I feel like the writers read my review of S1 because Yoshino (Chiaki) most definitely made a significant improvement between S1 and this episode. And Yanase! He had a lot more memorable screen time. I captured most of the screen where I thought he was being a total bishonen and ended up with two thirds of my captures featuring him.
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| Boys are always so much simpler than girls. |
This episode has a very basic plot. Hatori asks Yoshino for a big favour. He needs Yoshino to create colour pages for the end of the month. This basically makes Yoshino (and everyone else involved) drive themselves to the bone to try to finish which seem impossible despite their enthusiastic effort. Yoshino wants to call Yanase for his help, but he refuses to forgive him for bailing on him at the hot springs. Yoshino, being stubborn and childish, tries to reach the deadline without Yanase's help. Hatori calls Yanase in as a pinch hitter who gives the project enough momentum to meet the deadline. Takano and Onodera make a cameo which made me happy despite it's shortness. The rest of the episode is spent developing the Hatori/Yoshino + Yanase relationship.
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| Ah~ These days... |
Yoshino faints and Hatori takes a couple of days off to nurse him back to consciousness. He feels guilty for having imposed on Hatori and gets a head start on his manuscript for the next month. After the first art session with his assistants, Yoshino and Yanase try to talk through their recent troubles. Yanase gets agitated with Yoshino for not realizing his feelings and confesses. In this exchange, Yoshino densely says to Yanase "Well I like you too," after which Hatori walks in silently, leaves food on the table and leaves. Yanase confirms, probably after he's certain that Hatori is out of earshot, whether Yoshino realizes that Yanase likes him in a romantic sense.
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This redeems Chiaki in my eyes.
Haha - Aaro, how guilty are we of this? |
Hatori begins to only communicate with Yoshino via email and fax and after a while he shows up at his house asking Hatori to spare some time for him after work so that they could talk. Hatori, unexpectedly (to me), starts emo rambling about how he's been expecting Yoshino to break up with him. I think this miscommunication and running in a depression hole is a common character trait for Hatori which makes him very human given his otherwise suave, cool character. It was probably the alcohol helping, but Yoshino becomes very upset with Hatori for constantly bottling himself up. The outburst surprises Hatori, but suffices to fix the situation for now.
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| Haha - Hatori asks if Yoshino's outburst is a confession of love. |
The episode ends with Yoshino telling Yanase that he is an inportant friend but the line is drawn there. Yanase comes back with a "Hey, if I stick around as friend I get to show you how cool I am. Maybe you'll change you mind." To prove that Yoshino is still a ditz, he says "Huh, I didn't think about it that way." Of course, Hatori is within earshot. At least this time he comes in full force with a jealous face telling Yoshino that this will be discussed later. I like this change in Hatori. The next episode stays with Hatori and Chiaki. Normally I'd be sad because I'm really craving some Yukina/Kisa. But the development with this pairing in this episode were all to my taste. So, I guess I can live with the delay.
/Envy
