Finally! In this episode we learned how Izumi and Shikimori started dating! It’s even more adorable than I imagined! I swear these two are the best with their innocent love! What I didn’t expect, I thought the summer vacation would still last longer, but then it immediately skipped to the Cultural Festival.
For the Cultural Festival, Izumi and Shikimori’s class decided to go with animal-themed cafe. Cutely, Shikimori wore bunny costume while Izumi wore a lion costume. Like the usual routine, Shikimori saved Izumi from falling by catching him and the tray he was holding, effectively making the bunny reduced the lion into a cute kitten lol (^w^)
The Cultural Festival at their school has an event where numbers would be distributed to the students. The numbers are actually a pair between boys and girls, and the ones who got the same number will be allowed to take a love photoshoot. There’s a belief that the couple who got the same numbers and took picture together will be tied together. As if to prove that point, it’s revealed that Izumi and Shikimori began dating thanks to that event during their first year. Even though it’s the typical school romance cliché, the struggle and determination that both Izumi and Shikimori showed made it worth to watch.
As usual, when they got the same number during the previous festival, Izumi’s bad luck struck him again, making him lost his number just when they’re about to take the picture after taking a walk together. Back then, Izumi had resigned to his bad luck in negative way, not bothering to try to change things. That’s why when he lost his number, he immediately gave up on taking the picture and thought it would be a waste of time to look for his number since they won’t find it anyway (and true to his words, they didn’t find it). Shikimori was the one who gave him the push not to give up so easily.
In desperate attempt to take the photoshoot, Shikimori and Izumi showed Izumi’s number through a photo that Izumi took with his cell phone to prove that they indeed got the same numbers. The organizer of the event refused at first, but Izumi, now realizing thanks to Shikimori that things would never change if he didn’t even bother to try changing it, mustered his courage by literally begging and admitting how desperate he was of wanting to take the photo with Shikimori, much to the girl’s embarrassment. Thanks to his efforts, the organizer was touched and allowed them to take photo together, even gave his support to Izumi. Shikimori once again showed how much she has influenced Izumi to be more optimistic and how by trying, his hard work would be paid off eventually.
Next is Kamiya. The episode also revealed how Kamiya was acquainted with Izumi and explored bits of her character. Being a popular girl due to her friendly personality, excellence in sports, and have attractive look like Shikimori, Kamiya is always surrounded by people. While she enjoyed company, the attention she got also made it hard for her to breath. No matter how much she likes to spend times with her friends, like any ordinary person, she also needed time for herself where she could just relax alone. Her library duty was the only time at school where she could be comfortable alone. This was when Kamiya first met Izumi, the first person who was able to see through how kind and considerate she is instead of the ever perfect popular girl like other students did.
Here, Kamiya seemed to ask how Izumi and Shikimori started dating because she’s interested in Shikimori after their volleyball match. But I’m willing to be that she actually has a crush on Izumi, following the usual cliché of ‘you’re the first person to say that to me’ sort of thing. However, since Izumi already has Shikimori as his girlfriend, Kamiya hid it by saying that she’s interested in Shikimori and just wanted to know more about her and romance in general. I felt sorry for her if this was really the case.
As much as I like this episode, I lamented the fact that Shikimori is still lacking in character background and development. Again, it’s focused on how Izumi grew as a character thanks to Shikimori, but no sign of what kind of impact Izumi gave to Shikimori.
