Firstly the good points:
The comparisons between Chihaya and Ohana from Hanasaku Iroha is overwhelming... and that's a good thing
. It's as if they took Ohana, gave her a new look and placed her in a better series. The "shonen male lead" type with a bullheaded attitude. Hell yea, need more female leads like rather than the submissive or "battered wife" types.
The two big moments of awesome:
1. When Chihaya grabbed Arata off his bike ingoring the dangers of doing so
2. When Taichi was dragging Chihaya from Arata's house, she judo slams him - Mari Okada would approve of this emansculation
.
Now the bad points:
Melodrama was a tad too strong. The whole grandfather dying issue (or any other family member) gives a "been there, done that before" feel so I didn't really feel anything. Also Chihaya bursting into tears crossed the line for me a bit. I'm not exactly watching Anohana here
.
However, it was still a solid episode. The good moments clearly outweighs the the bad so it gets at a 8.5/10 from me.
One further note on the Taichi hate, let it go people. To me, Arata is just as bad being so "emo" at Chihaya. Or are most people rooting for a Chihaya x Arata shipping? I'm rooting for a Chihaya x Karuta shipping personally