This is just
so late, but I'm trying to not feel bad about it. Better late than never, I think. Gambatte~
This episode was - surprisingly - quite focused on Sasahara. After complaining now for a few episodes that he's an interesting character who should get more coverage, he's the finally the focus! I was quite pleased with this episode; interestingly enough, despite being the "theme" of the episode, he actually wasn't on-screen for a lot of it. Still, the entire situation was quite well done and it definitely squashed an inklings I had about this anime tapering off.
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| For science! |
The episode was another one without an OP, beginning with Nakamura-sensei and her epic love of Nano. She was going through sneakily-shot photos of the robot (a theme that continued throughout various short scenes in the episode; that Nakamua-sensei is quite the spy), when she saw a black cat outside. I'm pretty sure she assumed that it was Sakamoto, because she threw caution to the wind and attempted to chase after it. It only led to her getting caught standing on the fence on top of a rather large incline with the members of the surrounding houses yelling in confusion. I wonder if her fall broke any bones?
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| Ah Mio, you brought it on yourself. |
After the sponsorship message, Yukko was seen playing her way through the hallway when she stumbled onto Nano and Sasahara. It was hardly anything candid; Nano was carrying a lot of books (most likely assisting a teacher - Nakamura-sensei?) and she dropped one, which Sasahara picked up for her. However, Yukko's mind twisted it and she ran to the classroom to tell Mio, who was busy writing a report. Despite pretending to not care, it was a situation where it was clear that Mio
did care, as she wouldn't drop the topic and kept asking Yukko for more details. By the time the full story was out, Mio had realized it wasn't such a big deal at all and showed her relief by making fun of Yukko's excitement.
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| That switch is quite disastrous. |
As we saw in an episode prior, Yukko's evil side is quite extreme. Not content to be made fun of, she suddenly began lying with the sole purpose of disturbing Mio. The reaction was instantaneous; Mio was fully engrossed in the outrageous story that Nano and Sasahara were kissing and whatnot, with the courtyard involved. As Yukko sat down to hurriedly write her report (I had been wondering why Mio would have work that Yukko didn't), Mio's imagination ran away with her in what can only be described as a terrible shoujo scene. She finally gave up just daydreaming and ran out to see for herself. Nano, being coincidentally right outside the door, refuted the strange claims of yakisoba bread and courtyards. Yukko's punishment for lying was just as instantaneous.
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| What an easy 1million yen to make. |
Helvetica Standard is usually a hit-or-miss with me, and this episode's was absolutely hilarious. It featured two classmates, with one attempting to get the other to tell her about her crush. Secrecy was promised on the condition of 1million yen, and so the blue-haired girl finally revealed it. Her friend
immediately told everyone...and then dropped a stack of 10,000 yen notes onto the desk. This scene was amazingly funny, considering its simple premise.
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| What kind of acting club is this? |
The second scene about Sasahara featured his other admirer, Tachibana. At the dojo, where she got defeated quite quickly by Mio's older sister, she was walking home with her younger sister when Mihoshi dropped a bombshell - Sasahara had been attending the dojo recently. This scene gave away some very important news - Sasahara and Tachibana used to attend the dojo together and, upon entering high school, Sasahara decided to join the Acting Club instead of the Kendo Club. Apparently, this didn't mean that he was no longer interested in kendo, given his recent attending. This scene was only so-so, mostly because I don't like Tachibana that much.
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| I first thought his food was poisoned or something. |
The only scene to not really have anything to do with Sasahara in this episode dealt with Nano-Professor-Sakamoto. Apparently, Sakamoto had quite the cold and was (appearance-wise) at death's door. This scene actually taught me a few important lessons: first, that cats get sick (I feel so sheltered...); and second, that cats can't have green onions. The scene wasn't really about taking care of Sakamoto at all; it was more about Professor wanting to be paid attention to. She did this by pretending to be sick - but Nano saw right passed her (it's not like her acting was even that good, to begin with). The scene eventually devolved into Professor being pissy-face and Nano attempting to placate her with words. (It's good that she didn't give in to the demands of chocolate; Nano is becoming a better care-giver by the day.)
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| It's probably safe to assume she doesn't like him. |
Before getting into the final scene, I wanted to talk about this short featuring cold days. So, these two boys were walking down the road, talking about how cold it was, when a girl (classmate, most likely) ran up, pressed her hands to one boy's cheek, cried out, "Cold attack," and then ran away. What the hell? That's just... Are Japanese girls really like this? There's a lot of touchy-feely going on there. As a child, I recall people flicking other people's extremely red ears to conflict pain;
that's an attack, if anything. I just don't understand...
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| Quite the aristocrat. |
The final scene to do with Sasahara actually involved his presence; Mio was at the vending machine when she dropped her coin and it rolled right into the boy of the (half) hour. I realize that a lot of my interest in this character has to do with hearsay and not his actual personality; he really came off as quite mean by using Mio's coin while haughtily performing a monologue. I do have to give him points for staying cool under pressure; he's just too good to flip the upside-down cup so that the drink comes out right, hm?
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| So, that's how Mio knows Sasahara! That's a nice one. |
It's good to see such a strong episode so close to the end of the series; I know I shouldn't, but I suddenly have a lot of hope for the remaining 2 episodes (still unwatched by me). I'll try to not go into it with breakable expectations.
~Aaro
