Norn9: Norn+Nonet Episode 5

WHOA!!! HOLD UP, THE EPISODE IS ALREADY OVER? HOLY SHIT, it felt as if I was only five minutes into it!

From start to finish, this week’s episode was so much fun and heartfelt to watch. While there were some key major adjustments to the Dream World event, I honestly believe they did a fantastic job given the complicated story line of mixing all these routes together (in particular, Mikoto’s). While it was a shame that Koharu’s humor didn’t make the cut, thank goodness Nanami’s dream not tampered with (otherwise there would’ve been a riot). When Nanami is happy, she is the cutest girl in the show. It was so freaking adorable how she took a hold of the opportunity to let out a different side of her, taking a hold of the rare and ultimate opportunity to pet Akito’s fluffy Wolf Ears. Akito on the other hand was absolutely freaking out and ended up running for it, sending her on a wild goose chase which was hilarious to watch. Of the three girls’ Nanami’s dream was the one with the fewest adjustments. Both new and the game’s fans will probably agree one of the best parts of this episode was seeing Akito protect her from his nightmare!edition, (manifested based off Nanami’s guilt towards him and how she expects him to feel towards her). When nightmare!Akito showed up, Nanami didn’t struggle against him when he strangled, her, and when Akito saw this, he was horrified because he would never do such a thing. He made the nightmare go away, and when Nanami was thinking how convenient her dream was, he tells her he and his actions were not a dream. Those words were freaking magical. It meant what he did was something he had consciously chosen to do. By the look of it, it doesn’t appear we will be treated with the following scene, which would have been icing on the cake for this episode. I am crossing my fingers that they will arrange it to take place in another time and location, because so far the writers have been doing a fair enough job with the re-arrangement of events, something as some of you may know, 99% of the time it drives me nuts, (one of my biggest pet-peeves in adaptions). COME ON GIVE IT TO US!

I was bummed out to see Koharu’s humorous scene be cut out, but at least we were able to see her more fiery side for an exchange- only for a brief second though. It is something I hope the writer will address more of in the future.
Koharu’s dream event had a couple of entertaining moments, such as seeing this Masamune as the Prince and with this extremely bright aura, his seeing a different side of his personality made it even more hilarious. Senri wounded up as one of the hiyokos dwarfs, but Koharu failed to notice it was him (poor Senri). As Koharu was playing the role as Snow White, Kakeru, the important person who she was searching for, turned out to play a role she didn’t expect him to be. Rather than being the big bad witch, Kakeru was the poisoned apple. The reason why he is in this role, is because he identifies himself as poison. He reveals to Koharu how he doesn’t deserve to be beside her, he is a fake and deceitful individual who will only hurt her. But the reasons why he considers himself poisons is probably a lot different than most of the audience would expect, and to be fair- it is strange mix and match. But Koharu who cares about him deeply straight up tells him he is a bad man, but he is not poison. Koharu tells him that he should stop putting up a fake front, she wants to get to know his true self. Don’t true to be alone, it makes her lonely and in pain. This was the part we finally got to see the long overdue bold and fiery side of Koharu. True to the story, as the only way out of the dream is to complete the story, the two kiss, as Koharu must eat the poison apple (oh my god this line sounds so weird ahahahahaha!).

I will be honest: While I adore Koharu’s character, I am not a huge fan of Kakeru’s. I don’t love him, but I don’t hate him- I am in the neutral party. So seeing them kiss didn’t make me squeal or experience at butterflies. It is also an understatement to say Koharu’s and Kakeru’s relationship is probably the fastest paced relationship of all Otome Games adaptions we have seen. I mean seriously, you tell me- when was the last time you saw an Otome Game Adaption (full 23 minutes one) that had a couple kiss within five episodes? While it is something nobody is complaining about due to the LACK OF canon ships in Otome Games Adaptions and of course actual kiss scenes, (the last and only one I can remember is in Hakouki’s adaption) – Koharu’s and Kakeru’s relationship development speed is best to be compared with Disney’s Love Stories.
A speedy romantic development is a double-edge sword. I will say this factor is true to the game as well, but within the anime, a lot of things get cut out so their growth as a couple is not as thorough as it can be, causing their confessions and love scenes to wound up underwhelming.
But it is not all in vain, especially given how this finally provides the window of opportunity to address and focus on the other canon couples’ developments, which leads me to Mikoto’s love story.

Since the writers have been craftily mixing and merging two of her routes together, and even created some original content to support the flow of it (thumbs up!), Mikoto’s dream event was the one I was most curious of how they would work with it. And seriously, you have to hand it to them, they did a fantastic job! Mikoto’s role in her dream was Cinderella, and it was her job to find her prince, her important person. The prince for Cinderella’s Love Story was of course Sakuya, but this story had a heart-wrenching twist! In the end, Mikoto never actually found Sakuya, instead she embraced Itsuki, whom she had envisioned as Sakuya because she was looking for him and the minute she thought she had found him, she jumped onto him, crying how she wants to protect him from his tragic death. But as all of this happens, the true Sakuya who holds her glass slipper witnesses the scene- and saw how out of all people, she was in Itsuki’s arms. It was one of those moments where you can actually see the exact moment a heart was ripped into pieces… Poor Sakuya.
Another part of her event which I enjoyed was simply watching her walk with Itsuki under the beautiful moon. It was fun to see how he deliberately was leading her away from the castle just so he could spend time with her.

Itsuki is a really awesome guy, though he has a playboy attitude, he has a big heart. He created this dream world to help the girls with their boy problems. He provided each of them the opportunity to learn who is important to them, and why. Furthermore, because this is all taking place within their dreams, it allowed them to be more true to themselves, just as we had seen from Nanami and Mikoto. He is the ultimate match-maker and relationship counselor of the team, and is always looking out for others. He really doesn’t get enough credit. I love him so much!

Next week, IT IS FINALLY HAPPENING! Our dear Bandit is making his return to the spotlight! Oh my god, I can’t wait. I really hope this means they are finally going to focus on Mikoto’s story more. It is about high time for Koharu x Kakeru to be benched! I am also craving for more Nanami x Akito development. I better control my expectations, I would hate to set myself up for disappointment.
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AHHHH I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!