Myself; Yourself 11 – Simply brilliant

And here I was wondering how they are going to resolve so many storythreads in 3 eps. With a genius stroke of shocking Hoshino, we now have the Shuu/Shuri and Hoshino's tales wrapped up, in a dramatic and touching manner to boot. I knew the Nakahara Mai role was more than meets the eye but this surely exceeds expectations. Now that leaves us 2 eps to tackle Nanaka and Sana's backstories.

Incidentally, as the resident siscon (imouto sect) on Hontouni blogs, I'd like to say that Shuu/Shuri have a wonderful relationship that RL siblings should learn to emulate. Call them siscon/brocon, anything but the degradatory incest/twincest and credit them with the respect they deserve. Here is a sacrificial love worthy of song and praise.

Time to reshuffle the M;Y bishoujo rankings and hoping they can squeeze a little Hinako goodness in the remaining episodes.

Myself; Yourself – From adolescence to adulthood

If there's a consistent theme in all the character tales in Myself; Yourself, it's not romance, it's growing pains. Of course love, being a huge component of adolescence, is featured prominently in the series but to market M;Y as a 'heartful love story' may have be misleading. This probably caused some unhappiness due to misalignment of expectations as the series oscillate from haremic fun to dark drama. But frankly, I think that couldn't have been more realistic or entertaining.

Myself; Yourself is a drama at heart - a drama about the changes and challenges that comes with the journey to adulthood. Employing an overused plot device of the returning childhood friend, M;Y takes a different spin on innocence lost. We see the destructive distance that eroded Sana/Nanaka's relationship contrasting with the suffering proximity that has induced a somewhat unhealthy relationship between the Wakatsuki twins.

I know shouts of twincest has been resounding in the aniblogsphere, some jubilantly, others in disgust. From the body language and what Shuu said of Shuri (to Hinako at the end of ep 6), it is clear that Shuu regards Shuri a little more than a sister. (One don't keep looking at your sister when describing the ideal girl or talk about your sister while rejecting a kokuhaku.) But this is a blood-related siscon that I respect and know that nothing sexual will be born of it. Unlike Koishirou of Koi Kaze (whom I despised), Shuu is a worthy brother deserving of our admiration. Shuri on the other hand, is healthily in love with Shuu... as a sibling. Some may cite the ai ai kasa event as a definitive sign of guilt but I see it as a terrible frustration of being misunderstood.

Hinako and Yuzuki's tales are also subset of the theme as Hinako looks forward to womanhood by tasting the sweet difference between infatuation and love while Yuzuki looks back to her motivations that made her the woman she is today. Intertwined with this growing up theme is the presence of 'evil adults' most notably in the Wakatsuki twins tale. Signs point to Nanaka's uncle being involved in the fire and we have Hinako/Yuzuki's workaholic mom/parents neglecting their daughters.

The only storythread that deviates from this theme is Hoshino Asami. At this point, I'm not quite sure of her role and further involvement in the closing hour of M;Y. Her 'evil adult' appears to be crazy Grandma but what of her growth as a character? Is this lovely bishoujo a mere catalyst for Sana/Nanaka relationship and the Wakatsuki plot? Surely our angel-hearted goddess deserves more development and airtime?

With 3 eps remaining, I'm not sure if we'll see satisfactory endings for all these growing up tales especially when we still need to unveil Sana's wristwatch secret. But with my faith in M;Y greatly bolstered by its thematic consistency, I await to be surprised by its finale.

Myself; Yourself – My Da Capo fix for Fall

Since Da Capo II has seemingly forsaken its romance-drama roots, I find myself increasingly drawn to the cast/tale of Myself; yourself. Unlike DCII which feel fairly episodic/meandering so far with little development on its sakura tree premise, Myself; yourself is a great deal more driven with the characters growing and the plot moving in a coherent manner that builds on its premise. It certainly helps that all of M;Y's characters appear to have greater depth than DCII's girls with tragic pasts and current struggles culminating to their present behaviour. At the very least they connect with viewers better than banana-hating robots seeking world dominance. In a mere 7 eps, I feel so much for almost all the characters including the typically expendable male sidekick which surely is unheard of in Hontouni history.

Anyhow, here's some thoughts on the girls of M;Y in ascending order of my support for their getting together with Sana.

A love worth dying for

Just softening the ground before I reveal the Hontouni loli for 2007. And yes I know, looming death from anti-lolicon mob-squads who would have mistakenly associated my love for Hinako with the loli-fetish threatens. Hoping my sacrifice would be a worthy offering to our lolicious goddess.