In a shocking twist, a Momo episode out of nowhere! Jesus, she’s a bit full-on, isn’t she? I spent most of the episode trying to figure out whether or not she’s going to go yandere at any point. Right now I’m thinking no? I hope not, I actually kind of love her. She’s like a baby Hina. With a mildly disturbing toy obsession. Which I guess is why Rui felt compelled to stand up for her in front of the other girls.
Momo is kind of an interesting character, actually. She’s so desperate for love (children of unhappy marriages are basically doomed in anime, aren’t they?) that she seems to want to skip ahead several levels whenever she meets anyone she likes, and not just romantically. I mean, making a stuffed toy of someone’s head within hours of first speaking to them? I’d look like Rui did too.
Come to think of it, everyone’s personality traits in this series are amplified up to 11. Rui is super awkward, Hina is super messy, Natsuo is super… earnest? Let’s say earnest. And Momo is super loving, apparently.
Usually when “notorious” characters like Momo pop up in the anime I watch, the rumours around them tend to be false or grossly exaggerated, to the point where it’s refreshing to see a character who is actually really promiscuous. And to be honest, I think that’s kind of a stronger move for the story. Aside from the fact that we’re all heartily sick of the “slut character is actually pure as the driven snow” trope, narratively speaking it’s the easy way out. If slut-chan is pure, the otaku don’t have to tackle the messy issue of whether to see promiscuous girls as human beings. Sure, Momo’s slept with more guys in high school than most women will in their entire lives, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t deserving of sympathy. If anything, the opposite holds true, especially since her previous partners seem to have ranged from “kinda shitty” to “actual kidnapper”, personality-wise. Why should our pity for this girl, who’s clearly lonely and possibly in 
danger of doing herself serious damage, be withheld just because she’s had a lot of sex? The answer is it shouldn’t be. Domestic na Kanojo is low-key empathetic as fuck.
Wow though she sure is misguided. Jeez her scenes with Natsuo were hard to watch at times.
The prospect of Momo stealing Natsuo/the episode seems to have laid Rui low with the flu. Leading us to THAT SUPPOSITORY SCENE CHRIST ALMIGHTY. Why? I know that deadly Japanese flu can destroy even the strongest of men, but how sick do you have to be to ask your crush/stepbrother to stick a suppository up your ass? Did we need that? What a bizarre grab for attention. How did that one go down in Kei Sasuga’s brain? “I need to sex up Rui and Natsuo’s relationship a little. But how? I know: the ol’ suppository gambit. Hoho, you’ve done it again, Sasuga”. Nobody asked for this. Well no, somebody probably did. But they should feel ashamed of themselves. I was so outraged by the preposterousness of that scene that I almost forgot that Rui had half-confessed to Natsuo only just before. It’s somehow the lesser news here.
Even taking into account the suppository scene, though, Momo was very much the woman of the hour, one-upping Rui’s scene with Natsuo with an almost-sex scene. I bet this shot is being made into a dakimakura as we speak.
I am so glad that sex scene didn’t go ahead. Natsuo is still a salvageable human being. He was looking kind of scummy there for a while, but he brought it back in the end. He’s still not a fantastic guy or anything, but I feel like his plotline with Momo was his chance to go full Makoto, and he didn’t take it. Good for him, not being the worst guy ever. Why did he say this though.
Like honestly, does Natsuo have some sort of disability that renders him incapable of not blurting out everything that pops into his head?
Anyway, in conclusion, Momo is cute and I pray for her happiness every day. ‘Til next time!
Wow, that was a lot here.
Honestly, I’ve only read the manga, so I kind of forgot what happens early on, but Momo…wow. I can sympathize with her, and Natsuo’s alright, trying to help her in a different way than expected. He’s certainly no Makoto, that’s for sure.
On the other hand, when you mentioned that suppository scene, I totally forgot that happened until now. When I first read it, I was reminded of an old CollegeHumor video about the Red/Blue Pill in the Matrix. First time I heard of a suppository for a cold. Then again, some countries have medicine in different forms than what I’m used to, such as powders, so perhaps this might be a common thing?