Posted on by TracyC

Emma in Winter

Emma in Winter by Penelope Farmer, 1966.

This is the second book in the Aviary Hall Trilogy. Each of the books in the series could be read independently of each other, but this book in particular makes more sense if you have read both the first book, which is The Summer Birds, and the third book, Charlotte Sometimes before reading this one. People in this book directly reference events in The Summer Birds, something with Charlotte Sometimes does not. Although Charlotte Sometimes was written and published after this book, it actually takes place during the autumn before this story and it does inadvertently contain a spoiler for Charlotte Sometimes because Charlotte appears at the beginning of the book. It’s just my own preference that it’s better to read this book after Charlotte Sometimes because it makes Charlotte Sometimes more suspenseful. Like Charlotte Sometimes, this book also involves time travel, and the characters do some research on the subject of time and how it works.

At the beginning of the story, Emma Makepeace is upset because her older sister, Charlotte, will be leaving early for the new term at her boarding school after Christmas. At this point, Charlotte has already had her first term at boarding school (which is where and when Charlotte Sometimes takes place, although there are no references to the events of that story here), and she has been invited to visit one of her new friends from boarding school before they return to the school together. All through Charlotte’s first term at boarding school, Emma has been lonely without her and has been finding life at their home, Aviary Hall, increasingly difficult. 

The girls are orphans (although the books never explain what happened to their parents) who live with their grandfather and his housekeeper. Between the two of them, Charlotte is the more serious and responsible and Emma is the more mischievous and thoughtless. Up to this point in their lives, Charlotte has acted the part of the caring older sister, trying to teach Emma to behave herself and covering for her when she doesn’t. Charlotte has realized that their grandfather has little patience for misbehaving children and that Emma pushes the limits, so she has frequently intervened and smoothed things over when Emma tries his patience. 

Emma has often thought of Charlotte as a kind of spoilsport for trying to act grown-up and mature, but during Charlotte’s absence at boarding school during the previous term, Emma has suddenly come to see how much Charlotte has been helping her and saving her from the consequences of her own actions and the realities of their home life. Without Charlotte there to be the motherly big sister, providing some warmth and affection and acting as a buffer between Emma and the adults, the grandfather has become more impatient with Emma’s immaturity. Both he and the housekeeper have been more direct with Emma about her behavior and bad habits, and there’s no one there to shield Emma from it. Emma is lonely for Charlotte’s company and feels picked on by the adults, so when Charlotte cuts her time with Emma short after her first visit home to go visit one of her school friends, Emma is angry and resentful. Charlotte is tempted to back out of her friend’s invitation for Emma’s sake, but she feels like she can’t, and their grandfather tells her that she must go ahead with the visit.

Emma is in a state of emotional turmoil through most of the story, adjusting to Charlotte’s absence, the new expectations of the adults in her life for her to mature and improve her behavior, and her own resentment about these things. While all this is happening, something else strange happens. Emma begins having strange dreams about flying. They remind her of the children’s flying adventures from two years previously, as described in The Summer Birds. It has been so long since she last flew that she struggles to remember how in her dreams, and when she wakes up, her muscles feel sore from the effort. However, at first, she can’t remember what happened in her dreams.

At school, when the new term begins, Emma is made head girl because she is the eldest girl in the class. A boy called Bobby Fumpkins is made head boy because he is the eldest boy. Emma is embarrassed and uncomfortable about being the head of the class in partnership with Bobby. She hates Bobby because he is fat, awkward, and spoiled. Before his mother gave birth to Bobby’s younger sister, who is still a baby, she babied Bobby more than she really should have at this age. Their family also has their own tv set, something most of the other children’s families don’t have at this time, and which Bobby bragged about when they got it. For these reasons, most of the other children in the class don’t like Bobby, either, and they’ve teased him mercilessly for years. They think he’s a sissy and a baby because of his mother’s attention and because he’s milder-mannered than they are and never stands up to them. Because of his awkwardness, they like to call him Jemima Puddle-Duck after a character from a children’s book by Beatrix Potter. Bobby tells himself that his classmates mean all this teasing good-naturedly, but they don’t really. Emma is particularly adamant within herself that she genuinely hates Bobby.

However, like it or not, Emma’s life has become intertwined with Bobby’s. Their teacher expects the two of them to work together at school during the day, and at night, she gradually begins to realize that he is sharing in her same dream of flying. Other children at school tease Emma about being friends with Bobby, particularly one girl who really wants to cause trouble for Emma because, as the next eldest, she would be next in line for the head girl position herself. Emma denies being Bobby’s friend, partly because he still gets on her nerves and partly because she’s still lonely without Charlotte and is worried by being shunned by the other children at school. However, she gradually begins to feel guilty about the way she and others have been treating Bobby, and she begins to feel the impulse to try to be nicer to him. 

As her relationship with Bobby improves, Emma begins remembering more of their shared dream, and the two of them talk about the dream together. Bobby was one of the children at school who shared in their flying adventures two years before, and the two of them discuss their past adventures with each other and how they compare to the dream they’re now having. There are a few things that they begin to notice that are different from their past flying adventures. One is that they both have the feeling that someone is watching them. It seems to be a stern or hostile presence, a pair of eyes that belong to some unknown person, but they don’t know who it is. They also begin to notice that it looks like plants are growing backward as they fly over the countryside. That is, grown plants seem to be returning to small plants and seeds. They gradually notice that the land seems to be going back in time. Eventually, they start seeing dinosaurs in their dreams, and it looks like they might be going back to the beginning of the world. What will happen to Emma and Bobby in their dream when they eventually reach the beginning of everything?

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction and Spoilers

I’ve already explained my reasoning about the reading order of the books. The Summer Birds is the first book in the trilogy, and you really have to read it before you read this book because the characters directly reference events from that story. Actually, I thought that was a really interesting choice, to have Emma and Bobby talking openly with each other about the summer when they learned to fly. They just accept that event as a common event in their lives that they shared and that everyone who shared it with them openly acknowledges. Sometimes, in children’s fantasy stories, the characters later downplay magical events, feeling like they were dreams they had or games of pretend they played because they seem too strange to have really happened, but no, in this book, the characters all know what happened to them and just accept it as a part of their lives. I thought it was interesting that this book acts as a bridge between the theme of flying and the themed of time travel in Charlotte Sometimes, although I still think that Charlotte Sometimes keeps more of its suspense if you don’t know that Charlotte safely returns to her own time before you read it. 

I still think that Charlotte Sometimes is the best book in the trilogy. It is the best known, and unlike this book, it can be read independently of the others in the trilogy. It doesn’t reference either of the other two books at all. There are no references to Charlotte having participated in any previous magical adventures in that story. That may be partly because she is among strangers at her new boarding school who wouldn’t know anything about her flying adventures, but even her private thoughts don’t give any hint to that. What I think that The Summer Birds and Emma in Winter add to Charlotte Sometimes are some further insights into Charlotte and Emma’s personalities and the relationship between them. I still think that Charlotte Sometimes is the best book in the trilogy. It is the best known, and unlike this book, it can be read independently of the others in the trilogy. It doesn’t reference either of the other two books at all. There are no references to Charlotte having participated in any previous magical adventures in that story. That may be partly because she is among strangers at her new boarding school who wouldn’t know anything about her flying adventures, but even her private thoughts don’t give any hint to that earlier adventure. What I think that The Summer Birds and Emma in Winter add to Charlotte Sometimes are some further insights into Charlotte and Emma’s personalities and the relationship between them. Emma in Winter also adds some thoughts about the nature of time and time travel, which add some further insights into Charlotte’s time travel experiences.

Emma and Bobby do some research about time in her grandfather’s study, a room where Emma is usually forbidden to go. One of the theories they find is that time moves in a coiled pattern, like a spring, and that the coils of the spring can be pushed together so different points on the coils can touch each other. This theory really relates better to Charlotte Sometimes than to Emma in Winter, but what is more relevant to this story is the idea that human thought can be the force that pushes the coils together and makes them touch. This is also a part of Charlotte Sometimes, and I explain in my review of that story about how Charlotte and Clare having many similarities and being in a similar state of mind as well as sharing the same physical space at different times allowed them to switch places with each other. However, the emphasis in Emma in Winter is Emma and Bobby realizing that their own thoughts and feelings influence their dreams and, therefore, their time travel.

This story is rather metaphysical and a little difficult to follow during the dream phases. I noticed that some other reviewers seemed confused about the point of the time traveling. I found it a little confusing, too, but it seems like this is a coming-of-age story, like the other books in the trilogy. The Summer Birds focused on Charlotte and how her more mature outlook helped the other children make an important decision that would alter their lives forever. Charlotte Sometimes raises the question about what defines a person’s identity and how a person’s identity can be tied to someone else’s even when they’re separate people. Emma in Winter focuses on emotional understanding.

Both Emma and Bobby are going through major changes in their lives, particularly ones that require them to become more mature than they once were. Bobby has been somewhat spoiled and coddled by his mother, but he’s no longer the center of attention at home, now that he has a little sister. At first, Bobby finds it hard to cope with his mother no longer giving him the attention she used to give him, but it does give him the opportunity to become more independent and mature. Emma despises Bobby for being babyish because he was spoiled and overprotected by his mother when he was younger, but the truth is that Emma is also babyish. She’s not accustomed to being accountable for her own behavior and bad habits because Charlotte usually takes responsibility for her and shields her from some of the reactions of the adults and other people. 

When Charlotte goes away to boarding school, Emma is left on her own for the first time to deal with the consequences of her actions and other people’s reactions to them. It’s a bit of a shock for her at first, and she realizes that she hasn’t fully appreciated what Charlotte was doing for her for the whole time. She also comes to the disquieting realization that, even thought she feels like the adults are picking on her over her behavior, she doesn’t like the way she behaves, either. She comes to feel guilty about the way she treats Bobby, and when she draws some nasty pictures of her teacher, she is startled to realize how much she has hurt her teacher’s feelings and how badly she feels about doing that. For the first time in her life, Emma has to face her own behavior and see how her behavior truly affects other people. She is shocked and troubled when she realizes that she doesn’t like what she sees and it’s her own fault. Only Emma can decide how nice or how mean she is and who she really wants to be.

The children’s time traveling adventures that they have while dreaming lead them to explore their relationship with each other. Emma realizes that she has to be nice to Bobby and learn to get along with him for them to be able to function with each other in the dream. Their final dream together is confusing and rather surreal, but it also involves the two of them confronting aspects of themselves, their lives with other people, and their own behavior. 

When they move all the way back in time as far as they can go, they’re confronted by a vision of their teacher, not as she actually is, but as Emma drew her in a mean drawing. Emma has to remind herself and tell the figure that it’s only a drawing she made; it’s not reality. They also see visions of other people in their lives and even of themselves at their worst and most frightening, but they have to hold on to the reality of themselves, as they are now, the people they’re becoming, not who they used to be or how other people see them. I took it to mean that neither of them can go backward in their lives anymore, to their old habits and who they were or how they were as younger children, but they have to accept the changes taking place in their lives and in themselves to return to the real world, their own time, and the lives they have ahead of them. They discover that the key to traveling through time is thinking, so they have to think themselves out of their time travel dreams, focusing on their real selves and the real lives, accepting and even loving themselves as they are. Change has been coming for both of them, but they have to make the decision to face it and embrace it and to let go of their past selves to move on in time and in their lives.

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

Howl’s Moving Castle

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, 1986.

The kingdom of Ingary is the land of fairy tales. There is magic, and in a family of three children, it’s always expected that the youngest of the three will be most successful. Sophie Hatter, as the oldest of three, is disappointed when she first realizes that, but she reconciles herself to her rather dull fate. She is devoted to her younger sister and half-sister, and she does her best to look after them and help prepare them for their futures.

When Sophie Hatter’s father dies, her stepmother Fanny has to decide what arrangements to make for the family’s hat shop and the three girls in the family: Sophie, her younger sister Lettie, and her half-sister Martha.  Because Martha is very bright and expected to one day seek her fortune in the world, as third children generally do, Fanny arranges for her to become an apprentice to a respected witch.  Lettie becomes an apprentice in a pastry shop, where she will learn a good trade and possibly meet a nice young man to marry.  Sophie, as she had always expected, continues to work in the hat shop.  None of the three girls are particularly excited about the arrangements, but they make the most of it.  Sophie does have a talent for hat-making.  In fact, she has a very unusual talent because, as she talks to the hats while she makes them, the things she predicts for the buyers come true. People become increasingly attracted to the hat shop because it seems like good things happen to people who buy hats there.

Sophie is good at working in the hat shop, but she has to admit that her life there is dull. She doesn’t really know what else she would want instead, but she feels isolated, hearing gossip from other people but not really talking to anybody herself. A visit to her sister Lettie on May Day puts Sophie’s life in perspective and calls the things that are expected of older and younger siblings into question. Sophie learns that her sisters, dissatisfied with the arrangements Fanny made for them and having ambitions other than the ones that are expected of them, have secretly switched places with each other. Lettie craves learning and adventure, so she has taken Martha’s place as the witch’s apprentice to learn magic. Martha doesn’t actually care about going out to seek her fortune at all. She doesn’t want adventure or riches. What she really wants, although she’s never admitted it before, is to marry, settle down, and have ten children. Working in the pastry shop, she has already attracted quite a following of young men, and she’s sure that she’ll find one who will love her and make her happy. Neither of them cares about fitting the tradition mold of three siblings, and they’re both concerned about Sophie’s future. Sophie has never had any particular ambitions of her own, but her sisters know that being shut up in the hat shop all the time isn’t good for her. They think Fanny is taking advantage of her because it’s Sophie’s work that’s attracting all the customers these days, and Fanny isn’t even paying her an apprentice’s wage! Apprentices like Lettie and Martha get wages at other businesses, but Sophie’s been working for free while Fanny takes all the profits. It gives Sophie a lot to think about, and she becomes convinced that she’s being exploited when she asks Fanny about wages, and Fanny puts her off. Sophie is so angry that she thinks maybe she should run away to seek her fortune, but she can’t shake the idea that eldest children can’t do that. Soon, circumstances intervene to force Sophie to be the one to go out and seek her fortune anyway.

Dangerous and mysterious things are happening in the kingdom. Rumor has it that the evil Witch of the Waste has threatened the king’s daughter and that the king’s personal wizard, Suliman, has vanished after going to deal with her. People think that the Witch of the Waste probably killed him. The king’ brother, Prince Justin, also went in search of Suliman and disappeared.

One day, the Witch of the Waste pays a visit to Sophie’s hat shop.  Mistaking Sophie for one of her sisters, the witch curses Sophie, turning her into an old woman.  Unable to explain to anyone what has happened (which is part of the curse), Sophie makes the decision to leave the hat shop, finding a new job as housekeeper to the mysterious wizard Howl, a sinister figure himself.  Little is known about Howl, although he is known to live in a strange castle that moves from place to place, apparently of its own accord, and he has a reputation for breaking women’s hearts.

Howl is even stranger although somewhat less sinister when Sophie gets to know him.  He allows Sophie to stay in his castle, not so much by requesting her to stay but by not telling her to leave, much like he did with his apprentice Michael, an orphan who came to live with him and gradually became his apprentice when Howl decided not to send him away.  Howl is vain (using makeup and hair dye to make himself more handsome), immature, and somewhat cowardly, but he is still a powerful wizard and can accomplish great things when he makes up his mind that he wants to (or finds himself unable to refuse).  He doesn’t real steal girl’s souls, as some of the rumors about him say, but he is definitely a flirt and a womanizer, who drops girls as soon as they fall in love with him because he likes pursuing them but is afraid of commitment. In fact, he even has Michael spread scandalous rumors about him in the towns where they do business so people will be more reluctant to try to get him to commit to anything or anybody.

Howl has other problems aside from his immaturity and fear of commitment.  Calcifer, the mysterious fire demon that powers the moving castle, hints as much to Sophie.  He hopes that Sophie will be able to help, although he, too, is unable to explain the reason why for magical reasons.  Howl is not an ordinary person, but a traveler from another dimension, from a strange country called Wales, the same place where the king’s wizard, Suliman, was from. In Suliman’s absence and against Howl’s will, the king recruits Howl to be the new royal wizard, to find the missing Suliman and Prince Justin, and to deal with the Witch of the Waste.

Sophie struggles to convince/cajole/force/help Howl to save the kingdom and to learn the secret curse that Howl himself is living under even while suffering from her own curse.  Surprisingly, it seems that Sophie is the key to breaking not only Howl’s curse but her own.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies). It’s the first book in a loose series. Many people these days are familiar with the story because it was made into a Miyazaki movie, although the movie was very different from the book in a number of ways.

My Reaction and Spoilers

I first read this book when I was in high school, years before the movie version was made. In a way, the book is party mystery or puzzle as well as fantasy. Calcifer and Howl have a problem that they can’t talk about because of the magic around it. Only one rumor about Howl is true: Howl is literally heartless. But, Calcifer has a heart. It takes a long time for Sophie to make the connection and to realize what Calcifer actually is and what Howl did. Howl made a sacrifice years before that has left both Howl and Calcifer in a precarious position. The clues to Howl’s past and the arrangement between him and Calcifer are in a poem by John Donne that turns out to be part of Howl’s nephew’s school assignment. The Witch of the Waste, who turns out to be one of Howl’s former, discarded conquests, knows Howl’s secret and is trying to use it to get revenge on Howl.

Although the movie version is very good, and I enjoyed watching it, it is very different from the original book. The beginning part of the movie, where Sophie is working in the hat shop and cursed by the Witch of the Waste before going to work for Howl is very similar to the original book. However, the major problem of the war in the movie never happened in the book. War is a common theme in Miyazaki movies, but there’s nothing in the book about wizards making themselves into weapons of war. Instead, the main problems of the book are about lifting Sophie’s curse, figuring out what the secret contract between Howl and Calcifer is, evading the wrath of the Witch of the Waste, and finding the missing Suliman and Price Justin. The movie addresses the arrangement between Howl and Calicifer, but it doesn’t fully cover any of the rest of it. There are some characters and plot lines from the book which were combined or reduced in the movie in favor of the war plot, which I found less interesting because it has less intrigue. In the movie, the Witch of the Waste is tamed and redeemed as a character, but in the book, she really is evil and is never redeemed.

There’s also nothing in the movie about Howl being from Wales in our world and the land where he lives being a different dimension, but that’s a major part of Howl’s character in the book. In the book, Sophie even visits Wales with Howl and meets his family. His sister thinks that Howl, known as Howell Jenkins in his native Wales, is a wastrel, who hasn’t made anything of himself in spite of his college education. She’s only partly right. What she doesn’t know is that Howl started learning about magic at university, which is how he found out how to travel to other dimensions and make himself into a wizard. In spite of his immaturity and attempts to avoid certain types of service, he is actually very skilled and powerful. Howl can’t tell his sister the truth, so he just lets her think that he’s a wastrel.

Sophie finds Wales strange and mysterious. She is terrified when Howl takes her and Michael for a ride in his car. One of my favorite parts is when Howl needs to talk to his nephew about the poem he was assigned at school, but he doesn’t want to talk to Howl because he’s playing a computer game with a friend. Sophie and Michael don’t understand computers or that the boys are playing a game, so when the friend says that he can’t stop to talk or he’ll lose his life, they think that the boy’s life is really in danger. They almost panic when Howl pulls the plug on the computer to get his nephew’s attention, totally unworried about his nephew possibly dying. That’s one of the reasons why I prefer the book to the movie. Many of the humorous little moments like this are lost in the movie, although the movie did keep the episode where Howl has a temper tantrum and fills the house with green slime.

There are also intricacies of the plot that aren’t explained in the movie. The one I mind the most is that the movie doesn’t fully explain how the curse on Sophie works or how it gets broken, either. The book provided more information, which helps Sophie fully appreciate who she really is. As Calcifer realized soon after meeting Sophie, removing the curse on Sophie is complicated because it has two layers. Howl even admits later that he’s been quietly trying to remove Sophie’s curse himself, but he was never successful because Sophie was actually maintaining the curse herself. The first layer was what the Witch of the Waste did to her, but Sophie herself has magical powers that she has been unconsciously using throughout the book. The reason why good things kept happening to the people who bought her hats was that she was unconsciously casting spells on the hats when she talked to them while making them. The second layer of the spell on Sophie herself was her unconsciously reinforcing her sense of being old through all of the negative things she’d been telling herself about being the eldest child in her family. Sophie’s power typically manifests in the things she tells to people and things, and she’s been telling herself all the wrong things.

Because of all of the tales about how the youngest children are the ones who successfully go out to seek their fortune, Sophie has felt relegated to just being the eldest, helping other people, and not really thinking about what she wants for herself. Even as a young woman, she acted and felt old before her time because she didn’t have any confidence in herself or anything to look forward to in her future. Her sisters even worried about her for not having enough self-respect, no ambitions or dreams of her own, or ability to stand up for herself. Because she never expected to do much of anything with her life or any belief that she might have talents of her own, she and everyone else completely overlooked all of the magic that she’s been instinctively doing. When Sophie discovers that her sisters have switched places and learns about their real life ambitions, she is stunned to realize that she has badly misunderstood both of them for most of their lives, also making assumptions about them based on their birth order. She has also misjudged or underestimated other people, but the person she’s misjudged and underestimated is herself. Howl is the one who tells her that there’s nothing wrong with her being the eldest sister; the times when she gets things wrong have been when she acts without fully thinking things through. Part of the key to breaking her curse is to get rid of the negative feelings she’s had about herself and her ability and to see herself for who she really is: a person with powerful talents and a right to want things and achieve things for herself and her future. Once she sheds her doubts about herself and her abilities and stops thinking of herself as just the eldest and doomed to fail, she realizes how she can use her powers to save Calcifer and Howl, and Calcifer lifts the rest of her curse.

Posted on by TracyC

Aria Volume 5

Aria Volume 5 by Kozue Amano, 2004, English Translation 2009.

This is the fifth volume of the second part of a fascinating manga series that combines sci-fi, fantasy, and slice of life. The series takes place about 300 years in the future, when Mars has been terraformed and renamed Aqua (because of all the water on its surface). The human colonies on Aqua are designed to resemble old-fashioned cities on Earth (called Manhome here). The people of Aqua prefer a much slower pace of life than people on Manhome, and aspects of life on Aqua more closely resemble Earth’s past.

The series is divided into two parts. The first two books are the Aqua volumes and introduce Akari Mizunashi, the main character, a young girl who came to Aqua to learn to become a gondolier in the city of Neo Venezia (which resembles Venice). Female gondoliers, called Undines, give tours of the city, giving Akari plenty of time to admire the beauty of her new home and meet interesting people. The two Aqua books are the prequel to the main series, Aria. Aqua covers Akari’s arrival on the planet, her introduction to life on Aqua, and the beginning of her training. The main Aria series show Akari’s continuing training, her progression to becoming a full Undine, her evolving relationships with her friends, and as always, her delight in learning more about her new home and admiring its beauty.

The series has received some criticism for being slow and lacking danger and adventure, but that is not really the point of the series. The main purpose is to show people how to appreciate the small pleasures of life. The sci-fi and fantasy elements (the spaceships, advanced environmental controls, intelligent Martian cats, and even the occasional appearances of the legendary Cait Sith) are mainly background to the stories about the magic of friendship and simple pleasures. Each volume contains a few short stories about Akari and her friends and the little adventures they have on a daily basis and the life lessons they learn. It’s a great series for relaxing when you’re stressed out.

The stories included in this volume are:

Mailman-San

When Akari’s mailman friend has a hole in his gondola, he tries to hire Alicia to help him deliver the mail. However, Alicia is busy, so she allows Akari to help him instead, even though she’s only a trainee.

Akari gets to visit the post office and spends the day helping the mailman deliver the mail. During the course of the day, Akari thinks about the number of letters that people in Neo Venezia send and wonders why they send physical letters instead of e-mail. The mailman explains to her that physical letters feel different from e-mail, and Akari understands.

People in Neo Venezia like the feel of doing things the old-fashioned way, often because the old-fashioned ways have more of a personal touch. The mailman tells Akari that she has really become a part of Neo Venezia.

Canzone

Alice’s mentor, Athena, is also one of the three greatest Undines on Aqua, the Three Water Fairies, like Akari’s and Aika’s mentors. However, Alice has little patience for her because she is clumsy outside of a gondola. Alice hates clumsiness and weakness, even punishing her own left hand for not being as strong as her right.

Akari is concerned about Alice when she sees what she’s doing to her left hand, and she has a sleepover with Alice to learn more about what’s happening with her. That’s when she meets Athena for the first time, although she had earlier seen her in her gondola, singing an enchanting canzone. Athena’s singing ability is one of the reasons why she is so famous as an Undine.

Akari observes the little things that Athena does for Alice, like singing to her at night, and points out to Alice that her left hand helps her more than she realizes.

Alice doesn’t believe it at first, but the next day, she begins to notice that Akari is right. While Alice eats with her right hand, her left hand holds her bowl. When she writes with her right hand, her left hand is holding the page. Her left hand isn’t inactive or useless; it’s been providing support that allows the right hand to do its job.

This revelation also causes Alice to see her mentor in a different light. Like her left hand, clumsy Athena has also been giving Alice quiet support that Alice often fails to notice. Alice reflects on how Athena’s singing comforted her when she first arrived at Orange Company and was homesick. Alice asks Athena why she sings to her, and Athena tells her that she’s just singing as she pleases, that she doesn’t need a reason to sing, that songs don’t really need to be noticed or thanked, and that she should just let the song do its work. However, Alice gains a new sense of gratitude toward her mentor and begins to treat her much better.

The Night of the Meteor Shower

Akari and her friends find out that there is going to be a meteor shower, and Aika suggests that they invite Al the Gnome to watch it with them.

Of all the boys the girls know, Aika likes Al the best. Al isn’t temperamental like Akatsuki or spacey like Woody. Aika is kind of fascinated by how he looks younger than they are even though he’s older and also talks like an old man or an old-fashioned gentleman.

Plus, after living in the underground city, Al has really good night vision, which is helpful as the girls search for a good place to view the meteor shower, away from the lights and crowds of the public square.

Aika finally suggests that they go up on the roof of one of the Himeya Company buildings, which has an excellent view.

Akari explores the rooftops a little on her own, leaving Aika and Al alone together. When Al, whose work as a Gnome is managing the gravity of Aqua, talks to Aika about gravity and attraction and how the gravity of Aqua pulls, the meteors in, she understands a little more about the attraction she feels for Al.

Margherita

Aika’s mentor, Akira, is tough, but she genuinely cares about her students. After a day of training in which many things go wrong, she finds a way to show the trainees how much she appreciates their hard work.

Akira has Aika, Akari, and Alice show her how they would handle a real customer, from helping them into the gondola to giving them a pleasant tour with interesting information. However, she is critical of the way they do things and particularly, some of the safety regulations they forget, like speed limits, not warning other approaching boats of their presence, and allowing themselves to be stuck when high tide comes and makes it impossible for them to pass beneath certain bridges.

Akira says that the reason why she’s being tough is that, when the girls become full Undines, they will be completely on their own in their boats with their customers, with no one else to help them. When there’s a problem or when they make a mistake, it will be their job to fix the situation themselves with their own skill and ingenuity.

When they become stuck on a section of canal because of the rising tide, Akira challenges them to find a way to solve the problem themselves. They find a side waterway that’s been closed off, and take the gondola through that way.

Akira rewards the trainees by taking them to a pizza parlor for a Margherita pizza. (Named for a queen, it’s topped with tomatoes, basil, and olive oil.) The trainees ask her why she didn’t punish them for making a serious mistake in their practice, and she tells them that there would be no point in punishing them because they realized what they did wrong and made an effort to improve, learning from their experience.

I quibble a bit with the teaching method just telling the students to find a way to fix the problem themselves without guidance. It kind of works here because Aika and Akari are now journeyman Undines and have had basic training and experience of the waterways of Neo Venezia to call on, but you can’t do this sort of thing with real beginners who haven’t had that grounding. I’ve had teachers who have tried, and I know the frustration of having them expecting me to call on a grounding I hadn’t received. When I was a kid, I felt terrible about those situations, like I was an idiot, but as an adult, who has since had gaps in my early education filled, I’ve come to realize that the fault wasn’t with me but with the teachers who had not taught me what to do but still expected me to somehow already know. I couldn’t figure out what to do because I didn’t know enough about what I could do yet. You can’t progress well in your education or training for anything without having someone explain the basics to give you the right grounding to build on. You can’t do algebra without knowing your basic operations. You can’t understand how to cook from memory or improvise a dish without first learning how to follow basic recipes. Akira’s approach to letting the students figure out the solution to a problem themselves calls attention to what the girls already know and encourages them to use it, but when that doesn’t work in real life, when you just don’t know what to do at all, it’s time to take a step back and reacquaint yourselves with the basics. You can figure out what to do if you know what’s possible to do, but I’d like to point out that if you don’t know what’s possible, you need some help and guidance to learn.

Shadow Chasing

Akari never minds waiting for people because there are always interesting things and people to watch. One day, when Alicia has to attend a Gondola Association meeting at a famous cafe, Akari says that she and President Aria will just wait for her instead of heading home.

Akari drinks lattes and watches the people going by, just enjoying the ambiance of the square.

There is a man there who seems familiar to Akari, and the two of them begin talking to each other about people watching in the square. The man introduces Akari to the custom of “shadow chasing”, where the restaurant employees move the cafe’s tables into the shade as the shadows move.

Akari reflects on the history of the cafe, Caffe Florian, which she says is actually the same cafe that once stood in the original Venice (which, in Akari’s time, is now submerged beneath the ocean), having been dismantled and moved years ago.

It turns out that her new friend is actually the manager of the cafe.