Amanchu! Advance Episode 2 Review – “The Fireworks Festival and the Hot-Blooded Girl”

Short Summary: Pikari starts playing with Kokoro, a local (and younger) girl boy who happens to love the concept of manliness and the fact that there’s an octopus who protects her eggs, while Teko is visiting her hometown. The day after the gang meets up for a fireworks festival, Pikari cheers up Kokoro who is upset that she can no longer find Octomom.

My Thoughts: To be honest, the introduction of a new character always makes me both excited and anxious. The audience will (usually) get to see how the pre-existing cast treats the new character, which will inevitably change the status quo some way or another. But then some new characters end up remaining underdeveloped which can be rather disappointing.

With that being said, I wonder how the others will interact with Kokoro should Pikari introduce her him to them. Judging by this episode alone, Pikari is quite taken with the younger girl boy. As a result, it’s implied that Teko became worried about her standings in Pikari’s heart but Teko is able to reassure herself by remembering that Pikari is a friendly and approachable girl and that anyone would end up becoming friends with her. I can only imagine that TekoxPikari shippers share similar sentiments.

In regards to Kokoro, is she a tomboy who prefers manly things and dislikes cute things or does she identify as male? The events in the episode aren’t enough to thoroughly prove or disprove either point, admittedly, and there’s a chance we may never know depending on how the series plays this out. Or maybe I am reading things wrong again. Kokoro is a boy, apparently…

Seeing Teko reflect on her past behaviour and grow as a person never gets old to me. I think the fact that Teko used to become anxious and imagine the worst when her friends kept secrets from her is quite relatable. Since Pikari is such a honest and open person, Teko implicitly trusts Pikari when she starts talking about keeping the pattern of their yukatas a secret and preparing a secret weapon. Teko is instead excited about the reveals.

With the fireworks festival on the horizon, Pikari runs into Kokoro again and she manages to get the younger girl boy to reveal her his name as payment for showing Kokoro where the Octomom and her nest is (as the high tide had made it difficult for Kokoro to locate said nest).

And then the girls get to see Octomom destroy an eel. Don’t mess with moms!

Unfortunately, Pikari forgets to invite Teko to the fireworks festival and Pikari is left with nothing but regret in that regard. But, excluding the fact that only she and Teko wore yukatas, almost everything else went really well! We learn that Ai has a monkey yukata at home back from when she was a kid, Mato remembers and relives a precious childhood memory, and Pikari reveals that her secret weapon was chairs for the gang to comfortably sit down and watch the fireworks.

The only thing that went slightly awry was Teko’s reaction upon hearing how Pikari went on a date with Kokoro, as mentioned earlier, but she is quick to rationalize the situation!

The following day, Pikari finds a disheartened Kokoro who is feeling depressed over how Octomom is nowhere to be found. However, the episode ends with the girls two feeling excited to see the octopus eggs hatch and with some yuri tender moments that can put TekoxPikari shipppers on edge.