only went through CCs and audio + static images when I TL’d one but watched it later) so I’ll consider myself to know the plot. I’m not here to make a summary or review and I’m definitely not going to spend the next four hours screen-capping to explain myself, so beware that this may very well turn into a wall of text. I’m just here to point out a few things that I noticed which people who really like those “little things that aren’t important but add more connection to the various parts of the work as a whole” would enjoy. Mainly because I am one of those people.
For starters, some things you may have already noticed:
The empty glass milk bottle containing some flowers that you see at several points in the show is Poppo’s makeshift grave for Menma. He leaves it at the top of the hill, presumably where Menma slid into the river, and can be seen changing the flowers in it. (Ep5)
“The name of the flower (we/they) saw that day is”: after the show ends in the final episode, the image showing Menma has those words as the caption. Obviously it’s the flipped over version of “We Still Don’t Know the Name of the Flower we saw That Day.”, minus the answer. As you may have guessed from the episode 11 post pic, title of this post, and a certain prediction that was floating around sometime near the airing of episode 3, the flower is indeed a Forget-me-not. Though Menma’s wish as pertaining to the plot was not literally to “forget me not”, it can be inferred that she indeed wishes to stay in the hearts of the Super Peace Busters.
The flowers which fly everywhere in the ED and the flower acting as a placeholder for Menma in the OP are both modeled after forget-me-nots.
Expanding a bit from there…
Menma’s death is inferred to be a fast slide into the river, followed by drowning either due to injuries upon impact with the water or rocks, inability to stay afloat in the fast current, or both along with any other things that may have happened. Coincidentally (or is it?) a legend pertaining to the forget-me-not is something similar, with a knight drowning because he fell into a river while picking some flowers on the bank for his lady. As he throws one of the flowers onto the bank he shouts “Vergiss mein nicht”, which becomes the name of the flower.
The opening song for this show is called 「青い栞」, which translates to The Blue Bookmark. One line mentions a 「押し花の栞」, which is a pressed flower bookmark. Assuming these two are the same bookmark, it can be inferred that indeed the singer is in possession of a bookmark containing a pressed forget-me-not.
To wrap things up, some trivia:
This show is based in Chichibu, a large city in Saitama (the prefecture directly north of Tokyo). You can tell from 「秩父」, its name, which appears in various places.
The high-level school Yukiatsu and Tsuruko are attending appears to be in Hannou, as can be seen from the signs in the train station they’re in (はんのう、飯能）(Ep5). The Seibu Chichibu Line runs through this station, so if you’d like to take a visit you know what to ride
There is only one episode in which the entire ending sequence runs (Ep9)(the music begins with the ED animation instead of music first then ED animation), whereas the OP animation either runs in its entirety or not at all, excluding the finale.
Well, that’s it for now. A great show overall I must say. Beautiful artwork, developed plot, vibrant characters… what more is there to ask? If you have any other cool stories pertaining to this show that I didn’t mention, go ahead and comment it. I might add it into the list up here
or I might just be lazy and tell you guys to read the comments ._. But anyway if you have any questions regarding the plot (I’m quite sure it’s easier to understand than meduka meguca) go ahead and comment as well.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be picking flowers at my nearby neighborhood riverbank.
++: Some clarification on the epilogue. Everything indeed works out for the crew after Menma goes away. Anaru and Jin-tan are in a very friendly, if not outright intimate relationship (a pink handkerchief with wabbits all over it? MANLY.). Tsuruko rises back to her godly position as “alternative” for Yukiatsu (though really, I’m pretty sure he’s happy about it too). Poppo’s trying to get back into the education system so he doesn’t ruin the rest of his life, and they all seem to be a little more easygoing around each other following their internal development. And of course, the Super Peace Busters will always be friends.
Just a little explanation in case Jin-tan’s “explanation” was too metaphorical and/or vague. Yes Anaru fans, that means she at least partially, at most completely had her wish granted. Being one myself I must say it made the ending all the more touching for me.
Again, that’s all for now. Bye-bye!
