diy episodes 5 & 6 commentary
previously: episodes 3 & 4 breakdown
and now back to our regularly scheduled programming: ongoing coverage of do it yourself (2022). two episodes again this week, since i skipped last week. what can i say, i've been busy.
in episode 5, the diy club crew is finally rounded off with the formal introduction of kokoro kouki a.k.a. shii, a defector from the fancy-pants academy next door. she's the brown girl with the wild hair and annoying verbal tic that was seen in earlier episodes hanging around with purin, displaying some curiosity while they watched the antics of the diy club from above. incidentally, her first name "kokoro" (心) can also be read "shin", which in japanese name order makes "kouki shin", a homophone for the word 好奇心 that means "curiosity". she also has that meowing verbal tic, and we all know what killed the cat... although i'm not sure if the japanese are aware. i looked it up on jisho.org, not the most reliable but certainly the most convenient source, and did find it listed in japanese (好奇心は猫をも殺す) so i'll chalk that down as a "probably".
in any case, episode 5 starts out with shii's absolute fever dream backstory, the kind of stuff only the japanese would cook up in a show that's ostensibly supposed to be about cute girls doing diy. first establishing shot: some kind of huge, colorful, vaguely southeast asian mansion or perhaps castle or maybe monastery. a riff that can only be described as "oriental" plays. ah yes, of course, shii is the black sheep (cat?) of an aristocratic family who feels stifled by stuffy customs and family responsibilities and so on and so forthit seems a bit odd to me that she is supposed to be a foreigner but speaks great, if a bit unusual thanks to the verbal tic thing, japanese and also has a japanese name. contrast with jobuko, for example. i guess there's the whole weird history of visiting the school nurse's family home in japan a lot, however that still doesn't really explain the name part....
fortunately, her parents send her abroad to a fancy school in japan, which basically all but confirms that the school's role is to educate/indoctrinate the future global elite in all the hip modern trends, as they look down and sneer at the native peasants milling about like ants at serufu's school down below. maybe i'm being a bit harsh. anyways, shii apparently still feels like an outsider at the school, just like she did among her family. fortunately, right within her view is where all the outsiders gather together.... the diy club. she subverts the security systems (exercising control of technology in a similar fashion to jobuko) and makes her way down in a cat-like manner from the lofty windows of the fancy school in order to join them. she easily ingratiates her way in, and brings a wild, chaotic, and occasionally destructive energy to the club (tears through the pallet they're taking apart, and in the next episode falls on and destroys the sand castle jobuko and takumin built). i suppose to create, sometimes you must destroy.
now the obvious question: what is purin's reaction to this? they are really taking things onto her home turf with this one, recruiting the only person she's been seeing talking to at her school. maybe they only hung out together because they both had a common interest in spying on the diy club, who knows. not to mention, a precedent has now been established that fancy school students will be allowed to join the diy club on an informal basis. when purin finds out the news from jobuko at dinner (amid more nagging from the jellybot about the os update), she is bewildered by this new trespass. the next day at school, purin fails hard at concealing her interest in the matter when she interrogates shii the next day (protip: do not constantly insist "not that it matters" when you go out of your way to ask somebody something), and shii confirms everything. shii explains that it seemed like fun, then (the nerve!) invites purin to join as well. purin of course asserts she has no interest in diy and leaves in a huff. classic.
episode 6 starts off with the club cooking up an excuse to visit the ocean, to beachcomb materials for making stuff to sell to fund the somehow super-expensive special tree bolts. ah yes, it's the beach episode. they could have just put it all on jobuko's (pine)apple card, but the club leader insists they do it the proper way without outside resources and "do it themselves". some might be annoyed by this logic, but i can relate because i have a practically-crippling devotion to that mindset in some cases. jobuko, beautifully fulfilling her role as the bridge between the two domains and their dames, informs purin of the trip while failing to let her know it's a diy club outing (i don't think it was intentional, jobuko looked quite exhausted), and purin ends up making plans to go with her the next dayi can't believe i'm saying it but i almost felt sorry for the poor jellybot in this series of scenes, where it expresses a desire to see the ocean or even just get a souvenir but is flatly blown off each time by purin. i guess it's just an unfeeling robot at the end of the day however it seems really odd they included all that. is it just supposed to be funny, or is it supposed to show how purin is even distancing herself and blowing off her own freaking robot? who knows.... by the time purin finds out, it's too late to back out.
during the beachcombing, purin and serufu have another moment where purin steps in to try and protect serufu, this time by discouraging her from messing around with a sea cucumber. interestingly, this is followed up with an interaction between the club leader and purin, in which purin mentions that she thinks serufu's clumsiness may be incorrigible. but, snake in the garden! the club leader reveals to purin that serufu is actually getting injured less often now. thinking back, i do not think serufu got injured at all onscreen in episode 5, and despite getting a band-aid on her finger for a cut, for all of episode 6 she lacks her customary facial bandages. now there's some character development for you.
after the beachcombing concluded, it really seemed for a second there like they might leave the beach without ever getting into swimsuits. in a show like this, a development like that would be even more unthinkable than having an anti-tech revolution plotline for the climax. but, no such luck, turns out everyone was secretly wearing a swimsuit underneath their clothes just in case. can't really blame them because i'd probably do the same in that situation. so, we do in fact get a by-the-books beach/swimsuit episode. however, it also comes with probably the most serufu-purin interactions in an episode so far. floating out together in the ocean on a single inflatable tube, they have a conversation that once again drives home the fact that despite everything, they belong together, as purin is basically a perfect straight-man (woman?) for serufu.
then, finally, during an intimate moment together on a beached boat, serufu finally pops the question (asks purin to join the diy club). purin is at a loss for words, stammers "but...", and looks sad, then declines to even join the others playing in the water. this is followed by a scene in which purin picks up some "sea glass", says serufu might be happy to receive it, then looks up to see serufu happily playing with the others in the water, shown in exquisite slow-mo. purin stares on, open-mouthed, and grips the sea glass hard. 
later, on the train, serufu falls asleep on purin's shoulder, but in her own sleep purin is leaning away, looking slightly troubled. could this all be... jealousy? serufu no longer needs purin to protect her, now that she's becoming less clumsy thanks to the diy club. she also doesn't need purin as a friend, now that she has her friends in the diy club. as a result, purin withdraws even further, distances herself so completely that she even manages to become an outsider to the outsider club. can this ever be overcome? she has been given so many chances, but rejected all of them...
the episode closes on a hopeful note: purin has started secretly dabbling in diy. she takes a piece of driftwood and turns it into a hat rack, just like the club leader suggested earlier.