[magnuskn]

Originally Posted by karice67

Going by production schedules IRL, the missing time should amount to a few months at the very least. Did nothing of interest happen during those few months?

We will never know, I fear. Although it could be argued that the comics where Sheryl is class president could conceivably have happened in that timeframe.

Originally Posted by karice67

Remember however, the advice that "you have to become the role" which he gives to Ranka in this episode. I would say he's not 'acting', he's becoming the character, like the actor he is. The question is, can he separate this role from who he is?

Given that he gave absolutely no indication in the following time of having had any emotional repercussions from the acted kiss, I'd say, yes, he can. We don't see him prancing around like Princess Sakura, either, are we?

Originally Posted by karice67

Whilst I should probably rewatch that scene again first, I'd probably agree with Yasaburo, especially given what Kawamori says in this episode's commentary regarding the original source for Alto's advice.

「秘すれば花なり　秘せずは花なるべからず」
(hi sureba hana ni nari, hi sezu ha hana narubekarazu)
- basically is advice for the actor to be mysterious, to hide something from the audience, because that will give the audience room to use their imagination to figure out a character's motivations by themselves. In doing so, you keep the audience's interest, because having everything spelled out for you really isn't fun.

With the above example, viewers are left pondering whether what Yasuburo says is true or not...and to me, it's seems to make sense, especially considering the advice Alto gives to Ranka in this episode.

Good advice for acting, but it doesn't seem to say that Alto was doing that in his real life. Don't forget, Yasaburos assertion was that Alto is always only acting in real life, not showing his true emotions. That does not ring true at all to the character for me. I think a lot of people are conflating "acting" with just being reserved and willfully ignoring some of the things happening around him.

Originally Posted by karice67

so...
I agree. I believe the same materials have been used by the production team (Kawamori, the directors, the animators, the seiyuu) to create the same character, and this "fear of acting because he doesn't know where the boundaries between him and the characters he plays are" is part of Alto in all versions of the story.

I can't say I agree at all. That's movie version Alto. Series Alto doesn't display this fear, not at all.