Well this was certainly a plot-packed episode. Oh my god the cringe. The criiiiiiinge. No no no no no. The Sara meet-and-greet debacle is the most devastatingly embarrassing thing that has ever happened to anyone, and I am including the entire events of Domestic na Kanojo in that. There’s no coming back from this. Just seal yourself up in a cave for the rest of your life to be honest Kazuki, you’re done.
I have to admit though, it takes some serious confidence in your Sara Azuma drag act to impersonate her in front of a crowd of her most die-hard fans plus your entire family and think you can have nobody tell the difference. And he almost got away with it, too. I guess I can respect Kazuki as an artist if not as a human being. I hope to see him on the next season of Drag Race.
Fuck me, I was not expecting all those family twists. Kazuki’s life is so turbulent, damn. At first I was confused about the whole “dressing differently from the family thing”. I mean sure, the crossdressing is unusual, but I don’t really see how it’s a rejection of his family in particular. And then I noticed. The whole family is wearing the same fucking shirt in different colours (in the flashbacks, at least). What is going on here, aside from a convoluted metaphor for gender identity issues? No wonder Kazuki’s such a messed up kid. He never stood a chance.
And it looks like there’s even more to this Haruka situation than I thought. Adoption, betrayal, life-altering accidents, the whole lot. The child had a rough time of it this episode to say the very least. I felt bad for him, but there’s still something sinister about Haruka that I can’t shake. Why did he have Kazuki’s mother’s sachet? Does he know her? Maybe there’s a reasonable explanation. I can’t even begin to guess what the hell’s going to happen on that front. But regardless of the darkness that may or may not lurk within Haruka, the fact remains that he is cute and did not deserve to be played like that by Kazuki, who has somehow managed to beat out Kazuki’s homicidal Yakuza brother to become the worst big brother in the series. At least he’s trying in his own fucked up way? The Sara scam took effort, you can’t deny that.
In other news: oh shit, Sara is a kappa. Well, I guess I should have seen that one coming. I have so many QUESTIONS though. I wonder what exactly the differences between the kappa that look like our three protagonists and the kappa that look like Sara and Keppi are. Is it that the latter are “natural-born” kappa and the former are temporary kappa? And are they both royal kappa? Can they both grant wishes (she has the same ass jewel so I’m guessing yes)? Does Keppi have a human form? Are we going to see the kappa world at any point? I have no idea where this is going!
It was interesting to see the trio fail to defeat a zombie for the first time. And of course, it’s all Kazuki’s fault. Worst brother, worst boy. Can’t catch a break. So if your secret is too shameful or stressful to bear, the turmoil causes the shirikodama extraction to fail? Which means the boys are kappas until Kazuki works through his trauma. This may take a while.
Anyway, no shortage of Things to address next episode! The post-ED scene has my hopes up that Reo and Mabu might finally meet with the protagonists next week, which I would be excited to see. But shit is more or less guaranteed to go down regardless.