“I’m glad I fell in love with you.”
Summary
Inaban manages to get her telepathic message across to everyone, and together they manage to disable the three thugs and leave with Setouchi, whom Iori has decided to befriend, putting their past behind her. After being randomly attacked by one of the thugs, Taichi wakes up in hospital after reconciling with Iori, and asks Inaban out, much to her joy.
Impression
Ah, so it did turn out to be Setouchi that told the thugs to fuck up the CRC’s presentation, in which case I take back what I said last time – it’s even worse with Setouchi and her friends getting other people (from a different high school it seems) to do the dirty work for them. Having other people carry out the deed and trying to wipe your hands clean of all responsibility is a terrible thing to do, let alone the decision to mess up someone else’s hard work in the first place. To be honest, those thugs aren’t exactly good people either – they had no qualms with messing up a clubroom within a school they didn’t even attend, and they quickly got bored of Setouchi ordering them around and started getting pissed at her as well. Iori double-crossing the guy that looked a bit like Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun’s Yamaken was pretty cool (as were Yui’s skills), and the telepathy did end up useful in the end! I won’t say it’s a good thing, as it caused many problems, but it was useful for the situation. And with the Yamaken-lookalike, I hope Fujishima and Inaban gave them what they deserved.
“Nagase Iori will be Nagase Iori.”
The solution Iori came up with was a solid ideal that she could accept – that she shouldn’t be caring about what others think. In the past she’s been caring too much about how society envisions a “normal” person, and judging her own behaviour towards other people’s ideals of what a person should be like. But even if she’s not ideal, she’s still her own person. As it’s her damn life, she should live it the way she wants to! And fuck everyone else – who cares what they think? She should be who she wants to be, and live how she wants to, so long as she’s happy with it. And with these ideals in mind, the phenomenon ended. What I was suspecting from a few episodes ago is very likely true from the reaction Fuusen Kazura gave off – that he (or it) chose the worst possible emotions at the worst possible times, in order to create the worst possible reactions. While it was supposedly “random”, in reality Fuusen Kazura chose precise moments that would make life a lot worse for them. The phenomenon did help everyone mature as people, and both Taichi and Iori are now more grown-up with their outlook on life – but as they said, there’s no reason to to thank Fuusen Kazura for it. It still remains that they’ve gone through some hard times because of him, no matter what result the phenomenons had. It was rather brave of Iori to decide to make friends with Setouchi instead of carrying a grudge, because I didn’t really see Setouchi as someone who was in the same boat as Iori, and just as a really shallow person. Well, if she’s a genuinely nice person, then it’s good that she was able to find a friend in Iori.
Most importantly – guys, it’s here. Taichi x Inaban has finally come upon us xDDD I’d been secretly hoping that something like this would eventually happen, but all throughout the arc it just wasn’t appropriate timing, with Iori’s mental state not needing any further damage. I’m glad it was done with the mature mindset between Taichi and Iori that they should reset their relationship, and I hope that Taichi will approach his time with Inaban in a similarly mature way – but I’m sure deredere Inaban will sort him out if anything’s wrong xD I see a bright future for the romance in this show, should it ever get a second season.
And on that note, Kokoro Connect officially finishes! I think it was…summer that this originally aired, so it’s been quite a long while since we’ve had any since it finished in September. Even so, I still remember it for the drama and feels that it raised, as well as for the gradual development of all the characters as they struggled with their individual problems and tried to overcome them. All of the five (yes, even Aoki) had their moments, and the show took me through some tense, romantic and funny times. Some people criticize it for being too dramatic, but personally, I think Kokoro Connect has a lot going for it, and I do hope for a second season in the future, if there is enough light novel material to cover it.
Dereban overload, hehehe!
Through out this entire episode I was constantly getting surprised by Inaba’s deredere moment one after another. XD
And that, my friend is why Inaban is the best character – Taichi has a tough girl that can go deredere at times, what more would you want? xD
Goodness it has finally arrived.
Really enjoyed the VAs’ performances in this arc.
It was well worth the wait 😀
Especially since we got the entire Michi Random arc all at once too – the wait between episodes if it had aired regularly would have been devastating.
And I agree, the seiyuu have to be really talented to convey such a wide range of emotions.
What does deredere mean? My google search hasn’t been successful in finding me a definition.
It’s derived from tsundere – a character archetype largely applying to girls where they are usually harsh and dismissive of a guy (tsuntsun). So deredere is their other, rarely seen side where they turn all cute and lovey-dovey.
You should already know what Tsundere is, yes? There is actually a word to describe a character’s Tsundere side called “TsunTsun”, meaning she is being more to the “Tsun” side rather than the “dere” side. Same with “dere”, the “dere” part explains the cuteness/lovey dovey side of a character, so sometimes people just say “Oh, she’s so Deredere” meaning the character is being more lovey dovey than usual over her usual Tsundere personality.