A Day in the Life; The Hotori Hijacking

In the tender hours of the morning just before the sun rose on the horizon I had a dream that was as much a murky and mercurial mixing of  two states as the very sunrise itself.

It’s a comfort to know that in the post Inception-nay the post SATOSHI KON-era, I can attempt to give a description of a dream with all of its inconsistency and strangeness and not have its meaning be lost on the reader (at least the reader who has seen Paprika, Perfect Blue or even Inception). So anyway, In this dream I am sitting in an auditorium of sorts on a foldout white chair with some of my friends. The friends I am sitting with are particularly those friends of mine who share my interest in manga and anime and we’re discussing-what else-manga and anime. Around us there is the sound of several other people singing, talking and generally being a crowd; it isn’t explicitly stated but clearly we are at an anime convention. Suddenly, in the distance I notice a large man in what can only be described as the most twisted and frightening clown-inspired cosplay I have ever seen staring intently at a little girl in a white dress. Now, inexplicably, from where I was sitting, which was roughly 8-10 metres, I  could somehow see and FEEL his focused stare, his evil intent; I was mildly surprised by this. Furthermore, when I looked at where the girl was standing she was apparently standing behind a large, solid and decidedly opaque divider that was being used to partition the convention floor no doubt.

Yeah, that's about half as frightening as he was...

‘Look at this creeper guys.’ I say to my friends gesturing in the clown’s general direction. ‘He’s practically eye raping her through the screen!’

‘Huh where?’

I heard it before I saw it. That voice; so light, so airy, so petite and even somewhat…musical. I turned around to see a young lady, probably no older than 17, in an Arashiyama Hotori cosplay. Now, for those of you who haven’t been following SHAFT’s recent slice of life series du jour , “Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru” Hotori is the plucky, ditzy, cute, good-natured idiot who serves as as the series main female protagonist.

There she is, my recent obsession ^_^

Now, what first struck me about this girl’s appearance was her face. Her smile was small, yet bright and incredibly warm. Her hair was lightly adorned on one side with a few coloured beads and other shiny baubles-her own personal style choice perhaps, not overdone, very tasteful almost unnoticeable really-and her face was bright, her expression refreshing, her cheeks having just the slightest curvature and mildly flushed, the curl of her lips with the ends seemingly pointing upwards as if to guide my eyes towards the rest of her charming features! She was cute, insanely so. In fact I was so dumbfounded by her beauty that  lost my train of thought, changing gears quickly and completely disregarding the imminent danger Rape-O the clown posed to the unnamed loli, I took her hand and kissed it briefly saying.

‘I love your cosplay my dear. Arashiyam Hotori right?’ in my most debonair, Ono Daisuke voice.

How does she react you ask? SHE GIGGLES! SHE SMILED EVER-SO-SWEETLY AND THEN GIGGLED AND THANKED ME FOR MY COMPLIMENT!!!

At this point I became lucid, the fact that this was a dream was already gnawing at my ankle but before you could say “We need to go deeper!” I was already being transported to a brightly coloured psychedelic world where Hotori and I could stare lovingly into each other’s eyes for all eternity. to give it some perspective it was very much like the Digital Love video by Daft Punk from Interstella 5555, specifically the point in the video which involves the guy being pulled into the poster by his dream girl and floating with her in a field of flowers.

In fact everything from that point on seemed like we were slipping in and out of ‘animated form’ where, for all intents and purposes, Hotori and I shifted between “animated” and “real” form. It was a trip. A sweet, beautiful, tranquil, heartwarming trip that ended far too soon for at the very first annoying drone of my alarm the entire world fell out from beneath my feet and I was left lying face-down in a pile of my own drool.

I knew one thing though, If I had never felt it before, I certainly felt it back then. For certain, I had fallen in love. Since then, my mind has been occupied with thoughts of finding my “Dream Girl” that cute, sweet, kindhearted girl who can wear a maid uniform like no other. I know you’re out there my love…..and I hope you read my blog.