Gotoubun no Hanayome Episode 3 – A Mountain of Problems

Main takeaways this episode:

• Wow, Nino is blind
• Miku caught feelings way too hard, way too fast
• Nice, the sisters can be reasonable when they need to be
• Not nice, the family is more distant than they want to be (apparent to some more than others)
• Wow, Nino is really, really blind

They really had me in the first half. I didn’t think anything substantial would be happening this episode. I feel like we got to learn a lot though.

So Nino has some sort of daddy issue, more or less, is what it sounds like. We don’t know why they’re living alone yet (well, as an anime-only viewer I don’t know) but Nino seemed kinda pissed that they were following orders just because their dad said so. We also got to see how deeply she cares for her sisters. While I’m sure they all love each other to some degree, Ichika’s remark about how they used to be closer really got Nino in the feel spots. Whether she was unaware of that or just surprised by it being said out loud we don’t really know, but it’s obvious she cares. I hope their’s some sibling relationship mending in the near future! It looks like there’s still a lot to unpack from Nino too. At the end of the episode we pretty much saw her double down on her conviction to not accept Uesugi. Tsundere ’til the end, perhaps?

I was not expecting Miku to be so head over heels for Uesugi though. That caught me by surprise. What happened to old, bald war generals?! I enjoyed the banter between Nino and Miku this episode. Very reminiscent of bickering with my siblings. Not so much the comparing chests part, but I think you get the idea. The face when she makes when he said he liked their cooking equally alone was worth watching the episode for. More please!

This was a very fun week. We got a cook-off, we got a court session, we got the classic harem misunderstanding. What more could you really ask for? I liked the correlation between the studying notes from the OP and the message of the episode. ‘You can’t tell a book by its cover.’ If I could cite an exact reason for why I shouldn’t skip OPs, this’d probably be it. Now that I think about it, they probably did this every episode didn’t they? God damn it. In my seasonal bingeing I almost always skip the opening song unless it’s straight fire. I think seeing the phrase and how they incorporate it into the episode really adds a nice depth to it though. I’m glad I caught it this time and will continue to look for it in the future.

Another thing I liked was that the sisters came to a reasonable conclusion about the misunderstanding. While I’m all for fan service, it does get a bit annoying when the MC gets a beat down because of an obviously innocent situation. Maybe they have more brain power than I originally gave them credit for…

So far, I like that the show keeps including past characterization and building on it. It’s nice to see continued, impactful change being made instead of just resetting the characters each time. I still can’t figure out Itsuki’s vibe though. She’s very neutral right now. She won’t study with Uesugi, but she also almost goes out of her way to prevent him from being banned from the apartment. Well, I guess I just figured out her vibe. If you can’t tell, I write pretty much whatever I’m thinking at the moment I think it.

Next episode is just called, ‘A Day Off’. It sure had a lot of shots of the sisters though, so I’m sure it will almost definitely not be a day off for poor Uesugi. The man just wants to study! I like his continued disinterest in anything not to do with studying. Like when Yotsuba was going to ask him if he thought she’d look good in that lingerie and he just straight up gave no fucks. That’s my boy!