[Kaoru Chujo]

Well, just to break the string, I enjoyed this episode. Finally, some "sad girls in snow." At last we get some of the real Key emotion.

I understand why people hate Komari's voice: I think the voice is quite badly done. I thought Yanase Natsumi did a great job as Chihiro in ef, but here her voice is a problem. I had the sudden thought that voice-acting may actually have gotten better, overall, over the past few years. Or at least that styles may have changed.

But that style of voice -- high-pitched and artificial -- is one Japanese norm, and I find it completely acceptable. The drippy emotion actually works on me. And off-putting as it was at first, it began to work on me here.

The episode started in total boredom. The baseball stuff never works for me; humour-free comedy, as far as I am concerned. I actually stopped the show and left it overnight, preparing to maybe abandon the series. But once we got past the old man in the hospital and to Riki and Komari, things started looking up for me. Or looking down: so far, the show only works for me when it is sad and moe.

And Horie Yui as a male lead is working for me, too.