Mikan Enikki episode 23
In the cats' playground, Botan is kicking the car wreck with anger because Yukihiko is still hanging around Yayoi. Then the other cats ask Mikan how things are going on at his home, about the quarrel between Tom's father and mother. Mikan says they're still angry at each other, for whatever reason. On the way back home, Sera and Tom ask Kyoko if she wants to play with them, but she says she can't, because her mother wants her to work hard to go to a private school, so she must hurry back home. At home, Tom is playing a shoot'em up game on his Famicom, with Mikan sitting by, instead of doing his homework. So his mother, who was about to leave to go shopping, asks him to stop playing and start studying. But Mikan has noticed her worried look and tells Tom that recently she and Tom's father haven't talked much to each other. But Tom doesn't seem to worry enough about them, so Mikan thinks he has to do something by himself. Later at night, mother is alone resting on the sofa, since her husband is working late. She looks sad, so Mikan comes to have a talk and cheer her up. Mikan wonders whether Tom's father would be able to go with another woman or not.. After dinner, while his mother is washing the dishes, Tom notices aloud that his father is kept more and more busy at work these days. His mother looks very angry, hearing that. Mikan and Tom are talking about that to each other in Tom's bedroom, when they hear father eventually coming back home. Mikan decides to leave and check how things are going on. But soon Tom hears his father shouting with anger when he discovers that there's nothing left for dinner. Mikan finds father and mother turning their back to each other, looking equally angry at each other. So he comes in, forcing himself to smile, to welcome father home. Then Mikan tries to talk to him gently about him coming later and later evening after evening, thus making it more difficult for mother to wait for him and cook dinner. But father retorts aloud, to make sure that his wife listens, that there are things men HAVE to do, and he IS very tired AND starving. Mikan tries to make him smile by offering a can of cat food instead, no way. Soon mother brings father, for dinner, a cup of instant noodles, some pickles and chips. Mikan stays with him to drink sake, while father drinks beer [they become drunk very quickly]. After a while, Mikan tries to talk about their quarrel again, but father says that it's a mere trifle and nothing to worry about. Then when Mikan asks him what Tom will become, father says that it is Tom's problem, not theirs, anyway. Mikan is very surprised because Tom is still a child. Father also says that it's useless to talk to his wife about that. Back in Tom's room, Mikan tells him how bad the situation is. He has even come to think that they will get divorced, and asks Tom which side he will choose. Then Tom hugs Mikan hard, and both swear that wherever they will go, they will always stay together. [CM break] Next day in the cats' playground, as Mikan sees Kurobuchi (with hearts in his eyes) falling for the first queen he sees around (first the twin cats that the dog brought, then a cute white queen, Botan's younger sister Hana), he imagines the worst: father going on a date with another woman. So Mikan hurries back home. At home, Tom has never been fond of exams, but wonders whether or not he should pass some, actually, the same as Kyoko's. But Mikan scolds him for not thinking about the most important problem for now: his parents' quarrel. They must do something, or things might get worse. But Mikan says he has a good idea. Mikan and Tom bring to father, who is watching TV, the family album with many pictures taken before their wedding. Mikan remarks aloud how nice looking they were, planning to make father remember the mood of these good old days. But father gives only a mere glance at the pictures, preferring to watch the golf commentary on TV instead. Then mother comes by, making nice comments on each picture of the album, and asks her husband how he can forget such nice moments. But he retorts that he's busy and has something else to do than recalling such things. The angry look is immediately back on mother's face. Tom tries to make a diversion, saying how beautiful his mother was looking when she was young, on a certain picture. But that turns out to be a mistake, because it was a picture of his grandmother when she was young. In turn, Mikan shows a picture of father when he was young and had long hair, saying that he was certainly very popular with girls.. Unfortunately again, that was a picture of father's elder brother. Tom and Mikan try another trick, telling them that their love was so strong that they got married in spite of mother's mother who was against the wedding. But mother retorts that she should have listened to her mother at that time instead of marrying father, which makes him get up with anger. [the dialogue was so funny that I had to translate it.. try to imagine mother and father yelling at each other, with Tom and Mikan tangled up in their quarrel]
mother: I have NEVER met such a selfish, pig-headed person before!
So Tom's and Mikan's efforts are a complete flop. In his room, Tom isn't studying but thinking about what just happened. Tangled up between his father, yelling all the time, and his mother, expecting him to work hard, he doesn't know what to do. Mikan thinks that father doesn't know how to cook, so mother's side should be better. Tom thinks too that eating hamburgers day after day is no good at all. On the next morning, father is about to leave to go to work, and when mother gives him his coat, she says that they should hold a meeting that night and settle things up once for all. Mikan, hearing the word "settle", remembers how angry Botan was the last day, and imagines the worst: father and mother [drawn very funnily, "super deformed"] kicking each other. Later on the playground, Mikan tells the other cats that despite his efforts, things aren't going any better at home. Soon a very angry Botan comes by, then gives a hard kick to Kurobuchi, sending him flying. Then the dog comes by and chases Kurobuchi in turn, soon followed by Botan. They both reproach Kurobuchi to hang around ANY queen he sees, including Hana (Botan's sister) and the dog's friends (the twin cats). It's evening now. Tom and Mikan are lying side by side on Tom's bed, when they hear mother calling them. When they enter the living room, father tells Tom that they have something very important to talk about. They want Tom to tell them frankly what he thinks. Tom, very embarrassed, doesn't know how to start, and says he loves both of his parents. Father says they love him too, and also says that he must make his own decision. But mother and Mikan say that this is something a child can't decide all by himself. Then, a wicked smile on each other's face, father says that he has no intention to make Tom attend extra exams, while mother says that it might be good for him. They start to quarrel again on the exams subject. Tom wasn't visibly expecting them to talk about that, so he looks bewildered, but relieved. His parents says that they weren't quarreling, it was just "everyday home life". Mikan starts to show father his little finger [which stands for "women affair" in Japanese culture..] but soon realizes his big misunderstanding and manages to run away, chased by Tom.
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