Anamizu, Kanikawa, and Momo show up to distribute flyers for Ganta and Isaki. Anamizu proves the most adept at placing them in the palms of passersby, but even she only manages to hand out half of her share. Such is the business of flyer distribution. Ganta heads into the market to hand out more, but thankfully Ukegawa is there to make sure he keeps his promise to watch the fireworks with Isaki.
Later in the evening, Ganta figures he must have nodded off and strayed into a wonderful dream. If that’s the case, that dream begins when he happens to spot Isaki on a bridge, looking desperately pretty and cute in a white ykata with purple flowers. The two proceed to have a perfectly adorable festival date.
There’s that ever-present excitement of being at school after dark as they walk through the dark hallways. Isaki learned to move quickly in the dark from when she and her friends in the hospital used to sneak out. On the way up to the roof she tries to hide and scare Ganta, but he sees her little hair tassle and spooks her instead.
Once atop the roof, Ganta tells Isaki how he used to get anxious in crowds, but feels better tonight. When Isaki jokes that it must be because he has a cute girl in a yukata sitting next to him, he says she’s right, causing her to blush. They look into each others eyes just as the first of the fireworks go off, but before they can say anything more, the others arrive.
While their romantic moment is interrupted, Ganta and Isaki proceed to have a blast on the roof with Anamizu, Kani, and Nono, and take a bunch of fun and beautiful photos. When the fireworks end, Isaki’s friends depart, while Ganta and Isaki head to the observatory.
There, Isaki opens up the telescope hatch to reveal the gorgeous starry sky and fill their clubroom with a magical blue light. While downloading photos, Ganta tells Isaki how he once used to lie in bed wondering why he was the only one suffering. But thanks to Isaki and her friends, he now realizes that everyone struggles with one problem or another.
When Isaki climbs into the hatch to get a better view, Ganta is worried she’ll fall, but she assures him “something like this” won’t kill her. She outlasted miniscule odds of survival, having been born with a heart condition that required surgery earlier in life.
While the surgery was a success and she’s now able to live a normal life, she lies in bed petrified that her heart will stop in the night and she won’t see the morning sun. Then a wind blows her off balance, she falls, and Ganta catches her. In the ensuing position, Ganta can hear Isaki’s heart. She says “only half of it moves, so it sounds imperfect”, but to Ganta it must be one of the most perfect sounds he’s ever heard.
Ganta tells Isaki that she doesn’t have to suffer with her anxiety alone in bed. She can call him any time and he’ll pick up and stay with her until she feels safe enough to sleep. She embraces him and cries into his chest, his shirt absorbing her cool tears of joy and gratitude.
She only pulls away and hides her face when she gets self-conscious about the tears making her look “ugly.” The next day at school, her friends don’t seem to notice the signs she’d been crying
The only hitch in Ganta’s plan is that Isaki isn’t able to carry on a regular phone conversation with the thin walls in her house and a mom who’s strict about staying up late. Ganta finds a workaround with a broadcasting app that enables them to softly talk to one another as if they were next to each other.
They talk about a little of everything, telling each other more about themselves. And it works…for both of them. While Ganta eventually hears Isaki yawning and then sleeping and laughs gleefully, he eventually falls asleep as well. Now they know they don’t need to be snuggling together to doze off…but I’m sure they still want to anyway!
Hell, watching these two listen to each other’s voices during these quiet, cozy, tender, extraordinarily sweet moments a night made me a little drowsy, in the absolute best way. Insomniacs After School reached new heights of romantic charm, while also alleviating my worries about Isaki’s fate. After this week, I feel like these two are going to be alright. Watching their gentle love blossom is a mesmerizing delight.
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