10 Second Anime - Amanchu! - Episode 11

The Diving Club makes final preparations for Futaba's first open water dive. Hikari and Futaba find a newborn kitten.

Episode 11 - "The Story of the Cat and the Kitten"

Hmm.

It really feels like the season is coming to an end and an episode where we take stock of a character's progression makes sense to put it here. The introduction, finally, of the little kitten Ohime is the perfect device to see how Futaba is now compared to her character at the beginning of the show.

It's all about the eyes for this little kitten. Her eyes looked exactly like Futaba's skittish muppet face form. One really heartstring tugging scene was when the little kitten was so happy to be getting milk that it was crying. Compare that to Futaba tearing up when she realized she was already friends with Hikari. Another connection was Futaba learning that newborn kittens don't like bright light. Futaba realized that this one couldn't even see the world around her yet. Now connect that to her conversation with Hikari's grandma and how eyes adjusted to darkness can't see a bright world clearly right away.

One final thing great about Ohime the kitten is that she totally loves Futaba. Futaba is her mother and protector. Just like how Cha (or Aria) always jumps to Hikari, Ohime jumps with total trust toward Futaba. It's another sign of progress for the two friends that they both have cats in their lives.

Heh.

Sunday is the big diving trip and Katori's car has to get packed up.

All the preparations are complete, so there's nothing left to do except get nervous with excitement.

Futaba got that part covered. It also meant there was time to go on a little adventure.

As Hikari and Futaba followed Cha the Cat around, I totally felt we were up for a Cait Sith moment from ARIA. Especially when they got to the path that only cats know about and where they couldn't follow.

It was here in the episode that the main topic of measuring Futaba's character development against a newborn kitten's was established. Futaba felt confident enough to tell Hikari that she wanted to discover a path around their town together, and not just be the receiver of Hikari's experience.

Making memories and sharing experiences, it's what friendship in Healing Anime is all about.

When they found that shrine with the cat frieze over the gate, I knew for sure the cat episode was nowhere near over just because they lost track of Cha. 

Oh my God, this newborn kitten was the cutest thing I've seen in a long time.

She claimed Futaba for her own right away too.

Futaba's maternal instincts got fired up when she protected the little kitten from the raven.

Poor little guy. The girls did the right thing in hoping its mother would come looking for it, but if a raven is already pouncing, that's bad news.

I've never seen an animal look so happy relieving itself...

Katori busted them pretty quick for keeping a kitten in the club room. She also gave them a pretty stern lecture about being responsible for a cat's life.

But Hikari and Futaba are good girls, so they owned up to their responsibility by Hikari talking her allergic mom into letting her keep the kitten temporarily and Futaba looking into pet placement.

Just remember, the internet used to be run on porn and video games. Nowadays, it's run on cat pictures.

Hikari's and Futaba's feelings were quickly rewarded.

There was so much to process here with the introduction of the Principal.

First, he's the actual owner of Cha the Advisor.

Second, Cha's real name is Aria. Yes! ARIA! I just about died.

Third, he decided to keep the newborn kitten because he'd been seeking a mate for Aria. Aria will have to wait a couple years, though.

Fourth, they named the little kitten Ohime. As in Hime! As in the unrequited love of President Aria in ARIA! Aaahhh! If Aria couldn't find feline love on Aqua, at least his past life doppelganger had a chance in a seaside town in Japan. Again, Aaaaahhh!

This show is too much. Ohime the kitten was too cute. Compared to a newborn kitten, Futaba is doing alright.

Next time, how about some actual diving from the Diving Club? I'm looking forward to the undersea visuals.