Hyakkano – 11 – Truth and Tummies

In what is perhaps a demonstration of how a full-on adult soulmate is able to function, Hahari actually tables her sudden confession and request to go out with Rentarou, and instead switches back to refusing to let a five-timer anywhere near Hakari. If he truly loves her, he’ll have to prove it with a state-of-the-art rich person’s lie detector chair.

Rentarou wants to ensure the chair works properly, so Karane has to try it out first. This results in her having to admit that she’s an A-cup, but also that it’s a lie to say she just loves Rentarou. Even the titular daidaidaidaidai isn’t enough! She has to declare that she loves Rentarou more than anything in the world.

When Rentarou jumps in the chair to reciprocate his love for Karane, Hahari is so frustrated she’s ready to ditch the chair altogether, resulting in her, Karane, and Rentarou breaking the fourth wall with talk of using up too much runtime and a special end credits sequence that can’t be skipped. (And don’t skip it, it includes a version of Boticelli’s Primavera featuring the cast, including Hahari!)

When guards burst in to report Hakari is preparing to throw herself out a window, Karane puts Hahari in a hold and tells Rentarou to go get their girl. While Karane said she can’t possibly keep loving him while she and the others wait around forever for him to return, she admits she was wrong: she can and will wait forever for him, as long as he and Hakari return.

When Rentarou goes to Hakari, she tells him she can’t live a life where she and her mother are bound to him forever. But no matter what the conditions are, Rentarou can’t imagine anything worse than living life without Hakari. There’s no way she could ever make him unhappy.

When Hakari’s adrenaline wears off and she gets vertigo and slips out the window, Rentarou just manages to grab hold of her, but is unable to pull her up. All he can do is protect her head and kick off the wall so that they fall into the surprisingly deep rich person’s fountain.

Nano, Kusuri and Shizuka jump in after them, with Nano rescuing Rentarou and Hakari while Kusuri rescues Shizuka. Rentarou holds Hakari tight, relieved beyond belief that she’s okay, and letting her know he’ll never let her go.

Karane and Hahari arrive, and Karane rushes to Hakari and slaps her for trying such a reckless stunt before crying right beside her. Hahari, seeing now that Rentarou wasn’t lying about his love for Hakari and proving that he’ll make her happy even if it kills him, prostrates herself and formally gives him her blessing to date her daughter.

Rentarou, moved by Hahari’s own sacrifice (willing to be hated by Hakari if it meant keeping her safe from an unsavory character) has her raise her head, takes her hands in his, and declares that he promises to make both her and Hakari happy. That’s right, he did not forget Hahari declaring her love and asking him out, and he accepts.

While this will surely create some new complications for the polycule, Hahari tries to keep things simple for now, by having everyone spend the night and having a good hot soak with her new co-girlfriends. When Karane makes a tactical retreat from all the bazongas, she encounters Rentarou in the room, and he notices her belly is exposed.

Noting Rentarou’s extreme reaction, she realizes that he must’ve enjoyed their close contact during their climb over the lasers as much as she did (but would never admit unless on that lie detector chair). She decides to get some payback by shoving Rentarou onto the bed, lifting up his shirt, and pressing her cheek into it. This inadvertently puts them in their most hot-and-heavy situation yet, only for it to be doused by the sudden arrival of Kusuri. (I’ve since learned the manga gets even hotter and heavier with this scene, as Karane decided to start licking Rentarou’s navel).

After the bath, Hahari dresses the girls up in pajamas, as Hakari says her mom loves cute things and can’t help the urge to dress them up to look even cuter. The cuteness is so much in fact that Hahari has a nosebleed and gets light-headed, so Rentarou escorts her down the hall to get some water.

That’s when Hahari demonstrates that she’s every bit her daughter’s mother, by using this opportunity to invite Rentarou to her room. Something tells me they’ll be interrupted long before things go too far, as with Rentarou and Karane this week.

It was only a matter of time before sex was brought up. We’ll see if and how Hyakkano handles it in the first season finale of a series I’ve gotta think will get more seasons as the number of soulmates increases.

Spy x Family – 36 – Chefs! Chefs! Chefs!

While sometimes Becky Blackbell seems precocious to the point of acting like she’s six going on twenty-six, at the end of the day, she is every bit six, which means she considers the soap operas on TV to be what real courtship and romance is like. Determined to win the heart of her “Precious Loid”, she invites herself over to Anya’s with a full head of steam that turns into so much blushing and tripping over words.

It only takes an easy smile from Loid for Becky to imagine becoming Anya’s stepmother, complete with new family portrait. Poor Anya is an audience to Becky’s over-the-top delusions, and decides to kick Yor aside and root for Becky to become her new Mama for one primary reason: meals prepared by world-class chefs. Alas, once Yor returns home and Becky tries removing her scrunchies and whips her hair about, she gets zero reaction from Loid.

If Anya had normal adults as a mother and father, one of them would probably be able to see a childish crush when they see it. Instead, Becky and her hair is twisting in the proverbial wind, and all Anya can do is twist along with her.

When Becky decides to go full bore and “collapse” into Loid from being too “drunk”, Yor takes her deadly seriously, picks her up, and rushes to the nearest hospital. Before a car hits her (the car loses), Yor tosses Becky into the air, only to catch her perfectly after absorbing the impact of the accident with nothing but a bloody nose.

It’s after this act of selfless and completely unnecessary bodily sacrifice that Becky finally comes clean: she was only lying because she wanted to court her precious Loid. To her surprise, Yor isn’t upset, but happy that Loid is so loved. Becky, moved by her massive heart, asks her how she won Loid over, and Yor recalls him saying she’s strong.

Becky tries to demonstrate that she’s strong too by trying her hand at the bell-and-hammer game in he park, but the weight of the hammer bowls her over backwards. Yor, believing Becky wants the top prize to give to Loid, picks up the hammer with one hand and obliterates the entire device.

Becky, who is after all the heiress to an arms empire, is suddenly smitten with Yor as well. She now realizes she’s simply not strong enough to steal Loid from her, so she’ll become her apprentice instead. When her maid arrives to pick her up, Yor is giving her some martial arts pointers.

Another woman who loves Loid deeply but knows she isn’t strong enough to defeat Yor is Fiona Frost AKA Nightfall. During Loid’s cruise vacation, she not only completes all of her missions, but all of Twilight’s as well, overworking herself despite Sylvia telling her not to. She even trains herself in the mountains by pulling grizzly bears, riding goats and standing atop alligators.

Fiona doesn’t become a blushing, blubbering mess when she’s in Loid’s presence like Becky; in addition to being an adult, she’s also a spy, and very good at concealing her true feelings. She has almost no reaction to Loid presenting her with a souvenir from his trip, but once she’s alone in the hall she’s skipping along like she’s on cloud nine more in “wuv” with him than ever.