Mimicking what Lota had said, it's all about which Mashiro he prefers- The determined and focused artist, or the uncertain young girl that doesn't think much of her work.

In his talk with Ayano, he almost unhesitantly chose the former, which makes sense since that's the Mashiro that he looks up to from the beginning.

I can second that. Right now it feels like Sorata screws up a little too much to be realistic.

Even if his relationship to Mashiro would be only that of a very good friend, its still as bad. The romantic aspect doesn't even really matter, you also wouldn't want your best friend to just leave and stuff. It feels like they are trying to force the drama even though the love triangle and Misaki/Jin relationship provide enough of it and in a more realistic way(Jin moving for other University and so on).

Lashing out and self-denial doesn't really fit into Soratas character imo. Would make much more sense if he just got depressed again, lose his drive to make a game and would be simply insensitive about Mashiros/Aoyamas feelings cause he has no experience what so ever.

Maybe Sorata's application was a success but he needs to make a presentation next like last time. He was frustrated probably because seeing Mashiro not doing her best made him lose some of his confidence and he thought he might fail the presentation like last time.

What do you mean by inconsistent?
Everytime he got rejected, he either almost lash out or did lash out at Mashiro because she represents a plateau he feels he can never achieve with hard work.

When Mashiro manga first got rejected, he was actually for a moment happy, because "oh...even a genius like her can fail"

Then when his game got rejected in the 2nd round, he almost did lash out at Mashiro, but stopped himself and told her to go back to her room.

Then this time his game didn't even get past the first round, and now he does lash out at her again because she seemingly is able to do anything she touches, and yet he's putting his all into his game dream and isn't getting anywhere.

All 3 times he knows he's a jerk for thinking that, but the inferiority complex he feels for her I think is portrayed realistically and consistent. Its the same thing with the Jin x Misaki thing, only a bit more youthful and flamboyant.

The conversation for the editor was interesting, when he responded with the former Mashiro. Again, I think it stems with how he sees himself in relation to her.
With the former Mashiro, she was a genius and all, but she acted all autistic or a robot, so he could have the excuse of 'oh that's what a genius entails being'

But now she's becoming more self-aware and human. So she's now a genius AND 'human' When its like that, where does it leave Sorata. And also the whole, now he doesn't know how to treat her as well.

With regards to how Jin is 'supporting' both Mashiro and Aoyama, it shows he's not playing favorites, he knows its a love triangle going on, and its just sad for all 3 parties to drag it out. So he just wants to push all 3, and have it come to decision.

In the end, Sorata should have just let Mashiro leave, and marry Aoyama imo....

Well, his new game got bounced off the game design contest once again.

Yeah, its just that I'm not buying the lash-out being a total jerk behavior from him. Just feels like they try to force too much drama into the series, but people's opinions differ of course.

In the end I hope for more Rita x Ryuunosuke for comedy and Misaki X Jin for romance.

Sorata was being a jerk, but I can't agree that it's inconsistent or whatever. He had always considered Mashiro as a goal of some sorts, and he was getting a head of himself because of Nyaboron, only to fell even harder this time, and Mashiro just happened to wander in doing nothing like the Mashiro that is his goal. He certainly could have been a LOT nicer about it, but given the circumstances I can't really say that how he acted was inconceivable.

This isn't coming out of nowhere,he already felt like lashing out in episode 8 if Mashiro didn't go back to her room and work on her manga,at the time she did,this time she didn't.Both times it happened right after he got rejected at a game contest.

Wait, so Sorata eventually ended up with the "no goal but the girl" characteristic that people like to use to call cliche on harem MC's anyway?

:confused:

Not sure what you're talking about,he's still trying to be a video game designer,the drama in this episode even comes from that rather than any girls.
Had the letter he received given him some good news I'm willing to bet he would have given Mashiro another cooking lesson,or at least been calm when talking to her about how he'd rather she just work on her manga rather than learn cooking.

I was bored for a while, but intrigued by the end. Sorata is not a jerk, he's a human. His own problems affect how he treats others. (But we really don't quite know what was in that apparent rejection letter.)

I find Sorata and others quite understandable, even if we do get a bit of an unwelcome reset in some cases: Jin still refuses to really accept Misaki, since he thinks he isn't worthy of her. Sorata can't see Shiina as a love-interest because he admires her too much. Kind of similar, really.

Because of Sorata's lack of self-confidence, Nanami has a bit of chance again.

I hope we get some actual development as we go along. This first ep was just a set-up, and nothing much really happened.

OP animation good, song boring, singer wonderful (Suzuki Konomi, who did the first ED). ED animation nice but too few changes, song good, singer also excellent (someone called Ookura Asuka).

Hmm.. Sorata is indeed an intriguing MC.

I found the fact that he did lash out actually fit his character :) He was in a very good place after the huge success in the school festival, full of confidence, that's why that letter of rejection came as a huge surprise to him. He felt that he was back at square 1. And then, as if he weren't angry enough, along came Mashiro, who not only managed to finish her manga in time, but also got to life her life a little (learn how to cook and stuff). I'm not sure, but I think that a small part of Sorata didn't want Mashiro took cook because if she'd learn how to cook and do other things quickly (and maybe better) than him, it'd be too much for him to handle.

EDIT: ^ Yes, he is :)

@Kaoru Chujo
Every human can be a jerk and Sorata was a big one three times already like HandofFate pointed out. And to make it even worse he takes his frustration out on someone who does not deserve his nonsense at all.

This. I was thinking this the entire episode.

I dont know what to say after seeing this episode, there alot of ideas, and opinions going through my head. all im sure of is that Sorata mess up again. If only he heard mashiro said "LOVE" at the airport, stupid airplane ruin everything.

Doesn't anyone find sorata to be really annoying? He over reacts to everything and gets down to easy in my opinion :o but shiina is still as cool as ever xD Want them to get happy again D:

Oh. This is the second time he did this to Mashiro. Not a big fan of lashing out your anger to someone.

Ugh, the whole thing was a dream? Yeesh what a cop out.

As for the rest of the episode, it was a funny comedy until the drama bomb when Sorata got angry with Shiina, at which point I was just annoyed with him. He's already proven himself aware of the effect his failures can have on his temper with Shiina so this felt like a step back in development. That's not necessarily bad in itself as plenty of us have these ups and downs so it's still within his character, but there was a significant lack of impact in the effect that letter gave in pissing Sorata off and that's no good, since it was such a crucial factor. To add this on top of Sorata's denseness when it comes to the romance (which was already pushing it) and you get miss more than a hit. It's not that big of a deal and I was mostly able to roll with it but it could've been better if I'm honest. At the very least it did add some uniqueness to what was dangerously close to becoming a pretty generic romance.

And I'd really like to be happy at the Nanami development at the end but the whole scene looked like one massive set up for a tragedy to me so I'm definitely not getting my hopes up at all.

The Episode was just amazing!

Although not as dramatic and intense as Episode 12, but it was worth every respect and time watching.

Story + Graphics + How it is shown = Maximum

Simply, best currently airing Anime. :)