Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night Episode 1: JELEE Donuts

Another show I had no idea what to expect. Even the trailers didn’t tell me much. With the premiere episode we have a better idea of what is upon us.

We began with our heroine Mahiru walking about Shibuya at night comparing herself to a jellyfish where she could blend in with her surroundings and not be noticed by others. She felt at ease not being the center of attention. More on jellyfish and this monologue in a bit.

Thank you Mahiru.

The next morning at home and during class break Mahiru had discussions with her imouto Kaho and then her classmates about trendiness and aspiring to become great one day. The latter focused on achieving greatness or transforming into better versions of one’s self before graduation. Mahiru answered by quickly editing a group photo to have the gang look beautiful and stylish. She’s praised for her artistic skills which brought back painful memories for her. Her artistic past wasn’t something she liked to talk about.

Later at Shibuya she talked about the conversation with her currently mysterious pink haired friend Kiui. She didn’t want to admit it in front of her posse but she did agree about the transformation thing. The problem was she didn’t have the courage to take that all important first step. Kiui asked what exactly she wanted to be and her answer was someone who had an idea what they wanted to be. Based on her wanting to pick the devil girl costume for Halloween she wanted to be more like a daredevil. A certain blonde swooped in and took the costume by the way. Mahiru ended up with the angel next to it instead.

Kiui asked “What about painting? You sure you don’t wanna do that anymore?” She claimed to no longer have a good reason for it. The truth was in the past she loved painting and won a prize for her jellyfish drawing. She was so proud that she and some friends drew it on a wall. However, when she asked other friends to “come check out this cool wall painting” they thought it was weird and lame. That crappy review scarred Mahiru to the present day, feeling ostracized and afraid to share her true passion with others ever again.

As she remembered painful memories she noticed a streamer performing in front of that very drawing, a shell of its former glory. She wanted to tell her to back off but felt she had neither the guts or right to do so.

Suddenly a familiar blonde said exactly what Mahiru wanted to say. Not only that but she accused the streamer of defiling the drawing she loved. As if drawn to this mysterious lass our heroine did what any sensible curious human would…stalk her. It went as well as you’d expect. Fortunately it didn’t take long for Mahiru to prove she came in peace. Specifically when Mahiru was able to prove she did draw the jellyfish painting the blonde was ecstatic to meet the artist of her cherished drawing.

Until the show tells us otherwise I will address Mahiru as her Twitter handle, Yoru Umitsuki, because she’s too embarrassed to tell the hottie her real name.

The blonde introduced herself as Kano Yamanouchi. When she took the mask off Yoru remembered what her imouto said about quality lipstick looking good on a famous beauty because she had the face of Cleopatra or something like that. Basically the makeup looked good on the model because the model was already beautiful. Point being Yoru found a “Cleopatra” in Kano.

Kano revealed she used to be in an idol unit. It’s why she pulled back when the streamer thought she looked familiar. Kano didn’t want to explain what exactly happened but said something went wrong and left it at that.

Yoru thought she understood Kano because it meant she’s forced to quit but she didn’t. She still sang, just not live. She still put out songs online under the alias JELEE. After having Yoru listen to one of her songs and being praised Kano revealed JELEE was her way of sticking it to her critics and doubters. She could still spread her message of awesomeness and inspire the masses and even doubters as JELEE making their jaws drop when she eventually showed the world this global sensation was her all along. When Yoru tried to subtly bring her back down to Earth as it were Kano thought it’d be a great idea for them to collab. Kano’s singing and Yoru’s art would be a winning combination.

Me being me of course I thought the two girls on the left were dating.

Anyway Yoru responded exactly as someone who lacked self-confidence would reply.

Yoru: Nah girl. It’s been years. I-I’m rusty. What would others th-

Kano: Come on! Don’t worry about it. Just cut loo-

Yoru: EASY FOR YOU TO SAY! You’re special, unlike me who is as average as it gets. I should focus on school, get good grades and trying to make a solid living. That’s all a nobody like me can-

Kano: I see…Your art is incredible…but you…you really are average… (She didn’t put it that bluntly but might as well have)

Yoru: How could you understand? You’re special! I bet you never once doubted yourself.

Kano: Is that really how you see me? Your art inspired me you know.

Again, thank you Yoru.

After relieving her stress with a nice bath (not in a stress relief well because that’s for horse girls) she looked up info on Kano’s past as Nonoka Tachibana. Long story short she got into a fight with one of her teammates. The interesting part was I think I noticed her flinch when reporters brought up Producer Yukine. Something tells me the past will come back to haunt her down the line.

On Halloween night they patched things up, made their partnership official and hopefully some sparks flied. Again fingers crossed for more than bosom buddies. Other girls were shown but we’ll surely see them later on.

Another very nice premiere.