Sorry for the delay in posting, just got around to the episode this afternoon!
The search is on for the Natsumi fake and what better way to get to the bottom of it than go on dates with every potential impostor. There wasn’t much to this episode, but toning down the chaos at least temporarily was nice. The giant harem can sometimes be a little overwhelming. I liked the one on one interactions we got to see. They’re really cramming them in though. Poor Shidou. The harem protagonist life ain’t easy.
With the giant gap in series, the individual moments with Shidou and the girls is a nice change of pace. It kind of reminded me of how much I had forgotten when it comes to how specific character personalities. Like how Touka is such a stranger to normal culture and traditions, getting influenced by modern TV trends and then that ‘Natsumi’ was a southern Japanese greeting. She’s pretty gullible, but in a cute way. Yoshino is just a ball of adorability through and through. I recalled her being more somber, but she seemed very upbeat. Yuzuru, well, I actually remembered her pretty well. It’s hard to forget someone when they talk like that. This might also be the first time we’ve gotten to see Yuzuru and Shidou alone together too. The duality of her and Kaguya is pretty interesting, how they both want each other to be happy but have their own secret, selfish desires they want fulfilled too. Yuzuru accidentally confessing to Shidou was also very sweet and I think being away from her sister for a moment gave us a slightly better view of her as a person. She usually appears super logical and distant, but we got a little closer to her this time around.
If nothing else, I thought it was hilarious that no scene or clip was even animated with Tonomachi. It was casually referenced in a single line between dates and I don’t know whether it was actually supposed to come off as a joke or if they just didn’t care because they know that’s not what anyone is here for. It definitely made me laugh though. And they’re right. I couldn’t care less about their date either. Props for knowing their audience, I guess.
I’m still as unimpressed with Shidou’s dating skills as I remembered. You’d think after hanging around with like 8 girls that are all trying to date you, that you’d gain some sort of wisdom or confidence. Apparently that is not so.
Without knowing the extent of Natsumi’s power, it’s hard to say how good her impersonations are. We’ve only seen her get caught copying Shidou but she was doing blatantly un-Shidou like things. Testing for past memories seems like a solid strategy, but that almost seems too easy. Instead of going on a date, they could just interview the girls about their pasts. I’m assuming there will be some workaround to that, otherwise this wouldn’t be that fun of a mystery.
Oh, right. We should also probably talk about that thing that happened at the beginning, shouldn’t we? Very intense opening scene to this one. I actually almost completely forgot about it after I was bombarded with the adorableness that was Touka, Yoshino, and Yuzuru. I don’t actually know what the significance of that meeting was. I’m sure it will be brought to light later on, but for now I’m pretty lost. It really has been a while since season 2…
At the very end of the episode we get a little foreshadowing from future Shidou that there may be a rough path ahead of him. It’s certainly keeping me interested. I wonder how many people will disappear before they end up solving the puzzle. Alternatively, I wonder why/how Natsumi was able to disappear and cast her spell if all 12 people were being tracked. Shouldn’t they be able to spot whoever is missing in that moment at midnight? Ah, well. I’m just here for the harem. I’ll try not to think too hard about this stuff and just enjoy the ride.
I’m not sure if I’d technically call it ‘bad’ persay, but the animation in this episode did seem a bit, uh, wonky? I can’t tell if it’s a style or just not great as of yet, but I’ll try to keep an eye out and hope it clears up soon.