Rainy Blue
Part 3

How much did I *not* want to read this part of the novel….

The bulk of the novel is internal monologue and thoughts, so the anime really just couldn’t manage to convey what was going on, I think. The animators sucked. In fact, they managed to totally misconvey everyone’s emotions in this episode, so Touko seemed evil, Sachiko seemed heartless and Yumi seemed like a happy bunny run suddenly over with a steamroller. In fact, Touko is smart but just doesn’t like Yumi, Sachiko is distracted and troubled, and Yumi…well, Yumi is engaging in a bout of well-deserved overwrought angst brought on by a lack of ability to communicate. She’s 17. Just remind yourself of that from time to time. If you’re over 25, it’ll help. ^_^

***

It was losing the umbrella that did it. If she hadn’t lost the umbrella, she would have been okay.

***

The umbrella had a hydrangea pattern on it, hence the hydrangea imagery in the anime with which we are beaten.

***

Yoshino and Yumi are talking when Tsutako comes up and asks if she can take a picture of them for the weekly. Jokingly, Yumi lifts her bag to hide her face and refuses.

***

Yumi walks to Sachiko’s classroom, and comes across the scene of Touko begging Sachiko to go with her on a drive. Yumi is so offended by Touko’s impudence that she turns around and leaves.

In the anime, Sachiko is smiling in this scene. In the novel, she’s quite serious.

***

During the scene when Yumi asks after Sachiko’s family, Sachiko really *could* have told her. So the problem does begin with Sachiko, right here.

***

Yumi has, in fact, noticed that Sachiko touches her all the time. And she *likes* it.

***

When Minako shows Yumi that Sachiko and Touko are talking in the hall, she mentions that that has occured every day, recently. Yumi’s surprised, but acts like she’s not. This scene was pretty well done in the anime, but it did leave out Minako’s description of her friend acting like a wife whose husband is cheating on her. The onee-sama was going out with another girl, giving her presents all secretly. The friend knew it, but pretended she didn’t. The friend cut her club activities in half, saying that it was too much for her.

Minako also says that none of this has anything to do with the newspaper, and in fact, she’s thinking of retiring.

***

When Sachiko calls the next time to cancel, Yumi has many questions but doesn’t ask any of them. Up to this point, Sachiko has to shoulder the blame, but at this point, Yumi is as culpable.

***

The next day, Yumi is depressed, so of course she runs into Touko. She really doesn’t like Touko and feels jealous of her.

***

The next day, in the Rose Mansion, Sachiko’s kind words only hurt Yumi. She’s begun resenting Sachiko, and feels that onee-sama’s words are sugar-coated, but empty. That day the teacher discusses the hydrangea and how it, because it changes color, it is also known as “capriciousness”. She thinks, but the color is so lovely, why would anyone want to change it? – thinking of the hydrangeas on her umbrella. Then she thinks that Sachiko’s feelings have changed.

***

The scene in the Rose Mansion where Yumi asks for a new promise was done straight in the anime, but afterwards this was cut:

Yumi goes out the back entrance to be able to see the hydrangeas – she notices that their color is already slightly different than they were in the morning. The rain is pounding down and she comes across Sei, huddling under a overhang. Sei asks Yumi to let her under her umbrella. Sei was standing in a place that is popular for sheltering from the rain.

Sei asks Yumi if Shimako has changed. Sei had cut class the day before, but some classmates said that they saw someone who looked like Shimako near the college. Yumi realizes that Sei doesn’t know about Noriko and then realizes that Sei had been hanging about waiting to ambush Shimako. ^_^

Yumi thinks about how Sei has always been there to save her, every time she was depressed or upset.

Sei asks if the cause of Yumi’s depression is “tate roll” (the narrator’s description of Touko’s hair) and Yumi is surprised that Sei knows. Sei confesses that she had just seen Sachiko walk by with her a little while ago.

While waiting for the bus, Sei asks Yumi to not abandon Sachiko.

***

Saturday – Sachiko isn’t at school. After the way they parted, Yumi doesn’t want to see Sachiko, but the thought of her not being there at school makes Yumi a little lonely.

Rei and Yoshino have reconciled. Shimako and Noriko are also happy. “Yellow and White, how nice for them.”

Touko *is* at school, which relieves Yumi a little, but she still feels bitter and suspicious.

On the way home she stops at a convenience store to get butter (unsalted) for her mother. That’s when her umbrella is taken. Done heartbreakingly well in the anime.

***

Sunday when she calls Sachiko’s house, her alibi is to apologize – NOT because she did anything wrong, but because she said too much.

***

When Yumi meets Sachiko outside the shoe locker room, Yumi is ready to give the rosary back, but her hands are full and she can’t reach it in her pocket. Sachiko tells Yumi that they have a lot to talk about, and takes a step forward towards her. Yumi panics for no discernible reason, and steps backwards. She has mixed feelings – she’s glad Sachiko waited to speak with her, but she’s afraid that Sachiko wants to ask for the rosary back.

As Yumi runs off, leaving Sachiko and Touko behind, she knows that she looks the picture of a emotionally wounded heroine from a drama, but she doesn’t stop running. She runs past the statue of Mary to the front gate where a group of college students are gathered. Among them, she sees someone she knows. In the middle of all the gaudy colored umbrellas, one black men’s umbrella stands out.

When Sei turns around to see Yumi running at her, so does a pink umbrella, a yellow one with blue dots and a checked pattern. Their owners all stop to watch the scene.

Sei is considerably shaken by Yumi throwing herself at her. Yumi is too upset to explain coherently, so she just cries into Sei’s chest.

In the end, it was the fault of the rain that Sachiko drove off without a word – she couldn’t see Yumi in the gloom and the haze of rain.

Not the end. Thank god.

Ratings:
Story – 6-8, depending on the section
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7
Obsessive Fan – 10
Pathos – 10