Subculture Anime Blog

That’s a lot of love letters, Mao.

Summary:

Kouichi catches up with Yumi after classes and shares some small talk with her about activities. Soon after Kouichi bids Yumi off, he is scolded by Mao. Mao expresses that it has been one month since the karaoke event, and tells Kouichi to be more forward with his relationship. Kouichi turns this around by asking if Mao has a boyfriend, but Mao insists that she will be fine. After mentioning that she will find a good person to date, she opens her shoe box to discover numerous love letters. With this, Mao convinces Kouichi that she could easily have a boyfriend at any time. The two find Kazuki hiding behind them soon after, only to be taken away by Asuka when she shows up. Mao learns from Kouichi that Asuka is in the soccer team, so they go out to watch her outstanding performance. Mao also discovers that there is no official girl’s soccer team at the school, and that Asuka is very popular with the younger girls.

On the way home, Asuka and Kouichi get in an argument about team performance. This makes Narumi guess that the two are going out, but both of them deny soon afterwards. Kazuki almost lets it slip that he has been with Eriko, So Mao nags him for information. When Yumi leaves school, she sees Kouichi’s face in another boy who is waiting for his girlfriend. That night, Mao looks over the letters she’s received while thinking about the words Kouichi said to her that morning. She looks outside her window to see a beautiful moon, which Eiji also sees from the outside of his workplace. Kazuki has his own worries at home, as he still cannot stop thinking about Eriko.

At school, the teacher Kawada Tomoko confronts Eriko about her school habits. However, Eriko ignores this. As she walks through the halls, the students’ regular conversation about her genius spreads. Mitsuki reminds Eriko of class starting as she walks by, but she insists that she is going to the infirmary because she feels bad. Mao barely makes it to school after a rough morning, and she is greeted by more love letters. Eiji shows up to help her pick them up, and offers to take her to the infirmary after noticing the condition she is in. Mao only finds Eriko in the infirmary, so she gets in a bed while the nurse is gone. When Mao asks what Eriko is there for, she replies by saying that she just didn’t want to go to class. After the two introduce themselves to each other, Mao seems to get through to Eriko.

Akira pushes a lot of club work off to Kouichi and Kazuki before taking his leave from class, but Asuka soon shows up to remind Kazuki of other priorities. In other places, Mao’s classmates wonder if she is ok. She expresses that she is fine, but blushes when she sees Eiji looking her way. Kouichi has trouble with his work, so he thinks about asking Yumi for help. He thinks it might be weird to ask all of a sudden, but he is reminded of what Mao told him earlier. Kouichi decides to ask for Yumi’s help in the hall, and she gladly accepts. In other places, Kazuki catches up to Eriko in the stairwell. He asks her if she has been doing “experiments” with other people, but she tells Kazuki that it is none of his concern.

Kazuki cannot concentrate on practice with Asuka afterwards, as he suggests that they end for the day. Kazuki questions why it has to be him when Asuka pesters him about it, as there are many better players out there. Asuka brings up a memory she had of his skill, but she decides to practice on her own in frustration. As Mao leaves class, she finds Eiji waiting for her outside. She thanks him for what he did in the morning before walking past him, but he stops her to ask if she is free during the weekend. He asks Mao if she would go out with him, and she readily agrees.

Preview: Dates and progress made. Get that frog out of my face, Nana.

Impression:

Woooooo!!! I’m so glad I picked this show up. It’s just awesome. Things are starting to pick up, and progress was made for just about every couple. I guess we’ll start off with Mao and Eiji, which was probably the nicest. There’s no fooling around here. They know they like each other, and it’s right down to business. I loved the last scene so much. I’m sure I’ll be saying this a lot from here on out because of the directing though. Man, I’m such a sucker. Mao’s facial expressions were the best in this episode. I just love the style of eyes they use when she is thinking something silly. I laughed a lot when she was wobbling around all over the place too. One of the best parts of the episode for me definitely had to be her blushing after Eiji saw her posing in front of her classmates. Haha. Oh yea, and I’ll be using Eiji instead of Kai from here on out. I just prefer first names.

As many of you suspected last week, Asuka has definitely come into the triangle with Kazuki and Eriko. Isn’t it funny that she would be a tsundere with the name Asuka? Sorry, I just find that hilarious. I like Eriko a lot and all, but I’m might actually be rooting for a Kazuki and Asuka relationship. It annoys me when these guys are so thick headed though. Gee, who knows Kazuki? Why do you think she picked you for practice!? Eh, friend complexes. Eriko was really cool in this episode, especially since we were more focused on her rather than Kazuki this time around. I think it’s really interesting how many times anime characters visit school infirmaries. I bet that never happens in real life Japan. By the way, “Jikken” actually has numerous meanings. I’ve been using “incident”, but I think I’ll be using “experiment” from here on. It just makes more sense. What are your fansub groups using?

Kouichi and Yumi probably had the least development in this episode, but we were already really focused on them last week. I think we’re going the typical route for this one, with the two taking it annoyingly slow. I think Asuka might have gotten more action from her soccer fangirls than they did. Another thing that stood out for me in this episode was the introduction of the minor character Kawada Tomoko. This is for the sole reason that she is being played by the seiyu Kawasumi Ayako. I didn’t even see that coming, but it was awesome to hear her voice. I also laughed when Mitsuki showed up for two seconds. Mamiko Noto is everywhere this season, when she was practically non existent in the last season. Wow, this is getting a bit long. I guess that shows how much fun this show is to blog. One more thing, I’m very disappointed that we did not see Mao in a bathing suit like the sponsors image suggested. Those are suppose to relate to the episodes! What the heck!