HOT DAMN, CHECK OUT KAKERU’S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!!
Holy smokes, Kakeru, my man, what a come back! Finally, the guy has made a breakthrough, officially letting go of negative-nancy attitude, and is finally experiencing the rewards of embracing the team spirit.
The catalyst to this, was Haiji being out of commission. Fortunately, it was nothing serious, he had just fallen asleep from being overworked, and required some bedrest. To ensure that, the team (hilariously) barricaded the guy in his room. But at the same time, without Haiji to lead the team, his absence it served as a huge eye-opener of just how much responsibility he had been carrying all on his own. Passing out ended up being a huge merit to the team spirit, with everyone looking for wards to step up and contribute a helping hand. Cooking was one of the biggest issues, with the twins only knowing how to cook pasta, which was no doubt the safer route as the boys made a grave mistake of assuming Hana, who had dropped in to deliver fresh food, had the ability the cook. Oh man, I was laughing so hard seeing how Hana’s cooking was like poison to everyone except for Kakeru and Akane, who had a strong enough stomach to digest whatever the hell she cooked. They even thought it was good! (Yet another thing the two of them share in common, haha!) Then when it came to leading the team in their practice, initially they looked up to Nico to be the substitute Captain, but eventually asked Kakeru, who willingly agreed to do it. It was really cute to see him warn the team he won’t be as gentle as Haiji, but the team was super excited about it.
My favourite part of the episode was watching Kakeru and Akane bond together. I loved how Kakeru took the initiative to reconcile with Akane, and try to understand him better by asking if he could read his manga. It was when he was watching him exercise on the treadmill he discovered a way to help improve and eventually Akane’s horrible running form. It starts off with the adorable idea of holding the manga up in front of him as they do their morning runs. It became a trio effort with Haiji serving as Kakeru’s eyes, as he runs backwards and turns the pages for Akane who is reading as they go. This strategy helped Akane look up instead of down, straightening his posture and motivating him to tied his hair back so his bangs wouldn’t be in his face. The next step was to break his “reading posture”, so Kakeru came up with the solutions to have him carry his books as a means to prevent him from doing so.
But the true highlight was when Kakeru put Akane’s time ahead of his own. He was on track of setting a new personal best time, but decided to slowed down to encourage Akane, who successfully succeeded reaching his new personal best time of 29:26:26! Although he still has a long way to go, it is so sweet to see the team, especially Kakeru, being so happy for him.
Ever since Kakeru said that awful thing to him, they had been quietly butting heads. In a way, despite their athletic differences, the two of them are actually quite similar to each other. I was melting from the cuteness overload of how the two of them are now completely in sync when they read together. All of this makes me even more excited for the journey ahead, and the moment when Akane will hopefully, qualify for the Hakone Ekiden.
