#i based this place on aoyama flower market

[minhtblue]

an uncanny resemblance... 

[dokidokivisual]

Gochiusa BLOOM episode 1 impressions

Ok, now that some time has passed let’s look at the long awaited first episode of the third season of Gochuumon wa usagi desu ka? aka Is the order a rabbit? in detail. I spent a lot of time on this, so any feedback would be appreciated.

The opening scene of the season is a sendback to opening scenes of the first two seasons. The episode starts as usual with a several establishing shots of the setting, which is based on various European towns, mostly in Alsace region. This shot in particular is based on Little Venice area in Colmar which I have visited a few years ago.

Then we see Aoyama Blue Mountain going through the town and ending up by the Rabbit House sign. Previously Cocoa and Chino were shown in a similar situation. However the road seems to have been repaved between season 2 and 3 (probably because a different studio is making the backgrounds now).

After the opening sequence ends, we see the title card and... no opening? Well, this is different. Anyway, the story starts and as was expected it’s based on the first chapter of volume 5. We see the staff of Rabbit House trying various measures to resist summer heat, and eventually deciding to create new, less stuffy uniforms.

On the way to the store Rize has to carry everybody and then fight through the crowds. Understandably even she has her limits. But then, a wild Sharo appears! I thought this scene had pretty cool animation.

Then the girls go to acquire fabrics for the vests, however they can’t find Cocoa’s signature pink color. Cocoa proposes this sequin fabric, which might be the sparkliest object I’ve seen in anime. It’s quite impressive how it was animated too. Unfortunately Chino hates it.

After that Chino’s concept for the summer uniform is revealed. What I find interesting here is that in manga this drawing was black and white, and the label “pink” was actually useful, but now it’s colored and the label is redundant.

Shortly after we get introduced to a new character? Which happens to be just a random background girl playing as Phantom Thief Lapin. An interesting bit of foreshadowing, but possibly confusing for those who only follow the anime?

The scene that follows features an amazing ad-lib (perhaps?) from Cocoa

なんとかなーる (somehow it will happen) どこかにあーる (somewhere it exists)

In the manga Cocoa only says the first line, but now it rhymes and allows the characters to think about where it might be. A sudden realization comes to Cocoa and she starts rummaging through Rabbit House’s storage room.

Here the story naturally links up with volume 5 chapter 9 (the brocante/flea market chapter), as Cocoa discovers various items that junk up the place. Anyway she finds up the exactly right fabric and we get a glimse at “nice body Cocoa” 10 years in the future, as though she will still be wearing the same outfit and working in Rabbit House for 10 years. By the way, the manga will reach 10 years of continous publication in May 2021, so at least from our point of view she has been working there for almost 10 years.

After a brief intermission with Takahiro and Tippy (I actually laughed at the bake-usagi joke) we move on to the B part. At the flea market (with 100% female attendance for some reason), Cocoa, Chino and Rize set up a stall. Sharo is also there, and her obsession with ceramics is recalled, while Chiya helps her carry the purchases. This scene is expanded compared to the yonkoma version with Chiya displaying some gray (green?) morality by blaming Sharo for caring more about the cup than Chiya. The original joke in the manga was that Sharo desperately jumps for the cup despite saying how she can’t be unladylike in the presence of fine china just before that.

Next scene is a bit of a cultural reference to “tataki-uri” sale. Here’s a video of a guy selling bananas in this style with a help of harisen in Osaka. Harisen is an important prop in Manzai-style comedy, where “straight man” of a duo (tsukkomi) often slaps “funny man” (boke) with it. Seeing as Sharo is usually in tsukkomi role, her lack of “my harisen” is surprising to Chiya.

One of the most impactful scenes of the episode is when Chino meets a lost child and makes her stop crying using her old rabbit toy. This is another scene that got expanded compared to the manga, showing how Chino overcomes her shyness and how compassionate she can be. The fact that she gives away the toy for free is also original, the mother actually bought it in the manga.

Next there’s a scene about Chiya trying on a shirt she bought from Rize. This scene is interesting because the anime adaptation cuts some dialogue from the manga where it was revealed that the clothes Sharo wears are actually hand-me-downs from Chiya. As a result Cocoa tries to give hand-me-downs to Chino, and then when she asks for Chino’s clothes to wear, Chino’s reply that “it would be just an exchange” actually makes sense. Is it just me, or the same reply doesn’t make sense when all hand-me-downs dialogue is cut out?

Now we move on to the final(?) scene where Cocoa reveals that she bought the magic set herself. Cocoa even tells us the moral of the story about how things have their own history. Cut to the scene where she demonstrates her magic skills for the first time. Even those who didn’t read the manga probably expected her to fail at this point, and she does indeed fail the cane trick. But then... something magical happens.

We see Chino (still wearing Cocoa’s hand-me downs) staring enthralled as Cocoa prepares her next trick, with other girls chatting in the background. We now see Chino’s point of view. Everything but Cocoa disappears, she’s now in a magical BLOOM dimension where it’s only two of them. Flowers spring from Cocoa’s magic hat, petals flutter in the air and the camera zooms on Chino, who is absolutely amazed by it all.

And then it transitions onto the opening sequence! Wow, I did not expect that. Mostly because the flowers trick failed in the manga. But also such a strong allusion to Cocoa kind of being like a mother figure for Chino. In this moment Cocoa is Saki (=BLOOM). I mean, you can interpret it differently, I don’t know.

But this is not all. After the opening there’s a C part, which is really a continuation of the A part. Such “sandwich” composition has been employed before in season 2 episodes 1 and 12 for example. Cocoa shows off her summer uniform which is pretty similar to the original uniform to the point where I’ve seen people saying stuff like “hope they’ll show the summer uniforms in the next episode”. This is it, this is the summer uniform:

This is also a callback to when Cocoa wears the uniform for the first time in season 1 episode 1, with Rize and Chino’s responses being the same. This is lampshaded in the episode itself though.

Since the opening theme serves as the ending theme for this episode, the actual ending theme (Nakayoshi! Maru! Nakayoshi! by Chimame-tai)  will likely be shown in the next episode. Not to break from the tradition, the next episode “preview” is a scene with Takahiro and Tippy, who deploy some amusing meta-commentary this time around. The next episode seems like it might have Phantom Thief Lapin in it, based on the title, so I better get my Lapin figure ready.

So that was the event-packed first episode of Gochiusa BLOOM. I think it might be one of the best episodes in the series so far, and the key drawings by the new studio are so beautiful, I couldn’t stop screenshotting it on my first watch. What did you think of the episode? It’s kinda hard to find any decent Gochiusa discussion out there... Please look forward to the next episode and my review of it!