Golden Time Episode 8

Impression:
Did anyone else jump when old-Banri surfaced for a brief moment asking Linda whether she would want to go back to the old days to that place he used to be? I certainly did despite the fact I was waiting for that to happen after seeing the title of today’s episode title: “Reset”.
What had happened within this episode feels like the prelude to the battle between Banri’s former and current self. Old-Banri is still in love with Linda, he wants to be with her for always, but he can’t because he has to be with Present-Banri in order not to disappear, but at the same time fears that he will sooner than later. That being said, Old-Banri needs the Present-Banri to be oversensitive and think about the past and question himself in hopes to recall some answers. Time also seems to be crucial as they were heavily emphasizing on the time (they did this three times). Although the time does not match up with when Banri had gotten into the accident (it appears to have been a little after 6:15am) it did show us how long Old-Banri had surfaced to voice his frustration and desire to go back to who he used to be (original self) for about ten seconds.
As I mentioned in my past entries, old-Banri’s personality is strikingly similar to Kaga’s. Old-Banri is quite clingy, and at this point judging by the tone of his voice he is also I suppose you could say obsessed much like Kaga was with Mitsuo(having their lives all planned out, going to the same university, getting married etc, etc…). Truthfully speaking, Old-Banri gives me ominous vibes. Just by the flashbacks I don’t particularly like his character, for the same reason why I don’t like Kaga’s: Obsession. This is exactly why I don’t buy Kaga’s ‘love’ for Banri. Then we have Linda who had revealed her answer to Old-Banri’s confession was a ‘No’. However despite my statement from last week of having felt it had confirmed that Linda only loved/cared for him as a sibling would, this week judging from the new flashbacks in the beginning of the episode gave makes me think that her answer of ‘No’ is a lie. In the flashback she was telling Banri (in tears) everything she says it’s the opposite, so there is a possiblity that her answer could have been a ‘Yes’. But even so, it is hard to say whether she speaks the truth or not, since perhaps if anything, Linda may very well be falling in love with the Present-Banri instead. Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m not wearing shipping goggles, in fact I don’t ship anyone in this show (yet), but I do see that as a possibility and her facial expression being the way it was because it feels guilty about that- but mind you this is just a random theory I am throwing out here.
Another thing I had found rather interesting is how Linda immediately brushed off the sudden outburst from Old-Banri by saying Banri had fallen asleep. Without a doubt, she knew it- she knew that was the voice of Old-Banri surfacing for the first time in god knows how long. She was caught off-guard, startled and says as an explanation for his lack of sleep, “You’ll become oversensitive and think things you shouldn’t” which I found hit the bullseye of what had just happened. Given to her reaction, it could go two ways: It happened so quickly that she felt it was too good to be true, or she doesn’t want him to remember (go back to his old self). The later is quite cruel, but hey gotta look at all the options right, even the dark ones!
Surprisingly Mitsuo and Oka didn’t have much focus on mending their friendship despite the group hang out. I was hoping to see that since Oka does care for Mitsuo a lot and was deeply hurt when he told her to never speak to him again. Mitsuo on the other hand was suffering from his public humiliation by being rejected on the spot and has become extremely self-conscious. It was funny (and almost ironic I must say) when Banri had went to check on him in Kaga’s stead, in order to make a girl who was bothering Mitsuo go away he pretended to be his boyfriend acting exactly as Kaga had towards Oka when she found out that she was the one Mitsuo liked. Kaga on the other hand, well ugh lets not discuss her lurvvvvv for Banri…