[cloudninja]

Partial review of episode 4 and thoughts on it. Not in chronological order, but in order of personal preference (Hiromi-Noe-Aiko).

Spoiler:

I hope it's just a matter of jealousy on the part of Shinichiro's mother. I prefer to think of her as the one creating a problem because of her jealousy towards Hiromi's mom which is now transferred to her daughter instead of there being any actual problem like Hiromi being half-sister to Shinichiro. I would like the Hiromi-Shinichiro pairing because of the mutual feelings they've had for probably quite a while now. The show might just be placing temporary obstacles in their path which they will overcome in the end.

Hiromi talks about Jun (#4 guy) in the beginning of the episode but they don't know each other that well. It was last year that they met because he played a match against her school and they talked. Maybe she saw him one more time if she played basketball against his school since usually you have 1 match per year against each team. So that makes it one or two times they've met previously. She did'nt even talk to him after the recent match although maybe it was before the match, because she headed out with her friend while #4 stayed in the gym with his teammates and Shinichiro was still in there with Nobuse. But the thing is her best friend Tomoyo who is in her class and plays basketball with her has not seen or heard anything to make her believe Hiromi when she said she liked #4 from Hotarugawa back at the end of episode 3. I mean if Hiromi liked #4 (Jun) there would have been signs in the way she acts and in what she says that would have indicated feelings for Jun but Tomoyo obviously did'nt see anything to make her believe Hiromi. In fact she has been persistent since episode 2 in her belief that Hiromi liked Shinichiro.

I think Hiromi at most had some admiration but not significant feelings for #4. By saying she liked #4 to get Tomoyo off her case and seeing that Shinichiro heard her she was then stuck and just proceeded to say what you would expect someone to say if they liked someone. Seeing Shinichiro with Noe made her say it to stop Tomoyo from bringing up Shinichiro. The fact that she thinks there's something going on between them prevents her from retracting that statement because later on she looks ready to cry when Shinichiro said that she should have told him in the first place that her objective was Noe's brother and it was unfair to him. Unfortunately Shinichiro's annoying mother interrupted because it looked like Hiromi wanted to explain that there was more to it than what Shinichiro understands.

I thought it was cute how Hiromi wanted take a picture of Shinichiro and she seemed happy to get a picture of him smiling. She said "I got a good smile out of you". It just came to me that maybe she has'nt seen him smile in a long time, at least not in her presence. I think there's a good chance that a future episode will show us Hiromi staring at his picture as she thinks about him.

Seems like Noe does not see Shinichiro in a romantic light, at least not yet. I think Shinichiro interests her but she is eccentric in her way of thinking. She even offers to help Shinichiro get closer to Hiromi. I've had the feeling that their relationship is set up so that in the end Shinichiro helps Noe get on with her life and the issue regarding tears while Shinichiro becomes strong enough to admit his feelings for Hiromi. He's been daydreaming since the beginning about the tears that he knows Hiromi has been keeping inside and he imagines himself as the hero who will take her tears away. At least that is what he imagines in his manga or picture book that he's working on. He needs to become stronger and more resolute so that he can not only take her tears away but stand strong in the face of obstacles such his mother's obvious resistance to such a relationship. At the moment he's a wuss and Noe knows it since she told him that she does'nt want to take such worthless crap tears.

Noe's brother does look suspicious at 18:40 into the episode. I wonder if there is a bit of jealousy as he almost caresses Noe's neck or side of the face as she talks about Shinichiro before buckling the helmet strap in place. The grandmother is dead, no indication of parents, and they seem to shop only for themselves. So it's probably just the two of them. They might be only stepsiblings whose parents remarried and died. Their grandmother probably took care of them until she died a few years back.

Aiko seizes an opportunity to go on a "date" with Shinichiro in the guise of a shopping trip. She sees a chance for herself when Shinichiro says he had false hope over Hiromi but I wonder why she still went on a date with Nobuse the next day. By holding hands with Nobuse she is advancing their relationship making it harder to break up with him and also harder for Shinichiro to accept Aiko at the cost of his friend Nobuse.

This series is getting even better. I hope there's no dropoff in enjoyability later.

Episode 5 preview thoughts

Spoiler:

So is Hiromi calling Shinichiro a fool in the preview? She says (according to bakawolf subs) "A busybody guy is a fool". I guess busybody is synonymous with meddlesome. Jun shows up and says "So number 6 is at your place". Maybe Shinichiro tried to set Hiromi up with number 4 (Jun) whether or not that guy asked him to and then Hiromi enters Shinichiro's room to tell him what she thought about him doing so. The thing is she looks very nice, dressed maybe like she's going out for a date as she has a pink sweater and white dress on. It kinda looks like maybe Shinichiro "confessed" to Jun on Hiromi's behalf and now she feels obligated to date Jun but before she goes she tells Shinichiro he's an idiot. I agree. She probably had no intentions of pursuing number 4 (Jun) but baka Shinichirou probably confessed for her. On the other hand there's a small chance that she is saying this to Jun instead because it was meddlesome of him as well to ask Shinichiro to go out with Noe. Probably not the case but preview scenes are too short to show much except to whet your appetite. Of course preview scenes can be misleading but that's what makes them so much fun because they make you eagerly anticipate the next episode to find out what really happens.

Also, Shinichiro's mother tells Hiromi that she does not want to see her and Shinichiro walking together outside. I'm starting to really hate Shinichiro's mom.

Definitely my favorite new show in a while. This is the only one where I actually bother to watch two fansub versions so I don't miss out because of possible minor translation errors. Watching the same scenes a second time also allow me to take in some things I might have missed or did'nt quite connect the first time through.