[HorridSubs] Puchi Pura Sana! - 06 [1080p HEVC 10bit AAC][052134B3].mkv (1/2)

" Pulling Teeth

/ Minikui Ijimerare no Ko "

The bell rings.

It's lunchtime at Umehara Middle.

The Flower Arrangement Club (Tentative) sit in their clubroom, each girl munching on an onigiri riceball.

"It's nice having lunch in the clubroom every once in a while," says Lotte.

"Don't chew with your mouth open," admonishes Tomoe.

Lotte, faux-dramatically, "Ohhhh, how strict you are, Tanigawa-san!"

Tomoe rolls her eyes. "(Don't call me that.)"

Hanako chews on her onigiri with a smile, watching her friends banter.

Her attention is pulled away, as Sana pulls on Hanako's uniform sleeve.

"Nee. Hana-chan, Hana-chan," says Sana, in her usual monotone.

"Hmm? … What's up, Sana-chan?"

"Do you like hot springs-hopping, Hana-chan?" (Hana-chan, onsen-meguri ga suki?)

Hanako, slightly caught off-guard, "Eh … I guess so?" (Etto … Suki … kana?)

Then Sana begins tracing circles clockwise with her index finger, pointed upwards. "Well, instead of hot springs-hopping …" (Jaa, onsen meguri yori mo …)

Then Sana switches gestures, miming something like rotating a doorknob back and forth. "… wouldn't you rather go casino-hopping?" (… pachinko meguri ikitainjanai?)

Hanako, unsure how to react, stares back.

Then she smiles awkwardly, and laughs stiffly. "Ah … Ha ha! Good one, Sana-chan!"

Hanako looks over to Lotte and Tomoe for help, but they're still engaged in their two-woman comedy act.

Sana, frowning slightly, seemingly unsatisfied with Hanako's reaction, moves in between Lotte and Tomoe, interrupting their mock-bickering, and proceeds with the same routine, including the initial sleeve-pulling.

"Oh, uh. … Hey, Sana-chan," says Lotte. "What's up?"

"Nee. Lotte-chan, Tomo-chan," begins Sana.

"… Yes?"

"Do you like hot springs-hopping?" (Onsen-meguri ga suki?)

Tomoe and Lotte exchange looks. "Uh … Sure," they answer. (Un. … Un.)

Once again, Sana traces circles, finger pointed upward. "Well, instead of hot-springs hopping …" (Jaa, onsen meguri yori mo …)

Doorknob gesture. "… wouldn't you rather go casino-hopping?" (… pachinko meguri ikitainjanai?)

Silence in the clubroom.

After some time, Lotte goes back to munching on her onigiri. "Mmm, salmon rice balls. … So good! Yummy yummers."

Tomoe offers a slightly apologetic, polite smile. "Ah … Sorry, Sana-chan. I'm not sure I get it."

Lotte, still chewing: "But you know, I couldn't help but notice the translation was all off. First off, pachinko parlors aren't casinos."

Tomoe counters with, "Well, it's for the international audience. They don't have pachinko parlors, they might not even have heard of pachinko."

Lotte rolls her eyes. "Yeah, sure, the average foreign watcher without any idea of Japanese culture is just chomping at the bit to watch an animated show about middle school girls doing nothing for three seasons. And the only thing stopping them is the lack of an accessible translation that localizes unfamiliar terms. Sure."

Lotte and Tomoe then proceed to argue about the merits and pitfalls of literal translations (Lotte, for walls of explanation text: "… TL notes are the way to go! Preserve authorial intent! …"; Tomoe, for a more natural, creatively liberal translation: "… Eat your jelly-filled donuts, Lotte. …"), while Sana is left between them pouting, disappointed at the cold receptions to her joke.

*

The bell rings.

Sana, back in the orange-tinted classroom.

She stands over her desk, which has been vandalized and covered in graffiti.

Scrawled all across the surface, in black permanent marker:

WEIRDO   FREAK      LOSER

CREEPY       UGLY            MONOTONE GIRL

Sana stares at the desk, face blank.

"Ahhh!" cries Lotte, from behind, upon seeing her friend's defiled desk. "… Not again …"

"Ugh," says Tomoe, retrieving a tissue box, and a bottle of water. "It's that awful Igarashi-san again, and her cronies …"

Hanako stutters, "I-It's okay, Sana-chan. W-we'll help you c-clean it …"

But Sana just shrugs, and waves away her friends' help.

Then she takes a seat, and sits down in her vandalized desk, the black marker insults staring back up at her. Some of the words half-smeared from the aborted cleaning attempt.

She ignores the worried looks from her three friends, who eventually go back to their own desks.

Class resumes.

*

The bell rings.

Another day, over.

Sana, at the shoe lockers near the front entrance.

She's decided to skip after-school club activities, for today.

She changes her slippers, putting on her outdoor shoes.

As she walks through the front entrance, out into the crimson-orange dusk of the courtyard, she hears a voice behind her.

"Hey, Sana-chan."

Sana turns around, sees the straw Midori standing there.

"… Are you okay?" asks Midori (Fake). "I saw what Igarashi and her buddies did to your desk."

Flashing on the screen: a group of delinquent-looking girls, headed by the lanky Igarashi, her arms crossed, blonde hair tied in a side ponytail, head tilted up haughtily, sneering at the camera.

The image disappears, and Sana shrugs at the doll. "… I don't really care," she says, in her neutral tone.

The doll limps toward Sana, closing the distance between them. "If you say so. … But you know, it's unhealthy keeping all those emotions inside you bottled up. Sometimes, you lotta get it all out."

"… I don't get angry."

"Sure you do. Even if you don't show it. Everyone gets angry. It's only human."

Sana stares back at the doll, says nothing.

"In fact," continues Midori (Fake), "it's one of my specialties, as a doll."

Sana furrows her brow, unsure what the false Midori means.

"… You can take your anger out on me. I don't mind."

Sana stares for a bit, then shakes her head. "… And I thought my jokes were bad."

"Really! It's what I was made for, Sana-chan. You can hit me, you can punch me. You can even stab me, if you like. Shoot me. I can take it. I'm made of fabric and straw. It's almost trivial to put me back together."

The doll spreads her arms wide, as though in open invitation.

"Give it a try! Let all that suppressed rage out. … It'll make you feel better, I promise."

Sana looks at the ground, kicks at the dirt.

… But whether she's conscious of it or not, her hands begin forming fists.

"Here," says the false Midori, "I know what'll make it easy for you."

The doll turns around, facing away from Sana.

Sana watches, puzzled, as the false Midori appears to do … something to its face.

The doll's hands working away unseen, its back hunched over.

Then, the doll unties its green twintails, and runs its doll-hands through its hair …

… And as it does so, Sana watches in amazement as its Midori-colored hair changes, not only into the exact color of Igarashi's blonde hair dye, but grows out in length, to the class bully's exact hair length.

The doll finishes her transformation by tying her newly-blonde hair into a side ponytail, before spinning back around to face Sana.

Sana is now looking back into the face of what can only be described as Igarashi (Fake).

"How about now, Sana-chan?" says Igarashi (Fake), the doll's voice an eerily-accurate replica of the real Igarashi's. "… Huh? Freak. Weirdo. You like your new desk, you emotionless creep? I bet you—"

Sana strides over to the straw doll in two quick steps, One, Two, and winds up, and socks the false Igarashi right in the jaw.

The doll brings a hand to her face, as though in shock. Glass eyes wide. Rubbing where Sana punched her.

Sana stands, panting.

After a long time, Sana begins, "I … I'm sorry. I—"

But then the false Igarashi grins. "Ehhh? Wow, looks like the freak's got some bite to her! Never would've guessed there's some emotion hiding behind that thousand-yard stare of yours. Hahaha! Did I make the little freak mad? What if—"

Sana growls. Guttural, feral, from deep in her throat.

She pounces on the doll, pushing it to the ground, straddles its chest.

And then Sana begins wailing on the false Igarashi's face.

Blow after blow, ringing out into the perpetual dusk.

A smile begins to form on Sana's face. Manic glee creeping into her hanmoku eyes.

*

Bell rings.

Next day, at school.

The students making their way to homeroom.

Sana sits in her vandalized desk, staring out the window at what should resemble morning but does not.

Suddenly she hears the hushed whispers of the students around her.

She turns her attention, to see what the commotion is.

… There, entering the class, is Igarashi.

The real one.

A swollen, black eye. Face bruised.

She growls back at a few gawkers.

A few of her cronies stand up, and yells at the class, "… What are you all looking at? Huh!?"

… The whispers quickly die off.

Igarashi sits at her desk.

*

Sana, walking down the hall after class, can't help but overhear the various rumors swirling around her.

"(Heard she got in a fight. …)"

"(No way, I heard it's because her mom beats her …)"

"(Maybe she fell down some stairs.)"

Sana keeps walking, head down, hurrying to lunch.

*

Sana and the false Midori, on the rooftop.

The former picking absent-mindedly away at her bento, the latter munching enthusiastically on a yakisoba bread.

"Well, that's one heck of a coincidence," says Midori (Fake). "But that's all it is."

"I guess," says Sana, chopsticks poking at a sausage shaped like an octopus.

Midori (Fake) slaps the girl on the back. "Come on! That's ridiculous! How could anything you do to me, affect someone several miles away!? You've been watching too many movies. Or reading one of Hanako's books."

"… Yeah. Maybe. I dunno."

Midori (Fake) places a doll hand on top of Sana's.

Sana looks up at the straw doll.

"Felt good, though, didn't it?" asks the doll.

Sana stares, says nothing.

Then, a slight smile forms on her lips.

"… Yeah."

Midori (Fake) leans in close. "Wanna do it again?"

Sana says nothing.

She considers the question.

Then, she stabs her chopsticks into an octopus sausage, and takes a bite.

*

What follows is a montage of the days and weeks following, set to a cheery and vibrant remix of the show's main theme.

PuchiPuchi PuraPura Universe (Sana Mix)
Performed by: Sasaki Sana (CV: Sasahara Shiina)
Lyrics: Midori
Composition: Ridomi
Courtesy of Dorimi Records

Sana, inflicting violence upon the doll in various ways, the two of them alone in the school's gym equipment storage room.

Sana crushing the doll's hands with meat tenderizers.

Slicing along its arms with a box cutter, loose straw spilling out.

Pulling its teeth out, one by one, with a pair of pliers.

Lighting matches, burning holes in the doll's fabric skin.

… And more.

With each torture method, the dolls wears a different face.

Such as Igarashi's cronies.

Or other classmates who have wronged Sana.

Even Kanemoto-sensei, after she gave too much homework that one time.

… And sometimes, Midori (Fake) is just herself.

In between the tortures, we see shots of Sana mending the doll, fixing whatever injuries she'd caused.

Sana stitching the doll's arms closed. Setting bone. Plugging its eyes back in. The doll smiling back at Sana during her repairs.

Breaking.

Mending.

Breaking.

Mending.

Again, and again.

Over and over and over.

*

The bell rings.

End of the school day.

"Coming to the clubroom, Sana-chan?" asks Hanako.

Sana, head down, eyes avoidant, mumbles, "Sorry. No can do."

Hanako, Lotte and Tomoe exchange looks.

"You've been so busy lately. Where do you go every day?" asks Tomoe.

"… Around," mutters Sana, turning to leave. "… Sorry."

And then the remaining FAC(T) trio watch, as Sana retreats down the hallway.

*

THWACK!

THWACK!

In the equipment room, Sana is raining down blows all over Midori (Fake)'s body with a bamboo stick.

THWACK!

"… Asking me where I go …"

THWACK!

"… Like it's any of their business …"

THWACK!

The false Midori asks, in between blows, "Everything okay, Sana-chan?"

Sana stops the assault, puts down the stick. And stands over the doll, panting.

Midori (Fake), bruised all over, asks, "The FAC(T) members giving you a hard time? Being too nosy?"

Sana crosses her arms, but says nothing.

Midori (Fake) chuckles. "I think I know what you need."

The doll runs her hand over her face, her hair …

… and transforms into the spitting image of Hanako.

With a sleight of hand, she conjures a pair of glasses, identical to Hanako's, and puts them on.

Hanako (Fake) looks at Sana, whose face has gone pale.

The doll tilts her head. And asks, in Hanako's exact voice and mannerisms:

"Eh? W-what's the matter, Sana-chan? W-Why are you looking at me like that?"