This week was a very cute and wholesome episode! One of Fumiya’s ideas to breaking the ice was to set up a comedic skit to break the ice and show off Tama’s charm to the class. And to her credit, it was quite cute and charming. I was actually worried at first that it’d come off as forced/try-hard, but I think it’s because Tama was able to work out what suits her best, creating a banter that can be led by Minami is what made it come off more organically than something that she had secretly rehearsed. It’s a good icebreaker, but it’s not something that can be reused over and over again otherwise people will catch on. For the sake of its purpose, it did it’s job today.
With much practice, Tama has been able to build up her charm and adorably so. Today Fuuka joins the party as the neutral member of the class. They needed someone to help Tama with a dress rehearsal to see how far she progressed. Fuuka being a darling was the perfect person, making it very comfortable for Tama to speak with her. But it was actually Fuuka who enlighten them today with how she admires those who work to change to improve themselves.
Since we always see her with Fumiya, it’s easy to forget that Fuuka has always been a shy girl to begin with. And gosh she was SO FREAKING CUTE with how she first interacted with Tama and Mizusawa, and then Minami (who was like WELCOME NEW COMRADE!!!). It was so endearing to see just how comfortable she is around Fumiya to the point she even hides behind him– SO CUTE. HNNNNNNNNG MY HEART!!!
It’s always an eye-opener to hear Fuuka’s perspective on those around them. She is incredibly observant, as she uses these observations to build characters for her stories. The most telling parts, and she has touched on this before, is how Erika is a sore loser who hates it when people looks down on her. And the two girls who hang out with her, Kamimae and Akiyama must have very little confidence, so they make confident friends to fill that void. Meanwhile there’s Yuzu puts others behind herself even if it means she’s on the losing end.
However as I said in previous entries: I strongly disagree with her her claim that Erika is the type to be “compassionate” with her friends, because quite frankly, we haven’t seen any of that. If she were truly a good friend, then she’d put aside her own feelings and not let it be the reason to harass others and force her Yuzu to have to walk on egg-shells around her. She knows something is up between Shuji and Yuzu, but she refuses to be the one to bring it up and talk to Yuzu to clear the air. Instead she’s taking out her frustration and jealousy on others, which I will reiterate is NOT OKAY.
I also think it’s important to point out Yuzu’s key weakness, which was highlighted today: Of putting others first at her own expense. This is what turns her to essentially a doormat to Erika, by putting her needs above her own. If Erika were really her friend, she wouldn’t try to repeatedly put in her positions she doesn’t want to be in (such as Captain for the girl’s team), having to hide her relationship with Shuji in fear of upsetting her, to the point she now (as per Aoi’s recommendation) can’t hang around Shuji for while. I do wonder if this we’ll eventually see Yuzu come to terms with that or not. I can see Yuzu not wanting to give up her friendship, though I don’t personally think it’s a healthy one.
We didn’t see too much out Aoi today besides the fact she has been building a wall around Tama to shield her from Erika’s and her lackeys’ tyranny. We also got to see Aoi’s matchmaker mind at work today, with how she capitalized on the opportunity to help Fumiya make progress for one of his main mission she had given him: Get a girlfriend. She sees the potential there– and she’s not the only one, as Mizusawa also thinks the same. He certainly taken on teasing Fumiya about it at every given opportunity now.
But oh brother… One of Erika’s friends saw the boys and Tama hanging out altogether and is tipping her off on. If I had to make any guess of what they plan to do, it would be to drive a wedge between them by telling Shuji about the boys helping Tama out (since that’s something Mizusawa has repeatedly said they needed to avoid.) But hopefully if it comes down to that, it will blow up in their faces instead. It has been noted by Yuzu today that Shuji is getting frustrated by the fact that he and Yuzu (through Aoi’s advice) need to stay away from each other for a bit to not worsen Erika’s mood. After-all, it is ridiculous that they can’t freely interact with each other because they have to walk on egg-shells around one person who can’t get over the fact her feelings are unrequited, or that Yuzu chose not to tell her she and Shuji are dating now. So I’m really hoping that he doesn’t make matters worse, because he has an opportunity to just nip this in the bud. Frankly speaking: Shuji is the wildcard here. He will either be the one to deliver the hefty blow to the boss, or end up creating more problems by forcing Mizusawa and Takei to pick sides again. And frankly, I couldn’t tell you who they’d side with this time round if it were to come to that.
Extra Note: Just a heads up, I may be facing delays this weekend due to an icestorm sooooooo yeah. Hopefully it’s not as bad as last year’s…. >_>;;;;
Eva, one nitpick is that Erika didn’t directly directly pressure Yuzu into being Captain for the girl’s team since Erika also wanted Hirabayashi to do it. Yuzu did it to help the poor girl. And notably, Erika did help Yuzu when she was Captain when Yuzu requested something of her. Fuuka did not say that Erika is compassionate to her friends but that she “CAN” be compassionate to them when she chooses to do so, which is not exactly a false statement. Otherwise, I agree with everything in your review.
I believe Mimimi is also into Fumiya like Fuuka is. Their interaction at the start of the episode felt like she was hinting to him her interest in him. She also looked back at Fumiya and Fuuka when she, Aoi, and Tama were walking back to the school, and I feel that’s ’cause she likes Fumiya.
Initially Erika did try to pressure Yuzu into the role though (I mean that stare-down was super uncomfortable). And it was because of Hirabayashi was being harassed that Yuzu eventually decided to get involved after-all. Would Yuzu have changed her mind of volunteering to be captain had that not unfolded? Perhaps she would have, because it’s in her nature to do so when she sees someone having difficulty (which probably would’ve happened anyways had Hirabayasha ended up as Captain under different and less gruelling circumstances). So one way or another, it’s highly likely that Yuzu would have wounded up as Captain without Erika’s pressure happening in the first place.
I took the statement of “Erika CAN be compassionate” with how it feels more like she’ll do it if it doesn’t put her at a disadvantage, which falls into whether she chooses to do so or not. I feel like we need to actually see her do something out of the goodness of her heart to have a bit more faith in her.
Oh yeah Minami is definitely into Fumiya, she’s totally crushing on him. XD
I wonder whether Aoi telling Yuzu to not see Shuji is part of her plan to turn everyone against Erika. Maybe she deliberately planned for Mika to see the boys + Mimimi at the restaurant so that Erika informs Shuji, forcing him to make the choice to confront Erika due to his frustrations with not being able to see Yuzu since he is the big boss in the class, even moreso than Erika.
Fumiya did state that for better or worse, Aoi would try to turn the class against Erika. If this is what Aoi is planning, I hope her plan fails, and it forces the guys aside from Fumiya to pick between Shuji and Tama, resulting in everything getting even worse, so that Tama can truly put all the skills she learned to the test. I’m not the type to root for ugliness, but I don’t want Aoi obstructing Tama’s desire to change, so I’ll gladly take some ugliness over Aoi being triggered over something that happened in childhood.
Hmmmm, now that’s something I hadn’t thought of. That’d definitely be an ugly way to go about it if Aoi had been pulling the strings all long to set the stage for the event to finally blow up in this manner. Shuji definitely does appear to be the catalyst for this event. I’m just hoping he’ll actually side with Tama for an exchange. I’m seriously wondering if he has noticed the guys have grown somewhat affectionate or more attentive of Tama, such as Takei who was not subtle by the least of the success with her joke. Like you, I really hope we don’t see Aoi’s plans come to fruition, or at least I hope her plans get thwarted before we see the worst of it.