Episode 7: Critic of Nostalgia

Tomo Mizuno was not like the contemporary girls she knew at her school. She didn’t own a touch screen phone, instead opting for using her mom’s old but still working Nokia brick phone. In fact, all the stuff at her house, except for her glasses and obvious things such as food and sanitary products, was old. (She never left her house before middle school, but she got her glasses from her mom’s friend, who was an eye doctor.)

It wasn’t just Tomo that was living in the past, either. In fact, her parents were exactly like her. All of the electronics they had were old and only went up to 2000. From what she heard, her mom and dad were likely involved with some kind of Y2K scare cult and decided that it was comfy living.

Tomo didn’t mind, though. She loved her parents with all her heart. Once she ended middle school they let her finally switch from homeschool to public school so she could get a taste of the real world before she inevitably became an adult. That’s how she got her first look at a modern computer and the Internet. (It was quite an adventure for her, that first peak.)

She felt like she was living in the wrong generation because of all of this, and she was perfectly alright with it.

There came a day in June, however, where she briefly considered the idea of becoming a normal girl…

★

“Kind of a weird thing to say, but I was just thinking of what would happen if I tried being like the other girls at this school,” Tomo said casually to Mimori one day in their clubroom.

“No! No, God, no! NO!!!” Mimori said, sort of screaming.

Erica, Mari, Kasumi, and Naoko all looked at her like their friend, who was overreacting as always.

Noticing this, Mimori stopped freaking out and instead giggled awkwardly. “Um, an actual answer: Please don’t change, Tomo-chan!”

“Please don’t change who you are,” Mari added in a pleading voice. “I like you just the way you are… That wasn’t a reference to the song either.”

Tomo put her hands to her face, eyes closed. “Aw, thanks! You guys are the best. And you’re absolutely right… I would never change who I am! I quite enjoy being my outdated self.”

“ … Well that was very anticlimactic,” mused Kasumi.

“Not really,” Erica said. “She did mention that she was just thinking about it. She hasn’t been mulling over it at all recently, I can attest to that.”

Tomo blushed. “You’re right… I was just thinking about it a few minutes ago. Don’t you guys ever get thoughts like, ‘What if I wasn’t me’ or ‘What if I became someone different’? I can’t be the only one.”

“I have,” volunteered Erica. “If it wasn’t for me joining the science club, I probably would’ve just hung out with the basic bitches. They aren’t as bad as you think, but their identity just didn’t align with mine.”

Naoko raised her hand, which had definitely become a quirk of hers now. “I have an idea. Tomo likes old stuff, right?”

Tomo tilted her head to the side. “And your point is…?”

“Why don’t you make a YouTube channel where you review old movies you like or dislike?”

“Huh? Where did that come from?!” Tomo jerked up from her seat, but then pondered about it for a moment. “Despite me being not very familiar with YouTube at all, I am quite critical when it comes to some films… Alright, I’m in!” She clapped her hands together and grinned.

“Great idea, Naoko-chan!” Erica said, nodding along as she rummaged through her backpack for something. “Couldn’t have said it better myself! Or could I…?”

Mimori looked annoyed. Her arms were crossed. “Dang it… when am I gonna get my own Youtube channel?” That’s when an imaginary light bulb popped up on her head. “That’s it! I’m going back in time to make my own before that stupid Google Plus thing came along.”

Kasumi rolled her eyes, waving a hand at her friend. “Alright then, have fun with that.”

“Ah-ha! Here we go!” Erica shouted as she plugged a charger into her laptop that was sitting on the club table. A browser was already up that displayed the YouTube homepage.

“What’s your channel gonna be called?” Mari had to ask.

Tomo thought for a moment. “Um, my real name would be nice. Oh, and guys? Keep in mind that my parents have a computer at home, but it’s very old and I believe it still runs on AOL discs.” She smiled warmly.

“You can’t go on it, right?” Kasumi queried. “Not a big deal if you can’t. It probably runs like molasses.”

“Yeah, they only really use it for checking their Yahoo and all that. And it is.” Tomo’s face then brightened up. “But I can—well, we can—use yours, right Erica?”

“Yup!” Erica said cheerfully. “That’s why I have it out!”

Kasumi, who just then realized that Mimori did in fact go back in time, sighed. “Man. If only Mimori was here… she’d probably want your account name to be named ‘Caesar Orzell’.”

“There is no possible way I’m naming my account that,” Tomo said, chuckling. “I was thinking… ‘Treena Berry.’”

“Treena Berry?” Kasumi raised an eyebrow, hand on her face. “Why that?”

“I don’t know,” Tomo responded, shrugging. “It just has that cool English flair to it.”

“I speak English and I agree with her,” Erica supported.

The room was then awkwardly silent.

“Is it strange that I suddenly miss Mimori’s ramblings?” Mari pondered.

“You’re not the only one,” said Tomo, smiling solemnly before switching gears. “So anyway, what are we going to do now?”

“I got half of your account ready, including getting you a G-Mail account, but we should probably head home now,” Erica sighed. “Sorry, Tomo. We can do more of this tomorrow.” She gave her friend a thumbs-up.

Tomo gave a thumbs-up back, right as Mimori reappeared in the room.

“Alright, guys! What did I miss?!”

★

Tomorrow arrived and the club, including Nathan this time, were gathered around the main table like a bunch of top-tier business workers.

“Okay girls! What are we gonna do about Tomo’s channel?” Erica bellowed to everyone, which was rather unneeded.

“Uh, I’m a guy.” Nathan was only slightly irritated.

The new girl sighed. “Ah, sorry.” An evil grin started to creep up her face. “Unless you wanna become a girl so I can call you one?”

Nathan jolted in his seat. “Um, that’s a solid no! Definitely!”

“Alright, that’s good,” teased Erica. “I don’t wanna torture you any more than I have to, which isn’t actually a bu—”

“Back on subject,” Naoko interrupted.

“Ah, right! Tomo’s going to start a YouTube channel reviewing old movies that she either likes or hates!”

Mimori stifled a giggle. “Yup! I’m sure there can be room for one more nostalgic movie reviewer out there.”

Kasumi rolled her eyes as she reclined in her seat. “Well, now that we’ve assigned her YouTube channel a theme, what do?”

“Come up with an idea for her first video, write a script, record, edit, and upload,” Nathan said all of that in one breath.

The girls looked at him, their jaws almost to the ground (except for Naoko).

“I guess he inherently has the power of talking super fast,” Mimori remarked. “Or he’s just a relative of Pinkie Pie or Eminem.”

Mari facepalmed in an overdramatic manner. “I can talk faster than that!”

“Oh yeah?” Nathan looked over to the girl, eyes narrowed. “Try me.”

While that was going on, Tomo was attempting to come up with a script for her very first review video. “Attempting” because the two kids, who were playfully bantering, weren’t helping her concentrate.

“Ahem! Excuse me, everyone!”

Once everyone quieted down, the movie idea finally became clear in her head, and she was able to vocalize the name of it.

“I’ve decided that my first review video is going to be about the He-Man movie,” she declared.

“That movie?” Mimori groaned. “Someone already did that one though!”

“It’s her channel. You have your own,” Kasumi said matter-of-factly.

Mimori suddenly cheered up. “Oh yeah! Eeee! The channel of me singing a bunch of my favorite songs that haven’t even come out at the time!”

Kasumi smiled fakely. “Now that’s the spirit, Mimo-chan!”

Erica paced back and forth the room, looking like she was concentrating a bit too much.

“Now, what type of video are we making?” she wanted to know. “Are you going to be narrating over a bunch of pictures and video clips or are you gonna be reciting your lines in front of a camera?”

“I’d prefer the pictures one please,” Tomo decided. “I’m not a big fan of showing my face on film.”

“Alright! A slideshow it is! Now we need to get the movie footage. Do you happen to have a DVD of it at home?”

“I have a videotape,” Tomo offered.

Nathan grimaced, like what she said was physically painful to him. “Ouch.”

Erica paused for a second. “Okay. We need to somehow upload the footage from it onto the computer. Um, Nathan, do you know how to do that?”

The boy nodded. “Sure do. Naoko’s dad taught me.”

It had been decided. Beginning the next day, The Can Do Anything Club was going to help make Tomo’s very first YouTube video.

★

In the next few days, the club worked as hard as they could on Tomo’s first video. Her script was a bit wordy, but Erica wanted her friend to show as much of her personality as possible through the audio.

Luckily, the tape was an easy enough transfer from the VCR to the computer. Tomo was really impressed at how much Nathan knew about technology. Having him was an asset to their club.

By Friday, the video was officially up on YouTube, and in a feat that the girls never knew was possible, the video had already accumulated over 50 views and 16 comments. The like-to-dislike showed that the video was positively received, too.

Tomo was so excited about receiving that many comments that she decided to read them out loud on a whim after school (on Erica’s computer, of course).

“‘I agree this movie was awful, but at least it was enjoyably awful. Subscribed!’” Tomo tilted her head to the side. “What does ‘subscribe’ mean in this context?”

“It means that people want to follow your account so they get your videos right when they come out,” explained Erica. “And look at that! You already have ten subscribers!”

“I subscribed to Tomo last night,” supported Kasumi. “I watched her video, too. She reminds me of those reviewers that Mimori really likes watching.”

“Thanks, I guess.” Tomo shrugged. “Anyway, back to the comments! ‘I love your video style. It’s very similar to The Nostalgia Chick’s. Keep the videos coming! I’ll be waiting for them.’ Aw, that’s super sweet! Is The Nostalgia Chick one of the reviewers you like, Mimori-chan?”

“Absolutely! She’s awesome!” The girl grinned.

Tomo gave a thumbs-up and continued with the next comment. “You seem to have a great knowledge of older movies! Nice rip of the tape, too! It’s in great quality! Since you said you like older media, do you happen to have any movies on beta tape or laserdisc? Just curious.’ Hmm… should I reply?” asked Tomo to her friends. “His name is Oddity Archive, so it seems like he knows what he’s talking about.”

Mimori squealed and began dancing around the room excitedly.

“Oddity Archive?! Ohmigod, YES!!” she shouted between breaths. “It’s the show where Ben, its host, talks about weird, old media that no one talks about anymore!”

“Well look at that, Tomo,” Mari said in a western guy’s voice while patting her on the shoulder. “Looks like one of your fans is famous.”

Tomo perked up when she heard that. “Ah, that’s just radical! Alright, let’s respond now!” With a good crack of her knuckles, she began to type out a response with the speed of light, almost like she’s used the computer ever since she was young.

Nathan glanced at Mimori with interest. “I’ve never heard of this guy before. Are his videos any good?”

“Well, if you like forty-minute videos with history lessons and commentaries about old, obscure electronics,” Mimori said that all in one breath while maintaining her cheerful tone.

“Nope, not my thing.” He shook his head. “Sorry.”

Suddenly, Mari popped out of her chair. “Hey, guys! There’s a convention going on tomorrow! You think we can go? It’s a YouTube one!”

“Wow, what a coincidence. Hey, we can probably even advertise Tomo’s channel there while we’re at it!” Erica rallied.

“I would like to get another video finished before then,” said Tomo softly. “I wanted to do one about My Name is Nobody.”

The group murmured about what they should do but ultimately agreed on making a second video. Within minutes, Mimori froze time and helped Tomo write her script while her friends looked up information about the convention.

★

All Tomo could think about that night was the convention. It was taking place that day, Saturday, and Tomo didn’t tell her parents about her going.

But did I really need to? Considering my method of travel…

Ding-ding-ding! Her alarm clock went off.

It was time to wake up already, and Tomo felt like she didn’t get a wink of sleep. Despite that, she was very much alert and excited about the day.

It was eight o’clock in the morning. The future was now.

And sure enough, as Tomo anticipated, Mimori was on her front doorstep, ready to freeze time.

Trotting down the last step of her stairs, Tomo made sure to open the door as quietly as she could so that she wouldn’t wake up her parents.

“Hey Mimori,” Tomo whispered.

“Hey,” she whispered back. “And… FREEZE!!”

Tomo blinked twice, and sure enough, time was indeed frozen.

“Come on, Tomo!” Mimori said, bouncing up and down in her spot. “Do you have anything you need for Vidcon?”

Tomo glanced at Mimori and she noticed that she was carrying her backpack with her which looked stuffed to the brim.

“Um, I’m just bringing my purse with me. Is that okay?” An unsure smile was on her face.

“Yup! Now let’s go, we’ve got other people to get!”

★

And so the Can Do Anything Club arrived at Vidcon 2015 at eight-thirty (don’t ask how some time passed, it just did—also, they walked some), to stand in a line to await getting their tickets.

“Dang it!” harrumphed Mimori. “I had a feeling it was going to be ‘slam, bam, thank-you-ma’am’ busy here. I frickin hate waiting!”

Tomo gasped. “I got that reference!”

Suddenly, a woman and a child walked past the gang. Mimori’s mouth slammed open and weird squealing noises started to escape.

Once the two were out of earshot, Mimori started screaming at her friends. “Did you see that? Mommy and Gracie are here!”

Tomo shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t know who they are.”

★

Fortunately, the line went along quickly after another half-hour passed (a half-hour in which nothing happened, that is). After purchasing their tickets and exiting the line, the group got to advertising and promoting Tomo’s channel. The club around the convention center, passing out flyers with the link to her channel on them and chatting with other smaller YouTubers as they saw them.

After about an hour of this, Tomo started to feel overwhelmed, and it was completely understandable as to why.

A new location. So many new electronics she’s never seen before. And not to mention the fact that she still barely knew anything about YouTube itself…

“I know, everyone!” she announced over the crowds of people. “Why don’t you guys leave me alone for a while so I can explore by myself?”

Naoko looked at Tomo, head cocked to the side. “Hmmm…” she pondered. “It’s really not a bad idea at all, given the fact that you’re the YouTuber here, not us.” She glanced at Mimori for a split second. “Okay, and Mimori, I guess.”

Mimori pouted.

“Okay, okay! Sounds good! Call us when you’re done poking around so we can tell you where we’re at.” Erica gave her the OK hand sign.

Tomo nodded. It’s a win! “Thanks, guys! See you soon!”

Right as her best friends walked away, Tomo grinned, almost evilly.

I’ve got time to myself, she thought, rubbing her hands together in excitement. I’ve got nothing to lose, but everything to gain!

★

Everything was going peachy keen for her as she started to walk around aimlessly, like a fish in a fish tank. That was until she found a large Connect Four game in the middle of the convention floor.

Bump.

“Oops!” she cried. “I am so, so sorry!”

When she backed away, she noticed that the person she bumped into was a man, probably in his mid-30s, wearing a suit and red tie, as well as a hat and glasses.

The man smiled. “No, no! It’s fine! You’re fine!”

Tomo nodded like mad as he walked away. She was blushing a bit.

He wasn’t my age but he sure was nice, Tomo thought happily. I wonder if he does review videos too?

As she continued to wander around, she decided not to play with the Giant Connect Four (what if it was really germy?). She wanted to meet other people.

Let’s see, she mused. Let’s look at those tables over there… Are they advertising stuff too, or are they selling stuff?

“Hi!” Tomo greeted the person that was at the first table in a very peppy tone. “I’m guessing you have a YouTube channel, too?”

“Yeah,” the teenage boy said. He looked to be in his early teen years, as she could see his parents standing behind him like hawks. “I have a Let’s Play channel.” He gestured to his table, which had what looked like blocks on it.

Tomo bent over, looking at his serious face and the blocks curiously. What are these things? Is this some new, hip version of Mega Blocks and Lego?

“Um,” she asked, completely unsure. “What’s a ‘Let’s Play?’”

The boy stared at Tomo as he laughed. “You seriously don’t know what a Let’s Play is? You crack me up!”

From behind him, she saw his parents widen their eyes and look at each other, probably trying to figure out what to do with their rude child.

Tomo stared blankly at him for a moment but then ultimately decided to fake laugh and brush it off. “Ha ha! I was just kidding! I totally know what you’re talking about!”

Awkwardly backing away from the table, the outdated girl continued to laugh until she accidentally bumped into yet another person.

“Whoops!” she screeched.

“Hm?” The woman turned around to look at her. She had wavy blond hair and a frilly red dress on.

“I said ‘whoops’!” Tomo repeated in a clearer voice this time. “It was an accident.”

“Oh, that’s fine.” The woman smiled, turned back around, and continued walking.

As Tomo wandered some more, she checked out some vendors and looked at stuff that she considered buying but decided not to buy because she wanted to save her money.

A man passed by her, blasting some metal music out of his stereo or whatever he was carrying.

Oh hey, Mari likes metal!

Mari…

I should call Mari and see where she is right now.

She took out her Nokia brick of a phone and dialed Mari’s number.

Ring, ring!

“Hello?” a manly-sounding voice answered. Tomo guessed it was Mari doing one of her stupid voices again.

“Hi! It’s Tomo. I’m done looking around and all that. Can you tell me where you guys are at?”

“Oh, sure! We’re just hanging in the food court by the big window. We’re waiting for a panel to open.”

“A ‘panel?’” Tomo didn’t know what that was.

“It’s when someone has a presentation of some sort. We’re seeing one on… Nathan? What is it again?”

Nathan’s voice was heard from the background. “The evolution of YouTube.”

“ … It’s about the evolution of YouTube, yeah.”

Tomo made a great deal of rolling her eyes. “Thanks for relaying that information, Mari. But, um, yeah! I’ll be there.”

As Tomo hung up, her face flushed.

I did it. I walked around the whole convention by myself for an hour! I may have not advertised my channel as much as I wanted to, but I finally got to experience something truly modern! Yaaaay!

Gathering up her remaining energy (just from Mari mentioning the food court, she was getting hungry), Tomo speed-walked to the food court. As she did, she began to wonder if the Oddity Archive guy—Ben—was at Vidcon.

The place was getting more and more hectic. Music was blasting from every direction she could hear, everyone was talking at once, and for whatever reason, Tomo began to feel more and more anxious.

That was when she saw the food court sign.

“TOMO-CHAN!”

Tomo heard someone yelling. She looked to see where the noise was coming from.

Sure enough, there was the Can Do Anything Club, hanging out at a table by a rather large window.

Tomo perked up. “Oh, hey guys! Can’t believe how close I was to finding you guys!” She shouted that as she rushed over to their table.

“Yay! I’m so glad you made it, Tomo-chan!” Mimori cheered, clapping as she had some food in her mouth.

“The show is gonna start in about two minutes,” Erica instructed. “You can get something to eat and meet us in the presentation room over there.” The girl pointed to a door that was at the very end of the food court.

“Oh okay,” said Tomo. “It kinda blows that I didn’t get to spend as much time with you here as I thought, but that’s fine. Can’t imagine I’m gonna miss a whole lot anyway, the food lines aren’t too terribly long.”

“You’ll be fine,” Nathan reassured. “Trust me, you won’t miss much at all.”

Kasumi smiled rather sweetly as her friend. “I’ll save you a seat right next to me, don’t worry.” She winked.

“Alright, guys!” Erica stood up and clapped her hands together. Tomo noted that her friend was taking cues from her, which she didn’t mind. “Let’s get going! Tomo, you get something to eat!”

Tomo’s eyebrows raised high. “Um, sure. See you there?”

As her friends got up out of their seats and headed to the presentation room, Tomo went into a line to get some Taco Bell.

★

It wasn’t a bad panel. In fact, it was her very first panel, so there weren’t really many expectations she had to begin with.

“I may have known everything that guy was talking about but at least he made it entertaining,” Naoko commented as the club walked out of the musty, human-filled room.

Mari sighed and stretched. “I sure didn’t! Man, he was funny though! I’m gonna check out his channel when I get home!”

“Mari, you never surprise me.”

“Neither do you.” The girl elbowed her friend in the side playfully.

Tomo did a sigh of her own and looked up at the ceiling, reminiscing the first time she ever discovered the Internet. Even though she only ever first looked up information on the things she was familiar with, it was when she discovered Wikipedia that she started to learn about modern-day things. However, if she had to choose between the past or the modern-day, she would ultimately choose the past—even if it meant no YouTube, Google, or Wikipedia.

“ … I think we should head home,” Tomo said aloud.

“Awww really?” Mimori pouted yet again. “But I’m gonna miss it here!”

“Yeah, really. It’s been a long day, and I just wanna go back home and sit down and take in everything that I saw today.”

Everyone agreed so they headed to the front of the building and found a corner that no one was in (and that no one was standing by, too).

Tomo glanced at her friends’ faces, just to make sure everybody was truly there.

Mimori looked disappointed. Kasumi looked relieved. Mari looked exhausted but still somehow full of energy. Naoko looked stoic, as always, but her eyes were smiling. Erica looked determined. Nathan looked tired.

Smiling serenely, Tomo held her friends’ hands and thought of Nathan’s home, the first stop on the Tomo Bus.

She counted to three. And as she counted to three, she anticipated seeing how many subscribers she gained when the club met on Monday.