Haruchika - Episode 5 - Finding the Elephant's Breath

Yep, Akari is one energetic girl that the Student Council had a hard time stopping her.

Surprisingly, it’s now spring and apparently there is a girl that has a new mystery for Haruta to solve. What is it?

Compared to the last episode, at least there was some substance to this mystery, which deals with Goto Akari’s grandfather. It seems that he lost his memories about his trip to America when he was younger. He keeps dodging the issue, which causes Akari to become upset. The only clue from the paintings about the thing that is bothering her grandfather is about a story of an elephant that was chained that escaped. It eventually finds a baby elephant and raised it as its own.

It seems that Akari gets upset easily by her grandfather.

While the story gives some clues about the grandfather wanting to break the chain of the things that bothered him, he eventually reveals that the breath signified a safe space for an elephant to sleep. In reality, the breath and the pictures that he painted are in fact the difficulties he faced with his PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), which Haruta explains. This is probably why he is having flashbacks and nightmares of the time he had during a traumatic event in his life.

Haruta eventually reveals that Akari’s grandfather was drafted in the Vietnam War despite entering the US with a visa. This can explain the color of the skies in these paintings since rainbow herbicides were used to destroy the forest. This of course impacted his life because the chemicals used affected the endocrine system, which is responsible for controlling the hormones. This probably contributed not only to his declining health, but also psychologically as well.

It seems that Chika making lunch helps her cute girl credentials.

Despite this episode having the same flaws like the last few episodes, at least it’s somewhat interesting to see the thing that bothered Akari’s grandfather for all these years. At least she knows the truth. Now, she can help him wake up from his nightmare by retelling the story about the elephant in order to help him break free from the chains of suffering.

At least now Chika has a new girl to become close friends with besides Miyoko.

Aside from that, I feel that Chika is the only reason I continue watching this show. It’s already apparent that it the show won’t focus much on music nor it will exceed expectations on the mystery aspect since that is a mixed bag. Even so, at least the last two mysteries were interesting enough not to disappoint completely.