Episode 7
Part three of ‘Child of God’ took a surprising turn in its focus. The arrival of Takahashi prompted me to assume a romcom type of scene or a series of misunderstandings, this assumption is something hammered into me by so many other mediocre anime or shows, and I was overjoyed to see 3gatsu take another route. Instead of grabbing for some cheap laughs, 3gatsu uses Takahashi to pose a genuine question to Rei. Not only does Takahashi’s sincerity prompt serious self analysis from Rei, but also reveals his aspirations to the viewer. He’s not the jughead jock one may have assumed him to be a few episodes ago, but he’s a genuine guy who’s unsure about his future. He’s earnest and diligent and there really isn’t anything to not like about him. I can sorta see why Hina would have a crush on him now.
Rei answers Takahashi’s question with sincerity, revealing his troubled school life to someone he just met. He doesn’t expect Takahashi to understand, but Takahashi gets it perfectly. This prompts extreme happiness from Rei, perhaps the happiest we’ve seen Rei ever? He’s so happy in fact, that he can’t fall asleep at night, and it inspires Rei to ask Souya Touji the way Takahashi asked him. Overall, the first half of episode seven is quite short, but develops Takahashi into a lovable character in minutes, triggers deep self reflection and happiness from Rei, and sets up a potential point to be raised when Rei inevtiably meets Souya Touji!
I was a bit disappointed when Takahashi left because I felt this urge to see more of his character. Luckily, the second half of the episode pulled through with Takahashi coming over for a curry dinner! I can only imagine Hina’s distress as she prepared for Takahashi’s arrival. We already see the extent of her worries as she freaks out over the curry being too normal, but can you imagine how she reacted to opening the door for him? She must’ve imploded! The dinner itself is quite amusing, with an oblivious Momo crawling over Hina. It’s adorable and endearing, and Takahashi doesn’t fail to live up to the high expectations I have for his character. He devours the curry and tells Hina it’s delicious! Gah, he’s so earnest it’s killing me.
However, the clear highlight of this episode for me was Nikaidou’s commentary over Rei’s match. It’s brutally honest and covered in a layer of comedy, but it’s clearly a genuine message from Nikaidou’s heart. He’s truly worried about Rei’s well being and strongly believes that Rei isn’t taking care of himself. Even if it’s a bit much and maybe overbearing, it comes from a true friend and I’m glad Rei has someone like that. Perhaps the message itself isn’t the important part but the fact that it made Rei angry! We’ve never seen Rei angry and for Nikaidou to trigger it from him was both hilarious and poetic. What’s even better was Takahashi’s support for Nikaidou’s genuine comments, prompting gramps to talk about the beauty of the youth! It’s overall an amazing scene with chemistry galore from all the characters. God this show is great.
Surprisingly, this episode is split into three parts! I did not see this coming and it’s completely ruining the formatting of my episode reviews, but nevertheless, I will let you do this 3gatsu! Only since you’re an amazing show.
It’s also relatively short of a skit, and revolves Rei teaching Hina how to play Shogi. Rei is surprisingly overjoyed at Hina taking an interest in his hobby, something we can all relate to, and goes off to the shogi shop to buy boards and pieces. There he runs into our bubbly Nikaidou! Our bubbly friend accompanies Rei to the Kawamoto family’s home. Now I don’t think anyone was really surprised when Rei had a difficult time explaining shogi while keeping it interesting, however, I didn’t expect Nikaidou to be so good! He had a frigging flip book for explaining shogi!
It’s a cute ending to an overall great episode. It wasn’t particularly sad of an episode, but there was definitely strong emotion everywhere. We’re introduced to Takahashi while further developing Nikaidou’s relationship with Rei. Our cast is growing and I’m excited to see more characters join in! (Hope we get a lot more Takahashi)
Episode 8
Holy crap Nikaidou made that book himself? That’s super impressive and only reinforces the fact that Nikaidou is best boy. His cat explanations of each piece were quite simple and easy to understand. I’m a bit surprised since we’re quite deep into the series and I expected a shogi explanation to come much earlier if it was ever coming. I thought the game itself would sound much more difficult but it just reminds me a lot of chess, save for the general pieces that have some funky movesets. Hina and Momo’s interest in Nikaidou’s teachings was adorable as well, with the latter still obsessed over Nikaidou being Bodoro. It’s one of the gags we’ve seen for quite a while, but it really doesn’t get old.
Once the lesson is wrapped up, Rei returns to his apartment, followed by Nikaidou. Much to Rei’s dismay, Nikaidou insists on sleeping over, and has even gifted Rei with a fold in couch bed! He’s honestly such a gem, and even though Rei may seem against him now, I’m sure Rei really enjoys his company. He’s just not showing it yet.
This episode also brings back Mr. Smith and Issa, revealing that they saw Kiriyama’s performance at the NHK cup. It’s supposed to be an amusing scene with the adults bawling their eyes out at Nikaidou’s sincerity, however, they add the fact that Nikaidou had an anemic bout after his outburst which has me very worried. I hope it’s just a little thing with no relevance, but something tells me we’ll have an arc about his health problems soon. Please be merciful!
The big part of episode eight is the arrival of Kyouko! I’m unsure of how to analyze her or even try to understand her. If I had to choose a word to describe her it’d be “fickle.” Sometimes it seems like she does care for Rei, but other times she’s seems unbearably toxic. Normally a character like this would call for unanimous hating, but there’s something about Kyouko that really interests me. Perhaps it’s the masochist within me, or perhaps there’s something in his character that gives her a surprising depth. Her type of character isn’t all too common, walking a fine line between hatred and admiration. She’s clearly self centered, a bit broken perhaps, and her nickname as the Tempest seems perfect. The surprising reveal however was that of Gotou, her boyfriend? She insists he does not get violent with her, but the flashback reveals he punched Rei in the face. This will definitely be relevant in the future, and I’m looking forward to justice being served! As for the cinematography of the Kyouko scene itself, it was great. Shaft pulling all the stops and using all their quirks to characterize her fickle self was a scene to behold!
Overall, the episode was pretty solid. It highlighted both Nikaidou’s character and revealed Kyouko’s. It also makes me wonder when we’ll be seeing Ayumu or his father again.
It’s best to reserve judgment on these characters until their story has been told, especially for Kyouko and Gotou. Yeah, Kyouko’s introduction here doesn’t really make her likeable, but it’s important to know where she came from.
Also, not sure if it has been mentioned, but Takahashi is someone like a neighborhood kid to Hinata, one of those kids who you know by name at a young age but don’t really play with him but still remember him somehow…..sorry, hard to put into words here.
Gah, you’re right. It’s been like five times now that this show has corrected/entirely changed my perspective on a character through a solid development episode. Kyouko has definitely piqued my interest though, and I’m really eager to learn more about her and Gotou.
To your credit….I’d say there’s probably one person in the series who really doesn’t really require reserved judgement. At the end of this, after everything you’ve seen and experience, I highly recommend that you continue with season 2. Both seasons complement each other, and judging by your posts, I think that it might be worthwhile to have a look at it.