This week it was Hinako and Pin who shared the spotlight. Although it had it’s shining humorous moments, the outcome of the event was a bit of a disappointment. But perhaps it really did work out for the better, especially for Hinako’s case since at the end of the day, she wants Pin to see her as her raw self, not as Hinako the Model.
But as Teresa put it, Hinako and Hina the Model are one and the same, it is just another side of her, one where she happens to feel more confident about herself than she usually would. Having heard that, it put Hinako at ease, so wasn’t disappointed by Pin not recognizing her, and is content with being able to wait until she as her usual self gains the confidence to tell him herself.
It was cute to see Pin practice with Hinako, but he was so shy about it that he couldn’t even face her. In fact it was nice to see more of his shy side, especially the conversation where he thanked her over the phone. He said all the things he wanted to say to her, making us wonder if he really did realize it was her. But my goodness, there were moments when I experienced second-hand embarrassment on Hinako’s behalf. Pin is not shy in praising her beauty, and I was just waiting to see the girl melt into the floor.
It is also quite hilarious how Alex continues is the only one who has picked up on the secret. But it’s thanks to her being upfront about it, Hina now has two friends (Teresa, the second one) who knows the other side of her.
Frankly, after I watched this episode, I intially made the decision to stop covering this, and was not going to release an entry. But the decision still continued to haunt me for the rest of the day, and so here I am, writing this post because after some time reflecting I changed my mind and decided to give this a few more weeks.
The primary reason why I decided to give it a second chance is because I realized even though Mitsuyoshi and Teresa have not been not in the spotlight since the first episode, there is in fact a purpose for it. Both Mitsuyoshi and Teresa are more or less benched for the purpose to to observe what is going on around them. Although we have yet to see any signs from Mitsuyoshi himself, we have been seeing a subtle development on Teresa’s end. Since episode 2, Teresa has been quietly observing/experiencing what is happening around her. Particularly in episode 3, we see that she is slowly but surely developing a crush, followed up with last week’s episode where she was conscious of experiencing an indirect kiss with Mitsuyoshi after he had taken a sip from her cup. This week at the end of the episode, we see her muse about how love is complicated, and reflects on her own secrets she is keeping from the others. All of these things will affect her future decisions, or so I would like to believe that is the writer’s intent.
This is why I have a feeling the core piece of the story will not rolling until Episode 6 or 7. So it will take a bit more patience to see get to the point, especially if they intend to develop the main couple’s relationship in a rather unconventional way.
With that in mind, it looks like the next one to be in the spotlight will be Tada’s sister Yui!
Glad to see I’ll be able to continue reading your insightful reviews about this anime, thank you.
BTW, is it me or in the last two episodes Alex has been a lot more in the spotlight than Teresa? For me it’s becoming Alex’s anime, not Tada-kun’s nor Teresa’s… not that it’s wrong, as I like a lot that character.
Another thing that is bothering me is that this is heading to have all the members of the photography club forming couples with another member (except for Kentarou, who clearly goes with Yui), but I still don’t see much future in that Kaoru+Alex combination…
That is exactly why I am getting frustrated with the show. It’s not that I dislike the other characters, I just hate how the main protagonists are not in the spotlight whatsoever. It has been making me increasingly concerned about how they are going to execute their love story, and make it a convincing one. They basically need to to make these episodes focusing on other characters actually has a good pay off.