This week begins with a distressing sight: Hakari being told something by her mother…something clearly not good. Thing brighten up considerably at the Lovezono flower part where Rentarou is on a date with everyone. There’s also an annual bouquet toss, and the winner gets to pose with their sweetheart in wedding attire.
This one of Hakari’s childhood dreams, but ever the schemer, she’s got a plan. First, she ensures her fellow girlfriends aren’t in direct competition for the bouquet. They’ll work together to beat the others, then draw lots afterwards. Everyone agrees, Kusuri scales up, and Shizuka serves as cheerleader.
The bouquet toss is serious business. The one who throws it, the Vice Principal, is a champion shot putter, while the leader of bike gang Gorilla Syndicate uses her soldiers as projectiles.
After valiantly shielding Hakari from one of them, Karane demonstrates how easily she can slip into a Yankee persona and grapples with the gang leader, buying everyone time and making them swoon.
One of the gang’s tactics is to use their flags to create a mini-hurricane, which ends up launching poor Shizuka into the sky. Fortunately, that puts her in perfect position to catch the bouquet. Unfortunately, she lets go of the towel sail keeping her in the sky.
Hakari, Nano, and Kusuri try to catch her, but she bounces off their chests, and Rentarou has to save her with a basebal slide. Victory is theres, and so now comes the drawing of the lots … and Hakari knows which one is the red-tipped one.
Hakari’s grand scheme backfires when Nano says they should all draw at once, but luck is on her side, as she ends up the winner anyway. When Kusuri sobs and protests, Hakari’s expression suddenly falls, and she decides to give her turn up. Kusuri thanks her with a hug, but then rejects Hakari’s offer. She loves Kusuri too and wants her to wear the wedding garb.
She does, and she looks glorious, and even sweeter, all six take the photo together, and look every bit like a “Rentarou Family.” Then as the others go ahead, Hakari thanks Rentarou for making her dream to catch the bouquet come true. She only asks him for one more thing … to break up with her.
To quote Anya from Spy x Family: SHOCK! Well, not entirely. That opening scene that played out in the dark and had Hakari looking distraught did not bode well, and I had me presuming Hakari would ask to be broken up with. I’m not even surprised Hyakkano is suddenly taking a darker turn, since it’s already proven adept at balancing zany comedy and genuine heartfelt drama.
Thanks to Hakari mailing him a sexy photoshoot, Rentarou knows her address, and learns she lives in a palatial estate. He spots Hakari in the window and shouts out, only to barely miss being caught by a security guard. Hakari calls him on the house landline, and tells him it’s over; she “fell out of love” with him, and he should forget about her.
We know full well even if Rentarou wanted to, he can’t; he must make all his soulmates happy. He also doesn’t buy her lie. He wants the truth, so Hakari gives it to him: her overbearing, controlling, ruinously wealthy and powerful mother found out she was in a polycule, rejected it, and is pulling Hakari out.
Her mom interrupts the phone call and cuts it short, warning Rentarou to stay away from her daughter, since she can squash a teenage bug like him anytime. When he protests, the security guard carries him away, telling him there are things in the world he can’t change.
When Hakari’s mother (voiced by Uesaka Sumire) threatens to punish Rentarou by senting him somewhere far, far, away where no one will ever see him—knowing full well he’ll be torn from all who love him and not caring—Hakari prostrates herself, begging her mom for mercy.
Rentarou walks home feeling powerless, useless, and awful. But when he looks down and spots a four-leaf clover, all the good times with Hakari come rushing back, and he realizes he’s giving up way too easily. He may not be able to change anything in the world, but he can change this.
That night he meets with Karane, Shizuka, Nano, and Kusuri, and declares his intention to break into Hakari’s palace, rescue her, and go into hiding. All he can tell them is that someday they’ll come back to the rest of them. Karane calls this what it is: some bullshit.
This isn’t just Rentarou’s fight. They all love Hakari, and she belongs to all of them. Her mother is hurting them too. They all agree that they’ll be accompanying Rentarou to Hakari’s house. No doubt Karane will provide muscle, Shizuka literary persuasion and cuteness, Nano an efficient, logical strategy, and Kusuri All the Drugs.
The ending postcard memory says it all: this family is on a mission to retrieve one of their cherished members, without whom they are not whole. Hakari may believe she and everyone else are powerless against her mom’s whims and yen. But I will never bet against this group when they’re at their best. Money can’t buy you love—the most powerful weapon in the world!
RABUJOI - An Anime Blog 