In the Case of Kiteretsu and Miyo-chan (+ Benzo-san) / Fujiko Love Stories ②

Fujiko F. characters are actually all prone to falling in love.
They experience the joys and sorrows of love repeatedly, whether it's getting dumped, having their feelings reciprocated, or remaining in unrequited love.
Therefore, we are launching a large-scale project, the "Fujiko Love Stories" series, to examine the romantic patterns of F characters in love! The second installment introduces the
subtle romantic dynamic between Kiteretsu and Miyo-chan from "Kiteretsu Daihyakka." As a bonus, we also touch upon Benzo-san's great romance.

Just as Nobita loves Shizuka-chan in "Doraemon," in "Kiteretsu Daihyakka," Kiteretsu is in love with the heroine, Miyo-chan. However, he is even more captivated by his inventions, and their relationship seems to make no progress at all.

In this article, we will extract scenes from all 40 episodes that reveal how Miyo-chan and Kiteretsu feel about each other, and examine their exquisite relationship.

Miyo-chan makes her first appearance in the premiere episode, "Wagahai wa Korosuke Nari" (I am Korosuke). In a scene where Kiteretsu is walking while lost in thought and gets hit by a baseball, Miyo-chan, who comes running over, worries about him on her way home, telling him, "You should stop walking while lost in your daydreams."

While Miyo-chan knows Kiteretsu is an eccentric, she also seems to recognize him as a reliable friend. In "Mogura Mansion" (Mole Mansion), she gets buried alive in the ruins of an air-raid shelter and asks Kiteretsu to "do something about it."

In "Jishin no Tsukurikata" (How to Make an Earthquake), she asks Kiteretsu, who has come to her house, to fix a broken vacuum cleaner. Miyo-chan watches over him warmly, saying, "Kiteretsu-san gets so absorbed when it comes to tinkering with machines."

In "Senchikyu" (Submarine Earth), she tries to tell Kiteretsu that Butagorira climbed Shiroyama and hasn't returned. She recognizes him as someone she can rely on when something happens. In
"Chochin Obake Torimonochō" (Lantern Ghost Detective Story), she not only hides Kiteretsu, who is running away from the authorities, but even lies and says he isn't at her house.

Basically, Miyo-chan seems to care a lot about Kiteretsu and considers him a reliable person when it comes to things like tinkering with machines.

Because of this, Miyo-chan invites Kiteretsu to hang out at every opportunity.

In "Kiteretsu no Dantai" (Kiteretsu's Group), she calls him on New Year's to invite him over. She worries about Kiteretsu, who spends his time playing Othello lazily or cooped up in his lab, and teaches him how to play Hanetsuki in the vacant lot. In
"Rakuraku Hiking" (Easy Hiking), she invites him to go on a mountain hiking trip with everyone.

On the other hand, Kiteretsu, who lives a life where inventions come first, often turns down her invitations.

In "Senchikyu" (Submarine Earth), she invites him to catch bugs, but he refuses. In "Wasuren-bō" (Forget-me-hat), she invites him to do homework together, but Kiteretsu forgets. In "Kaitei no Go-okuen" (Five Hundred Million Yen on the Seabed), she invites him to go swimming overnight, but he refuses, saying, "I can't step away right now."

As a result of being turned down repeatedly, she sometimes assumes a "yes" is actually a "no" before even hearing him out.

In the episode "Nenriki-bō" (Telekinesis Hat), she comes to invite him to a Christmas party, but seeing the tools in Kiteretsu's hands, she starts to leave without a word.

When Kiteretsu protests, "Why are you leaving without saying anything!", she replies with sarcasm, "Because you look as busy as ever."

Kiteretsu replies, "A party? I'll go!" but he mishears it as "I knew you'd turn me down." He has come to assume that being turned down is a given. (Though, the fact that he comes to invite her anyway shows he cares...)

Next, let's look at episodes where Miyo-chan's feelings for Kiteretsu are expressed in an easy-to-understand way.

"Human Plant Lily"
Kiteretsu succeeds in creating a "human plant" that can think and move on its own. Created by crossing a lily, a maple, and a daikon radish, Lily develops a fondness for her creator, Kiteretsu, and insists on taking care of his daily needs.

Miyo-chan comes to visit Kiteretsu there. She has brought an experimental plant that flew into her garden. However, Lily tries to turn her away, claiming she is a nuisance to Kiteretsu's inventions.

Kiteretsu says, "It's fine, Miyo-chan," and invites her into his room. Jealous of this, Lily harasses Miyo-chan, such as by making her drink tea with salt in it.

When Kiteretsu steps away, Lily confronts Miyo-chan, saying, "You're being too familiar with Kiteretsu-san. Get lost." Miyo-chan then

"I won't take orders from you! Kiteretsu-san and I have been friends for a long time!"

she strongly retorts. This statement reveals their deep bond.

Furthermore, Kiteretsu offers the experimental plant Miyo-chan brought to her, saying, "If you'd like, I'll give it to you," and Miyo-chan is delighted, saying, "Really? Thank you. I'll take good care of it."

Incidentally, the ending was that Lily was saved from a dog attack by Butagorira, and the two of them became friends.

"Nepal Opal"

Miyo-chan's birthday is September 4th. Kiteretsu, who had completely forgotten until the day of the party, pretends a glass marble he found at the beach is a lucky charm and gives it to her as a gift.

"Is something like that actually useful?" everyone else asks skeptically, but Miyo-chan strongly retorts here as well.

"How rude. Kiteretsu-san wouldn't do something so fake! Thank you so much. I'll wear it forever."

she says, filled with gratitude. She trusts him from the bottom of her heart.

To live up to Miyo-chan's expectations, Kiteretsu uses a medicine called "Vidro-tan" that can make him invisible, and tries to get close to Miyo-chan to protect her from misfortune.

Please be sure to check the ending of this story in the comics or elsewhere.

Next, we will look at a work that clearly shows Kiteretsu's feelings for Miyo-chan.

"Love-Me Ointment for Unrequited Love"
one of the best romance episodes in "Kiteretsu Daihyakka". While focusing on the relationship between Kiteretsu and Miyo-chan, Benzo-san's love life is also depicted in parallel.

In this story, Korosuke also gets a girlfriend. Just like the Mii-chan from the early Doraemon story "Lovely Mii-chan," she is a toy robot that operates with a manual switch.

Since he had been living in his laboratory for a while, Kiteretsu decides to take a break and visits Miyo-chan's house for the first time in a while. Miyo-chan is delighted, saying, "Oh, how rare. It might even snow."

However, Kiteretsu says something unnecessary, "I just thought I'd spend some time blankly, doing something meaningless," which makes Miyo-chan unhappy, saying, "Is chatting with me meaningless?"

Miyo-chan makes pancakes for him. She burns them a little, but that gives Kiteretsu an idea for a "Burn Preventer," and he leaves Miyo-chan behind to start drawing the blueprints.

Left all alone, Miyo-chan says one thing, looking bored.

"Whoever becomes your wife will have a hard time."

Miyo-chan accepts an invitation from Tongari to hang out, leaves a note saying "I'm going out, take your time," and leaves.

Kiteretsu realizes, "I guess I made her angry," and mutters to himself,

"I actually really like Miyo-chan..."

he whispered.

After that, he makes a love potion called "Love-Me Ointment" to help Benzo-san's love life, but the experiment on Miyo-chan is a huge success. Miyo-chan, who was used as a test subject, is even more exasperated with him.

In the end, Benzo-san gets close to the woman he fell in love with at first sight without using the "Love-Me Ointment," and Kiteretsu also tries to make up with Miyo-chan without the ointment.

Although she rejects him once, saying "I'm done with you!", seeing Kiteretsu feeling down, Miyo-chan approaches him. It's a heartwarming final cut no matter how many times you read it.

Incidentally, the woman who became close with Benzo-san was given the name Kimiko-san, and she reappears later, but that is another story.

Now, let's look at the work that serves as the highlight of this article. Faced with a life-threatening crisis, Kiteretsu and Miyo-chan let their feelings of care for each other explode.

"Silver World in the Vacant Lot"
Kiteretsu makes skis invented by Kiteretsusai. They are short-sized skis, but when you stand on them, the surrounding space feels expanded. If you set the dial to 100 times, 3 meters becomes 300 meters.

He puts these on with Miyo-chan and they go skiing in the vacant lot. They enjoy a level of speed and thrill that makes it hard to believe it's a small vacant lot, but getting carried away, they decide to challenge the 1,000-times world. This makes the 15-meter vacant lot 15 kilometers wide.

However, because they tightened the boards too much, they couldn't take the skis off, and the dial also malfunctioned, leaving it expanded to 1,000 times without returning. They try to walk out of the vacant lot, but they almost get lost due to the sheer vastness.

In such a desperate pinch, the two encourage each other.

K: "I can't walk. My feet hurt."
M: "Hang in there! If we get close to the road, someone passing by will surely help us!"
K: "It's no use for me. Don't worry about me, just go on by yourself."
M: "I can't leave you behind and go alone!"
K: "We'll both end up lost!"
M: "If we're going to die, we'll die together! (tears)"

"Miyo-chan," "Kiteretsu-san," the two hold hands while shedding tears. Faced with the danger of death, it seems a romance clearly blossomed. Or perhaps, their long-held feelings for each other were simply revealed.

After that, Miyo-chan continues to walk while letting Kiteretsu lean on her shoulder, and when Miyo-chan gets tired and is about to fall asleep, Kiteretsu pulls her close and sings in a loud voice.

They say that a person's true character is revealed when they are in trouble, and it was revealed that both Kiteretsu and Miyo-chan truly care for each other.

Finally, a bonus-like work.

"Playhouse"
There was a similar secret gadget in "Doraemon," but this is a story about using a simple house set where, once you go inside, you feel like a real married couple as if under hypnosis.

It's a test to see if people who are about to get married can live together happily by having them play a realistic game of house. It seems that 30 minutes feels like about one day of time passing.

Kiteretsu thinks about inviting his girlfriends into this house one by one to find the person most compatible with him. He tries it with the beautiful, top-of-the-class intellectual Hanano Hanako-san and the quiet-natured Otonashi-san.

Just when things aren't going well, Miyo-chan enters the house. Married life with Miyo-chan becomes a gentle atmosphere wrapped in a happy mood. As expected, Miyo-chan seems to be a strong candidate for Kiteretsu's marriage partner.

Kiteretsu had gone outside earlier, but he became so absorbed in repairing a television that he left Miyo-chan waiting for four hours. During that time, eight days had passed inside the playhouse...

When Kiteretsu rushed back to the house, Miyo-chan, having been left alone for eight days, was already gone, leaving behind a note that said I want a divorce. Kiteretsu realized that if he didn't fix his habit of getting lost in tinkering with machines before marriage, he would end up divorced in no time.

I am analyzing the masterpieces of Fujiko F. Fujio. There are over 270 of them!