“I’m actually a very dark and cold person. But I always pretended to be bright and cheerful. Everyone thought that “me” was fun, and I thought it was fun, too. But I’m tired of being that ideal version of me.” – Nagase Iori
Summary
Taichi tries to shoulder some of Iori’s pain for her, and openly tells the class that the reason for her change in attitude was due to his…extreme actions towards her. After Iori overhears the bitches planning a scheme to get back at her, she opens the clubroom door that afternoon to find the entire place trashed, with work for their presentation next week ripped up. Taichi and Inaban only manage to barely restrain her, and decide to try talking with her once more.
Impression
“Unforgivable! I’ll kill you! You brought other people into this! I’ll never forgive you, even if you beg! You will cry! You will scream! You will suffer for what you’ve done!”
The whole deal with the Cultural Research Club’s presentation and the contest to keep Gotou as their advisor (who I’m still not used to hearing speak normally, without Fuusen Kazura’s influence) turned out to have a lot more significance towards the plot as a whole. I did envisage a happy ending where everyone participated in the presentation and they managed to win because of hard work and effort, but by the halfway point that didn’t seem very likely, with the entire club room trashed and posters torn up on purpose; with an intent to actually ruin the CRC’s work. I did initially think it was the bitches that went around bringing down Iori’s reputation, as their “plan” that Iori overheard seemed to have some malicious intent behind it – but it would have been going too far by bringing other people into the matter and exacting revenge that involved the rest of the CRC as well, because in the end the bitches have nothing to do with them as a group. While it’s true they weren’t responsible for this (more likely that they’ve done something else on a lesser scale) it doesn’t stop them being jealous bitches – especially the one that’s doing it because her own crush, Shiroyama confessed to Iori last episode. It’s good that the plot has started to move off that though, since it was beginning to feel like a shoujo show about petty revenge acts.
Still, it was very typically selfless of Taichi to claim that he was the one that caused Iori’s personality change by “coming on” to her and going too far xD Taking the blame and dumping all the hate on himself didn’t exactly work out though, as it looked like half the class are aware that he wouldn’t usually do such a thing. Fujishima the iinchou was one of the classmates that figured it out immediately, and knows that the problem is centered around Iori – but decided that it wasn’t her place to try and intervene in this case. It’s nice of people to try and shoulder some of her pain, be it Taichi, or Inaban though sharing pain, instead of the one-sided talk she had last time with Iori, which just involved Iori destroying her completely.
I think…Taichi and Inaban finally get it. All through the episode, both of them kept reassuring everyone that Iori’ll go back to normal, essentially enforcing their belief that this version of Iori wasn’t real. What they didn’t get was that things were the exact opposite – the cheery, fun Iori was the false one, and this emotionless Iori was her true face. All along, Iori’s pulled on what she felt was the “ideal” version of her, to the point that people think it’s a case of something weird when her personality changes. Iori’s been trying to live to expectations of what her friends see her as, and when the shit with Fuusen Kazura started, they all hit at the mental and emotional parts of Iori – the weakest areas of her mentality. She’s had to cope with not letting this mask slip, and with this emotion transmission it’s finally snapped. It’s actually understandable that she’s tried to distance herself from the CRC (and most of all, Taichi) as it’s true that what she does and how she thinks inside are so different, to the point that she’s scared of being called a liar for it. But you know what? The CRC don’t care 😀 And I’m glad that she’s willing to try and think it over instead of just shutting them out automatically.
We’re approaching the end of the arc now, and it looks like it’s all going to close with Inaban’s confrontation with these random high school boys who are the real culprits of the CRC’s room trashing. Worst of all, they don’t look like they give a shit, which is despicable, considering all the hard work everyone’s put into the presentation even with the Iori issue going on. But when Inaban of all people is calling for help, you know that it’s serious.
No imouto this time? ;_; Let’s go with Inaban instead.
