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EP. REVIEW: Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night


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Hikaru Suzuhara



Joined: 31 Dec 2004
Posts: 88
PostPosted: Mon May 06, 2024 4:13 pm Reply with quote
Hikaru Suzuhara wrote:
The haters were right. She’s knows it. While art isn’t math, there are clearly observable skills involved. You can most certainly get better at art in a number of different areas. Character development is highlighted when we see a different reaction to the same situation/scenario.

While Kano’s unconditional support is important to her, at the same time Yoru still cares about her friends efforts as they compare to her own. She recognizes how far ahead they are and though it took some comments online along with fanart from a far more experienced artists to do so, it lit a fire within her to improve.

This didn’t start with episode 05. It started with one. It has been festering for years. Recall that her first response to negative criticism was to outright disown her mural and stop drawing entirely. Those were just thoughtless comments from friends, let alone people who might claim to or otherwise actually be experts.

Though just as it has been with Kano and her unwillingness to be truly vulnerable in front of someone, despite this she was still able to voice at least some of her fears. It wasn’t the whole truth of what she’s struggling with, but it’s progress.

It was the combination of being told her art is subpar, seeing via direct comparison how lacking she was, and finally having someone express to her, though not in these exact words, that you as you are now are enough and no one can ever replace you was what ultimately allowed her to grow.

Yoru’s struggle with art, her struggle with imposer syndrome is a series long one. All four of these young women are grappling with their identities. The pieces of themselves they put out into the world as JELLE and how they react to the responses they receive is where their progress is best highlighted.

We are not going to see any of them reach the climax of their arcs wherein they each come terms with their past and discover a genuine love for themselves less than halfway through the narrative.

Progress is going to be quick given there are four main characters and just 12 episodes to work with. There’s no time to let issues build for several episodes. If the pattern holds, I expect Mei, Kiwi, then Kano will have their own respective focus episodes in the following three weeks.
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miscu
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Joined: 24 Jan 2024
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Mon May 06, 2024 4:51 pm Reply with quote
I actually did like how Mahiru's conflict was resolved. As someone trying to get into art again, there's definitely that struggle where even if your work is better than the average person, you'll see artists online with 5-10+ years of experience and feel like you're totally out of your league. Reassurance from friends can be nice, but we as people often attribute more "truth" to judgments from strangers because we know they (rude as they often are) will be more brutally honest.

Her friends can keep saying that they like her art, but someone with self-doubt issues will interpret that as pity and internally question how honest they're actually being. Mahiru using that doubt as a driver to improve and keep up with her friends comes off as a much more real-feeling resolution than someone just giving her a stronger reassurance than before. Sometimes your inner critic can be a guide rather than a hindrance.
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1579
PostPosted: Mon May 06, 2024 6:21 pm Reply with quote
I... can't agree with those arguments much (specially with the haters being right. "The art was subpar" is objectively wrong, specially from a literally-who band with two videos).
There are matters of pride, skill and improvement, of course, which is what they ended up tackling.
But more than anything, not much was actually resolved. Yoru learned to cope by diverting her energy into something better than wallowing in self-deprecation, but in the end she learned fudge-all about the more pressing stuff. She isn't interacting with online spaces in a healthy manner (but given the series' themes of choice I trust they'll actually tackle that better later), she never got enough of a baseline self-esteem, she didn't communicate, she didn't seek or get help or advice...

The episode ended on a high note, giving a "happy resolution" vibe to what was just a partial patch to deeper issues that weren't addressed (or even acknowledged), and that might or might not be addressed in the future. Considering this is an ensemble cast and we're almost halfways through the show, they don't have many chances to close all of that.
If the show were all about Yoru, it would be fine, there would be time to expand on her insular choices and the friction they can cause, as well as let her slowly learn what exposure and interactions in the internet age mean to mental health. But there are three other piles of trauma to unpack as well.
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Eilavel



Joined: 16 Apr 2024
Posts: 39
PostPosted: Mon May 06, 2024 7:20 pm Reply with quote
Yoru is persisting with her art. she's taking a more positive attitude to the insecurities she does feel, is moving towards rather than running away from her creativity as a coping mechanism, and feels much more secure as part of the group.

She also still feels a lot of inadequacy around it and is probably still oversensitive to critique. But I don't think thats especially unusual at all.

I'm sure theres going to be a lot of fast emotional growth and personal lessons. I don't think "100% cured" is my metric for satisfaction though; in fact, the opposite. The fact that we don't see that gives the rapid "solution" a lot more verisimilitude in my book.
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jr240483



Joined: 24 Dec 2005
Posts: 4380
Location: New York City,New York,USA
PostPosted: Mon May 06, 2024 9:44 pm Reply with quote
the real surprise was that a series like this anime actually show two female leads kiss when pretty much every other fan of similar animes from sound to K-ON to idol master and especially love live have been screaming to make some of the girls of those series yuri.

though i would not be surprised at all if this series never mention the kiss in any future eps considering that after last year, we now know that there is quite double standard when it comes to the yuri genre and might try with the leave it up to interpitation angle!
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4091
PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2024 2:25 am Reply with quote
miscu wrote:
I actually did like how Mahiru's conflict was resolved.


I don't know what to say anymore. Even in episode 5, Yoru tells herself this doesn't solve the real problem because she didn't tell anyone... including us the audience... what her real problem was.

"Why would somebody more talented than me draw her? I resent that. I can't actually tell her everything." Don't you just love unreliable narrators and how you have to have to pay attention to what they don't say?

Skill versus talent, the art of creation versus the process of copying, I have a feeling we're going to get into the details of creation and self expression with her story. What is upsetting Yoru exactly? That there's someone more talented getting the attention of her friends and fans or that Yoru doesn't like the idea someone is just wasting their talent copying someone else's work? "I made a mural with a friend from art class, based on a painting I made."

I think... it doesn't matter what I think because we'll have to delve into her old art class eventually to get to the bottom of it.
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Panino Manino



Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 744
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2024 7:36 pm Reply with quote
#6
I like this episode, and I think it was good, but there is something I don't understand...
The episode starts with Kano complaining she is having difficulties writing new lyrics. This is immediately put aside and I understand, it's just introducing future drama for the next episodes. What I don't understand is, Miiko asked JEELE to make a song/music for her, right? The girls them spend a day with her to get to know who she is a get inspiration in case they agree to make a song/music for her, and them before we notice it's already Miiko's show, two weeks after!
What happened? The girls agreed to make something for her?
Didn't Kano struggled with her apparent creative block?
JEELE din't anything in these two weeks, when they were so desperate to pump out new material as fast as possible?

Did I miss something?
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1579
PostPosted: Sun May 12, 2024 3:30 pm Reply with quote
That was... a lovely episode. The only thing I expected about the aspiring idol was that she would appear again, everything else was a neat surprise.
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kyuudere



Joined: 16 Mar 2015
Posts: 26
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2024 8:33 am Reply with quote
I just want to say here that the novel will have more contents that weren't adapted in the anime, the director himself admitted it was a tough choice to cut the scripts (the novel) into a 24-minute episode.

First volume is 310 pages long and covers episode 1-3.
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TCX



Joined: 30 Mar 2020
Posts: 7
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2024 9:38 am Reply with quote
Ep 6 was the received ep in Japan yet, 3rd on twitter trends with ~40k tweets. Blu ray sales increasing to reach the top 100 at amazon jp for the first time.

Really good episode, clean and sweet with great timing.
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dm
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Joined: 24 Sep 2010
Posts: 1367
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2024 3:17 pm Reply with quote
It’s interesting that both Jellyfish and Voice actor radio have had this “idol comes out as herself” subplot.
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Random Name



Joined: 24 Nov 2016
Posts: 645
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2024 11:46 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Why has Yoru brought up last week's kiss only for neither character to meaningfully address it?
I was pretty disappointed that it seems they are just going to sweep it under the rug. I can see them not addressing it again for the entire series and that makes me sad.
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1509
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Sat May 18, 2024 8:05 pm Reply with quote
Nick's gonna be squandering a very good opportunity if he doesn't call Mahiru "Mahiru" at least once during the review for this week's episode.
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