Subculture Anime Blog

To the pool, to the beach! No, Umisho isn’t airing a day early.

Summary:

Nene is shocked when she walks outside, because she is standing in front of a large ocean. She tries to tell this to Yumiko who is sunbathing inside, but Yumiko only expresses her belief that summer is the time for the sea. Elsewhere, the students are heading to a pool. Momoka shows Touka the bathing suit under her dress in the middle of the crowd, causing him to drag her away in embarrassment. Shouko has Makoto try on various kinds of swim wear to her delight. Makoto excitedly greets Momoka as usual when she meets her outside, but Shouko tries to get inbetween the two while they are playing. When they suggest that they try a water slide, Shouko imagines the situation she could get in with Makoto. After finding that the line is too long, the butterfly triplets show themselves to suggest a similar ride. Momoka and Makoto both have fun riding this one, but Shouko gets special treatment. When Nene finds that Touka has already arrived home, she amazes him by showing him the ocean. Touka decides to take a swim now that he is alone, but his bathing suit is eaten by fish in the process.

While Momoka is eating, she can’t help but think about her want to see Touka. She begins searching for him everywhere, but cannot find him. When Haruhiko finds her, he sees that she is in tears. After he mentions that Touka has probably went home, Momoka runs off before he can say any more. When Nene guesses that Momoka will be arriving soon, she suggests that she should be in the sea as well. Momoka is then transported to the ocean, where she wanders around in amazement. After eating, Momoka decides to try on the bathing suit she finds. She eventually finds Touka, but when she jumps into the water with him, the bathing suit disintegrates. Touka and Momoka both stay naked in the water for a long time in embarrassment, until Momoka finally suggests that they walk to the shore back to back. On the way there, Momoka mentions that Touka’s hands are very warm, and much different from the usual. Makoto greets Momoka when she gets home, and Nene shows up in a bathing suit of her own. However, as Yumiko starts to fall asleep, Nene’s bathing suit disintegrates. Makoto then hugs Nene, as she expresses how great of a body she has.

Impression:

This had to be the most shameless episode yet. I’m not a huge Yumiko fan, so I wasn’t extremely into her nude sunbathing or skimpy bathing suit. I’m sure a lot you will will love that though. Makoto was all over Momoka, and it was funny seeing how Shouko reacted to that. Kikyou was also really cute, even though she only had like a second of screen time. I took more liking to this episode in the second half when Momoka started searching for Touka. I know this was similar to one of the earlier episodes, but she even started crying this time (Gogo Touka x Momoka love!). The disintegrating bathing suit was pretty ridiculous, but I loved it when Momoka walked back with Touka. She scenes with Momoka wandering around the beach were also nice to watch. Oh, and what the heck was up with Momoka getting squirted in the face? Wow.

Now, I have to mention this as well. Why was Touka wearing a two piece bathing suit!? Was that a sports bra!? I love to joke that he is a trap, and the hot springs episode already bothered me, but now I’m really thrown off. Is Touka Gettan really taking shoujo ai to the next level? What is Touka exactly! I can only hope we will find out soon enough. I also took notice of the spirits that were floating around Yumiko. They are quite similar to the ones that we’ve seen floating around Niko, not to mention her similar characteristics. It makes me wonder if she is connected to her in some way. Is Niko a clone? I could be totally wrong. The next episode’s title is “maku” (or “theater/play”), so it is probably another school episode. I’m just waiting anxiously for the last few episodes into the past, so that we can finally find the answers to the questions we’ve been asking since the first few episodes.