‘Tsukiko, I want to be with you, but not as family.’
Synopsis: As the typhoon continues to grow worse, the house begins to flood and the discovery of a hidden room freaks out Tsukiko. Yoto starts to notice some weird anomalies suggesting this storm might not be caused by just Mother Nature.
Impression:
Wow. Just wow. For the longest time I’ve been looking for a romantic comedy that could top my all time favorite, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sakunai… this might just be it. I think you can safely say that this was one of the most precious episodes of all time? Yeah. Cute… surely there must be another, better, word to describe something this great? This episode was everything I wanted, everything I needed, and more. Tsukushi, Azusa and Tsukiko all in one room and a dose of Youto Yokodera to finish it off? Yeah, this is my favorite episode from the whole of the series so far… and I say that about every episode! They just keep getting better and that’s something you usually can’t say about an anime. I seriously need to go out and read the light novels because I just cannot wait to find out what happens next… just who will Youto end up with?
So let’s talk about episode 7’s premise, the ordeal at hand. Flooding, or more specifically, a typhoon. What appeared to be a heartfelt wish by Tsukushi turns out to in fact be the wish of a needy Tsukiko… I seriously didn’t think she’d go this far to get with Youto… I can’t tell if all the girls around him are crazy or if he’s really worth it? Sure when his hair is wet he looks surprisingly more attractive (I’m a guy and I noticed it… no homo?) and maybe he is caring and compassionate, but I don’t think I’d potentially end his life and the lives of all those around him just do that we could be together for eternity, y’know? I’d love to talk about Tsukiko right now but I’ll leave that for the next paragraph (it’s tearing me apart not to talk about it), this paragraph is all about the plot, the raw and meaty plot. I’d just like to point out something very subtly that happened during the episode, something that I couldn’t overlook. When Azusa mentions that dam breaking several years ago, Youto appears seemingly unaware of the events occurrence… and that unnerves me. There are only a few possible explanations, A. Youto slept through it, B. Youto is a God who came to Earth after the event, C. Youto is some sort of romantic spirit (kinda like Keima from The World God Only Knows), D. Youto doesn’t actually exsist and this is all Tsukiko fantasical wish (remember that she’s had the stony cat since she was a child and has had plenty of time to wish up her own Youto Yokodera) or E. the event never took place and Azusa is lying… To me, the only viable plot twist would have to be D, Tsukiko wishing Youto up and the whole thing would explain his lack of knowledge about the events in typical ‘I want to be an original rom com’ style but… why can’t Youto just be a normal perverted prince? His perversion was what made him different! Don’t make him a wish or a ghost! I don’t want a dramatic good bye…
Speaking of almost goodbyes… Tsukiko! What were you thinking?! Did she… did she almost end the world because Youto wouldn’t be her brother? WTF?! I guess this show is finally beginning to delve into the deeper more thought provoking side of things; it’s beginning to show us what isolation and loneliness can do to a person and the extremes they’ll go to to no longer be alone. In this episode we finally saw pictures of Tsukiko’s deceased parents (or at least her mother who, might I add, was extremely attractive) and we also saw ghost Youto (because we just don’t know who he is anymore) kneeling before them. It was nice to see him paying his respects and it was also nice to see Tsukushi being nice to the ‘younger Yokodera’… that is, until Tsukushi ruined it by bringing her incestual fantasies back into the mix (seriously, what is up with that?). Tsukiko and Youto’s moment was AMAZING, I can tell you that much. The execution was perfect and did anyone else feel some Haruhi vibes whilst Tsukiko attempted to tear the world asunder? Also, what is it with the girls in this anime? All of them want to end the fucking world! They’re taking yandere to a WHOLE new level… But I digress, when Youto ‘confesses his love’ (I’m not sure if he actually does it just seemed like he did… knowing rom coms they’ll probably just gloss over it…) to Tsukiko I felt myself on the verge of tears… but that was mainly because Tsukiko looked so cute during the occurrence that my feels were coming out through my eyes… Yes, I might have issues. Whilst it saddens me to see a pretty darned bold conformation that Youto isn’t interested in the other girls and that they don’t have a chance, it gives me hope that we’ll still be able to see some awesomeness from them all due to the latter scenes in the episode… and what interesting scenes they were…
Tsukushi… why you kiss ‘younger Yokodera’?! And in such a public place… Tsukushi proved herself to be very cute and very creepy at the same time in this episode (notice the oxymoron). Tsukushi’s obsession with her sister is her only fault… an entire room full of pictures of the young Tsukiko (above)… whilst they were cute (the pictures, that is), the whole concept is just darn creepy. I actually feel sorry for Tsukiko! I mean, how much she feel knowing that her sister wants to f*** her! But I digress, Tsukushi does have many redeeming features… as in she kissed Youto! Oh, and she also so some other quotable moments (that I won’t quote because, y’know, I’m lazy)… Her kiss with Youto has apparently (according to the preview) not ended the world (because Azusa saw them, y’know?) and I’m glad… although Youto really needs to get his priorities straight and tell Tsukushi to back off… I mean, all of five seconds ago he was confessing to Tsukiko! Now he’s making disgusted faces as the big breasted girl of his dreams lay one of him (a kiss, that is)! Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Tsukushi’s presence in the episode, whether is be for comical and romanticized reasons, she was awesome. Period (saying ‘period’ was the only way that I thought I could properly end that… problem is that here in England ‘period’ has one singular meaning and… well… y’know… it’s not nice for me okay!)
Drama, romance and incest aside, I’d like to briefly talk about Tsukiko and Tsukushi’s parents. Who are they and why does Youto have a memory of Tsukiko’s mother? If anything, the fact the Youto is beginning to remember Tsukiko’s mother only strengthens (to me) the idea that Youto isn’t all that he seems, whether that means he’s a wish conjured up by Tsukiko or simply a child that used to play at Tsukiko’s (before her mother died) I don’t know… I mean, we know that in the past both Tsukiko and Youto have met (the masks in the park late at night…) and it’s entirely feasible that they met even prior to that point so… Tsukiko’s parents… an enigma… Or should I say Youto, an enigma…?
I feel sorry for Azusa, I really do. It’s becoming more and more evident that she loves Youto and he’s doing nothing to reciprocate those feelings… and whilst I know he can’t because he likes Tsukiko, it still breaks my heart to see her cute face suffering. I have a feeling that this ‘kiss’ between Tsukushi and Youto will change Youto and Asuza’s relationship dramatically, I mean, just look at the preview below! I just know that this wish will only end when Youto tells the soon to be transformed Azusa that he likes her the way she was and that she was better the way she was… and then he’ll just ignore her again in favor of Tsukiko… But I do have to give him credit where it’s due, he’s been a pretty good ‘pet’ to her so far. I mean, just looks at last episode! He was rubbing up against her, wishing she was there and in this episode they had that slightly weird moment where Youto almost seemed like a control freak… it felt like a sort of ‘do this because you love me and I enjoy exploiting you love!’… sort of thing, y’know?
To conclude, this was a wonderful episode! The best so far. Episode 8 looks like it’s going to be epic but I don’t think it’ll be able to match this episode in terms of quality and drama… it’s going to be funny to see the aftermath of A. the Tsukushi kiss, B. Azusa wish (looks like bra shopping to me) and C. the Tsukiko confession… next episode is set to be a great one and I’m excited to see where this show is going next!
Preview:
P.S, Did anyone else notice the blur on Tsukiko’s fathers face? Look at her fathers hair… It’s similar to Youto’s don’t you think?
