Kobato 02-03: Cameos, Umbrellas, and Candy

I love you Iroyogi-san, don’t change.

So I’m doing a little catch up since I joined the team mid-season. I really wanted this to be a Samurai High School post but some unfortunate things that made me feel a bit like I had Kobato’s common sense happened and I won’t be able to post it until tomorrow at least.

Moving on! Kobato 2 and 3 gave us a better look at Kobato’s inability to understand anything ever, showed us some love-love magic and also showcased some characters from CLAMP’s other works. Kobato takes to the streets looking for hearts to mend in her nonsense-only fashion only to find that it’s a bit more difficult than that. Kobato becomes employed but not for any money and we don’t find anything out about the backstory of Fujimoto-san at all. Luckily it’s not all failures as Kobato is able to mend her first heart, gains an apartment (and bed), and finds some unlikely friends….

Kobato’s first mission is to heal hearts so that she can fill up her bottle to get her wish. She apparently has no memories or sense which also explain her lack of sense. Learning that makes me wonder if she isn’t an angel. Though maybe she’s just a girl who has hit her head hard enough that small animals are sending her on missions.

She completely misinterprets what healing a heart might entail and tries to help people out in superficial ways like taking all of this mans tissues. I guess it’s a good start and she seems to be learning a little from last episode. I’m not gaining any second hand embarrassment from her actions this time around. Maybe I just got used to it though?

What would you even do with this many tissues? I don’t want to know.

She runs after Fujimoto-san after he knocks all her tissues onto the street and ends up at the nursery where he works. She comes on a bit strong to Sayaka-sensei who likes it rough her anyway. Thus she joins the two of them taking care of children which is easy since she’s basically a child herself.

Kobato interprets her feelings into dance.

Since Iroyogi has to pretend he’s a stuffed animal Kobato has forgotten him somewhere and she freaks out. I don’t really understand how you lose track of a blue, talking stuffed dog but if anyone could find a way it’d be Kobato. Before she goes to look Sayaka-sensei has one thing to say to her…

Not in this economy at least!

Turns out Iroyogi is good at pretending to be a stuffed animal so he’s exactly where she left him but now Kobato has to have deep, meaninful thoughts before the story can continue. I’m glad to see her brain isn’t made of mush but I also have some doubt that she would consider the feelings of others so deeply when she tried to give crows trash just the other day. Just sayin’. She meets a little boy from her nursery in the park who is having some trouble because others tease him about his mother picking him up late. Adults tease him. That’s a pretty harsh life for being like 5.

Pretty much that exact phrase causes complexes in children everyday. Good job uncaring woman, you’re way more of a jerk than his hard-working mother. Your child will probably resent you in a few years, enjoy!

Kobato understands though. I wibbled a little at this scene and wondered if I was being too hard on Kobato, she’s obvious got a big heart.

And thus she got her first Star Bit for healing his heart.

Leading me to believe we should eat each others hearts: nom nom nom

Something that’s been bugging me this whole time is that Kobato has pretty much been living in a park. Sayaka-sensei also seems to have noticed and arranges an apartment for her.

As they were walking up the door I thought I recognized the apartment complex from Chobits and then laughed at myself until…

FROM CHOBITS! I feel sufficiently validated in saying CLAMP has run out of characters.

Kobato introduces herself by bowing so low that Iroyogi drops of her bag without her paying attention.

HOW COULD YOU FORGET ME!?

He manages to climb back up the balcony and scare the ever living daylights out of everyone. They should just make horror movies around Iroyogi-san. Since it’s Kobato’s day off she goes around town looking for hearts to mend.

On the way they meet Mitsuru who is very concerned that she made Iroyogi dirty when she bumped into Kobato.  She seems to be a young school girl with nothing too special about her. Kobato forgets her umbrella at home, gets one from a man at a cake shop and then it’s stolen when she’s outside a place called “Piffle Princess” which if you’re familiar with CLAMP is something they use often.

Mitsuru lends Kobato her umbrella and then runs off after a boy walks by with a girl under his umbrella. Kobato stares on in confusion but decides she needs to return this umbrella to Mitsuru the next day.

Looking at this picture makes me glad I’m not 14 anymore.

Kobato sees Mitsuru starring at the boy they saw the other day and can’t seem to put these things together. She also realizes she’s late for work and runs the whole way there.

He’s kind of an anal retentive jerk.

I can’t get it out of my head that Sayaka is kind of a dom…

After work Kobato sees Mitsuru again and wants quite badly to help her. She goes back to her house to think about what to do to help. While she’s pondering she hears a knock on the door and some squeaky voices which I assumed would be children from her school. But they weren’t!

Instead we’re greeted by Chii and Freya now with new more adorable names. Actually they’re really cute! It almost makes you want to watch Chobits again? They brought her a matress since she’d been sleeping on the floor until then but seriously kawaiiiii~

Kobato ponders Mitsuru’s love-love issues while enjoying her mattress incorrectly. I hope she didn’t try to sleep on it this way but I’d pretend to be surprised if she did. The next day she confronts the boy Mitsuru likes by giving him an umbrella so that he can stand under it with Mitsuru. After the awkwardness of two young kids we are finally treated to an adorable scene:

This actually good deed results in another “candy” in the jar…

And somehow causes Kohaku and Shuichiro Kudo (from Wish) to appear on a bridge.

At the end of the day Kobato gets a zero for dropping Iroyogi in the mud too many times!

Last Thoughts

I really enjoyed these episodes and I’m starting to feel more for Kobato instead of just being embarrassed or frustrated at her actions. I have no idea what CLAMP is doing or why they need to include so many characters from their other series. I loved Wish and Chobits as much as the next person but they already did the crossover with Tsubasa and I can actually feel their new ideas running out of them as I watch. It’s really fun to see Fujimoto-san and Kobato interact because he obviously really dislikes her but I’m dying to know what horrible thing scaled him as a child to make him so prissy. High hopes for the next two episodes!

Also I love the ending. Love.  I listened to the ending after both of these episodes even though I didn’t have to and definitely skipped the opening both times. Win some, lose some.