Non Non Biyori Nonstop | Episode 6 and 7 Review


Episode six & seven thoughts

I love how most if not all of their emotions can be shown through their facial expressions. There’s something about it that cracks me up, especially when it comes to Renge. Her blank stares make me laugh. I guess it had something to do with how she’s designed as one of the characters, and it’s distinctly different from the rest. It’s because of this that her reactions are a lot more exaggerated and animated than the rest.

Another character that I’ve grown to enjoy is Natsumi. She has grown on me because, like Renge, her imagination and rebellious nature appeal to me. She’s that pre-teen that is still very much a kid at heart, who sucks at school but only because they’d rather have fun playing than sitting down doing something boring.

If I were to pick a favourite episode out of the two, I would undoubtedly pick episode seven. This is because Natsumi (who hates school) and Kazuho (the teacher who sucks at teaching) join forces to fend off a common enemy between the two, Natsumi’s mother. [Dun dun dun]. When you combine someone with poor grades and the extremely irresponsible teacher, working together to pretend like someone they’re not because they’re scared of one person; is entertainment.

What made episode seven all the more fun for me was that I could relate to Natsumi on a spiritual level. I am sure we’ve all experienced the same thing, that sinking feeling of putting in all that last-minute effort into studying, spending every minute of every hour the day before making sure you drilled home everything. Only to forget everything you had went over and studied the night before as soon as you sit at your desk with your test in front of you. I’ve experienced that sinking feeling so often, and seeing it play out in an anime was oddly entertaining but also satisfying.

Another aspect of episode seven that I also enjoyed was when Renge was hanging out with Shiori. The fact that two children engaged in a far beyond comprehension conversation, especially for people who are their age, was straight comedy. “Then what is perfectly round?”, “So I’ve never actually seen anything perfectly round?” and “What does ’round’ mean, anyway?”.

These are questions that I never asked when I was around their age, nor was that something I ever thought about. Even now, it isn’t something that I think about. I do no question reality, looking for a greater truth to everything. I go with the flow, as I am sure most people do. Seeing two individuals in the anime who are children, Renge being in first grade, with Shiori being younger than her. Seeing them ask these sorts of questions was something I enjoyed when they were supposed to be playing.

It’s not something you’d ever expect and that element of surprise is what made episode seven great.