Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru

[Kanon]

Urushi is certainly adorable, but she is not an object! This anime literally objectifies women!

I'm actually more interested in the other couple rather than the main one, since there's a chance they'll actually get somewhere like Takagi and Nishikata's friends.

[BWTraveller]

I would've argued that technically, humans are objects. Everything is a thing, an object, so people completely count.

Seeing how the side couples go in Takagi, I rather doubt we'll have too much progress. Especially since Sakurako has an out. I remember a shounen manga series where the hero had some sort of ability that allowed him to put his childhood friend into a trance and make her obey any order, and almost every day he'd confess to her, and right as she blushes and starts to respond he puts her in a trance and orders her to forget what he just said. I could totally see Sakurako doing this with her hypnosis.

EDIT: Just started reading the manga. Pity some of the chapters they skipped, and they can't really bring those chapters back (since they involve him trying to impress her with his athletic abilities, something she now knows very well). Guess they shifted some of the lines to fit this at this point too. For instance, apparently in the chapter after the guys tried to get Ayumu to join their clubs and Urushi came up to tell them he's taken, apparently they didn't respond with "wait, we had a shogi club?" but rather went from "We got Ayumu, we got this!" to "wait, we also have Yaotome, we might be screwed!"

[Frontier]

Nothing says love quite like wanting the object of your affection to notice something new you did with your hair. Ponytail Urushi is a nice look .

I have to respect Takeru's integrity that, despite being a ghost member, he actually went to the Shogi club to introduce himself and even play a game with Urushi. Not that Ayumu appreciated seeing Urushi play Shogi with another man and compliment him while he's stuck with the portable Shogi board .

It's kind of hilarious that Sakurako is the one who hypnotized him into joining the club and is the one who hypnotizes him into coming back to the library...ostensibly so she can give Urushi and Ayumu some space, but I think she definitely missed having him around. She may not think she's in love, or be aware of Takeru's feelings for her, but she definitely enjoys being with him .

Ayumu will go to any lengths with Urushi short of straight up confessing. I mean, immediately asking her out to a festival date? That's practically confessing right there, but I have to admire his fortitude and directness nevertheless .

Nothing beats having a (boy)friend who will help you sell yakisoba! Or having a bro who will take the rest so his buddy can get some festival time with his girl .

This pair is on their first ever date together and it's a lot of wholesome and adorable fun. Of course Urushi acts all smug and confident so she can lead this date only for Hana to come in with some pure, chaotic, wingwoman energy to cut her down to size .

Haunted houses are a staple of romance anime's and school festivals, and it seems like Takeru and Sakurako have a pretty effective operation. Doubly so when Sakurako places herself in the same box Takeru is hiding in and stirs him up enough to terrify poor Urushi. Super cute .

I thought Ayumu was just still reeling from Urushi playing shogi with Takeru, but in reality he was jealous because she was using his first name while she just calls him Tanaka. And to her credit, she does stammer out his first name and leave him with nothing but joy, though she's adamant she won't do it again. "I'll use Tanaka for the rest of our lives!" - Well, what about when you become a Tanaka, Urushi ?

[grecefar]

By how the relationship works and how honest and blunt is ayumu, a confession is just a formality and it's not like urushi will reject him, still he is just stubborn.

Sakurako too is like ayumu but a little less obvious.

[FlareKnight]

At this point we basically just have these two dating and being a couple without it being official since Ayumu won't let himself confess yet. Although he's more than willing to everything besides that which somewhat defeats the purpose of waiting to confess . But since that's not really impeding them I'll just ignore the confession part of the title since it is almost unimportant at this stage.

Nice little date filled episode. Things looking good for the various characters really. Although it feels like an unusual case where the side couple is actually going to be held back a bit. Neither of them are as direct as Ayumu so while they are basically a couple themselves, they are much further away from being one. Honestly will be on Sakurako since even if Takeru gathers his courage, hypnotism might slow him down. She's got to be ready to advance things between them.

Urushi remains a highlight. She's handling this situation pretty well and having a good time in general. Plus that ponytail was pretty effective .

[Kanon]

I like ponytail Urushi better than regular Urushi. Hope it comes back.

Ayumu has vowed not to confess his love until he can beat her but he never said anything about not going on dates. By this logic, he could actually go out with her and even marry her, and eventually confess after he finally beats her sixty years into their marriage. There are couples who never say they love each other, after all.

[grecefar]

Exactly.

I doubt he will win against her in shogi, so the other alternative is urushi doing the confession.

But then again that would lead him to tell her that he is not accepting until he wins against her, she will be fine with that since is the same as him spending all his life trying to beat her and he won't.

So yeah, a couple without a confession.

[Wandering Soul]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I like ponytail Urushi better than regular Urushi. Hope it comes back.
.

I find myself preferring the ponytail too

[BWTraveller]

I rather like Sakurako. Her "Oblivious to Love" character is pretty strong. Not just the type who can't recognize that someone's in love with her, but can't even realize that she's in love. The way she can't stand to have him disappear, hates the idea of not being able to walk home with him, and can't look him in the eye for anything makes it pretty clear though.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by BWTraveller

I rather like Sakurako. Her "Oblivious to Love" character is pretty strong. Not just the type who can't recognize that someone's in love with her, but can't even realize that she's in love. The way she can't stand to have him disappear, hates the idea of not being able to walk home with him, and can't look him in the eye for anything makes it pretty clear though.

I like her a lot too, although her whole hypnotism shtick only works because this is a comedy. There'd be plenty of problems in a serious setting

[James Rye]

Reverse Takagi-san without the pranks. Tanaka should bury his pride and just go confess to his adorable senpai. <3

[Frontier]

Urushi in a box! Although Urushi's plan to surprise Ayumu is nowhere near as effective as Ayumu's Urushi sense, but he's loyal enough to give her the chance to surprise him even if he takes it so seriously and goes all extra that he ends up terrifying the poor girl .

Also I love how Urushi said she'd keep calling Ayumu "Tanaka" for the rest of their lives but now she's calling him by his first name like it's the most natural thing in the world. Even Maki noticed it .

I get why Urushi would want a proper club room, but that storage room they use has a lot of nice memories of their time together, and it's not something I think they could part with so easily .

Urushi on cloud 9 when a teacher actually acknowledges her as a club president, making her think she can achieve anything...even though she acts like a child when she realizes she's too short to pull it off. Also, did Ayumu actually change the light off-screen ?

It's Christmas!? On the 4th episode!? Well, 'tis the season for giving, and Urushi is giving herself a handicap to give Ayumu one more win in their last club session of the school year, and while it's not the ideal circumstances, Ayumu seems determined to finally win .

It's nice to see these two playing a game together, enjoying each others' company, and seeing how Ayumu has improved to the point where Urushi is genuinely impressed. These two sure love playing Shogi with each other .

Holy crud, Ayumu actually won! Is this really only episode 4!? And Urushi's all ready to get asked out (and I feel like she'd stammer out a "yes" if asked)...only Ayumu still doesn't feel like it was enough of a proper win for him to confess and ask her out for Christmas. I guess I'm not surprised, but he's such a dork .

Meanwhile Takeru is trying to make his own Christmas plans with Sakurako and is more successful, because if Sakurako doesn't do crowds, what better way to spend Christmas than some intimate alone time eating Christmas Cake together! Takeru was the real winnder this Christmas .

Urushi and Maki in yukata for the New Years' Shrine visit! I'm only disappointed we didn't get to see if Sakurako wore one. But both girls looked great .

Maki still being the stellar wingwoman we know she is and immediately bowing out for some amazake to leave the lovebirds alone .

Ayumu is a little too late to be asking Urushi out for Christmas now, but at least they've got it planned for this new year! And Ayumu is already putting in hard cash to pray for whatever his lady wishes (although I honestly thought he was praying he'd beat and confess her this year). Definitely a great New Years for this couple .

[grecefar]

with the handicap urushi could see that ayumu is improving but there is still a long way to go, thing is that urushi is pretty good at shogi.

[Kanon]

Urushi is already calling Ayumu by his first name, that's more progress than in 3 seasons of Takagi-san (yes, I know the author is intentionally keeping their first names a secret for whatever reason)

So assuming Ayumu joined the "club" soon after the school year started, that would mean he's been trying to win for more than six months. He has a long road ahead of him.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Urushi is already calling Ayumu by his first name, that's more progress than in 3 seasons of Takagi-san (yes, I know the author is intentionally keeping their first names a secret for whatever reason)

So assuming Ayumu joined the "club" soon after the school year started, that would mean he's been trying to win for more than six months. He has a long road ahead of him.

Seems like he's making progress though .

[BWTraveller]

I really shouldn't be reading the manga alongside this, it's making it too apparent just how much they're cutting and squeezing. They even cut the punchline of the light change (though I imagine a lot of people can imagine how she managed).

One big offender was the Christmas part.

Spoiler:

The handicap game and the Christmas part are two separate pieces. When Urushi tells Ayumu that a win's a win, he agrees and, in his enthusiasm, accidentally starts to declare his intent to confess if he wins. Partway through the game she figures out that that's what he was saying and freaks out briefly about how losing would mean getting confessed to. When he wins she comments how surprised she was that he was able to be an even match to her at six pieces, and he says that he intended to confess when he beat her, but instead of saying "I like you" he says "I'll someday become strong enough to beat you in an even match", leaving her thinking that was what he intended to confess. As she walks away he thinks how he had intended to confess his feelings but when he only came even at a six-piece handicap he had to recognize how far beyond him she is. Later we have the Christmas part in another chapter, where it's just that he's too embarrassed to ask. Putting these two together took a lot of the impact away from the first. In particular, the fact that they cut out his deliberate choice to refrain from telling her was rather disappointing.

[grecefar]

yeah, you shouldn't be doing that. You will be nitpicking each chapter and seeing what they are skipping or not like what are you doing now.

I read the manga but is good that I don't have that much of a good memory to remember everything in each chapter and I'm enjoying this a lot, much the same with takagi and tsubaki.

[BWTraveller]

Didn't see near as much of this with Takagi or Tsubaki though.

[FlareKnight]

Yeah, I'd say reading any source material alongside an adaptation is a true recipe for disaster. Just going to make the anime a miserable experience. Of course things will be cut and squeezed. Doesn't feel like anything valuable is being lost with the pacing the story has had to this point. I mean sure the lightbulb scene could have kept it's punchline...if they cut out the surprise scene. Or maybe trimmed the Christmas stuff even more. I mean they cut the OP and ED for this one. They really couldn't squeeze much more time out of what they had.

Maybe keeping both in and actually filler could have made the New Years scene part of the next episode, but I'm not sure that would have been worth it. All the more so depending on what they actually want to make the ending point of this show.

Episode was good and mercifully is allowing things to move forward. Can only get so far without time passing and Ayumu just naturally building up experience with time. Needed something like him winning with a handicap to have any hope of making his silly stance when it comes to confessing pay off.

I'll give the real win to Takeru this time. Took his opportunity and didn't squander it. Ayumu both bailed on confessing and missed his window too ask her out to a Christmas that isn't basically a year away. But at least he appreciated how he missed his chance.

[Frontier]

It does kind of amaze me how much this show is speedrunning through so many romcom/high school anime cliche's .

We'll probably get Valentine's Day in the next episode .