Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible – 10 – Fear of Heights

While Junta remains stubbornly, irritatingly oblivious to what’s going on, that doesn’t stop Nagisa from having fun wherever she can get. She wins a staring contest, then snuggles up to Junta when he gets dusted chalk powder.

She gently brushes the chalk out of his hair, which she notes is thicker than she thought. Nagisa, in turn, invites Junta to run his fingers through her hair, which is must silkier. She then asks him what his favorite haristyle for a girl is, and gets him to admit it might be a ponytail.

With class physicals coming up, both Junta and Nagisa wonder if they got taller (why they couldn’t just measure themselves at home, I don’t know). Nagisa then proposes they compare heights, and in the process, she creates a situation where it looks like Junta has her in a wall slam situation.

On the day of the physicals, Nagisa sports pigtails, and causally borrows Junta’s P.E. jacket and runs off with it. There’s apparently a practice of girls wearing their boyfriends’ jackets, and when she hears that it makes them smell different, she takes a moment to take in Junta’s musk.

With all the romantic momentum built up between Junta and Nagisa to this point, it’s a bit of a letdown that they don’t appear together in the final sequence. Instead, her sister watches along with Junta as Seita goes on his first errand. Assuming Seita is six at most, my folks would probably call social services on Junta, but I’ll allow (and indeed admire) that this is a culture where children are encouraged to be independent from a young age.

Watching Seita successfully buy eggs at the store down the road reminds Akina of Nagisa’s first errand, which was also buying eggs. Unfortunately, on her way home she tripped and fell and the eggs broke. She bawled at her failure, but Akina stroked her head and she calmed down.

Akina lets Junta know that it still works, and she’s counting on him to stroke Nagisa’s head if she’s ever upset or hurt. Like me, she’s hoping Junta will soon wake up and realize Nagisa’s huge crush on him. With only two episodes left, I’m not holding my breath for that, but as is so often the case in shows like this, it’s all about the journey.

Oshi no Ko – 08 – Where Truth Begins

The New and improved “Aikane” is a shock to Aqua. When she says he looks like he’s seen a ghost, it’s because that’s precisely what he sees. But more than that, Akane’s hard work reinvented herself into someone who is quintessentially Aqua’s type.

Yuki and MEM delight in presenting her to Aqua and watching him genuinely blush in response. Everyone thinks things have suddenly gotten more interesting…except for Kana, who says it’s gotten boring and stops watching.

The truth, of course, is that Kana has feelings for Aqua, and doesn’t want to see him with another girl, whether it’s “real” or not. While walking through the city she overhears two girls talking about how Akane has stepped up his game, and the colors wash out as her loneliness mounts.

But then, in a perfectly timed gesture, Aqua appears and asks Kana if she wants to skip school to hang out. Naturally her answer is yes, but their day of delinquency won’t be spent at the mall or Tokyo Tower…but playing catch.

Kana warns him that she’s never played catch before, but as they toss the ball back and forth and get to talking, she gets more comfortable. That’s actually why Aqua is spending time with her: with Kana, he can be more “himself” than with the cast members.

Kana even manages to get him to admit he prefers “slightly older” women, and as she’s one year above him that makes her happy…until she remembers Akane is her age too. But never mind that; Kana is happy that Aqua is her very first…person she’s played catch with.

As Love Now winds down to the big finale that will determine who if anyone pairs off, Akane takes the time to thank Aqua, both for organizing the video that restored her image online, and for giving her a character that caused her to soar in popularity.

Aqua asks her how she managed to get into the character so perfectly, and she explains how she’s gotten into profiling, researched the hell out of Ai, interpreted her “in her own way”. For example, she believes Ai had a kid in secret.

Establishing that helped her understand decisions Ai made that seemed inexplicable. From there, the pieces came together for Akane “like a mathematical puzzle.” She flashes the starry eyes, able to turn them on and off like lights, again astounding Aqua.

During the finale in the park, Aqua and Akane become a couple and kiss for the cameras, but not because Aqua wants Akane as a girlfriend. Akane was able to understand Ai in ways Aqua never could, no matter how hard he tried. With that in mind, he believes he can “use” Akane in his overarching mission, so he can’t let things end here.

Contrary to her opinion the show had gotten boring and dumb, Kana watched until the very end, alone, in her bed, in the dark, and curses Aqua for choosing and kissing Akane. One could say Kana had her chance to make her feelings known, but no doubt she was scared of rejection she’d almost certainly get.

Also, just because Aqua kissed Akane on camera doesn’t make them a couple, though they agree to remain one for the sake of appearances. She gets Aqua to admit what she can already read from him: he’s not interested in her romantically. But when he says he is interested in her as an actor, that makes her even happier. So it looks like this is going to be an equitable relationship.

Before coming to this understanding, Aqua meets with the producer who cast him in Love Now. The producer says it was a risky move to use raw footage the way Aqua did, but Aqua used the official social media accounts and followed his contract to the letter while saving Akane’s image, and the show gained popularity as a result, so it’s all good. He intends to keep up his end of the bargain by giving Aqua some intel on Ai.

Having prevailed on two separate fronts: one intended (the producer), one unintended (Aikane), Aqua parts ways with the others, except for MEM, who also lives nearby and doesn’t need a taxi. When pressed for deets on his future with Akane, Aqua says it’s just a work relationship, though MEM tells him not to rule out it becoming real.

MEM also takes the opportunity to tell Aqua something she’s probably told no one else: she always dreamed of becoming an idol, but if never quite worked out for her. That’s when Aqua is able to score a third victory by recruiting a third member for the new B Komachi. When MEM looks at Aqua and realizes he’s being dead serious, her face brightens up like a galaxy.