Sorry for the delay, I’ve been pretty sick for the past week (and still am unfortunately). At long last I’m finally caught up to this, right on time before the final episode next week (can’t believe how fast time flies). Since this entry actually got long with Ep 11, I decided to just make this one a double-post and keep that one as a stand alone. Without any further ado lets get started!
Episode 9
This episode was pretty simple, but otherwise totally wholesome to see Rin come up with a fun car game that Yuki can be included in, and the overall effort and enthusiasm to learning some basic Sign Language. Kyouya though was pretty much designated with cooking duties, so he didn’t participate in that part too much, but he’s picking up some words along the way.
And finally at last, Rin and Kyouya finally got some time to talk about their feelings. It was mostly thanks to the catalyst of Rin’s co-worker calling her in hopes to get a positive response on whether she’d accept his feelings or not. Thanks to that, it prompted Kyouya to stop twiddling his thumbs and actually try to communicate, though I have to say he really did it in a terribly clumsy way. Well, at the very least despite that, they were able to get themselves on the same page and actually get somewhere— only for Rin to end up spraining her ankle after she slipped on rocks. Well, at least they made progress after being in a stalemate since the first episode. They are still ways behind Yuki and Itsuomi, who are off to the races, especially with Yuki agreeing to stay over at his place for the night.
Speaking of our love birds, Yuki’s definitely feeling the pressure at the moment of trying to find a job. She’s been waiting for her friend to get back on her for some more suggestions. So I’m glad Itsuomi has noticed and even apologized for unintentionally making her feel she needs to hurry. It was cute to see them actually carry on with the pinching cheeks communication tactic for when they want to kiss the other.
As for Oushi, he’s finally hearing how Yuki’s dating. He’s really trying to convince himself it’s not going to last (talk about a self-centered ego). Looks like we’re going to see the two confront each other in the next one. I expect Itsuomi to put him in his place.
Episode 10
Itsuomi and Oushi finally got have that inevitable talk with each other– though certainly required persistence on Itsuomi’s part to make sure they had the conversation so matter what. Oushi didn’t want anything to do with him, and he kept on projecting his own negative assumptions, or rather more fittingly to be put as ‘excuses’ to ‘justify’ why Itsuomi shouldn’t be with Yuki.
But Itsuomi wasn’t going to put up with that, and this is what I appreciate about him the most: He just cuts through all the bullshit and gets straight to the point. He’s that guy who fell in love at first sight, and believes in his heart that Yuki’s the one. Unfortunately for Oushi, he’s in this for the long haul, and even straight out told him, it didn’t matter where or when, he would have always fallen for Yuki no matter what.
That said, I did enjoy Itsuomi’s persistence of driving the point home that whether Oushi liked it or not, he’s serious about Yuki. I especially loved his comeback to Oushi’s demand to “break up with Yuki” as part of the baiting him out agreement of ‘doing anything he’s asked’, with quip of: “It requires mutual agreement to break up“. That’s a great line to throw at someone trying to pettily break them for their own selfish reasons. But at least they were able to finally have a heart to heart conversation, since Itsuomi genuinely wanted to get to know Oushi. And for it’s worth, it was endearing to watch to some extent.
Unfortunately even though I enjoyed the banter between Itsuomi and Oushi, I hate to say it but Oushi’s just that type of character that doesn’t vibe with me. Besides the fact he’s just designed to fail in so many ways, the friendship between Oushi and Yuki (at least portrayed in here in this anime) just comes off as totally superficial. It feels like there’s no real bond between them with the way Yuki doesn’t seem to reciprocate his interest in being around him. So it does come across as one-sided on his part. And go figure when all we seem to see is him nagging and belittling her desires to make her world bigger. Who wants to be around a negative nancy like that? And to make it worse, it’s because of jealousy and selfishness. While he has become enamoured with Sign Language, when it comes to Yuki, he gets all fussy about her looking at others’ hands because he liked the fact she would look at him when he’d Sign. In that sense, he wants to keep her world closed with just him in it, and that’s no way to go about it. Of course that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care for Yuki, but the point is his way of going about it is terribly flawed, and it’s certainly not the kind to win him any points. He really took Yuki’s closed off world for granted. That’s probably why I just don’t feel any sympathy to his character at this point. Besides, you snooze, you lose.
Last but not least, the ‘date night’ Yuki and Itsuomi had together was exceptionally sweet. He’s certainly the romantic type, as he was peppering kisses on her arm and a cute kiss later when they were cuddling. But he knew well where to draw the line, and recognizes that Yuki still feels nervous with the newfound intimacy. Itsuomi wants to treat her right, and is more than happy to take this slow as he’s not about to jump into bed or doing any snu snu with her until she’s completely comfortable with it. Yuki sure scored a great catch for her first love hahaha!
Oh and of course Madoka, gosh almost forgot her. So there’s definitely one major advance she had when finding a job, and that was her ability to speak. She has late-onset hearing loss, so at the very least she had the chance to build foundations down for speech, and has formed a habit of signing and talking at the same time so she doesn’t forget how to speak. She talks and signs incredibly fast, which really shocked Itsuomi, because he could barely keep up with her. He was very impressed that Yuki could follow her speedy signs as well. Madoka is sure a ball of fire, and it’s almost a shame we don’t get to see more of her! Anyhow, thanks to her, Yuki has gotten an offer to work at a cafe that Madoka’s aunt runs!
