Thursday 29 March 2012

Completed: Kowarekake no Orgel (spoilers)

Originally published January 12, 2012 on tumblr


aka My half broken music box.

a 1 episode OVA that at first glance looks like chobits….(spoilers ahead… can’t talk about 1 ep without it unfortunately)

and it is…. but i think i would take this 1 episode over all 26 of chobits.

We start off with the main character finding this computer robot (known as a parent) in a dump when he dropped something off.

well obviously she’s been thrown away so he picks her up and brings her to a mechanic.
unfortunately she’s an old model and they can’t get parts for her…. he plans to put her back in the dump come morning.

however he wakes up to the robot having turned on and she has made him a rice omelet…. with a bottle of Tabasco sauce in it.

anyways she gets to work cleaning and he realizes she’s odd for a computer… she can’t calculate quickly and she forgets things so he buys her a picture journal for her to fill in.

they do lots of things, go to festivals, buy watermelon… he teaches her to ride a bike (a fundamental computer skill if you ask me) he even tries to get her to make friends.

the newest thing she wants is to go to the sea… but unfortunately whatever shut her down the first time seems to be at work again. shes having a hard time staying out of sleep mode and some of her gears are not moving the way they should…

after hearing on the news that beach season is over The robot (whom he names Flower) is heartbroken… quite literally…. she tried to calm down and say “well i’ll always be with you so there is always next year” but shortly after her system crashes and she powers down.

again he goes to the mechanic but there is nothing to be done. He knows this is the end so he brings her to the beach despite the time and weather. as he sits there with her he looks through the picture diary. it talks about every day and always ends with “it was fun”
except the last page which simply states. “i don’t want to be lonely”

through the episode she wanted to hear him play his guitar but ever since an accident took his family he’s never had the inspiration and it forced him to quit his band…. still he brought it to the beach and tries to play… suddenly flower starts humming a song she found thanks to his computer.
they sit there while she hums and finally turns off for good.

fast forward a little… he has rejoined his band and he is holding a music box that has been made from Flowers parts. so in the end they will always be together.

she had earphones on and he left those on a flower stock near the sea.
I just found the show very sweet… there is apparently a movie version which is longer and slightly different.

but yeah in my opinion this was chobits done right…. i liked chobits…. it got a few laughs BUT i did get annoyed that the whole show was “look how horrible relying on computers can be… some people are even falling in love with these things and it’s destroying their friendships with others….” then at the end he picks the robot…. i dunno it just always irked me.

this show though has a sweetness and instead of showing computers as good or bad he shows that yes it’s sad to lose people and yes you will eventually lose people but it’s how you deal with the present and work to have fun every day that’s truly important. it just had a much better message and i love that even though she was done he took what he could to make something new and to essentially make sure she wouldn’t be lonely.

1 comment:

  1. ya know, I always thought that this one always deserved a lot more than just one episode ( I mean, it didn't last 30 mins.).

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