What a mess.
The next two characters have been introduced into this convoluted love story and things just get much worse. We meet little Moca who is Mugi’s childhood friend, and she makes her crush for Mugi painfully obvious. She sees him as her prince and wants him to notice her, but we know that’ll never happen. And then we have Hanabi’s friend, Ecchan. I didn’t know what to make of her at first, but the episode in the beginning hinted at something different, and with some of the images in the OP, we learn in an exciting cliffhanger than Ecchan is in love with Hanabi.
So one-sided love is the theme here. Each character loves someone else and it’s not working well. Moca is annoying, but she hasn’t really done anything bad just yet. I mean, she hit the nail on the head. Hanabi and Mugi’s relationship is just them using each other for their own desires, except Moca directed this all on Hanabi, but…close enough. She obviously doesn’t like Hanabi at all because she’s with Mugi and she wants Mugi to herself. I have to commend her for being brave and clinging onto Mugi’s arm with Hanabi around, but Hanabi didn’t really let that happen for long. Knowing the childhood friend trope, I already feel bad for Moca. It’s not going to work, and she’s going to have to stare at Mugi from afar like she’s always done. But considering this anime is not your typical anime, I’m going to cross my fingers and hope for a happy ending for Moca. That’s…probably silly of me, but I want to stay positive with this show.
And then we have Ecchan. I had a feeling Ecchan had romantic feelings for Hanabi when we saw her walk closely with her and blush around her. Ecchan showing concern towards Hanabi’s relationship with Mugi seemed like a friend worrying about her friend, but things were really cemented when she started freaking out about the sleepover, and whether they would have to sleep on the same mattress. The ending was completely unexpected, and I didn’t think Ecchan would make her move already! It came out of nowhere for me since we don’t really know how close these two are and why Ecchan developed feelings for Hanabi, but I’m sure we’ll get that, and the events leading up to the kiss, in the next episode. All I can say is that my pity goes to Ecchan. Unless Hanabi is bisexual, then maybe not so much pity.
So:
- Hanabi loves Kanai-sensei
- Mugi loves Minagawa-sensei
- Moca loves Mugi
- Ecchan loves Hanabi
- and Kanai and Minagawa love each other…maybe.
No one loves the other, but things might be changing. While they keep their relationship totally platonic, I feel like Hanabi is slowly developing feelings for Mugi. She notices how he really acts like a boyfriend towards her and she seems to like when he pats her head. If she starts falling in love with him, I won’t be surprised because I was expecting that from the beginning. I just know it won’t end up well.
But how will Hanabi react to Ecchan? How will it affect their friendship? I don’t know, but I just want Ecchan to get a happy ending. Ahh…there I go again with the happy endings;;; I appreciate that this show didn’t leave us with hints and just threw it in our face that Ecchan is lesbian. No bait, no ambiguity. And we got a kiss that wasn’t censored between two females, and it wasn’t sexualized either. Thank you.
One interesting thing we got this episode was a flashback from Mugi. There seemed to be another girl in his life who he might have had sexual relations with, and he might see her in Hanabi. We got this after their awful karaoke with I think one of the Naruto openings (lol), and I hope we find out who that girl is soon. But in general I want to know more about Mugi because I feel like I don’t have a good grasp on his character just yet. He seems like a nice guy, he pushed Hanabi to talk with those girls, he’s not mean towards Moca, and apparently he’s pretty popular. But…there has to be something about him, something else we’re not seeing.
I dread what will happen next.
I’m not sure I can watch this. It will be a unique experience, but I can’t say the NTR and cast of increasingly miserable people are things I’d look forward to watching every week. I don’t really want what I’m being offered here, but to its credit I’m glad I’m aware of that from the outset instead of potentially watching the entire thing only to get hit by some rage-inducing plot twist near the end.
It’s a real pity, because Hanabi is super cute and I love the ED track.
Oh, same. I felt a sense of dread when I realized it was Thursday and the new episode would come out. This exactly isn’t the type of show that I’m looking forward to blogging unlike my other shows, or even watching. I’m still going to give it one more episode, and if I’m brave enough, I’ll blog the rest. But yeah, at least we know from the beginning what kind of show this’ll be. I get what they’re trying to do, but it may not just be my cup of tea. I don’t want to feel like crap while waiting for this show.
Agreed. Animation and music wise, it’s great.
I’m reading the manga for the first time, and this is…kind of uncomfortable. I get what they’re doing, but it doesn’t seem healthy. Have you read any of the author’s other works? When I read the manga, the art style was very similar to one of this other works, and lo and behold, I did some research, and he also authored it. I don’t want to put the name down, but the subject was…also uncomfortable. Seems to be a trend somehow…
I have not. I don’t read manga much. I looked up the author and the stuff they worked on and…yeah. I don’t like it. But for some reason this story is the most popular of them all.
Yeah. I haven’t read too much of this story yet but to me, compared to another work of hers, this is quite tame….
Just a nitpick, but the author is female.
Oh my bad. I just never really check the gender of the author and just always write ‘he’. Thanks for correcting me