12 Days of Aniblogging 2019, Day 8so the show about three anal-vore-suit wearing middle schoolers orgasmically extracting fetishists’ secrets from their butts doesn’t go far enough.yeah I said it. Let’s start, like the show does, with the boxes.Enta’s box holds his micanga, the symbol of his connection to Kazuki. Tōi’s box holds a gun, the symbol of his connection to his brother. Kazuki’s box holds his crossdressing clothes, the symbol of his connection to Haruka.A box contains/defines a secret desire (to connect). Enta hides his micanga from his sister, sure, but that’s more about her teasing him than it is being truly afraid to show his feelings. He doesn’t hate himself because of those feelings (he’s too busy sniffing Kazuki’s clothes and licking his flute and generally being a thirsty bitch), even if he is worried that Kazuki will reject him, and so after we see what’s inside his box the box itself stops being important. Tōi hides his gun – but he’s not ashamed of it, even if he doesn’t take it out in public. He’s willing to use it to threaten Kazuki for the plates, and then later to save Kazuki’s life. He doesn’t hate himself because of his feelings toward his brother — and once we see what’s inside his box, the box stops being significant.Kazuki hides his Sara clothing in his box, and when it’s revealed at the end of episode one he stuffs it back in, disgusted by his own behavior. That box is the subject of the first of the three rules that govern his life. Let’s go over those.1. Carry a box everywhere. (constantly obsess over secrecy around the thing-in-the-box.)2. Watch Azuma Sara’s Lucky Selfie Fortunes every day. (but the box/secret isn’t watertight. Rules about the thing inside that Kazuki doesn’t want to think about are still applied.)3. Share lucky selfies with a certain someone every day. (and something *has* to leak out.)Since Sarazanmai is all about uncontainable desires (water) bursting forth, and the box contains/hides the fetish object, the split between “the desire inside me that needs to be expressed” and “I can’t release this” becomes itself a fetish. Unlike Enta and Tooi’s boxes, Kazuki’s box remains important enough to become a fetish object in its own right, symbolizing the tension of “I have to hide/expose my desires.” Every one of the shirikodama pull remarks matches something going on between the main boys in the episode. The first Kappa zombie, with a fetish related to hiding identity/revealing body, is defeated when Kazuki declares “It’s your fault for having a secret that could get you in trouble!” – it’s the zombie’s fault for having a desire that could get him (and it’s *always* a him, never a her) declared YAOI and kicked out of reality via Otter Cops.(there’s another essay here on “no beginning, no ending, no connection” – the reality erasure circles, the acronym that the word yaoi is from (no climax, no resolution, no meaning), and Reo and Mabu and shipteasing and how being canon yaoi and getting to kiss would kill Mabu in that same YAOI way—and maybe I’ll write it next year.)“It’s the zombie’s fault for wanting something!” doesn’t square with what Kazuki later tells us about the Sara outfit being penance for the pain he inflicted on Haruka at all.What kind of desire would have to be concealed above all else? What kind of desire would make Kazuki wear feminine clothing and makeup and lipstick and practice his feminine voice to the point of passing in front of a devout Sara fanclub? What kind of desire would make Kazuki insist on only interacting with the sibling he loves as a girl; would make it impossible for him to respond to Enta’s gay love with anything but “haha the boys made you do it” but allow him to flirt with Tōi? What kind of middle school boy wears pink (and it is pink – this show has reds, and that pink against red is completely different) and carries a purple bag?What kind of desire could only be responded to in a bathroom?Kazuki messages Haruka as Sara from the bathroom. Kazuki changes clothing in the bathroom. The bathroom is a box. The bathroom is where stuff comes out of your body, like it or not. Again: Sarazanmai is all about the tension of holding gross stuff in and the relief of letting it out. And when the soccer ball of threesome togetherness bounces against the wall of the bathroom? That’s when we see the first crack in Kazuki’s hypernormal cheerful façade, the same one that he put up against Enta’s confession.We see Enta’s sexuality clearly. We see Tōi blushing when flirted with. What gets Kazuki off? What’s the thing he’s hiding, taking any excuse to do and making every excuse for?“I became Sara to connect with Haruka. It wasn’t for Haruka. that’s a lie. [a pause.] I deceived Haruka to protect myself.” EPISODE END TITLE CARD: I want to connect but I can’t be forgiven.The solution is left as an exercise to the reader.
Dec 21, 2019 • Subscribe
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