My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex – 12 (Fin) – Weaving a New Tale

As predicted, Yume knocks it out of the park with her festival yukata and hair, but it’s her who wants a picture of Mizuto in his the second she sees it. Instead, he snaps a pic of her, and happens to know her phone’s password.

In her thoughts, Yume admits to feeling considerably lighter after having a good cathartic cry. Now she can hold hands with her stepbrother without embarrassment, and mimics Madoka’s treatment of Chikuma by helping “steady” Mizuto during the shooting game.

Just when the fireworks are about to start, Mizuto disappears, something Madoka says he always does around this time. All of his relatives have told her to make sure to look after him, like he wouldn’t be able to “survive” without someone watching over him. But as she volunteers to go find him, Yume celebrates how she’s been able to see all these new facts of Mizuto since becoming family.

When they were merely in puppy love and dating, she idolized and glorified him, projecting her ideal of a Boyfriend^TM without looking deeper. Meanwhile, while sitting alone at a shrine, Mizuto muses about how he considered the world of books to be the true reality, and the outside world a mere illusion.

The first thing in the world that felt real was Ayai Yume, who was also the first person to evoke the same sentiment everyone had for him: that he would not survive if left alone. That’s why Ayai Yume still occupies that “slot” in his heart that even Isana could never hope to replace.

Yume finds Mizuto at the shrine, and the two have the mother of all passive-aggressive verbal duels with one another, all the while happy they were on the same wavelength. She recounts the phone call they had that he ended abruptly, and she gathered that he called her from this very shrine.

Yume also gathered that Mizuto knew her phone code because it’s 1027, the day of their first kiss, a day they both remember with fondness. Then Yume asks Mizuto why he went out with her, and he says it really just amounted to her finding a seat next to his in a game of musical chairs.

Sitting side by side as the fireworks begin—the fireworks they never got to see together until now—what initially stirred in Mizuto towards Yume stirs again. A tear falls down his cheek before Yume takes his face in her hands and kisses him.

It’s her second first kiss, and with it comes a vow that she, Irido Yume, will eventually win him over, defeating Ayai Yume for that single slot in his heart. The next morning, and then back at school, the two are back to their playfully adversarial selves.

The happiness of the past will never leave either of them, etched into their souls as it is, and they will never feel that particular novel happiness ever again. But that doesn’t matter, because now that they’re both a little older, wiser, honest, and clear-eyed they can now achieve a new happiness; weave a new tale together.

My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex – 09 – Bittersweet Symphony

This episode, which finally fully chronicles the height and eventual fall of Mizuto and Yume, begins simply, with the two sharing a tender kiss without fanfare during the golden hour on a quiet street. The look they share after said kiss may just be the only time in the entire episode that they are truly on the same wavelength with one another.

When Yume is invited to Mizuto’s house, room, and bed (to sit on) when his parents aren’t home, she gets understandably excited, only for the two to spend hours reading a book together. It’s pleasant, but it’s less than Mizuto hoped for; she was ready to take the next step. So was Mizuto. But it just…didn’t happen. And it never would.

The first sign of the couple drifting apart is when they find themselves in separate classes for the third year of middle school. They still meet in their treasured library after school, and make a pinky promise to make wonderful memories for Christmas and Valentine’s. But then Yume gradually opens up and makes friends in her class.

Mizuto is irked by her newfound popularity, and when they are together, all she talks about is her friends this or her friends that. Feeling like they’re drifting away from each other hurts, so he hurts her back by snapping at her. He fully prepares to apologize the next day, but when Yume first sees him in the library, he’s chatting with another girl…in her chair.

His apology goes right through her, as she feels he betrayed her in the special place where they met and shared so many memories. And that bitter memory of seeing him with that other girl haunts him. It’s just a fight couples always have, but they let it fester and see less and less of each other.

When they finally encounter one another, it’s by chance at a bookstore, and Mizuto suggests, and Yume agrees, that they should make up and put the rancor behind them. But it’s just words. Mizuto is still hung up on being accused of cheating, while Yume is vexed by how far ahead he’s walking.

Once inseparable, the two fall completely out of sync, and their relationship falls off the rails. Yume thinks of inviting Mizuto to the festival where he found her, but fails to send the invite text and goes alone, hoping things will just work out like they did a year ago, even though she knows they won’t. Then their one-year anniversary comes and goes with nary a text from him.

The Christmas and Valentine’s memories they promised to share become exercises in bitter solitude, as both Mizuto and Yume remain incommunicado for those holidays. Finally, when graduation comes along, Mizuto quietly suggests, and Yume agrees, that they should break up.

At that point it felt less like and end and more like a “liberation.” He couldn’t deny his affection for Yume, but couldn’t deny the building resentment either. Little things turned into big things and finally the only thing: pain and anguish. The rest, we know: their parents get married a few months later, and they are introduced to each other as stepsiblings.

Fast-forward back to the present, where Yume is helping herself to one of Mizuto’s many many books, and happens to land on the same one they read together the first time she entered that room. The two reveal to one another in reminiscing that they both had the same intentions that day: to take their relationship to the next step.

You could say that day was really the beginning of the end, since it led to “aged plagued with regret” for Mizuto and “wasted time feeling she was undesirable” for Yume. And yet, thanks to their parents, a new beginning was written; one that allows them to reflect on their past missteps while seeing each other in a new light.

It was powerful and affecting watching their bittersweet first relationship crash and burn so utterly. From the cozy warmth of their (presumably) first kiss to the stark chill of their breakup scene, it was a harrowing roller coaster of a tale that added fresh context, richness, and gravitas to their present-day dynamic.

My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex – 08 – Ain’t Nuthin’ but a G-Cup

Higashira Isana may have been rejected by Mizuto, but that doesn’t stop her from teasing and flirting with him. She also wants to see his book collection, ostensibly to see which light novel sparked his sexual awakening. Yume and Akatsuki take her shopping to give her a makeover from her cozy, “lame” style, but because of her killer bod everything she tries on is a bit too alluring.

Akatsuki suggests Irina adopt Yume’s more lose and flowy style to soften her silhouette. This leads Yume to try something new, and to suspect that this was Akatsuki’s intent all along. Yume also recalls that her present style was dictated by what she thought Mizuto liked when they were dating.

When Isana shows up in Yume’s old style, Yume serves as a “chaperone”, and witnesses first hand Isana and Mizuto’s usual rapport. Mizuto insists he only treats her like any guy friend, but to Yume it looks like he never actually rejected Isana and they’ve been dating all along. Isana even reveals the reason/excuse for Mizuto putting on her socks: reaching down with her bust is a pain.

When Yume shows her to the restroom, she learns Isana still very much likes Mizuto, both as a friend and as a boy, and probably always will, despite the rejection. Isana also voices her anxiety about Mizuto making other friends who might usurp her special place in his heart.

The parallel to Yume here is all too clear. Here is a girl who, like her, became close to Mizuto through books, and soon became the most important person in her life. Mizuto also notices these parallels as he sees Isana home. He remembers having as much fund with Yume back in middle school just quietly reading together as he and Isana here.

That leads him to wonder what might’ve happened if he and Yume had never become a couple, but simply close friends like him and Isana. He concludes that it’s pointless to hypothesize, since neither of them are quite like Isana.

My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex – 01 (First Impressions) – Old Habits Die Hard

Irido Yume and Irido Mizuto dated in junior high, and apparently had a pretty rough breakup. Now, due to their mom and dad marrying one another, they are now stepsiblings. Naturally, their folks don’t know about their history, so Yume and Mizuto have to hide how much they loathe each other, and settle for trading barbs outside of said folks’ earshot. Already, I love it. It’s so awkward, and somewhat tawdry. I wouldn’t wish this fate on anyone!

But here’s what really makes Tsurekano interesting: as they spend more and more time together—and they can’t not, as they not only live under the same roof, but are in the same class at the same school—they both learn in just this first episode that those old feelings they once had for one another don’t take much to resurface. Yume claims the class rep mantle and gains a lot of friends fast (never her forte in the past), but it backfires when guys try to befriend Mizuto to use him as a stepping stone to ask her out.

Back home, Mizuto doesn’t let Yume express any pity for him, or even say what’s on her mind, but it’s clear it bothers her that what she did might’ve ended up hurting him. Just because you’re exes doesn’t mean you automatically stop having feelings for each other, even a sense of wanting to protect the other. She overcompensates the next day by clinging to Mizuto and saying she has a brother complex, and after Mizuto makes them supper when their folks are out, she remembers the feel of his shoulder and tries to deflect by demanding he forget.

Frustrated by how passive he’s being (and has always been), Yume finally decides to get a literal rise out of him by striding into the living room in a tiny, tightly-wrapped towel and nothing else. While he is indeed initially flustered, her victory is brief, as the towel starts to loosen. Rather than do anything brazen, he covers her up with his hoodie, knowing she didn’t think this plan through. He just knows her too well. They both know each other too well.

And because both Yume and Mizuto are in a rom-com anime, it was inevitable that one of them would slip and fall towards the other, leading to a compromising—but also familiar—position. Mizuto even calls Yume by her old name, Ayai, as he brushes her bangs back in preparation for a kiss that is really only interrupted by the sudden arrival of their parents. Yume’s lucky there’s storage in the couch they were on.

But let’s assume these two are done and done for good because they are now stepsiblings. The show has many places to go with this, from exploring how they’ll no doubt stumble and fall again into old patterns from when they dated, to how they’ll try to counter that by entering hostility-regret-truce spirals, to the underlying mystery of why they broke up.

I also loved the detail that they were both shy “nerds” who still have rooms packed with books, and are both at the top of their class. Oh, and most important: while there are times that I’m on Team No One, at the end of the day both Yume and Mizuto want to make sure their parents are happy. They’re good kids, and I look forward to watching them navigate this strange new normal.

Horimiya – 08 – Reaching Milestones

I. Exclusion Zone

At some point after being with Hori, Miyamura has a dream in which he meets with his old socially awkward, and above all angry self, who was so tired of being left out and made to feel so pointless that he even considered dying. The older Miyamura urges him to hold off on the whole dying thing and hang in there, as he actually ended up doing IRL.

While telling him about all of the wonderful people waiting to be friends, and most importantly, a girl who he’ll need as much as she needs him, Present-day Miyamura takes stock of how far he’s come from those dark brooding middle school days before Shindou reached out. He wakes up with tears in his eyes, likely weeping for that old Miyamura, and wants to see Hori. Who wouldn’t want to see their lover after that dream?

II. Bestselling Tearjerker

From there, we shift to the relationship of Remi and Kakeru, who came as a pre-made couple at the outset. Remi waxes lovingly about why she loves Kakeru, who has never been strong or athletic but always strives and stuggles to be stronger for himself and for Remi, which in turn inspires her to be better. She remembers him being very different back when they first started talking.

Remi recalls a key moment in understanding Kakeru when she overheard his buds talking about the wildly popular Remi and her BFF Sakura as “Beauty and the Beast”. Kakeru refused to subscribe to his mates’ assessment, insisting the two girls both looked “normal.” He wasn’t so much defending Sakura, whom he didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to lie to fit in.

Remi ends up approaching Kakeru first, asking about the old-looking book he has. It turns out to be Goethe, who channeled his own unrequited love into his confessional novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Assuming her interest in books is genuine (and it is!), he starts lending her and Sakura editions of all kinds, starting with Grimms’ Fairy Tails.

When answering Remi’s question of where all these books come from, Kakeru gives her the perfect opening to invite herself over. Remi finds a book on a high dusty shelf about the last day before the end of the world, and when he asks what she’d do, she says she’d indulge herself by eating desserts and whatnot. Kakeru notices she’s wearing her pigtails slightly higher, and Remi is clearly happy he noticed.

Back at school, Kakeru is grateful that Remi is talking with him on the regular, but makes mention that his friend Kamioka has a crush on her. Remi responds immediately with an indifferent “so” that notably lacks the usual stutter employed to indicate genuine interest. Basically, she doesn’t give a shit about Kamioka! She asks to come over to his house again, but he says he might “get the wrong idea” about her intentions.

Back in the library, Remi asks Kakeru what he’d do if the world was going to end tomorrow. Again, Kakeru cannot lie, and in any case doesn’t want to, as he says he’d tell Remi he liked her. Of course, by answering so truthfully (not to mention blushing like a beet) he makes it clear he does like her, giving her the opening to say she likes him, accompanying her confession with a beautiful smile.

In the present, Kakeru is loved and fawned over by girls and boys alike, and is the damn StuCo President besides. Remi loved him back when he wouldn’t get swept away by others, but she also loves him now, swiping a spider she’s not at all scared of (but he is) from her shoulder when asked.

III. Spicing Things Up

Hori and Miyamura may have slept together, but thankfully that isn’t the end-all, be-all of their relationship, only a key milestone on the long road ahead. While they know each other quite well by now, they’re also still learning. Miyamura uses the excuse of having some old polish lying around to paint her boyfriend’s toenails, a less violent way of marking her man than neck bites!

Through most of their time together, Hori has done most of the “messing around”, so while she’s painting his toes, Miyamura decides to get playful and put his foot on her head, as if stepping on her would make him “level up”. He immediately prostrates himself in apology, but Hori isn’t mad, just confused.

After all, the same Miyamura who rages at Sawada and beats up Shindou is always so calm and well-mannered around her, making her wonder sometimes if he’s “faking it” for her. He asked if he’d rather treat her like he does them, yelling at and hitting them, and in a purely rhetorical sense, Hori imagines it and is kinda turned on, simply because it’s so unlike how Miyamura really treats her.

The next day at school Hori basically has Miyamura act like the wild delinquent that pops out when Sawada Shindo are around, which includes speaking like one—which thoroughly spooks Tooru and Kakeru. When he drops the act and starts to cry, they immediately know: he’s indulging Hori’s whims.

When the couple find themselves in an empty classroom waiting for the next period, Miyamura realizes it might just be the time to bust out “Meanyamura” on Hori. As he yells at her, grabs her collar, and pushes her against the wall, two underclassmen pop into the room, and one look and “Huuuh?” from him send them running away screaming. How does Hori feel about all this? She’s entertained and turned on.

This segment walks a fine line between actual relationship abuse and the mere trappings as a means of spicing things up. Hori loves the kind and gentle Miyamura, but because he’s someone she loves, she loves all sides of him, including the theoretical or fanciful ones. Miyamura, in turn, goes along with her because he loves the big ol’ weirdo who gets a kick out of it.

IV. Love Needs No Stinkin’ Glasses

Another key milestone for lovers is a desire to share and spread that love, doing what they can when they can to help their lovelorn friends (if any). Yuki is asked out by some random guy in Class 6, but keeps quiet about it for four days until Hori and Miyamura both get involved. Knowing how Yuki has a tendency to let things she wants pass her by, Miyamura gets the ball rolling by having Tooru agree to be Yuki’s fake boyfriend.

Tooru is all for this, and even takes Yuki’s hand in a totally platonic way he’s always been with her, unable to see the signs that she likes him. Tooru is ready to help Yuki turn a guy down…up to the point he gets a look at the guy. Horimiya’s bishounen game continues to be solid, as the lad in question—one Yanagi Akane (even his name is cool!)—is so ridiculously gorgeous Hori says even her boy can’t compare!

Tooru is so intimidated by Yanagi’s beauty he utterly fails in his role of possessive boyfriend, but Yanagi senses he’s Yuki’s boyfriend anyway. Could it be he can sense their history, and even Yuki’s unspoken feelings for Tooru? But mostly, Tooru wonders why the heck she’s turning this guy down…if he asked him out he’d say “yes” in a heartbeat—after it stopped skipping, presumably!

While Yuki says Yanagi is “kind of too hot, you know”, the main issue is she just doesn’t know the guy, or why he’d be into someone he didn’t know. Yuki learns from Remi (in a welcome role as Hot Guy Knower) that in addition to being super-hot, he’s also “hilarious”, as evidenced when Yanagi repeatedly bumps into a wall. Turns out the kid is virtually blind without glasses he seems to have misplaced.

Yuki waits for Yanagi at the gate after school to tell him she believes he might’ve had the wrong girl, due to his poor eyesight. Maybe the one he wanted to ask out was Hori, whom she declares to be “much taller and prettier”. C’mon, Yuki. Yanagi says no, he asked the right girl out; he knows what she looks like, and surprisingly for a guy at this school, he doesn’t know Hori at all.

Hori, Miyamura, and Tooru eventually arrive at the gate, resulting in a bit where Yanagi can’t tell Miyamura from Hori or vice versa, even at close range. The others admit this is hilarious, as Remi promised, but it seems Yuki has a choice to make. She can dismiss Yanagi’s confession out of hand and remain in an unpleasant love triangle with Tooru and Sakura. Orrr she could go on a date with the one guy at school who knows her but not Hori, learn more about him, and see how it goes. Like if Tooru were asked out by Yanagi, the choice is clear!

 

Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun – 04 – Standing Up to the Queen

Tomozaki just landed a lucky break. If there was no reason for Izumi Yuzu to approach him, he’d been making his presence known to the point that when he approached her, she felt she could come to him with her TackFam problem, which is really a Nakamura Shuuji problem. Bottom line: Izumi likes Shuuji, and wants to get good enough at the game to take him on. We also learn Shuuji recently turned down the Konno Erika, leader of the Neckties to which Yuzu belongs.

Yuzu invites Tomozaki to her place so he can teach her, and after one match he knows exactly what she needs to get better, starting with learning how to execute a short jump, which is simply a matter of practice and muscle memory. Yuzu is grateful for Tomozaki’s advice but wonders what the deal is with his various poses and gestures…turns out he’s mimicking Hinami’s teaching style without knowing it!

By the time Tomozaki is drawing detailed diagrams of all the moves Yuzu will have to memorize, she asks him: What is all the intense effort even for? He tells her what it’s not for: making friends or winning praise. When Yuzu claims she can’t ever change from her current status of superficially laughing with her necktie-wearing friends, he assures her he is proof that anyone can change; they just need to commit themselves and put in the effort.

While Hinami calls Tomozaki’s break with Yuzu pretty “miraculous” when they meet up for a debrief, she can’t deny he properly capitalized, using what he knows best (TackFam) to really connect with someone. That said, she still wants him to ask Fuuka out on a date, even producing movie tickets for them to use.

The night before, Tomozaki practices asking Fuuka out on the recorder Hinami gave her, showing how he’s learning how to listen to himself and adjust. But he also accidentally opens a folder of recordings Hinami didn’t delete: ones in which she too practices talking. He already considers it amazing she’s so good at the Game of Life; to hear the process firsthand is even more amazing.

Like him with TackFam, no matter how high a level you achieve, you can never stop practicing. But with practice comes the realization that sometimes circumstances won’t always accommodate your plans, nor will practice always inform what to do when it’s go time. To whit: Tomozaki calls an laudable audible: coming clean to Fuuka about having not read any of her favorite author, and thus not yet being ready to read her own novel.

This could have turned out disastrously, but the risk was well worth the reward of starting fresh from a position of honesty. A white lie or misunderstanding rarely forms a strong foundation for a relationship. While there’s clear and justifiable disappointment in Fuuka’s reaction, there’s also the sense she’s happy he’s being so honest. He’s also able to break the news naturally and casually enough not to come off as dismissive or cruel.

Working entirely outside the letter of Hinami’s plan while hewing to the spirit of her training, Tomozaki shows great growth here, while rejecting her “an in is an in” mentality. Yes, the author misunderstanding, got Fuuka talking to him, but so did simply asking Yuzu for a tissue.

He also wisely realizes that to ask her out on a date so soon after basically restarting their friendship from a place of honesty would be overdoing it, so he withholds the tickets for now. If he gets any flak from Hinami, he’ll be ready with a pretty good explanation. However, their next meeting is preempted by Shuuji’s two mates: he wants a TackFam rematch, now.

In the AV room, Tomozaki plays Shuuji while Shuuji’s mates, Yuzu, and Erika and her two Necktie acolytes watch. Tomozaki proceeds to beat Shuuji handily in match after match, but Shuuji keeps asking to play again. He grows more frustrated, even as he starts to improve slightly, to the point he’s able to take out one of Tomozaki’s health stocks.

That frustration creates an increasingly unpleasant tension and aura of desperation around Shuuji, to the point Erika begins to mock him as “weak”, his obsession with a “stupid game” as “creepy”, and that she dodged a bullet when he turned her down. The “stupid game” comment draws the ire of Tomozaki, as does her assertion that all of Shuuji’s hard work and practice amounts to nothing.

The old Tomozaki would have muttered something and not followed through, but this newly Hinami-trained Tomozaki is at least adept enough at the Game of Life to call Erika out for the haughty tourist she is. Shuuji may have been a dick to him all this time, but at least he’s committed to improving and keeps fighting no matter how much he loses. All Erika can do is mock someone else’s effort when she (at least as far as Tomozaki knows) puts in none at all.

Yuzu even has the courage to chime in and call Shuuji’s efforts “beautiful in a boyish way”, despite the fact doing so is contradicting the vaunted Queen of the Neckties. But I have no doubt it was Tomozaki’s earlier words about her ability to change that helped her summon the courage to speak up. Erika slinks away, pretending not to have learned anything, but she did. So did Shuuji, who probably resents Tomozaki defending him but also appreciated it.

Notable for her silence during all this is Hinami, which was no accident. The thing is, while she observed that Tomozaki had things well in hand, I also think she stayed above the fray in order to avoid needlessly upsetting the apple cart with Erika & Co., who would have likely felt ganged up on if she’d joined Tomozaki and Yuzu—an example of maintaining balance through inaction. Regardless, both Erika and Shuuji stop giving Tomozaki a hard time, now knowing better what he’s made of.

At their next meeting over lunch, Hinami asks how things are going with Fuuka, wondering if he’s lost motivation. He assures her he hasn’t, but without explaining the whole situation with coming clean and not wanting to pile on with a date request, Tomozaki pulls another laudable audible: whipping out the very tickets she gave him and asking Hinami if she’ll join him instead.

Hinami’s look of surprise is followed by the kind of proud face a master makes when their student has just done something good. Unfortunately, she’s not free tomorrow (what do you know, she does have other obligations!), but she is free for a movie now. Is it just me, or do these two just make a good couple, full stop?

It’s too early to tell, but I appreciate that Hinami doesn’t go all cliché blushy or tsundere at the prospect of Tomozaki asking her out. Maybe she gets that it’s for more “training”, or as thanks for her help so far. But at some point all these times they’re meeting up one-on-one and having fun will start painting the picture of two people…going out. We’ll see if anything comes of their consistently pleasant proximity, and more importantly, if more people start noticing them together all the damn time!

Crucially, this outing proved Tomozaki isn’t just some automaton carrying out Hinami’s directives, nor does she want him to be. She’s taught him the basics, and it’s up to him to experience how to properly use them and switch things up when warranted. The recording of Hinami also shows that her life game is an ongoing work in progress. I know it’s Tomozaki’s name in the title, but I would love to delve more into Hinami’s growth, and if Tomozaki has anything to teach her—something his recent shrewd freestyling might portend.

TONIKAWA: Over the Moon For You – 08 – Nostalgic in Nara

The big day (well, evening) has arrived: It’s time for Tsukasa to meet the parents! When they arrive in Nara, she notes that they’re near the Kasuga Grand Shrine, making the unusual comment that “even after a thousand years, it’s not like the mountains move that much.” I guess she was here back then, huh?

Anywho, Nasa’s parents, Kanoka and Enishi both claim to not be quite emotionally prepared for something as momentous as meeting their son’s new wife, but his dad proves he’s a bit odd when, right in the middle of official introductions he basically orders Nasa to take a bath. He wants to talk with Tsukasa alone for a sec. But about what?

In Nasa’s room where he only ever stayed when he helped his folks move, Tsukasa notes the lack of material possessions, mirroring his apartment, and Nasa proudly proclaims he’d be fine even if their apartment building burned down, because all of his irreplaceable possessions and data are either on him, in a safe deposit box, or on his person.

Nasa’s mom warns him that while the walls are “pretty soundproof”, he and Tsukasa probably shouldn’t “overdo it”…causing Nasa to realize he’ll be spending his first night sleeping on the same level as Tsukasa. He offers his arm for her to sleep on and learns how painful a position can be, and Tsukasa gives him a sweet goodnight kiss when prompted.

Tsukasa ends up waking up early, since Nasa was too excited to sleep much (also, Tsukasa curled up beside him during her nighttime acrobatics). That said, he’s only pretending to be asleep so he doesn’t disturb her while she’s changing, and a momentary glance at her proves “too stimulating”.

Watching the sun rise, Tsukasa notes how the smell of the wind “really takes her back”. When her father can’t think of what to talk about with her, she suggests he show her his office, where she’s able to read ancient Japanese love letter without any trouble.

From there, Tsukasa decides to spice up their historical sightseeing by taking photos of her cute husband; eventually, he suggests they take one together, which is surely a picture they’ll both treasure.

Tsukasa is unusually knowledgeable about Nara’s landmarks—almost as if she were around when some of them were first built—and wistfully observes how many thousands of ordinary people faded from history, while modern technology will allow people to be remembered virtually forever.

We eventually learn why Nasa’s dad made him take a bath: it was so he could properly thank Tsukasa for saving his son’s life. Nasa’s parents feel almost undeserving of a son as great as Nasa; he is their pride and joy, which is why his finding love could only give them happiness.

Tsukasa takes her father-in-law’s request that she look after Nasa very seriously. On the bus ride home, Tsukasa admits that while it was fun to visit his folks, she’s looking forward to returning to their little place together, where she feels most at ease.

Unfortunately, while they were gone, the entire apartment building…burned down! 

Even if they were going to hold off on moving, now they have to find a new place. But with his parents’ enthusiastic blessing of their marriage, that shouldn’t be a problem. As for whether Tsukasa is the human incarnation of Princess Kaguya, well…the evidence continues to mount and is getting harder to overlook!

Cardcaptor Sakura – 19 – Last of the Summer Swine

Sakura has procrastinated all Summer, and now on August 31 she has to do all of her homework. Thanks to her dad’s weather gizmo she can fill in her diary, while Touya exchanges five chores in exchange for building her birdhouse. Kero-chan offers to do her math homework in exchange for sweet potato sticks from Kumuya, but he doesn’t do it properly so that particular deal is off.

That just leaves her book report, something I myself used to dread for some reason during summer break. While at the library with Tomoyo, Sakura encounters Syaoran trying to use the same study space, but as his daily fortune said he’d have trouble with women today, he soon withdraws.

Turns out Syaoran has the last copy of Piglet Story, the thinnest book on the summer reading list, but it then falls into the hands of the very mischievous Move Clow Card. Sakura, Tomoyo, and Syaoran run all over the library chasing after the book (as quietly as possible), but it always slips away at the last second.

When the book starts to move outdoors, Kero-chan has Sakura close her eyes and concentrate so she can sense the card’s aura and anticipate its next move. The approach works, but Sakura is so occupied locating and sealing the card, she doesn’t realize she’s about to fall into the drink! Syaoran, being a chivalrous lad, grabs her hand, but to much of her momentum is already headed to the water and takes him with her.

That drenching would seem to be the “trouble with women” Syaoran feared, but it’s only the beginning. When he kindly offers Sakura to dry off and change at his place so she can also borrow the piglet book, Syaoran’s relative from Hong Kong, Meiling, makes her first appearance on the show, arriving quite by surprise, and at the worst time for Syaoran.

Characters who were overly violent to the boys they liked were kind of a thing in the 90s (see also Souma Kagura, whose character has eventually evolved in the 2019 reboot) and judging from her reaction to seeing Sakura in the T-shirt she bought for Syaoran, Meiling looks to be one of those types, at least at first. But like Sakura (and Syaoran himself), it’s just fun to see another character just starting out. Not to mention she’s positively stylin’ in those Chinese duds!

Fruits Basket – 37 (S2 12) – One Fine Day

And now, we take a short break from Tooru’s mission to break the Souma curse to check in on Shiraki Mayuko AKA “Mayu”, a teacher at Tooru’s school who is also best friends with Kana. You’ll remember Kana as the woman who dated Hatori, provoking Akito to injure him. Kana went mad, Hatori had to erase all her memories of ever loving him, and Kana married someone else.

Throughout all of that, Mayu was in madly love with her best friend’s boyfriend Hatori. She could never get rid of those feelings—even to this day. She tried to date Shigure when he sensed she was lonely, but that only made Mayu feel more lonely, since she didn’t really feel anything for him. He was a placeholder and happy to be such.

It never occurred to Mayu that she’d ever get a legitimate, consequences-free shot at Hatori, and yet that’s exactly what happened when Kana’s memories were wiped. Heck, when Kana recovers from her mental breakdown, she laughs at the prospect of dating Hatori, and thinks Mayu is an ideal match for him. But Mayu never made a move. Even if it was fine with Kana and Shigure and even Hatori, it never felt right for her.

That brings us to the present, and Shigure has a scheme afoot. First he stops by to ask about a book he ordered from Mayu’s family’s bookstore, but it won’t be there until tomorrow. Then Hatori himself comes, clad in a stuffy suit, having been told by Shigure the book (which was for him) would be there. The next day he comes back, this time without the suit (so Mayu wouldn’t “sweat” while looking at him). When Mayu’s mom starts to sparkle, she grabs him and heads for a more private spot.

When Mayu remarks Hatori doesn’t “exude happiness” the way he did when he was with Kana, he laments that happiness might just not be for him. That causes over two years of Mayu’s pent-up frustration to suddenly burst out in a torrent of bawling. It reminds Hatori of a boy at the Souma estate also crying, and the doctor in him realizes the health benefits of a good cathartic cry, such that he thinks he could use one himself!

With that, the other shoe of Shigure’s scheme drops when Hatori tells Mayu that he actually has no current girlfriend (the woman Shigure mentioned was Hiro’s mom). He then causally asks her out to lunch, his smile returning at the realization of what a fine day it is. It’s the first step in both of them finding new happiness, as Kana already has.

Just as the first episode of Furuba’s second season started with the focus on a tertiary character in Motoko, its twelfth episode does the same. While I can’t say going in I was itching for a Shiraki Mayuko episode, like Motoko’s episode this was still a strong outing in its own right and a welcome follow-up to the first season’s episode 15. Now hopefully Mayu can stay far, far away from Akito…

P.S. Read Crow’s review of episode 12 here.

Hamefura – 03 – Catarina Claes and the Cursed Child

Lil’ Catarina has just discovered the romance novels of her world and has become hooked, just as she was hooked on manga and otome in her world. All she hopes for is someone she can converse with on these books, and she finds that someone quite by chance at the Stuarts’ tea party. Her name is Sophia Ascart, and due to her white hair and red eyes she’s a pariah among most of their peers. Obviously, Catarina sees things differently.

After rescuing her from verbal barbs of other nobles, Catarina becomes fast friends with Sophia, and they geek out on romance novels. Catarina could see her and Sophia being friends in the other world too. She also learns that befriending Sophia won’t throw up any additional doom flags, though Sophia’s taciturn older brother Nicol is quite the looker, attracting women and men alike.

I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop with her friendship to Sophia, but…it never happens. In this manner, Hamefura subverts expectations by playing things straight. They become good friends without any problems, and all of a sudden seven years have passed and Catarina is now fifteen years old. Now all the characters look like they do in the otome.

That means the prologue is officially over. The time jump was abrupt but well-timed: watching lil’ Catarina dart from party to party was growing stale. She’s done her best to avoid the things that kill or exile her in the game, from remaining close and kind to Keith to honing her combat skills.

She also remains good friends with Sophia and Mary, with no messy love triangles with the guys (so far). Gerald is still committed to marrying her (and plants a hickey on her neck, demonstrating his covert sadism). We’ll see how things unfold as she pursues the route of survival in earnest!

Somali and the Forest Spirit – 07 – The Witching Hour

As he did with Shizuno and Yabashira, Golem confides in Haitora the truth of his dwindling lifespan, and how like Haitora he won’t be around to see his charge grow up. It’s like he’s getting the weight of the lie off his chest; dropping the facade of pretending everything’s okay with Somali.

Even so, Haitora considers Somali all too lucky to have found Golem, as she gets to live her life with a smile on her face and with peace of mind thanks to her guardian’s care, despite being a human.

Haitora’s words make Golem feel lighter in the chest. Anyone who thinks Somali hasn’t made him more human isn’t paying attention. The next day, Golem and Somali say goodbye to Haitora and Uzoi, but Uzoi promises Somali they’ll meet again once she’s found a cure for Haitora. I for one would have enjoyed them remaining together longer, especially since it makes sense for all four of them should be headed in the same direction.

That’s because Golem and Somali’s new destination is a village filled with witches who bear a solemn duty to amass all of the world’s knowledge. If there was a cure for eating harpy flesh, you’d guess you’d find it there. Alas, it’s just Golem and Somali, who are greeted by a bevy of witches selling all manner of delicious food an drink, in which the food-crazy Somali is all to happy to indulge. The village is gorgeous with its whimsical architecture and glowing light.

The pair are directed to the Witches’ Crest Library, a huge and grand structure containing millions of books of every conceivable topic. Just being led into the libarary and hearing the various voices bounce off the walls has a major impact, a feeling of being truly immersed into this gradually expanding fantasy world. Somali is eager to read a book about food, and I’m surprised she knows how to read!

Among the myriad non-human clans of this world, one would think witches, like harpies, would be able to “sniff out” a human in disguise. But if their magical hosts detect Somali’s true nature, they don’t make an issue of it. Instead, friendly librarian witch Hazel and her bookworm older sister Praline are happy to escort Golem to the location of a biography that makes mention of humans.

Things are derailed a bit when Somali locates the book in question on a shelf and recklessly pulls it off the shelf, dislodging a school of skeletal book-eating fish who are particularly interested in that particular book. Praline summons several little blue penguins to eat the fish, while Hazel produces a cloud of rose petals that squash the remaining beasts out. Their magic, and the accompanying music, adds the whimsical, wondrous atmosphere.

Even Hazel’s spell isn’t enough, however, as the surviving bookfish coalesce into a single giant subspecies. Somali refuses to give up the book, runs off, and inevitably trips over her feet. The book goes flying and the bookfish destroy it before a single page can be written. Worse, Golem must sacrifice the remaining “skin” on his arm and enter into a reflexive Attack Mode to rescue Somali and defeat the fish boss.

Somali is tearfully apologetic for getting Golem hurt, but he’s not concerned as long as she’s okay. Praline also suggests that all is not lost if they can find the previous person to have read the book, who could then share its contents with Golem and Somali. It turns out the last borrower of the book was Isolde Nebsolv, their boss and Head Librarian.

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun – 06 – Staying Put

When the entrance to the 4 O’Clock Library is revealed, Kou accompanies Nene inside, and it isn’t long until she finds her own book. She can’t resist the temptation to read ahead into the future, whereupon the book starts to turn red with blood and the Fifth Wonder attacks. Kou forgets his staff was sealed, but Hanako-kun arrives to save them.

Turns out the fifth wonder’s manager Tsuchigomori-sensei, was only teasing them. Hanako-kun is the leader of the seven wonders, who are dedicated to keeping the supernatural peace at the school, but one one of them is working with a human like Nene, only stirring up trouble. His solution is to temporarily sap the wonders of their power by neutralizing their Yorishiro.

Hanako chooses Nene to accompany Tsuchigomori to the site of his Yorishiro, which turns out to be a moon rock Hanako gave to him back in the sixties during the moon landing. When he was alive, Hanako was Yuji Amane, a Tsuchigomori was his homeroom teacher who was always concerned about Hanako getting bullied and beaten up.

Hanako was the only human Tsuchigomori knows about who was able to change the future as written in his book. Hanako’s book said he’d have a future as a science teacher at the school, but he died when he was still a “brat”, which Tsuchigomori considers a tremendous shame.

The flashback plays out like Yako’s, with Nene experiencing his memories as if in a dream. When she comes to, she’s in the infirmary. As she desired, Nene now knows a little more about Hanako, including his real name and enthusiasm for space and science when he was alive.

But as she greets him with an almost maternal hug, he can tell she’s learned something about him, and if anything seems a bit miffed. Still, he can hardly have expected to keep all his secrets secure considering the amount of time Nene is spending with him.

Ascendance of a Bookworm – 03

Bookworm Here! I’m just making nice baskets during the winter, failing at papyrus, inventing pancakes and crochet to make my older sister a pre-baptism hair ornament, and correcting math errors at the guard house! Everyone around me is starting to notice… how this is different from the Myne I was before but what evs? At least there was some character building around me this episode…

As generic Isekai go, Bookworm’s choice to show things being made, and explain process, elevates it from the mayonnaise-eaters at the bottom, but not by much? Coupled with Myne’s father’s miss-reading Myne’s feelings for Otto and the awkward conversation about marriage that followed, and the episode gets a pass. The framing and scene blocking were good too.

Better than Prodigies in a 6/10 sort of way.