Yamaken finds himself unable to explain or control his attraction to Shizuku, but anything she says or does around him turns him on. Her proximity to Yamaken continues to frustrate Haru. On an evening stroll, Haru threatens Yamaken, but he shrugs it off, leaving Haru in a funk. Shizuku appears in a moment of despair. He reiterates his love for her, but expresses his frustration with the current situation. Shizuku isn’t sure how to respond.
She loves him and has told him so. He loves her and has told her so. So everything should work out, right? Only if either of them knew what the hell to do next…and we’re not talking about renting a room at the love motel. Shizuku and Haru are stuck; sedentary; in a holding pattern; static. Declarations lead to…nothing. Both are so new to…whatever it is they have that neither’s sure what to do about it, and whenever one of them makes an attempt, they clash. As Shizuku says, they’re just “out of sync”. He can’t seem to reconcile her loving him and hanging out at cram school with Yamaken. She can’t seem to reconcile the fact that, well, she doesn’t really like to be touched.
Meanwhile, she’s oblivious to Yamaken, who is growing more bold with each passing day as his weird crush intensifies. And let’s not forget Haru clearly has some serious, traumatic issues in his past that he hasn’t begun to deal with. It’s nice that Shizuku is a calming, taming force in his life, but until the underlying issues are resolved, theirs is a doomed romance. The sad part is, we already know the jist of all this; this episode taught us almost nothing new. It’s fine for their relationship to be going nowhere, but if the show itself isn’t going anywhere (or rather, going in circles, or even backwards), then we have problems.
Rating: 6 (Good)
P.S. Ooshima’s friend Yuu wordlessly stares at Yamaken on more than one occasion, while Natsume considers paying a visit to Mitsuyoshi to tell him how she feels. Isn’t he, like, fifteen years older than her?
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