Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 05 – Class Is in Session

In the week leading up to his first lecture as a part-time instructor, Makoto frequents the restaurant where Luria works, where Shiki becomes addicted to the “cream hot pot.” Ilumgand, the golden-haired student who was talking to Luria last week, is watching this, and doesn’t like it. Makoto also meets Luria’s older (but smaller-chested) sister Eva, an academy librarian.

Makoto’s fellow instructor Bright sends ten of his students to Makoto’s first lecture. Their attitude ranges from okay with this as long as it makes them stronger, to skeptical an instructor who communicates through writing and has an assistant will be of any use to them. Needless to say, none of these students have ever met anyone like Makoto or Shiki.

While Shiki is all too happy to play the bad cop, Makoto insists upon being as tough and unyielding teacher as Tomoe. As such, Shiki is the good cop, which combined with his good looks make him an immediate hit with the four female students. The students start out underwhelmed by this ugly young man who can’t speak, so Makoto decides to engage in a mock battle with Shiki to demonstrate his power.

Shiki serves as the aggressor while Makoto defends. The kids think every attack Shiki sends will be the end of Makoto, but in reality none of them get through his barrier. The two put on a clinic of silent spells of all elements, and once they actually start using incantations (in a language they don’t recognize) the battle really heats up.

By the time Makoto thoroughly beats Shiki (who has become stronger since training with Tomoe and Mio), the students are a combination of impressed, in awe, and scared shitless. One of the girls who talked down to Makoto has an arm wound from the debris of the battle, so Shiki heals it with ointment from their new shop and she’s immediately smitten with him.

With that, the first class is in the books. Shiki expects that half of the ten students will be no-shows for the next class, and that turns out to be so. However, the five remaining students are there because they know there’s something special about these classes and their instructor.

In the next lecture, Makoto has them come at him with everything they have, with the specific goal of getting them to experience how it feels to reach their limits of mana and stamina. For all five students, it’s the toughest battle they’ve ever been in, and they all fail, but they also learn a lot.

As for the students, they’re an eclectic group … for Hyumans. There’s Daena, a kid with hair like a black-and-white cookie who is married with a kid on the way. Misra is the son of temple officials who sacrifices his mana to keep the mock battle against Makoto going.

Abelia, the only girl who stuck around, is balanced in physical and magic attacks (and shares a last name with Ilumgand). Izumo is a mage-in-training. Finally there’s Jin, a skilled swordsman and natural leader. Makoto observes and analyzes his students and believes them to have potential, especially after surviving two of his classes.

Unfortunately, teaching this class isn’t the only thing Makoto will have to deal with at Rotsgard. There’s also the matter of Bright-sensei wanting him dead. He sent the assassin Makoto had absolutely no trouble with, and in a darkly-lit meeting that accentuates his hidden evil, he orders that assassin and his guild to redouble their efforts to eliminate Makoto. It should be fun watching them try and utterly fail.

P.S., Tomoe and Mio only get one scene each this week, and their relegation to the margins is my one complaint with an otherwise strong season. I get it: you can’t have characters as loud and OP as they are involved in either the Rotsgard storyline or those of the other two heroes. I just hope we get a little more time with them at some point!

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! – 05 – Buddy Choco Party Time

We open with Minami singing a song that ends with the line “I love you,” making Tsubasa blush. She always sings this particular song at karaoke, because it never fails to cheer her up. It’s the first time he and Sayuri have been to karaoke. Thanks to Minami, their social horizons are expanding for the big city newbie and the loner gamer.

I like how they’re both portrayed as nervous but also open to the experience. But when talk turns to the approaching Valentine’s Day, Tsubasa’s first thought is whether he’ll get any from Minami. He soon learns that she gives chocolates to everyone. He feels relieved, but isn’t sure why. But there are moments when everyone else is messing around that both Minami and Sayuri look more serious.

When the others head off, Minami and Sayuri end up trying to strike up a conversation with Tsubasa at the same time. Minami wants to know how he liked his first karaoke sesh with friends (and how Sayuri liked it too). But from the look of the Valentine’s chocolate guide on her phone, it’s clear she wanted to ask Tsubasa something totally different.

Sayuri procrastinates as much as she can, but really wants to make chocolates, for Tsubasa in particular but also for Minami. To that end, she finally goes to the mall and stakes the place out, only for Minami to surprise her from behind. At first Sayuri says she’s there for nail polish (which she doesn’t really need), then cosmetics (which she also doesn’t need but buys some with Minami).

Minami was originally there to shop for chocolate ingredients, so she prepares to part ways with Sayuri, but Sayuri asks if she can shop with her, as this whole making chocolate thing is completely new to her. Minami isn’t just happy to help, but delighted to be able to hang out with Sayuri more.

When they leave the mall, Sayuri, no stranger to honesty and directness, asks Minami straight-up if she intends to make “special” chocolates for Tsubasa. Minami plays it cool, saying she’ll be making buddy chocolate for him because they’re “friends.” But as they walk away in opposite directions, it’s clear Minami wasn’t being 100% honest.

Sayuri waits until nearly 11:30 PM to start making chocolates, by which point Minami texts her to check on her progress. Minami, for her part, has just finished a new record of seventy pieces of beautiful, perfect chocolates and cookies to give everyone tomorrow, plus one particularly fancy cookie heart filled with ganache. Is that for Sayuri, who said she likes ganache? Is it for Tsubasa? Or is it for all three of them to share?

Minami then asks Sayuri if she’s giving chocolate to anyone besides her, and during the pregnant pause that follows, she accidentally knocks over a quart of milk, which causes a chain reaction that results in spilling soy sauce all over creation, ruining all her chocolates. Minami can’t quite hide the despair in her voice at first, but quickly laughs it off and hangs up, leaving Sayuri wondering how she can be so nice in such a moment.

The next morning, Tsubasa is dejected but not surprised to find no chocolates in his shoe locker. But when Minami gives him a fun-size piece of store-bought local chocolate, his smile is enough to bring a smile to Minami’s face, which is still raw from last night’s debacle.

Minami starts handing them out to Sayuri and everyone else, and the red haired boy who went to karaoke with them simply cannot believe she didn’t make the homemade chocolates he had been expecting, and considers it a huge letdown.

When he’s in the hall getting chocolates form other girls, she sidles up to him with fire in her belly and promises him the next time he speaks to Minami like that, she’s going to pound him. Hanamori Yumiri’s voice waivers while she makes this threat, but she did good!

After school there’s no club due to upcoming exams, and Tsubasa and Minami share cleaning duty in the music room. When he thanks her for the chocolate he gave her while putting away the brooms, when he turns around Minami is crying her eyes out.

Just as Sayuri arrives at the doorway but doesn’t enter, Tsubasa asks Minami if she’s okay telling him what happened, and she does. She wanted to give everyone chocolate so bad, and feels like the accident with the soy sauce was punishment because she said something weird to a friend on the phone, referring to her question to Sayuri.

Tsubasa isn’t one to suddenly draw Minami into a consoling hug, so instead he does the only thing he thinks he can do in that moment: play the piano. And he doesn’t just play anything, either: he plays a piano arrangement of the song she sang at karaoke; the one that always cheers her up.

When he finishes, Minami’s tears have stopped and she’s in awe of how good he was. When she asks why, he says she always cheers him up, so he wanted to cheer her up this time. And he succeeds: tears start pouring down Minami’s cheeks once more, but they’re the tears of maximum happiness.

That happiness is momentarily threatened when Sayuri comes in with chocolates, and Minami assumes she’s there to give “special” ones to Tsubasa. But as Minami walks past her, Sayuri offers her a red gift-wrapped box of her very first homemade chocolates. Minami declares her love for Sayuri and pulls her into a big hug.

Sayuri then presents Tsubasa with a bag of chocolates, declaring them a gift for her gaming desciple because she had extra. She also mentions how he was very cool on the piano. The three dig in to the chocolates together right there in the golden light of the setting sun, and all’s right with the world again.

It’s only appropriate that the cutest, most heartwarming, and most emotionally resonant episode of Hokkaido Gals is a Valentine’s Day episode, where sundry hearts are bared, broken, and, in chocolate form, eaten. I didn’t know if Minami would ever deviate from her glowing ball of sunshine, so I’m glad we (along with Tsubasa and Minami) got to see a new, vulnerable side of her.

Even more gratifying is that when she was feeling low Sayuri had her back, love triangle or no, and Tsubasa was his usual kind and thoughtful self—someone you can totally believe both Minami and Sayuri could fall for.

This was already the perfect Monday evening show with its cozy vibes, relatively low stakes, and a cast that dances together in the OP. This week enhanced that winning formula as they also sang, cooked, cried, played the piano, and, in Sayuri’s case, threatened swift violence against anyone who’d hurt Minami’s feelings!