This episode was definitely more my type of skits as we finally moved away from the Ishigami and Iino dynamic for a bit. Thank goodness. We also finally get more meaningful Shirogane and Kaguya interaction so that was also nice to see. Typical Kaguya shenanigans that just leaves me cackling. Though is it just me, or was this episode a lot more “lewd” than anything we’ve seen so far? Sure there has been insinuations of things here and there along with a bit of crude humor, but I don’t recall seeing things like what transpired in this episode lol. Like while we didn’t really see anything, the noises were… there.
While I enjoyed this episode more than the previous episode, the first skit wasn’t really my thing. Especially when it touched on a really big negative on Kashiwagi and by extension, Kaguya. Both are REALLY paranoid about the person they like “cheating” on them with another girl. I’ve never been a fan of the jealousy aspect of relationships in anime, especially when they take it too far that borders on possessive. I can understand a dash of uneasiness over wondering whether feelings are truly mutual, but when it’s just the main issue, I don’t really enjoy watching it. I also just straight up don’t like cheating or possible cheating plot points in general since the whole subject is just messy in every shape and form. As much as I do not care or like Iino, I definitely sided with her during most of Kashiwagi’s points and I did have a laugh when she pulled out her meditative drama to cope with the situation. Especially when she went as far as to dig through his phone and hire a private investigator to see whether or not Tsubasa was actually cheating or not. That is a SEVERE invasion of privacy and several steps too far. And it does also highlight Kaguya’s negative aspect of also assuming things too quickly on how things look rather than exercising healthy communication. While I understand it’s because Kaguya is naive in relationships and has very little trust in others, it’s still a very unattractive thing about Kaguya that I hope she is able to work on in the future.
In the end, all the petty accusations were for absolutely nothing as Tsubasa ends up showing that he was only hanging with Kashiwagi’s friend, Maki because he was asking for her help on what to get Kashiwagi for their anniversary. Their reconciliation introduced the student council to first hand making out, tongues and all lol. I definitely let out a laugh at how they all just stared in embarrassment and horror at the scene. I didn’t really see much of a point to that whole exchange besides trying to make possessive girlfriend jokes, but then it goes into the next skit where we finally meet the pigtailed girl who is always crying behind a corner in the past couple seasons. Turns out she’s a distant cousin of Kaguya… and it certainly shows. Maki is the same amount of haughty and prideful as Kaguya. She even goes from being cool and collected to “cute” on a drop of a hat. Something even Shirogane picks up on. Not to mention that despite viewing Kashiwagi as her dear friend, she doesn’t seem to have much qualms with bad mouthing her. Much like Kaguya often does to Chika. They even call Ishigami an ignoramus.
The reason why Maki has been shown looking all depressed through out the seasons so far was that she actually liked Tsubasa even before he became “cool and confident.” Which is both sweet and sad since he ended up getting together with Maki’s best friend. Making the situation even more complicated since if she tries to steal Tsubasa away, she would be betraying one of her closest friends. And while she ends up roping Shirogane and Ishigami into trying to help win Tsubasa over, I do appreciate that they at least try to address the problems that would come from pursuing her friend’s boyfriend. Especially with Ishigami just spitting facts. I love that he basically unintentionally call Shirogane out on his crap of trying to get the other person to confess first. If Shirogane truly likes Kaguya, he should just confess to her himself instead of just manipulating the means of leaving it up to Kaguya to confess. And this is why Ishigami is the best. He makes very valid points on what would happen if Mika just waits for something to happen rather than taking the initiative. Something Shirogane should also be taking into consideration.
And while the interaction is brief, it’s rather obvious that Mika and Kaguya are on quite tense terms for whatever reason. Though the hostility seems to be more one-sided on Mika’s end as Kaguya doesn’t actively try to instigate and instead is just curt and annoyed. It is interesting to note that when Kaguya steps into the room, Mika loses the shine in her eyes. Not sure what it means yet, but it certainly was something of intrigue as to why she acts like this towards Kaguya. Though it could be something along the lines of the branch family being jealous towards the main family.
And while Maki is a brat much like Kaguya, I do feel a little sad for her in the regard that it doesn’t seem like she really has anyone to talk to about her personal hang ups. Since in that little end card, she seems to feel a lot better finally being able to talk about it to someone. Though considering she’s vying for her friend’s boyfriend, that’s not something that she can easily share with other friends that are within that same group as Kashiwagi would most likely find out.
Going off on last week’s episode of Shirogane being self-conscious towards Kaguya over going to a group dating session at karaoke, the Student Council ends up playing a group date game, the Ten-Yen Coin game. Much to Shirogane’s horror. And while the first question was a normal question to ask in a group date game, Ishigami’s question just made the game all the more awkward as he asks if they hate him. Like, bruh. This ain’t the place to ask such a question! But it was actually really adorable seeing him ecstatic that only one person in the group supposedly hates him. I’m glad that he’s able to overlook that one person and just be glad that everyone else does in fact like him or at least not hate him. And then freaking Iino continues the heavy topic of asking whether or not people find her to be useless. Which is like, after asking such a question, there was no doubt that everyone would reply no to that question.
But of course, we have to have our obligatory battle of whits between Kaguya and Shirogane where Kaguya takes notice of which coin Shirogane picks up so she can trap him with her next question. Unfortunately for her, Shirogane seems to have caught on to her scheme and switches the coin in his pocket. And of course he also tries to back Kaguya into a wall with his question by asking who was paying attention to who is answering by the mint date… Which ends up backfiring when three people actually admit to be paying attention to the mint date. I cackled pretty hard when both Ishigami and Chika also admitted to taking note of the mint dates. Of course Chika would be doing something close to cheating AGAIN. And of course of course Ishigami immediately caught onto her after she emphasized “no pinpointing.”
After all that, we get a moment of growth from Shirogane. During that whole first skit, I was complaining about how Kashiwagi and Kaguya weren’t exercising honest communication, here we actually see Shirogane try to explain himself as to why he went to the group date and at least wanted Kaguya to believe that he didn’t go with loose intentions. Which is something you wouldn’t try to convey if you didn’t have special feelings towards them. Which Kaguya COULD have used to advantage if she so wished. Instead however, Kaguya allows the moment to be tender and I love that little touch at the end with her putting the 10 yen heads up to affirm the fact (at least to the viewers) that she indeed believed him. Which is a positive step in their relationship because it loops back to the theme of communication and trust that was established in the first two skits. Also the translation of “Shirogane loses” was wrong as the narrator clearly says “Shōri” which means “victory.” Which would make more sense since Shirogane was actually able to communicate what actually happened and Kaguya chose to believe in him. If that ain’t a victory, I don’t know what is.
This episode had its ups and downs, but I like how it ended on a very sweet note and a moment of growth for both Shirogane and Kaguya. I love how the themes of trust and communication that were brought up in the first two skits ended up being used to allow their relationship to take a step in the right direction. One of the things I love about this series is that while many of the skits may seem silly and outrageous, but they somehow end up being important to the overall plot and growth for certain characters. And while I didn’t like the distrust and accusation of cheating in the first skit, I am glad that it actually had a reason for being portrayed that way and allowed growth to happen for the main couple. While it may be slow going, Kaguya and Shirogane are making progress and I’m glad that they are starting to learn and exercise healthy communication and trust.
