This time, with this octopus, I’ll beat you for sure, Anthy Himemiya!

The duels with Saionji mainly served to set up the premise of the duels – these episodes with Mickey lay out the more typical formula for the duels (namely, getting to know the duelists and why they fight). We’ll actually get to know Saionji eventually, but for now, the focus has shifted to Miki Kaoru.

We begin with a flash-forward to the inevitable duel.

Utena: So this is what it all comes down to, Mickey.

Mickey: Yes. I have to get that music back. And, for that, I need the Bride, no matter what!

Utena: I think being seated at the piano suited you much more. […]

Mickey: I’ll make the Rose Bride mine. Even if…even if it means hurting you!

Anyhow, despite her many lackeys, Nanami will mainly serve as a stand-in for the average girl in this show.

Nanami: Your piano playing is wonderful, Mickey. The pride of the school. Thanks to your performance, that party the other day turned out so wonderfully. But why did you drop out of the competition? The teachers were so disappointed.

Mickey: This piano’s a little off key.

Nanami: Really? It was just tuned recently.

Mickey: Then maybe I’m the one who needs tuning.

Nanami: You always play this song when you’re alone.

Mickey: The truth is, this is the only song for the piano that means anything to me. Because, if I keep playing, I hope that she will hear it.

Nanami: “She”?

Mickey: But I can’t get the song to be what I want yet. No matter what I do, I can’t find the right note to follow.

Nanami: Oh, no! It sounds fine to me! It tells me exactly what your feelings are.

Mickey: It’s a song about how I can’t express the eternal beauty I feel inside.

Nanami: And what’s the song’s name?

Mickey: “The Sunlit Garden.”

Nanami clearly misunderstands what Mickey wants to convey with his music, and since she finds this picture of Anthy in his songbook, she just assumes that he’s in love with Anthy, because that’s the simplest answer, and the easiest (at least for her).

So naturally, she sics her goons on her at the next opportunity.

Keiko: We all heard! It’s your fault our Mickey dropped out of the competition, isn’t it?

Anthy: I…I don’t know what you mean.

Aiko: Liar! You said something to him and he lost his self-confidence!

Anthy: I…I never said anything like that!

But then Mickey himself comes in to break it up, since he barely knows Anthy at this point. But he helps her pick up her things, and when she thanks him, he blushes…which Nanami notices (because of course she’s behind it).

Meanwhile, Utena’s bemoaning her poor math test grade to Wakaba, when she happens to see this scene out the window.

Utena: “Mickey”?

Wakaba: Don’t you know about him? Miki Kaoru-kun, a freshman. A handsome boy who fences and plays piano at the national level. He’s a total genius who’s studying the college curriculum even though he’s a middle school freshman. […] He’s really popular, even with the older girls. Mitsuko and the others are just in love with him. But, what would he be doing with Anthy Himemiya?

i promise wakaba is more than just an exposition prop

Anyhow, evidently they got to talking, and he took Anthy’s math test to correct (which is totally something I might have done at that age).

Mickey’s closer with Juri than Touga (as evidenced by the fact that it was Juri watching his duel with Utena), so they get to talking in the library.

Juri: Correcting somebody’s test paper?

Mickey: Yeah, sort of.

Juri: Hm. Unusual for a boy like you, who never gets close to others.

Mickey: Juri-senpai, happiness can sometimes be surprisingly close by, can’t it?

I can definitely relate to Mickey quite a bit – I also had a knack for math and a musical bent (although piano was always far beyond me), and struggled to open myself up to others. He seems rather autistic-coded, what with him carrying around a stopwatch and timing random stuff, in addition to struggling to express his feelings.

Anyhow, he visits Anthy to return her test and generally help her study, which leads him to properly introduce himself to Utena.

Utena: Lucky stiff, getting someone to correct her work. Maybe I should get a logical boyfriend, too…

Mickey: Tenjou-senpai, I’m Miki Kaoru. It’s a pleasure to meet you.

Utena: You know who I am?

Mickey: Of course. You’re all we ever seem to talk about lately. […]

Utena: You’re one of them? One of the student council? I suppose you’re after the Rose Bride, too.

Mickey: No! Please don’t get me wrong. I may be a member of the council, but I don’t want to fight a duel to make Himemiya-san my bride, I swear it!

He seems to be developing a crush on Anthy, but he’s content with the situation as it is right now, especially since Utena is actively encouraging her to pursue relationships with other people (unlike Saionji, who clearly wanted her all to himself).

Utena: Looks to me like you think about her a lot.

Mickey: She…Himemiya-san reminds me a bit of a girl I know. That’s all. I’m not going to fight a duel with you!

Utena: Of course not! Do you guys in the student council know how much trouble you’ve been to us? I don’t know why, but we’re both caught up in your stupid dueling or whatever you call it. And because of that we have to take these make-up exams now!

Mickey: “We”? You’re taking a make-up exam, too?

Utena: Um…well, actually, yes.

This will be really weird when we find out who exactly Mickey’s referring to here…but for now, he just agrees to a study date with Anthy and Utena.

And the Touga shows up to help the plot along.

Touga: You’re playing well today. Your technique’s intensity isn’t as overpowering as it tends to be. There’s a richness to the sound. Could you have found that “shining thing” you told me about once?

Mickey: Yes. I may just have. I may finally be regaining what I lost so long ago…

Touga: I envy you. If you do regain that “shining thing”, be sure to tell me what it is.

So clearly, the girl he was alluding to (which Anthy reminds him of) is someone he knew from childhood…

Then we get to the Shadow Players!

Girl B: The one who first fell in love with me in elementary school was the boy who was best in math. […] But when he found out I liked pro wrestling and big bowls of garlic ramen, well…

Girl A: “Now I know what kind of girl you are…”

Girl B: Is what he said and then he left me!

Girl A: Oh, dear lover! Oh, young man who dreams of love!

Girl B: The truth behind the girl…

Both: Do you really know what it is?

But the question remains: Are they talking about Anthy, or the girl from his past?

Anyhow, Nanami tags along on for the study group.

Mickey: Wow, I heard this was some sort of haunted house, but it’s really clean inside.

Nanami: What a lovely room.

Utena: Yeah, that’s because Himemiya works to keep it clean every day.

Mickey: You like to keep things neat, huh, Himemiya-san?

Nanami: Wow! I’m just so impressed! (thinking) Hmpf! Now to show him she isn’t the sweet girl he thinks she is!

Because Nanami got off on the wrong foot with Anthy, and seeing another boy seemingly besotted with her doesn’t help. Which leads us into Nanami’s ill-conceived pranks, and the incredible surreal humor of this show!

She plans to plant a snail in her pencil box…

Nanami: Himemiya-senpai? May I borrow an eraser? A snail! There’s a snail in there! That girl keeps a snail in her pencil box!

Utena: Himemiya! I misjudged you!

Mickey: I’m so disillusioned!

Nanami: The jig is up, Anthy Himemiya! That’s what will happen! I call it “Operation: Oh! Anthy Himemiya is a weirdo who keeps a snail in her pencil box!”

Mickey: Did you say something?

Nanami: No, nothing!

and this is what she finds in the pencil box

Nanami: Ah! Snails! There are snails in there!

Anthy: Oh, that’s my snails’ home.

Utena: I told you not to keep them in there.

Mickey: I think it’s cute! It’s just like Himemiya-san to do that.

Because Anthy loves her animal friends!

And when Nanami goes to plant a garter snake in her desk, she finds a mongoose, which subsequently eats her snake, prompting a similar reaction from the others (and Nanami is kind of sad that her snake got eaten, if only because it took her so long to catch it).

Finally, she attempts to plant an octopus in her closet…

…only to find a giant octopus balloon. There’s kind of an explanation, but it’s funnier if I don’t explain the context.

And to add insult to injury, Chu-Chu ate up everything in Nanami’s bento box that she’d brought for a snack break. Anthy makes shaved ice for everyone instead, but Nanami is understandably upset about how this evening turned out (even if she meant to bully Anthy, having it all blow up in her face is a bit much for a 13-year-old girl to handle).

Nanami: You’ve got to be kidding me…

Mickey: You should be more polite to an upperclassman.

Nanami: Snails in her pencil box…a mongoose in her desk drawer…a giant octopus balloon in her closet! And now shaved ice for dinner? You’re making me sick! I have a very delicate stomach!

Mickey: I like shaved ice.

Utena: Too bad you’ve got such a weak stomach.

Nanami: This isn’t about the ice or my stomach! Why does everyone like her so much?

Mickey: Didn’t you say you wanted to be Himemya-san’s friend?

Nanami: Whatever do you mean? You’re in love with her, aren’t you, Miki-kun? Admit it!

Of course, Nanami doesn’t know about the duels and Anthy’s role in them, so she doesn’t understand why she’d mean so much to so many people. Because it’s not really about Anthy as a person, but the power she brings as the Rose Bride.

Then Anthy sneaks out, and sits at the piano…

And naturally, they all follow.

Nanami: That’s the song you always play.

Utena: Wow. I didn’t know she could play the piano.

Mickey: The same tone as my little sister’s…that sunlit garden…(thinking) I’ve found it. My “shining thing”.

So yeah. It’s kind of weird to refer to YOUR SISTER as “a girl I know”…and it’s even weirder that he has a crush on the girl who reminds him of her. But that will have to wait!

Until next time…