10 Second Anime - Amanchu! - Episode 6

Futaba works on her dive certification but suffers a setback. She and Hikari make a heartfelt wish at a local monument.

Episode 6 - "The Story of the False Wish"

Heh.

I appreciated all the little wish-related rituals that Futaba referenced as she used a memory from her past of an insincere one to develop a heartfelt one. We started with a teru-teru bozu to wish for the rain to stop, otherwise Futaba couldn't practice in an outdoor pool, but luckily this seaside town has an indoor facility.

She then flashed back to her insincere one, which a teacher praised, because young insecure Futaba just didn't have a genuine personal wish or goal.

Now she has a tangible one of ocean diving with Hikari and it was a nice touch for Hikari to give her the chance to perform her first sincere wishing ritual.

Lucky for Teko, Katori-sensei is qualified to run the Open Diving Pool Course. Katori must be an adult, because she has more than one muppet face!

While Futaba had that familiar feeling of being left behind, the other diving club members snuck in to spy on the test to see how she was doing. That was a nice bit of levity to show how they hid beneath the water and used their goggles as disguises.

The major hurdle everyone was worried about, including Futaba and Katori, was the mask-clearing. Practice paid off and Futaba performed it easily several times.

Of course, this being a comedic Healing Anime, there had to be a funny setback. The most trivial part of the exam, for divers anyway, would have been swimming one lap. But! Futaba doesn't know how to swim!

Shock and dismay all the way around. This was also the right time to reveal the spies to add to Futaba's stress and disappointment.

Well, she's just going to have to learn how to swim.

Makoto observed that this may explain why Futaba was so troubled by water getting into her mask, whereas a swimmer would have been used to that slight annoyance.

For now, she'll need a pep talk and some encouragement. Katori suggests they she and her Buddy go for a ride.

I now pronounce you Buddy and Buddy. Congratulations! Yep, the yuri is strong in this show.

It took a while to explain, but since the first opening scenes, Cha the cat had been hanging out in Katori's car, but wearing shorts? Or diapers? What was up with that?

It all became clear, but adults have many reasons to do the things they do. Katori didn't just want to cheer up Futaba. She had just gotten a new car, "Pokoten 3," and wanted to go for a drive anyway. Cha had to wear diapers because it was a brand new car! That cat is pretty calm to put up with such inconveniences.

What looked like Futaba merely expressing gratitude for Hikari and her Grandma for pushing her personal growth and how she might find her True Self in the big wide ocean was also a chance for the show to add its magical touches very reminiscent of that nostalgic feeling from ARIA. It was not a coincidence to see Cha cat rolling around in the square with those cat-themed rides. One was obviously President ARIA and the black cart was Cait Sith.

Cha the cat picked up Pikari about to explode from the Spirit of Youth.

The narrative focus is mainly on Futaba's development into a more confident person, however Hikari is still there with her own quirks. Like not being able to express her feelings in words, but through motion and action. Her plans, which we saw near the end of the episode, really would have taken too long for her to explain. Better just to get Futaba to join her.

Katori also had a moment to be Futaba's mentor. Some of Futaba's insecurity about expressing her goals or wishes is whether she's "allowed" to if she didn't come up with the idea on her own. Katori makes the point that whether an inspiration is external or not, the decision to take the next few steps to achieve that goal is up to the individual. Nothing external about those steps.

There's some real fate or destiny type stuff happening between Hikari and Futaba. Without even knowing about Futaba's worries about her insincere wish, Hikari came up with a tangible contemporary solution for Futaba to make a sincere one.

Yes, the yuri buddy-buddy vibe is still strong here, since the monument with the wish ritual is Love Hymn.

Futaba's wish was concrete, unlike her childish one from years before, "To be able to swim and pass the diving pool course."

But what was Pikari's embarrassing one? It was rather similar to Futaba's previous one of "Please bring a smile to everyone's face." Pikari wished, "May Teko's wish come true." It sounds like a generic superficial wish, but we still see the concreteness and how personal it was for her. It may be embarrassing, but it was also a heartfelt one.