Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara Episode 3

Whenever I watch these episodes, I always feel like SO MUCH happens yet not too much happens. It’s weird, really. It’s very much a slow paced show, but it still gives me so much to wonder about. Not to mention that PA works does a great job making this show look freaking beautiful. Though I do hope that it picks up just a tiny bit.

Anyways, the episode starts out with Kawai trying once more to recruit Hitomi into the photography club. This girl is persistent lol. Though I feel like I’m liking her a lot. However, the driving force of this episode is Hitomi’s inability to see color. Which I think is an interesting topic because as I said (or wondered) in the previous post of whether or not Hitomi would take on monochromatic theme to whatever artwork she decides to do.

If it wasn’t obvious before, it’s pretty obvious that the show is starting to slowly try and draw Hitomi and Yuito together. Considering whenever someone brings up Yuito, Hitomi perks up a little bit. She’s also trying a lot harder to learn magic so that she could fulfill her promise to show him magic again. Even going to her great grandmother for help to better use and control magic. Though I am still a little confused as to what it meant for the photography president to catch Hitomi using magic in the previous episode since it wasn’t addressed yet. Hopefully they’ll address it. If not, that scene will feel a little pointless.

But moving on, Hitomi’s great grandmother has her try and levitate a cup. Here, we get a little lesson of how some magic works. So far, there seems to be Five Powers of Nature that mages use and combining the forces, will create certain powers to manifest. Using the power of fire and earth, Hitomi tries to make the cup float but her first trial ends in failure. Funnily enough, the great grandmother has Hitomi use a pocky (or in this universe, popocky) stick as a wand and even promises to give Hitomi the entire bag if she pulls it off. Bribery at it’s finest I see. But it seems like mages who don’t know how to use magic well needs something to help control their power and direct their concentration. And while Hitomi doesn’t make the cup levitate, she at least makes it tip over. Some nice magic 101 happening here.

The school is holding an event where people showcase their clubs to try and recruit more members. Hitomi takes a peek at the photography and art club and man, I always love seeing through Hitomi’s eyes when she glances at her surroundings. Especially when it’s completely grayscale UNTIL she sees Yuito’s art, which is the only thing in color. Seriously, why is it just his artwork??? Does he have magical abilities that get transferred into his artwork? Guess time will tell.

Yuito has Hitomi try to paint an image to test out her art abilities. And while she isn’t terrible at drawing (she’s actually pretty good), her color choices were all over the place. Which makes sense since she can’t actually see the colors. From there, the photography club shows her what kinds of images they take and the kind of work that they do for the school. Though it was pretty hilarious that they ended up dressing up to try and attract more attention. It also seems like Yuito and Hitomi aren’t the only ship that may be set to sail considering the chemistry that is going on with Kawai and Fukazawa. Though I’m not sure if I’d actually like that ship since I find Fukazawa pretty annoying…

The photography club’s little event was actually pretty cool. I thought they’d just go around snapping pictures of random things, but instead, they basically made the pool area look mysterious with the use of fog machines and magic. They went above and beyond my expectations there lol. However, Yamabuki was called by the principal to snap shots of the Drama club’s presentation so he had to leave their own event a little shorthanded without a model. And guess who ended having to help out despite her obvious reluctance? You guessed it, it had to be Hitomi.

I’m starting feel a little sorry for Hitomi considering this group constantly tries to have her do things she obviously really doesn’t want to do. Though I’m glad that at least Asagi understands that they’re pushing too hard and tries to get the group to let up on her. Thank you Asagi, you are a blessing. But they essentially peer pressure her into being the model for their event. Though, in all honesty, it’s probably a good thing in the long run to have Hitomi break out of her comfort zone and try new things. Since she’d probably just stay in her own little box if given the choice and her grandmother’s efforts to help her would be in vain. And I appreciate that they’re only asking for her to help out with different things and nothing too out there or bad. Positive peer pressure if you will.

However, things take a rather strange turn when Hitomi accidentally takes the wrong color magic vial. The aqua blue sand was supposed to make her float on water, but she used the pink sand instead that seemingly only made a sparkling effect. But instead of sinking, she’s still able to float above the water and walk as if she had used the correct vial while it starts snowing. And when Kawai and Yuito realized that she used the wrong vial and told her, her strings were cut and ended up falling into the water. Now, I actually didn’t catch it before, but I realized that when Hitomi ate the pocky that she used to try and make the cup float, some magic seemed to slip in as well. Which probably explains how she was able to walk on water despite using the wrong vial.

Realizing that they’ve basically just been forcing her to do things, Yuito goes as a representatives due to the other club members taking photos of the other clubs and apologizes to Hitomi. However, after all the hints Hitomi showed of her colorblindness, Yuito was able to pinpoint what her problem was, which seemed to make Hitomi extremely distressed. I’m actually really confused as to why Hitomi views colorblindness as something bad. Sure, it’s not normal for a person to view the world in such a way, but it’s not unheard of. And it doesn’t seem like something small, but it feels like a genuine fear that Hitomi desperately tries to hide from other people. You have to wonder if it has something to do with her mother. That the experience caused Hitomi to feel like she couldn’t be accepted by others if they found out. Though it does seem that Yuito is interested in that aspect of her. Hint hint, nudge nudge.

The next day, Hitomi does all that she can to avoid everyone in the club. Though I got super sad when Hitomi avoided looking at Asagi and the poor girl looked like she was going to cry… However, Hitomi does realize that she does need to confront them and goes to find them… cleaning the pool because she fell in. Which I found kinda funny how they were allowed to use the pool but not to actually go in it so because of that, they got in trouble lol.

And I couldn’t help but notice something when it shot very briefly to their bags. Okay, I’m going to get pretty in depth about this description. It may not seem like much at first glance, but those bags were actually very representative of each character and where they stand in the group. The ones with a bunch of pins is probably Kawai’s bag, showing off her rather bubbly and outgoing personality along with how the bag handles are hastily thrown to the side that shows off her rather hasty side and doesn’t care too much for details. The one beside it with the bunny charm is probably Asagi’s which shows that she likes animals but the handles that are tucked in also indicate how reserved she is and how careful she is about details. The one at the most right is probably Yamabuki’s bag as he is the head of the club considering it’s on the highest step and the handles that aren’t tucked in could also indicate that he may tend to just bite the bullet and charge headfirst into things.

Now, I’m not particularly sure which of the two bags facing a different direction is Yuito’s or Fukazawa’s. Though I’m going to guess that Yuito is the one on the step just below Yamabuki’s bag since those two have been friends since they were kids. The handles indicate he is reserved and keen on keeping things in order and details. But it’s facing a different direction because he’s technically not part of the Photography club but is in the Art half of it. So that leaves the one in the shadows Fukazawa’s bag since he’s the one we probably know the least about. And while he acts polite and put together on the outside, we don’t really know him that well which is probably why it’s in shadow. We also learned that he’s the newest member of the club and hasn’t quite integrated into the group.

And we all know which one is Hitomi’s bag as indicated by her jacket. She seems to want to be part of the group but her jacket represents that she’s still putting up a barrier between herself and the others. The fact that her bag is also shadowed could mean there’s still a lot of things she has kept hidden and that we don’t know about her. But yeah, enough analyzing bags, Hitomi joins in to help clean the pool and Yuito confirms with Yamabuki how he takes monochromatic photos and offers to Hitomi that it could be something she can do (totally saw that one coming). Which seems to touch her in a way where she can be included despite her inability to see color and immediately jumps in asking if she can join their club, shocking everyone. Though it was really cute to see how excited and happy everyone got about it. But I have to wonder why Asagi didn’t seem as thrilled. Did she notice something amiss?

Another cute episode, though not as strong as the last two eps, I’m still enjoying everything this series has brought to the table so far. I just hope this series will pick up soon and not be too slow on the build up. Though it looks like my hopes will be realized as the grandmother in her teens is coming back! I’m definitely looking forward to see what kind of dynamic she will bring to the group.