After the terrible nature of last week's episode, I was a little gun-shy to watch this week. (Of course, that's not why I waited a day; it was because of Gurren Lagann. We've already been over this with AnoHana.) Nonetheless, it was a good episode.
 |
| I have nothing but adoration for her. |
The best part of this week's episode was that there was
no appearance of Haneda. I hate him. This episode, once again, focused on the Chitose-Narita duo, with cameos by their respective love prospects. It ended with a surprising turn that I didn't expect - the appearance (finally) of Itami, Boy #2! Overall, the plot moved pretty fast with this episode, although not a lot of new information was given; this was still preferred over the last episode, whereas a lot of new information was given but it felt pretty forced since it was all about Haneda.
 |
| Seriously, someone needs to clean up that blood. It can't be good for the air. |
The continuation of Narita finding out that Martinez had been shot began the episode, with some kind of mini-revelation that it was the crazed gunman from R-Wing that was doing it (he was also the one that attacked Chitose earlier). Overall, this set the tone for both Chitose and Narita to be on guard throughout the remainder of the episode, needing to make sure that neither Haneda nor Kobato were attacked. This leads me to believe that Kobato is actually someone important, from the other world, and Haneda is overall pretty useless.
 |
| What do you do with that half-body on the bottom right...? It better not be what I'm thinking... |
For once, Chitose's scene really made me laugh. He's quite obviously the comedian of the three male leads, but his scenes have been generally misses until now. It was really good to see that, despite his tenseness over the gunman situation, he was still happy-go-lucky. He also has a serious side, which makes him a good character to stand with Narita. (This, of course, compounds Haneda's overall uselessness.)
 |
| This, believe it or not, is the cut on Chitose's head from two episodes ago. |
A variation of the above picture was circulating around so much a few days ago that Pearz had to point it out to me. I braced myself for the worst - but what I got was extremely amusing. Hiyoko's cleaning and dressing of Chitose's wound was visualized by some really suggestive shots (come on, we all know what that picture up there looks like), leading to Chitose almost getting off. I was pretty amused to see, for once, a man being "serviced" by a woman
not end up nose-bleeding. Moreover, the symbolism used was extremely hilarious.
 |
| What a delirious kitty~ |
Narita and Naru are definitely the pair I want to ship; Naru has grown on me so much that scenes with her in them make me pay attention more (luckily, she was there during the important scene at the end, so I
didn't zone out, for once). Their coupling is pretty amusing; just like Naru knows what to say to Narita, the opposite is also true. Just like the scene with Chitose was a highlight, the portion with Narita taking Naru to the train station and tossing her into the train was definitely what made this episode.
 |
| Kobato, with the same cowlick as Naru...? |
Seriously, why do Kobato and Naru look so alike? It pisses me off a little. Their hair is so similar that with a little bit of styling and different combing, they'd be pretty identical. It's a little scary, because Kobato is Haneda's sister, Haneda and Narita share a body, Narita and Naru are a pairing...incest?! I'm probably just jumping to conclusions to be prepared for disappointment, but I really hope it's just some coincidence - or the reason is
not that they are the same person/share the same body. Apparently, whether you look alike or not, you can share a body in this anime. Take Haneda-Chitose-Narita for example; they look nothing like each other. On the other hand, Kakeru is just one person with split personalities; he drinks to bring out the other one (and they kind of look alike). When Kobato and Naru look
this much alike, it's pretty concerning...
 |
| I'd make fun, but it's really too easy. Sigh. |
Itami's appearance was pretty much the cliffhanger of the episode; I assume that the next episode will show more of him. Being #2, he's probably one of the top contenders within the heirs to the throne (even Haneda being #3). He called himself the "king", although that might be wishful thinking. It was strange that he also had the capacity to control the host body; with the day already divided into three, I assume that he wasn't given a time slot. Moreover, wasn't he "captured", as of the last episode's info-dump? They also talk about him as wild and crazed, so there's probably some really important stuff going on.
Most importantly, he's paired with Kobato, who is Haneda's sister, and they all share one body, so... Yeah, the foreshadowing and symbolism are ripe.
 |
| Hiyoko is so tsundere... |
So, the preview for the next episode had no Haneda. I'm aware that Chitose and Narita sharing an episode while Haneda got one all to himself only points to Haneda being super important as a male lead, but I choose to continue hating him. I'm curious about this anime's story; it's getting to be pretty gripping. (I find it's better than the typical "boy goes to small town somewhere where certain super-duper things happen to him, sometimes supernatural" theme that visual novels tend to have; here, they're all important to begin with. I mean, I disliked Kanon , but that's most likely due to the harem and sudden girlfriend appearance, since I liked Zettai Shounen.) At any rate, I'm really eager to see more about Itami; he seems crazy enough to counter Chitose and Narita's characters.
~Aaro
