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Summary
Yuuko has cast away her memories of Teiichi forcefully, only recognizing him as someone that has hurt her in the past and that they should stay away from each other. Teiichi seems to accept that, and slowly he forgets about Yuuko, hanging out with Momoe more and not coming to the clubroom after school. Kirie gets frustrated with him, urging him to act for himself and not just meekly accept it, which helps his resolve towards looking for Yuuko again after seeing a message that cheery Yuuko wrote in a notebook ages ago.
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Impression
I see…I see how it is now. All those episodes of bonding and cheery Yuuko-ness weren’t for nothing as it seemed to be – it was all to build up a relationship and make us realize the shock Teiichi feels after losing Yuuko in replacement for the new, serious one that doesn’t remember him at all. I took cheery Yuuko for granted as well, and never realized how much I missed seeing her around until she was gone. The new one is scary~
All along Teiichi’s been struggling, not just with his feelings for Yuuko but also the taboo behind it – as Kirie said, a ghost and a human would technically never work. It’s kinda cliché having Yuuko nearly leave Teiichi’s life for him to realize that his love was stronger than that, but anything goes in anime I guess xD I didn’t think it’d get that bad to the point that he could see or nearly remember her though. I’m sure we all felt that combination of pity and suspense when seeing him fall after forcing himself to turn away from Yuuko.
Momoe’s sensed the change (or chance!) and decided to go after Teiichi, which again, did make me go “you’re cheating on Yuuko!”, though her intentions weren’t bad, and she really was trying to care for Teiichi and make him feel better. She’s always kind of been the third wheel in the story, and it did make me feel bad to see her laugh like that after Teiichi says he has someone he loves. True, she did think he loves a ghost story at the end, but if only she knew…
Overall, this ep was what I was waiting for. I wasn’t expecting Yuuko’s memories to come back like that, it just seemed too easily done – though it did cause Teiichi much emotional grief for most of the episode. Yuuko herself seemed more friendly, but it didn’t look like she was back to her clingy self, which means she still has some negative emotions within her.
I admit the stagnant episodes did get slightly tedious at times, but it was well paid off since I thoroughly enjoyed this. Obviously with Shadow Yuuko still somehow around (okay, maybe they didn’t merge after all – not completely anyway) there’s still a problem lurking, but I’m sure Kirie will be more than up to the job of sorting it out.
