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Before watching episode 9, I told a friend that "in the episode of Gift I am about to watch, I bet Kirino is going to go Kaede and at the end of the episode threaten to activate the Sakura Tree."
And indeed, this episode saw Kirino go Kaede and threaten to activate the Sakura Tree! Man, this show seems determined to shit all over Kirino as much as it possibly can. Riko steals Haruhiko away from her when they are kids. Then she leaves, allowing Kirino to get close to Haruhiko once again. Then she comes back and steals him away again! And to cap things off, Haruhiko doesn't seem to care about Kirino in the slightest anymore, and Riko broke their promise! No wonder this girl has such a shattered sense of self esteem. I can only wonder what is next.
Speaking of which, I am rather surprised by Haruhiko's behavior in this episode. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, throughout the series he has shown a considerable lack of thought or care regarding Kirino. This is a normal, understandable reaction for a guy who has suddenly fallen head over heels in love. But as of this episode (and possibly in 8 too), Haruhiko's head is no longer in the clouds. No longer is he simply ignoring Kirino, along with the rest of the world. Now his behavior towards her is of carefully calculated disregard, with no sign of remorse or distress on his part. While this calculated disregard is probably among the healthiest paths open to Haruhiko right now, I never, ever want to be friends with a guy who can so easily throw away a close friendship he has had his entire life without any signs of regret. I'm really pretty shocked that Haruhiko is capable of doing so.
As a final note, the confrontation between Riko and Kirino at the end of this episode would have worked a lot better if Haruhiko hadn't of been there. The fact that he just stood there stupidly, without doing anything, made his awkward presence even worse.
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