This week opens with the first of many rare sights: Minami without any makeup. Of course, she’s still stunning. Watching her gaze into her mirror and wordlessly go about her beauty routine, putting extra care and thought into her appearance for her upcoming day with Tsubasa, it just felt so real and intimate.
Both that routine, and the day she’s planned for Tsubasa, are done with the amount of care someone would put in only because they care about the person they’re doing it for, and there hasn’t been any doubt about that for some time. As they hop on a train for the first leg of a three-hour journey north, they look every bit like a couple in love, finally going on a first date.
And honestly, Minami couldn’t pick a prettier place for their date than Higashimokoto Shibazakura Park, just as it’s in full bloom, resplendent in pink. It’s another instance of her wanting to show off how special Hokkaido is, while also enjoying it all the more by watching how hard it “hits him in the feels”. It means so much to her that Tsubasa is there with her, and having fun.
When stopping by the gift shop, Tsubasa buys something for Minami, but misses a chance to give it to her, as she sees go-karts, watch a concert of the opening theme played live, enjoy festival food, and ice cream, dip their feet in pools, having their photo taken together by an elderly couple while also thinking about coming back here together years from now, and praying at a shrine whose deity Minami jokingly says is for fertility … but isn’t necessarily lying.
When the sun is low and the color palette becomes even more vivid and intense, Tsubasa finally gets his chance to give Minami her gift: a promise bracelet. Extra care is put into the animation of him taking her hand in his and putting it on. If the purpose of bringing Tsubasa here was to confess to him and/or ask him to be her boyfriend, you couldn’t ask for a more perfect time or place.
Instead, Minami says what Tsubasa has been thinking a lot during their time at the park: what do other people think when they see them together. Tsubasa wants to say what first comes to mind, but is too scared, so he says they look like “two very close friends.”
After hearing Minami’s half-hearted agreement and watching her smile become sadder, he realizes he said something horribly wrong. Even worse, it could be that his response to her may have been the clinching factor in how she’d broach the matter she wanted to talk to him about all along: she tells him she’s leaving Hokkaido to study beauty abroad.
Now Tsubasa has two problems: thinking he’s a coward unworthy of someone like Minami by saying they were just friends, and not feeling like he has any right to tell her not to leave, but stay in Hokkaido with him. After all, she tells him meeting him and watching him work so hard to adjust to life there inspired her to better herself.
Telling her not to go for his sake would trample on that inspiration, no? But again, maybe a part of Minami wants to stay, and him friendzoning them in that moment made her think he didn’t see her as anything more than a good friend. But even if that’s the impression she got, his reaction to her announcement gives her another one.
After she thanks and praises him, he suddenly gathers her into a hug, which she doesn’t resist, and blushes as bright as the nearby flowerbeds in his arms. When they do pull apart, she sees tears streaming down his shell-shocked face.
Can Tsubasa say what needs to be said to keep Minami there, or is this pretty much it for them, and her going away is a done deal? We’ll find out in the can’t-miss conclusion of a show that’s suddenly become a lot more serious and dramatic than its playful title would suggest … and I’m not complaining!
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