I thought that Kamiya won’t be the focus in this episode after the previous one, but turned out she once again became the center of the episode by continuing what happened last week. I was right about Kamiya in the previous episode. The one she’s interested in was not Shikimori, but was in fact, Izumi, including down to the reason why she fell in love with him. Unlike other students who sees her for her “perfectness”, Izumi only sees her as an ordinary kind girl like any normal person. The execution of her character arc was done pretty well.
The episode did well in visualizing Kamiya’s inner struggle by imagining herself as a princess who has unrequited forbidden love for Izumi and could only see him dance with his true love Shikimori. Kamiya is the typical popular but lonely character archetype. In front of the other students, she always presented herself as a mature girl that never showed any weakness. Everybody always considered her as someone out of their league, treating her like some sort of school idol or celebrity. This resulted with them unable to see that at heart Kamiya is still a normal student like them, and the special attention they gave them inadvertently made her feel left out no matter how much she’s always surrounded by them.
The ones who penetrated her shell were Izumi and Shikimori. This couple was the first people who were able to see through her true self and treated her like they would do to any normal girl. In Izumi, Kamiya found comfort and friend that she longed for, one who treat her only as Kamiya. Though she knew her love was unrequited, she was already satisfied by able to befriend Izumi and tried to bury her feelings for him. Burying her feelings, however, didn’t give her the closure she needs to let go of Izumi. In order for her to truly move on, it’s not by burying it, but letting out. The one who gave her closure was unexpectedly, the one who was supposed to be her love rival, Shikimori.
Shikimori is truly one of the best female characters that I’ve ever seen. I don’t care if people called me exaggerating, I stand by to this belief. Shikimori was able to notice the way Kamiya behaved and looked at Izumi was exactly how she always does when she’s with him. Being in love with Izumi herself, Shikimori could understand Kamiya’s feelings of love. Even though she’s already in relationship with Izumi, Shikimori still respected Kamiya’s love and didn’t want to hurt her by rubbing her position as a girlfriend on Kamiya’s face. Instead, she directly confronted Kamiya and brought out the feelings that Kamiya hid to the light. Like her boyfriend, Shikimori could see how kind of a person Kamiya is, supported by the fact that Kamiya didn’t try to make any move in stealing Izumi from her. That’s why Shikimori didn’t want to disregard how Kamiya feels in return. She understood full well how wonderful falling in love is, so she told Kamiya not to forget her feeling, but cherish it so Kamiya won’t forget how it feels to fall in love and she’ll be ready to find and experience new love in the future. This helped Kamiya to finally find closure in her unrequited love for Izumi and looked forward to a new love ahead of her.
The sheer emotions when Kamiya had to acknowledge and face her unrequited love to reach closure was the most powerful moment in the entire episode. I truly feel for Kamiya in this episode. Her silent loneliness and longing were expressed clearly from her gestures and expressions even without her having to say anything. It’s the perfect example of “show not tell”.
