My question is how often does a single episode of an anime move you ? But I don’t mean the final episodes. It’s all well and good for a story to pull at your heartstrings at the very end of a series because we know in our hearts that it’s ending and that our relationship with the characters will soon be over. We expect to be moved at the end like say, the Love Hina christmas episode which I remember watching at the end of a two day marathon of watching the whole series through from start to finish.
Today at Addicted to Anime, our university anime club we screened a few episodes as we do each week during Wednesday common hour. One of the episodes we watched was Full Metal Alchemist episode 6. Upon noticing the episode number I couldn’t help but comment “You know what the next episode is, don’t you ?” to the group at large. Some people behind me had watched the series and needed absolutely no reminding. “Episode 7″ they replied. They shuddered visibly at the memory. Because if you’ve watched FMA, a fairly happy-go-lucky series to that point, you are in for a shocking moment that will leave the very episode number scarred into your mind. Throughout the screening they continued to make comments such as “I find it hard to watch this knowing what’s going to happen to her”. It was great to share a connection like that. Almost to have people sympathise with you over it.
Some other anime with a defining moment or even an emotional sideline that isn’t at the end spring to mind. I remember that in I, My, Me Strawberry eggs the crucial “love” scene isn’t at the end, but pops up around episode 7 (from memory). I’ve just been watching Read or Die the last few days as I’ve been trying to watch through some of my brother’s anime that he left behind and it has a key emotional scene in episode 11 when you think that the main characters are going to part ways and you’re left wondering who the plot will follow whilst the characters say their teary goodbyes. It was only the fact that I new there was another dozen episodes did I allow myself to think “Oh, maybe they won’t split up since there’s so much story to go”, but it was a sad moment nevertheless.
What anime have you seen that had an emotional turning point or key scene in the middle of an anime ? Comments welcome.
