Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today the sun is shining and bells are tolling atop Seiren Academy, as we return once more to the gorgeous and obscenely entertaining Dear Brother. Our last episode saw this drama’s insanity ratcheted up to heretofore purely theoretical levels, as Nanako was invited to her dear friend Shinobu’s birthday party. Upon arriving, she realized Shinobu had rented out a hotel’s dining room entirely for herself, her mother, and her eternal bestie Nanako, and things only got more unnerving from there. With the night ending on Shinobu’s friendly declaration to “kill you and then myself” if Nanako ever left her, Nanako was left to flee Shinobu’s home in tears, traumatized anew by her terrifying classmate.

For all the absurdity of that gathering, given the course of Dear Brother’s drama so far, it actually felt perfectly in line with my expectations for a Shinobu birthday party. Possessive desperation has been the girl’s MO this entire journey, with her initial apparent confidence in Seiren’s quirks and traditions swiftly clattering to the ground, revealing itself a mere embellished frontispiece introducing a tomb of madness. And that’s really how it’s gone for most of Seiren’s standards, from the false dignity of the Sorority to the fragile public personas of characters like Saint-Juste and Miya-sama. I frankly don’t know how anyone makes it out of this school alive, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Let’s get back to class!

Episode 9

This show’s “refined” opening proves itself more of a deadpan gag with every episode, as the delicious soap opera madness of Seiren continues to unfold

We open with a brief recap of Shinobu’s final outburst. I suppose even by Dear Brother standards, Shinobu attempting to trap Nanako in her bedroom or die trying is a little beyond the pale

Some excellent postcard memory shots as Nanako flees

Ooh, and I love this cut of Nanako at the breakwater, with the ocean conveyed as an array of shimmering lights in the distance. The various practical ways this production conveys the glow of distant lights are all distinctive and beautiful; it’s like a touch of impressionism intruding on the show’s general aesthetic, and makes me feel a little sad for the creative techniques we lost in the transition to digital animation. It’s a bit like the disappointment of practical puppets in live-action films being replaced with sterile CG; sure, the new effects might seem less obviously fabricated, but that’s a significantly inferior virtue to simply looking compelling

Thankfully, Nanako has Tomoko to commiserate with her regarding Shinobu’s party. The world is a lot less gloomy with even just one trusted friend to confide in

“Your expression says ‘I’m depressed.’” The only person she doesn’t have to perform happiness around, a privilege she’s lost even at home with her parents

They run into Kaoru jogging along the beach. A quick postcard memory for her bright smile brings another visual tradition to mind – the procession of slides used for visual novels. As with the lighting effects, Dezaki is clearly less interested than creating a work of total visual holism than in choosing the best aesthetic tool for each particular purpose

Kaoru states she’s training for the regional basketball tournament. That should be some fun drama

Terrific use of color design here – the late afternoon orange glow of the water gets deeper and darker as the surf freezes into another postcard memory, and then Nanako’s admission to her brother that she “couldn’t even tell Tomoko about that night” is met by the harsh red of sunset beneath the train tracks, a natural visual implication of violence, as if we’re looking at Nanako being crushed under the train itself. Ikuhara clearly pulled his use of black-on-red silhouettes for moments of extreme violence from Dezaki, but Dezaki himself integrates these shots a bit more organically, drawing the shifting of the natural environment into his emotional storytelling

“How is Mariko going to act tomorrow?” Nanako thinks while staring through the bars beyond the train, still trapped within another cage

“Relapse; Broken Heart.” Yep, that sure sounds like a Dear Brother episode

And we return on Shinobu attempting to drown herself in the bath. So she’s taking things about as well as I expected

As always, the tower returns us to Seiren

Shinobu first appears as a silhouette against the window, unreadable, a sentinel waiting for Nanako to pass

The sound of their classmates is muted as Shinobu approaches, and the students are trapped in grayscale, all emphasizing how nothing else exists in this moment

Shinobu reaches for Nanako’s hand, but Nanako pulls away

As Nanako reveals she couldn’t talk to or even look at Shinobu, the layouts prioritize the tree dancing in the breeze outside, emphasizing her desperate desire to be anywhere but here

Further seeking to avoid Shinobu, Nanako asks Tomoko to join her for lunch, while Shinobu lurks watching them from a distance. You’re gonna have to resolve this somehow, Nanako – as terrifying as Shinobu has been as a friend, I’m sure she would be much worse as an enemy

“I am sorry. You are no substitute for her.” We cut to Saint-Juste in the midst of a stage performance, her role clearly mirroring her feelings towards Miya-sama

“Still, my dear, won’t you come and die with me?” All she can offer this substitute is a chance to die by her side. A warning regarding Nanako’s fascination with her

Oh no, Kaoru’s collapsing in pain! So she was the relapse of the episode title, tragically

She is tethered back to Saint-Juste by her need for painkillers. While Kaoru’s body is doomed to frailty through its fundamental nature, Saint-Juste chooses to destroy herself – and the prescription for either path is the same

Nanako navigating the adoring audience of Saint-Juste’s performance, hoping to save her one genuine friend, feels like a fine metaphor for her role at this academy. She has already pierced the veil, and can no longer simply gaze in admiration at the larger-than-life heroes of Seiren Academy. She knows too well those heroes are on the verge of collapse, and can only do her best to navigate the twin realms of Society-led propriety and the darkness underneath

The other girls lash out at her for attempting to push her way to Saint-Juste, saying she’s “the one who tricked her way into the Sorority” and even pushing her down the stage stairs. As the one stranded between these two realms, Nanako is a natural irritant to the other students, who are all desperate to believe in Seiren’s fantastical visage. Nanako’s every action works to pierce the veil – something she’s currently doing unintentionally, but will presumably at some point claim as her actual power

“It makes no difference with whom I die. The cold wind blows through my soul.” Saint-Juste offering some of her usual small talk

Yes! Tired of Saint-Juste’s self-important theatricality, Nanako just straight-up slaps her across the face. I love to see it – Nanako entirely breaking free from the spell of this place, and demanding these goddamn weirdos act normally for a second

Love the stage lights actually shifting to spotlight Nanako’s slap. Dezaki’s efforts to integrate theatrical flourishes into the actual reality of their world are much appreciated; it makes it feel like we ourselves are slipping between life as lived and as imagined, without clear boundaries between them

Staring at Nanako, Saint-Juste imagines a doll in a red dress left on the floor. So is the OP from her perspective?

“Ma cherie La poupee.” My darling, the doll

She now readily gives Nanako the painkillers. As she demonstrated with Miya-sama, it seems Saint-Juste is attracted to suffering, and actively wants to be punished

After all the adoring fans have left, Saint-Juste is left only with her concern regarding Kaori

Nanako stays with Kaoru as she recovers. By treating these legends as real people, Nanako is growing far closer to them than their adoring fans

Kaoru says talent doesn’t matter for sports, to which Nanako replies “but I’m so normal,” which prompts a laugh from Kaoru. The normal girls were the ones clamoring for an autograph from Saint-Juste – Nanako is something exceptional, she just doesn’t know it yet

Kaoru’s time in the hospital informed her desire to live so fully now, to “run until my heart bursts.” Both an embrace of living’s pleasures and a twist on Saint-Juste’s death drive

As Nanako frets over Kaoru, Shinobu pursues her and attempts to clear the air, but is again denied. Nanako, you are inspiring your own nemesis, you realize that?

Shinobu’s attention is drawn towards a bird flying away, a symbol of Nanako’s retreat from her life

“Nobody truly understands another. But someone who cares can still try.” Kaoru’s words ring in Nanako’s mind – she sees futility in those words, although Kaoru, delivering them to the girl who embodies that caring spirit, likely saw hope in them

Those words carry us to Saint-Juste, whose appearance at the hospital proves she still cares as well, in spite of her callous words

After all this episode’s “bird escaping its cage” imagery, seeing Kaoru captured through the window frame of the school carries a clear thematic intent

We conclude with Shinobu having a Normal One, upending her dinner and screaming at her mother to exit her life. That’s our Shinobu!

And Done

Ah, it’s so good to be back at this goddamn asylum. Nanako handling Shinobu by straight-up ignoring her frankly might have been the best option available, even if it eventually leads to some kind of perverse reprisal from our favorite lunatic. And in the meantime, Nanako made the most of her freedom from Shinobu’s shadow by solidifying her bonds with Tomoko and the Seiren elite, fortifying her relationships with both Saint-Juste and Kaoru. Though she claims to be a perfectly ordinary girl, she is clearly unique in her ability to see both of them as her peers, admiring what is truly laudable about them while still seeking to comfort them through their physical and psychological distress. In Dezaki’s hands, Nanako’s unintentional rise towards Seiren mythology is granted all the visual splendor it deserves, from the blood-red implications of Shinobu’s fury to that dream of the bird in flight, a vision of freedom and normalcy that seems hopelessly distant to both Kaoru and Saint-Juste. I don’t imagine Nanako can truly save these two, but as Kaoru says, it’s a wondrous thing to see her try!

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