Nichijou Episode 18

"Nichijou Episode 18" (日常の第十八話) is the eighteenth episode of the Nichijou anime. The episode was written by Katsuhiko Muramoto and directed by Hiroko Utsumi. It aired on August 1, 2011.

Part 72
It is Autumn. The leaves are changing colors, and Yuuko Aioi and Mio Naganohara are walking together. They've switched to their winter uniforms, buff with a reddish stripe around the neck. Yuuko tells Mio that Daiku Coffee has reopened, so they go there. Yuuko tells Mio that she's been here before, so she'll let Mio go first. Yuuko grins, hoping to see Mio as confused as she had been when she first visited. Mio, however, is a coffee-ordering pro, and flawlessly orders a grande white chocolate mocha frappuccino. Yuuko is shocked. Mio continues, asking if she could also add caramel sauce, hazelnut syrup, chocolate chips, extra whipped cream, and one shot of espresso. Yuuko trembles and steps backwards, forlorn and distraught. She remembers how awful it had been when she'd first visited Daiku Coffee, and now feels so much worse seeing Mio understanding the menu so easily. Yuuko turns and, fighting back a flood of tears, runs out. "Go to hell!" she shouts out bitterly. Making things more awkward, Kana Nakamura has to move out of the way of the door before Yuuko can run off. Mio calls out after her, asking where she's going.

Nakamura-sensei
Nakamura-sensei is in the school lab, plotting. "The sleeping medication had no effect on Shinonome," she thinks. "So I'll use this!" She pulls out a packet of powder. "Now with increased oxidizing power, as well as a backup paralyzing agent, Oxidation Plus-kun!" Various aspects of Oxidation Plus-kun are pointed out like in a blueprint. Nakamura opens the packet and pours it into a cup of coffee she plans to give to Nano Shinonome. Nano will drink it, and Nakamura will capture her in one fell swoop. Nakamura giggles, excited for her plan. "Once I've secured her," she thinks, "I'll have some real fun with her..." For science, of course. Nakamura has then notices that the addition of Oxidation Plus-kun has caused to coffee to fill the mug to as close as it can possibly get without spilling over. Nakamura notices this and starts nursing it to get the coffee back to a reasonable level. ...The coffee she just drugged. (This might be from Daiku Coffee, which she just visited.)

In Science Room 2, Nano, Yuuko, and other students are waiting for lab to start. Today's lesson involves compasses and Earth's magnetic field. Yuuko is chatting with Ogo. Nano is in a panic. "What am I going to do?" she worries. She holds a compass in her lap, the dial of which is being moved by Nano's inherent robotic electromagnetically. She closes her eyes and holds it as far away from her as possible. Yuuko asks Nano if she has her compass yet. Nano quickly holds her compass tightly to her chest and nervously replies that she does. Mio then walks in with an announcement: Today's class is study hall! The class cheers. Ogo turns to Yuuko and asks, "Did Nakamura-sensei collapse again? Nakamura-sensei seems to collapse a lot..." Nano is greatly relieved that no one will figure out she's a robot just yet.

Part 73
There is an explosion on top of the school roof. Misato Tachibana scolds Koujirou Sasahara. "Why are you skipping cleaning duty again?" she demands. In a cloud of smoke, Sasahara coolly replies that he did clean his own area. Misato tells him that there's still a ton of dust! Sasahara looks down in thought. "Is that so?" he asks. Misato demands that Sasahara get back and clean his area properly. Sasahara asks Misato how she knew he was on the roof in the first place. Misato blushes in embarrassment. She pulls out a handheld 12-rocket launcher and aims it at him. Blushing and angry, she yells at Sasahara, unable to look him in the eye while doing so. "Are you an idiot? I heard it was a nice day out, so I just happened to walk by!" She continues steaming in silence. Sasahara simply stands there and replies, "I see." He adjusts his glasses. He then appears drawn with more detail, against a background of lilies. In a gentlemanly tone, he tells Misato, "Thank you for going out of your way to check my area." Misato's entire face turns red in embarrassment. She slams the rockets launcher down and storms off. Sasahara makes a thoughtful pose. Misato then comes storming back, this time wearing some sort of turret! "Don't get any weird ideas!" she yells, "It's not like I did it for you!" Sasahara is stunned, but manages to adjust his glasses. Misato then fires! With a gentle sound, a small BB leaves the turret's gun and gently bounces off Sasahara's face.

Crane Game
Yuuko plays a crane game while Nano, Mio, and Mai watch. She's able to firmly grab a prize (a smiling sun toy). Mio and Nano are impressed. Yuuko calls for silence and begins to lift the crane. The claw really has a good grip on the plushie, and Yuuko manages to lift it almost to the top. Suddenly, the arms of the crane snap off! Yuuko makes a very disappointed face.

Part 74
Yuuko, dressed casually, is on a train as it departs the station at Tokisadame. "A day off..." she thinks happily. Explaining for us, she continues. "Today, I'm meeting Mai in a neighboring town. We're gonna get some free candy!" She then chuckles at the thought. Sitting on Yuuko's right is Mihoshi Tachibana, but they don't seem to know each other. Yuuko is surprised when the woman sitting to her left offers some bread. Yuuko smiles and politely tells the woman, "No, thank you. I ate before I left..." before awkwardly realizing that the woman was actually offering bread to the lapdog she has in her purse. Yuuko is embarrassed, but shakes it off. A little bitter, she thinks that dogs aren't allowed on trains, are they? She then looks up and sees an old woman standing in front of her. Being polite, she stands up, but the old woman tells her, "No, thank you." Yuuko is stunned. Blushing in embarrassment, Yuuko quickly tries to play it off by saying, "We're almost there, so I guess I should stand! Just kidding..." Mihoshi hears this and begins to stifle back a laugh. Yuuko is shocked and tries to just make it to the next station with what little dignity she has left. The train announcer than declares, "We will soon be arriving at Tokisada Toiyamachi." Yuuko is grateful. "Nice timing, announcer!" She quickly puts her backpack on her back and walks to the train doors on the other side of the car. As Yuuko frowns at the door, the train stops and the announcer announces that they have arrived. Yuuko peps herself and thinks, "Okay, time to leave. Goodbye, people on the train!" The announcer tells everyone to exit to the right. The doors then slide open... on the other side of the car. Yuuko stands there for a moment before turning her head, eyes and mouth wide open, and seeing that she's on the wrong side of the car! She turns and walks stiffly to the other side. Mihoshi tries to keep herself from laughing again, and Yuuko looks at her, steaming, her entire face red in embarrassment. Yuuko then tucks her head down and tells herself, "Endure it, endure it! Don't lose you cool over this!" Too focused on not losing her cool, she runs into somebody! Yuuko quickly puts her hands to her face and begins to bow apologetically, bashfully telling the person, "E-excuse me. I was in a hurry." She looks up and finds that she actually ran into a statue of a train conductor! Mihoshi, seeing this as she walks off the train, laughs, causing Yuuko to turn around in shock and embarrassment.

Steaming, Yuuko clenches her fists and walks away stiffly, telling herself, "It's all right. I'll never see that girl again. I'm in a neighboring town. Nobody knows me here! Let it go! Let it go!" She leaves the station. "Wait a second..." she thinks as she slows down. "Is she following me?" Mihoshi is, in fact, right behind Yuuko. Yuuko tries to brush it off as just her imagination; she's a little tense today after everything that's happened. She's now walking in the commercial district of the town. "There should be a Daiku Burger right outside the station," she thinks. She quickly looks on both her right and her left, but doesn't see it. "Mai's map is all wiggly," she thinks. She pulls it out. Hardly a map at all, Mai seems to have drawn a treble clef and placed a dot on it, with an arrow pointing out the location of Daiku Burger. Yuuko decides that it would probably be faster to just ask someone. She sees someone in front of her and, still looking at her "map", begins to ask them if they know where Daiku Burger is. She looks up and sees that it's another figure like at the train station, only dressed as a police officer! Mihoshi finds this hilarious. Yuuko, again red-faced and steaming, can't take this anymore, and turns around and starts yelling at Mihoshi. "Hey! Why are you following me?" she yells, half angry, half mortified. "That's gotta be against some sort of, you know, copyright law!"

Mihoshi wipes away a laughter tear and tells Yuuko that Daiku Burger is on the other side of this building. She also meeting someone there, so she could take Yuuko if she'd like. Yuuko wallows in embarrassment.

Mihoshi and Yuuko arrive at Daiku Burger. Mihoshi then hurries to join her sister, Misato, apologizing for being late. Misato is a little mad anyway. (It being Misato, that must mean she does love her sister.) A little surprised, Yuuko thinks to herself that she really was meeting someone here.

Yuuko buys a soda and looks around the restaurant. Mai is nowhere to be found. She sits down and buries her face in her hands. Glumly, she thinks to herself, "Am I just having a bad day? That was so embarrassing!" She shakes her head and continues. "Well, whatever. It's a neighboring town. Right! Think of it as a practice run, for real life..." Yuuko peers through her fingers, now with a fire in her eyes. "Yeah!" she thinks boldly. "I overcame that embarrassment... I can overcome anything!" Mai then arrives and addresses Yuuko, who looks up. Mai waves; she's wearing a full suit of armor, complete with cape and shield! Her face can't even be seen as it's hidden by her helmet. Yuuko cries out "Mai!" in embarrassment and shock. Trembling, she tries to ask Mai, "Is that... possibly..." Mai tells Yuuko, "Trick or treat." Yuuko just stands there for a moment before opening her backpack. "I guess I have no choice," she thinks. "I've gotta get some candy!" She pulls out and puts on a pair of glasses with a fake nose. Making an odd motion with her hands and still completely red in the face, Yuuko tells Mai, "Trick or treat." Mihoshi puts her head face down, pounding the table laughing. Misato looks at Yuuko and Mai in wonder and says, "Halloween was last week..."

This Is a Crow!
Yuuko walks past a crow eating out of several bags of garbage. The crow notices Yuuko and begins cawing aggressively at her. She maneuvers herself around it, not losing eye contact. Written on the screen are words of advice: If you must pass a crow that is attempting to intimidate you, make sure you maintain eye contact.

Sleep
Hakase can't sleep, so Sakamoto suggests counting sheep. She closes her eyes and begins counting. "One sheep..." is all she gets out before falling asleep. Sakamoto is stunned; "She's out after the first one!" Nano finds this amazing and decides to try it, too. She closes her eyes and begins, "One...", before falling asleep herself. Astonished, Sakamoto thinks, "That sheep didn't even make it over the fence..."

Volunteer Spirit
Misato is in her room with her sister, Mihoshi, tying Mihoshi's bamboo kendo swords together for her. She finishes and hands them to Mihoshi, who is amazed at Misato's amazing knotwork and tells her she's amazing. Misato nods and grunts in agreement. We then can see that Mihoshi is sitting near the turret Misato used against Sasahara earlier, which she's placed next to her bookcase. Mihoshi asks Misato if Sasahara taught her how to tie kendo swords together like that. Misato stares back and begins to blush. Suddenly, she gets furious, and begins to yell at her sister. "Wh-why would he have taught me everything?" she demands. Incredulous, Mihoshi asks Misato, "Aren't you two good friends?" Misato then angrily denies this. Mihoshi tells Misato to calm down.

Still confused, Mihoshi then asks Misato about the handkerchief she's ironed recently. Flustered, Misato looks away and tells her sister that the handkerchief was just some trash she happened to come across in the street. Misato asks, "You didn't iron it because it was Sasahara's?" Misato repeats that she'd told her that wasn't why. "I was working out my arms," she explains, "and an iron happened to be there. And a handkerchief happened to be under that... Or something..." She looks around nervously. She then shuts her eyes before yelling, "...something like that!"

Mihoshi is speechless at Misato's contrived excuses. "It's so obvious..." she thinks. She then makes a mischievous grin. "But you looked so happy when you were ironing it," she tells Misato, teasing her. Misato, still unable to look at her sister, stammers, "D-don't be stupid!" She stands up. "I... it was... the Earth had just entered the Photon Belt!" she finally yells, her fists clenched at her sides as the background fades into a shot of Earth and the Photon Belt.

Helvetica Standard
Drawn more smoothly and with more detail than most Helvetica Standard shorts, a bookcase is shown. A curtain then flutters in, showing the bookcase to be next to an open window. The apartment the bookcase is in is then shown in full. The wind coming through the open window is turning the pages of a book left open on a table. Focusing on the book, the scene then transitions so that the book is in the lap of a young woman reading it on the bus. Behind her, three schoolgirls gossip. The bus then stops, and she gets out. The bus stop appears to be in a beautiful countryside. The woman is wearing a sundress and straw hat, and is carrying a suitcase.

She begins to narrate. "Two hours by train, then one hour by bus. I left the bustle of the city for the countryside Town S." The bus leaves, and she turns to look down the country lane. Picturesque shots of the country are shown. Looking at a piece of paper, she walks down a path until she meets a farmer carrying a basket of produce, whom she asks for directions. Narrating, she tells us, "While believing I'd never find it, but unable to give up, I've been searching for a single book." She is then climbing a lengthy staircase up a forested hill. "That phantasmal book," she continues, "that brought color into my gray childhood..." She reaches the top and sees a library, which she enters. "Because I entered this library... I can read that book again." She walks down an aisle filled with old books. She then starts running, causing her hat to fall off, and stops. "I thanked those who helped me, and took the book in my hands." She sets her suitcase down and reaches for a book on the shelf. She places it on a table; it is thick and well-worn, entitled The Color of Autumn. She runs her finger along the title longingly, and smiles, her long journey finally over. "Trying to calm my pounding heart, I slowly opened the book." She opens the book, which has been hollowed out in order to place a gun inside. The scene lingers on the gun before ending without comment.

Like Love
A kindergarten teacher walks around the class, overseeing the students who are practicing writing their kana. She then announces that time is almost up, and they should make sure to sign their names. Sitting at her desk, she begins to count down as the clock reaches ten seconds before 2 o'clock. She reaches seven and notices that a few students aren't quite done yet. She begins slowing her countdown. She reaches two, and one student is still frantically trying to finish. She drags out "one" until she sees the student finishes. She then smiles and says, "Zero! Please pass your papers to the front!"

Part 75
Mai is still in costume; so is Yuuko. They are both standing outside someone's door. The woman standing in the doorway is somewhat stunned as she tries to tell them that Halloween ended a while ago. Mai and Yuuko walk away in silence.

Helvetica Standard
Drawn in the usual Helvetica Standard style, a girl is sitting in a restaurant, blowing on her coffee. She then takes a sip and is very surprised. Amazed, she says, "This coffee isn't very coffee coffee!" The girl sitting next to her is confused. "Not coffee coffee? What does that mean?" The first girl turns to face the second and explains, "I don't really get it, either. But... it's just not coffee coffee!" She then tells the other girl to just try it. The second girl takes the cup and laughs. "What does 'not coffee coffee' even mean?" She takes a sip and is stunned. "It's not coffee coffee!" she thinks.

Part 76
Hakase announces, Everyone, it's finally finished! It's Biscuit No. 2." Hakase shows a robot that looks like a small boy, with a baseball cap with the number two on it; it looks exactly like Biscuit No. 1 aside from the number on the hat. Biscuit No. 2 repeats his name. Sakamoto groggily wakes up from a nap while Nano looks up from the book she was reading. "Oh, that thing from the other day..." she says. She looks at it for a second before going back to reading. Sakamoto goes back to sleep without saying anything. Disappointed, Biscuit No. 2 thinks, "Hardly any reaction..."

Upset, Hakase grabs Nano's book and tells her that she wants Nano to look at her new creation. Nano bashfully tells Hakase that she already saw the other one. Indignant, Hakase tells her that the two are different. This one's even more amazing! Biscuit No. 2 then introduces himself and shows off his features. "My name is Biscuit No. 2. I am a Biscuit Robot made by Professor Shinonome." His blueprints are shown, focusing on an empty box near where his stomach would be, with the word "empty!" flashing in red. "True to my name, biscuits are my power source." He is then shown "ingesting" a biscuit by placing one in the empty box in his stomach. "I run on biscuits... Professor, my biscuit!" Hakase, lying on the ground and reading a book, is eating a biscuit. "What? This is the last one..." she whines. Biscuit No. 2 is surprised. Hakase displays Biscuit No. 2 again and announces that his specialty is speed reading. "Go ahead," she tells him. He pulls out a book and flies through the pages. He closes it and looks up determinedly, announcing, "Done." Hakase then makes a "ta-da!" pose. Nano doesn't know how to respond. Hakase then gets angry and starts yelling at Nano. "Why aren't you surprised?" she demands. Nano tells Hakase that she can read fast, too... She just reads slowly because it seems a bit more normal. Hakase whispers in Biscuit No. 2's ear. He then pulls out a book and opens it, closing his eyes and yawning. Hakase faces Biscuit No. 2 and asks what's wrong, glancing over at Nano again and again. "Books with lots of words make me sleepy," he says. Hakase giggles and says, "That sounds pretty normal to me." But Nano isn't paying attention.

Hakase storms over to Nano and begins throwing a tantrum. "Why won't you tell me I'm awesome?" she demands. "I'm super awesome!" Nano is surprised. "Is that what you're upset about?" she asks. Hakase, head in Nano's lap, nods and says that it's important. "You're already awesome, Professor," she tells her. Hakase lights up in surprise. Then embarrassed, she says, "That's right. I may have made a slight mistake." Hakase then crawls over to Nano and excitedly asks her, "Hey, how awesome am I?" "About as awesome as the Chichibu Mountain Range ," she replies. Hakase says that she doesn't get it. Nano then compares her to the Nullarbor Plain, but Hakase wants something bigger. Out on the porch, Biscuit No. 2 places some crumbs next to him, attracting sparrows. He can hear Nano compare Hakase to a whale, which she thinks is better; whales are certainly large. Biscuit No. 2, ignored and forgotten, sighs sadly and lowers his cap to cover his face. Don't let them see you cry, Biscuit.

Short Thoughts
Mio is chopping cucumbers. The female announcer says, "There is no 'that's fine.' There is no 'this is fine.' And that's just fine."

Part 77
Yuuko has another 'Fey Kingdom' dream that reveals how Mio got her fuzzy pigtails. [Whoops, I missed this one.]

Don't Miss It
An actual sweet grande white chocolate mocha frappuccino, ordered with a short single-shot, caramel sauce, hazelnut syrup, chocolate chip, extra-whip espresso (voiced by Aikawa Rikako) introduces itself rapidly. (Almost as if it's hopped up on caffeine.) It appears to be from Starbucks. With a name that long, it only has time to introduce itself before telling us that the next episode of Nichijou is Episode 19. Don't miss it.

Transitions
After Mihoshi offers to take Yuuko to Daiku Burger, a playground is shown. A woman is walking with her little girl, and two boys play on the slide.

After Biscuit No. 2 doesn't get his biscuit, the playground is shown again. A child is on the swingset. Another child runs through the playground before tripping and falling on his face. A third boy runs out to help.

Image Gallery
Nichijou Episode 18/Image Gallery