Tomozaki uses his popular friends to deliver three critical attacks on Erika to get her to participate in the baseball game...Yuzu with the friendship attack, Hinami with the competitive rivalry attack, and Mizusawa with the "impress my crush by looking good at sports" attack. And the last one was super effective! I'd say the boss was beaten and the game was won...but real life isn't so simple as that
.
I love how Hinami made Tomozaki get into basketball but dude got fouled out of the game in the first thirty seconds. He still impressed the basketball guy he was supposed to, so...success
?
Unfortunately the ticking time bomb that was Yuzu and Nakamura dating finally gets out and since Erika can't bully one of her friends, she just targets Hirabayashi again and starts outright bullying her. What a complete jerk
.
Obviously Tomozaki wants to do something since the bullying doesn't let up, but Hinami is cold and pragmatic about it. She doesn't approve of what Erika is doing but she sees no reason to involve herself when, from her perspective, Hirabayashi still has the chance to fix the solution herself and is responsible for picking up the controller and winning at her own life. Which I guess I get on some level but it feels really detached and harsh when Hinami puts it that way. And her saying she'll get involved if it goes too far isn't comforting
.
Of course Tomozaki doesn't need to do anything because Tama outright calls Erika out for her behavior, but that just makes Tama the target of Erika's attacks next. And Tama isn't the type to take it lying down, but that just makes things worse
.
It seems like it's an entirely different story for Hinami when it comes to someone she's actually friends with getting hit by the bullying, though she refuses to let Tama compromise herself to resolve this, not that Hinami can do much more than try to control the class' mood and get the girls on Tama's side. Watching the background characters talk about it like it's not their problem and Tama was the one making things worse was rough to watch
.
Depressed Mimimi is saddest Mimimi
.
Tama has Hinami and Mimimi playing support in her battle against Erika, but while Tama is fine so long as she's true to herself, she doesn't want to keep burdening her best friend with her problems...which means she wants to be more like Tomozaki and learn how he plays the game to change herself for the better. Is Tomozaki about to pass on what Hinami taught him, and his own style, to another
?
We've got a Dialogue+ ED! Complete with cute keychain versions of the cast
!