Hotarun did nothing wrong.
Impression
I’d never really given it much thought, but I guess Nattsun and Hotarun is an unusual pairing? Then again, if you’d asked me about Ren-chon and Candy Store before that episode, I’d have probably said the same about them – then it happened, and it was the cutest thing ever. I know most slice-of-life series tend to ‘pair off’ their girls a little too much – of course, they’re all friends as a group, but there’s always that vibe they give to certain pairings that… well, make them pairings. I don’t think it’s really an issue with Non Non Biyori – in contrast, I remember thinking how odd it was to group Yoko and Alice together when they were put in the same class in this season of Kiniro Mosaic. Or something like Chino and Chiya, to give another example. I can’t even remember a scene with those two together without Cocoa bridging the gap. Although I’m fine with that, because Cocoa x Chino is a miracle of the universe.
But yeah. I think Nattsun stepped on a rather large landmine in unleashing Hotarun the Precure fan. Then she shot herself in the foot. I love how she tried so hard to change the subject and failed every time – and the one time she tries to intentionally carry on talking about it, her lie gets revealed immediately. She does know a lot about… stuff, though. Just not stuff which ends up giving her any marks during tests. If only they had a module on random wildlife facts.
Nattsun a cute. I guess it was a Natsumi episode, through and through – with a dash of Hotarun, like when she revealed she liked amphibians, or at the end when they all made friends with disembodied souls… uhh, I mean fireflies. I wonder if Kazu-nee knew they’d be there to cheer them up? I’m sure she can be perceptive when it counts. And Hotarun was smiling by the end, which means that all is right with the world.
Also, Hika-nee returns next episode. And it looks like she’s struggling to say something embarrassing! The hype is real.