Short Synopsis: Teddy’s mother is very protective of her child, while Emily and Ilse keep trying to get her to let him play outside. Perry meanwhile, has never really learned to write Good: Teddy and Perry. Bad: Emily’s voice actress sounded a bit different in the beginning of the episode. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 This episode marks the end of the introduction of this anime, and it ends quite fitting with the positive part of the premise for the future episodes: Emily dreams of writing for her profession, Teddy wants to be an artist, Perry aims to become a politician and Ilse fancies to become an elocutionist (or a public speaker), and all four of them are already quite good at their desired professions. I expected this episode to be about Teddy, but Perry gets fleshed out as well. During the first half of this episode, he gets his hands on one of Emily’s books, after making fun of her fantasizing. He came from a poor family, so his literate skills aren’t too good. He seems to be able to read, but he’s never learned to writ. That’s why he keeps practicing writing Emily’s name, which she wrote at the last page of the book. Because of this, he’s really getting respect for Emily, who already is able to write so well, and he apologizes to her, which already shows that the guy can take responsibility. Still, the largest part of the episode was dedicated to Teddy, since it’s the first time we really see him. And I have to say that his case is another beauty. During the entire episode, we see no signs of his father, which suggests that he either disappeared, or died at a certain point of time. Because of that, Teddy is the only thing his mother has left, and she’s become overprotective of him over the years. She blatantly refuses to let him play along with Ilse and Emily, and Teddy catches her crying at night. Obviously, Emily doesn’t just listen to her quietly, so she starts yelling at the woman for not letting Teddy do what he wants. I think it’s here where Ilse realizes that she wants to do the same thing. Unlike Perry, she decides that it’s better to just ignore Emily, and closes the door right in front of her face, running away from things. Luckily, Teddy isn’t stupid, and he manages to convince his mother to let him go (great scene, by the way). Emily also got a small bit of airtime, when she attempts to read a book and Elizabeth takes it away from her. This’ll probably be quite a problem for the future, as Elisabeth can’t see why Emily would read for her own entertainment while she could study. Overall, I love this anime so far. Each single character has his or her own problems, and so many people have different morals and views that they complement each other perfectly. It’s a shame that this series isn’t getting any attention (or heck, fansubs), as it’s definitely one of the best series to have aired this fall. :)]]>
It’s really sad that it’s not getting any attention… sigh… I certainly hope more people will grow to love this the way we do. and, love it enough + have the time to fansub it… I think people will give it more attention once someone subs it.
i love your summaries and insightful comments! i’m a fan of the emily of new moon books, so i’ve started watching this series because of them. it’s very interesting to see the series from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know the storyline. 🙂