Nouveau Riche Princess
As has already been stated, Ninamori's father is the mayor of Mabase. As Naota says in episode three, this makes it tough for her.. It puts a lot of pressure on Ninamori to act mature and to fit a certain image, the perfect mayor's daughter. It might explain why Ninamori is so hung up on the appearances and impressions of other people and why she's so judgemental. And it probably makes her feel very isolated because none of the other kids her age have to deal with that kind of pressure. (Except maybe Naota. ;)) And simply being the daughter of a famous person - makes her a nonentity. She's the mayor Ninamori's daughter. She's the class president. She's the lead in the school play. She's never just Eri.

As if just being the mayor's daughter under normal circumstances isn't enough, halfway through the series, some other stuff starts happening as well. Ninamori's father becomes involved in a public scandal: Naota's father, Nandaba Kamon, discovers some scandalous gossip about the mayor and publishes it in his magazine. And also, Ninamori's father has an affair with his secretary, an event which threatens to destroy his marriage.
(At first I thought these two events were actually the same - that what Kamon found out was that the mayor slept with his secretary, because that's sure what it seems like.. But, then why when a shot of the magazine is shown on the screen is "MM" written amidst the Japanese writing and what looks like a photo of Medical Mechanica present? Is it even the article about the mayor??? I don't know, if anyone out there knows Japanese and would like to make my year and translate that article for me.. even just the headline.. that would be great. I know that probably won't ever happen but this just drives me crazy.
Anyway, for now, based on the conversation that Ninamori has with Kamon when she has dinner at Naota's, and the way the news crews are chasing after the secretary after the magazine comes out.. I'm just going to assume that whatever else may have been in the article Kamon wrote, part of it at least involved the mayor's affair. The dialogue all through episode three (Marquis de Carabas) just screams it.)

At the beginning of Marquis de Carabas (which is the definitive Ninamori ep by the way :P), the secretary (I don't think she's given a name) drives Ninamori to school and the two share a lovely little chat. (Sarcasm.) It sounds to me as if Ninamori has just found out about her dad's affair.. because the secretary tells her that she "handled [someting] well," as if she was just told about it and her parent's possible split. Or maybe her parents had just had a fight about it, something along those lines. The secretary is impressed by Ninamori's pretty nonchalant outlook on the situation - Ninamori says the whole thing is her parents' decision and that there's nothing she can do about what they decide - and compliments her on her maturity ("At your age I didn't understand things like this"). Ninamori tells the secretary how she's.. smart, for bringing an extra pair of clothes when she slept over - which is such a load of kiss-ass garbage it's almost disgusting. This whole conversation is just TOTALLY ABNORMAL and points to the fact that Ninamori is a very, very strange little girl. But that is a rant for another time. My point was.. Ninamori knew about the affair before the rest of Mabase did. :P

The secretary promised Ninamori that she wouldn't ruin the mayor's reputation - well, it's such a shame she couldn't keep her promise. That very same day Ninamori's classmates Gaku, Masashi, and Naota are caught looking at the issue of Nandaba Kamon's magazine during class that exposes Ninamori's father's affair (and whatever else). The teacher has a bit (well a little more than that actually) of a spaz attack, bans "reading matter of low taste," and tells the boys that they have been "impolite to Ninamori-san" or something like that. More of that isolation thing. Wouldn't it have been better for the teacher to just.. like.. not announce that it was about the mayor to the class? Even though she yells at them for being impolite and not considering Ninamori's feelings, wouldn't it have been better to take them out in the hall to say that? Ahh nevermind. Ninamori looks pretty surprised when her name gets dropped.. but again, not as upset as you might expect.

Anyway, after school (.. and after Nandaba Kamon gives her her own copy of his magazine) Ninamori returns home to find that everyone else in the entire world has found out about her father and the secretary. A crowd of news reporters have surrounded her house. While she is standing nearby looking on, the secretary emerges from the sewer in disguise only to have to cower away again as she is spotted and attacked by the reporters. Out of nowhere, she turns up beside Ninamori (who has a really numb, vacant expression), who compliments her on her running away skills while giving her a dumb little smile. After "complimenting" Ninamori on her boots ("perfect for a nouveau-riche princess!") she scampers away from the scene. Ninamori gives her a dirty look..

Since her house is swamped with news crews, Ninamori heads to the train station because she has no where else to go. The one and only Nandaba Naota happens to meet up with her. He tells her not to worry about what's going on at her house, that it's just a tabloid story. Ninamori reassures him that it's not a big deal (..), even though the whole story about her dad is true. In a really hollow attempt at making herself feel better, it seems, she tells Naota that she's got a lot of money, being the daughter of a nouveau-riche mayor and all. Personally, I think the fact that she has just recycled the unwanted words of the secretary makes it sound like she's almost mocking herself or putting herself down..

Anyway, to finish up the story I got into telling(I didn't mean for this to turn into total storytime but I figure I might as well finish what I started, eh?): Naota is waiting at the station for Haruko to pick him up. The evil alien herself rides up on her Vespa and almost dies in an incident with a wayward cat in the road: she swerves around the cat and her bike flies out from under her. It smacks Naota in the head again, and he slams into Ninamori so that their foreheads hit. His hat comes off while he's flying and Ninamori discovers the latest result of Naota's robot head trauma - a pair of cat ears that Haruko warns her not to touch. She does anyway, and gets sick.. As a result, she ends up spending a rather interesting evening with the Nandabas.

So that is that as far as Ninamori's family situation goes. Living up to the expectations of being the mayor's daughter was enough for her to deal with in itself, but now she has to deal with her father's behavior and her parent's split - while the whole town of Mabase watches. What a nightmare.
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