Whisper Me a Love Song – 02 – Russian Blue

Yori and Himari have made a habit of sharing their time on the rooftop, and Himari is not shy about telling Yori how she loves her singing. Yori finds her thoughts of late are dominated by the painfully adorable Himari. When she pats her head, Himari blushes, but when she takes off, Yori blushes even more. She’s not sure what she’s doing, but she knows she likes Himari.

She encounters Himari waiting outside her class at lunch, and on Aki’s urging they exchange contact info. This is how Aki learns that Himari is the girl Yori is into (and we later learn that Aki is still into Yori herself). Since it’s raining, Himari meets Yori in her classroom after school, and asks her if she wants to go on a date to a cat-themed merch pop-up at the station on Sunday. Yori enthusiastically accepts, and it’s First Date Time.

Yori shows up effortlessly mature and stylish, while Himari is a tiny goddess of cuteness in her maroon dress and white blouse. Yori compliments her and Himari is glad she dressed up for the occasion. At lunch Himari feeds Yori, and the two end up holding hands to not get lost at the packed pop-up. Himari picks out matching phone straps for them to share, and Yori buys them as a gift for her.

At a music store, Himari tells Yori she wants to see “both sides” of her: the gentle solo artist on the rooftop and the snazzy frontwoman in the band. Yori decides she’ll give the band thing a try after all. Throughout the date, she’s is on cloud nine. Just being beside Himari makes her happy, and all Himari has to do is smile or praise her for that happiness to soar even higher.

When she expresses as much to Himari before they part ways, Himari laughs it off, saying being her girlfriend would be great. But as she walks away, Yori takes hold of her arm and tells her, in no uncertain terms, that she wants to go out with her, for real for real, and asks if she’ll think about it.

When Himari does so in the bath that night, she worries that her love and Yori’s are different. But then again, she also asks herself what love even is. In any case, the cat’s out of the bag and there’s no putting it back: Himari knows that Yori-senpai has feelings for her. I wonder how she’ll choose to respond to them.

Whisper Me a Love Song – 01 (First Impressions) – A Happy Misreading

First-year high schooler Kino Himari joins her longtime friend and classmate Miki to watch her older sister play in a band composed of third-years to welcome the new students. The moment Himari sees the cool beauty of the band’s frontwoman was love at first sight. When Himari catches the older, taller girl by the shoe lockers, she uses those precise words: “I fell in love at first sight.”

Those words, combined with the enthusiasm and intensity with which Himari says them, make it possible to interpret it as a confession of love. The fact the singer, one Asanagi Yori, finds Himari incredibly cute and her smile surpassingly pretty, means the “love at first sight” was mutual.

Yori reports this enchanting encounter to her friends, who partly tease her for having finally found someone, and also encourage her to respond to the girl in however way she sees fit; the better to inspire her to write the love song they want her to compose. She doesn’t know Himari’s name, but thanks to Miki, Himari knows Yori’s, along with her birthday, blood type, and tendency to sing songs on the roof.

So when Himari appears on the roof, Yori works up the courage to tell her she fell in love at first sight too, and learns that Yori wasn’t talking about falling into romantic love with Yori personally. Instead, she used the words “love at first sight” to describe how she became a fan of Yori and her music on the spot.

At first, Yori is crestfallen, and embarrassed for misinterpreting Himari’s words so totally. But she wasn’t really that far off. Words are imprecise in these matters, but she cannot deny she likes Himari and wants to keep seeing her and especially her smile. So when Himari agrees to watch her perform on the roof every day, Yori takes that as an opportunity to her Himari to fall for her even harder.

Himari may not be aware of Yori’s feelings for her, but only because she’s in a different mindset. Perhaps in time, Yori’s feelings will come through loud and clear. In the meantime, the two have such good chemistry together that they spend their first rooftop session simply chatting, and Yori ain’t mad about that at all.

Misunderstanding or not, Yori’s feelings aren’t going away, so she might as well keep playing and singing for Himari in this effortlessly sweet, gentle, and charming story about different kinds of love coming together and resulting in a new, unique, and beautiful sound.

Hyakkano – 12 (Fin) – Nothing Like the Real Thing

Turns out Hahari did not invite Rentarou to her bedroom to “deflower” him, though the opening shots and sounds they make together certainly lend that impression. When the other girls enter, they find that she simply wanted to dress him up like a gyaru, which causes a “hurricane of hngh” in the others, who profess their undying gratitude to Hahari for her good works.

Rentarou is so embarrassed that he passes out, but Hahari knows just the trick to wake up a sleeping beauty: a dashing Prince Charming, i.e. Nano in drag. This results in “Droolception,” starting with Hahari and working its way down the line of girls. When Rentarou steps out in a huff to take his bath, Hahari and Hakari prepare to peep on him, and it doesn’t take much for Karane to join them.

Nano and Kusuri are also game; only Shizuka is against such an indecent activity. Nano wraps her up in a sheet like a burrito, but thanks to her determination (and gravity) she actually manages to roll into the bath and (inadvertently) see Rentarou’s little Rentarou first. This is after Kusuri’s first attempt to peep only scared the bejeesus out of Rentarou, but at first mistakes the soaked Shizuka for Sadako.

While everyone is playing cards together, Hahari suddenly reacts as if she remembered something, and excuses herself without explanation. Rentarou goes after her, and learns she went to light incense and pray at the shrine of her first love.

Because she never stopped loving him, she’s struggling with loving Rentarou, but as someone who loves all six of his girlfriends the same, he hugs her and tells her it’s just as okay for her to love two men. They then share their first kiss. It’s a lovely and surprisingly moving scene, helped in no small part by Sumippe’s excellent vocal performance.

That night while everyone’s asleep, Karane initially fumes when Hakari curls up next to Rentarou. But when she tearfully expresses how scared and miserable she was at the prospect of never being with him again (which was this very same night!) and Rentarou comforts her with a kiss and a promise he’ll never leave her, Karane decides to let her have this night.

Later on, Karane and Hakari end up making out in their sleep, each imagining the other as Rentarou. I loved Rentarou’s wholesome reaction to how close the two are.

When Rentarou heads to the bathroom he encounters the ghost of Hakari’s dad in the hall. While he’s ready to take Rentarou to task, he notes that the boy isn’t scared of him. Rentarou explains that from what he knows about Hakari and Hahari, he must have been a kind, warm, and loving guy, so there’s no need to fear him.

Rentarou and Hakari’s father end up shaking hands and vowing to watch over Hakari and Hahari, but Rentarou does such a good job convincing him that they’ll be alright without him, he actually passes on to the afterlife. Rentarou wakes up in the morning on the floor of the hall.

With that, everyone parts ways to get in uniform and head to school—turns out it was a school night!—but there’s one more surprise: Hahari bought the school so she could head up the school board and thus stay close to Rentarou. Rentarou had already hiked to Hahari’s mansion for his lunch break, so he has to hustle back to school.

As he does, he passes by several girls who I’m sure will be his next soulmates once they lock eyes. As he reaches the rooftop to find Shizuka, Hahari, Hakari, Karane, Nano, and Kusuri waiting to eat lunch with him, I couldn’t help but feel excited about what’s to come. A second season has been confirmed, so that rooftop, along with any future mansion sleepovers, are about to get a lot more crowded!

Kimizero – 02 – Enjoying the Ride

Runa is characteristically full speed ahead in establishing her new relationship with Ryuuto by hanging around and talking to him at every opportunity. But old habits die hard, and both the discouraging comments from his friends and dirty looks from other classmates have him feeling anxious.

He’s simply not used to this level of attention, and still isn’t 100% sure his friends aren’t right about Runa simply dating him as a joke. In order to minimize the stares, he asks if they can keep their relationship a secret at school. Runa takes this to mean he wants to see her outside of school, so a date it is!

The prospect of even taking a girl out on a date, let alone someone like Runa, adds to his anxiety as he frantically googles what to do. But when Runa video chats with him, it puts him more at ease. He decides to let her take the lead and do whatever it is she finds fun. Runa’s never been on that kind of date.

That Saturday, Runa takes him up on that, as her idea of a good time is shopping for cute outfits, accessories, cosmetics, and consumables. That said, as the date progresses she asks him if this is even that fun for him, or if he’s bored. But Ryuuto isn’t bored. Watching Runa look so happy makes him happy.

The next day, the day Runa said she’d have plans, his morning text to her goes unread most of the day, and Ryuuto’s anxiety blends with suspicion, paranoia, and possessiveness. He becomes convinced that this is it, and when he gets a text from her asking him to meet her in the park, he believes it’s so she can dump him.

Of course, that doesn’t happen. This is only the second episode! No, she’s just too excited to delay giving him a gift: a limited edition phone case that matches hers. Ryuuto is so touched and relieved that he actually tears up. Runa is surprised it means so much to him, but is also touched.

While they walk, Ryuuto chalks up his awkwardness with girls to the fact he once asked out his desk neighbor Kurose in his first year of middle school. He thought she felt the same way about him, but turns out she only thought of him as a good friend. Tale as old as time!

Runa doesn’t mock Ryuuto’s story; on the contrary, she’s glad he was turned down because it meant they could go out. When Ryuuto says middle school romances don’t last, Runa says her parents met and fell in love in middle school, then married after high school.

When a blue limited edition Toyota Supra zooms by and Runa notes how cool it is, Ryuuto goes off on an extremely rapid-fire and detailed explanation of how sports cars differ from normal cars. But while it’s a lot of information at once, it gets Runa thinking, and also gets her to open up more.

She wonders if she’s like a sports car, rushing forward as fast as she can to catch up to her parents and become an adult. But despite all her experiences, a lasting relationship has eluded her. We also learn her parents eventually divorced, so perhaps she hopes to succeed where they failed?

While Runa compares herself to a sports car as simply a means to an end, Ryuuto tells her that sports cars aren’t just about getting somewhere fast. They’re built to make the drive, the journey itself fun. From what he’s seen, Runa has been making the most of her life and sees no reason why she should change as long as she’s having fun.

With that, she challenges him to a race to the station. He can’t quite keep up with her pace, either then or in general, but he’s slowly getting there, and more importantly, learning more about the person he fell for. I’m also glad we got a scene of Runa talking to Nicole on the phone about how Ryuuto just “feels right”. We’ll see if the sudden transfer of his first crush Kurose Maria to his class throws a wrench in the works!

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead – 01 (First Impressions) – Out of Office

Tendou Akira is broken. Working at home while easting and watching a zombie movie, the camera pulls back when he finally passes out, and his apartment is a abject disaster. It wasn’t always like this. When Akira was a bright-eyed bushy-tailed new hire at a production company, he was ready to take a bite out of the world…and immediately fell for Saori from Accounting.

When he joins his co-workers for drinks after work, Akira is on top of the world, and Saori even gives him a smile when their eyes meet among the others. But then everyone gets up at the same time…to head back to work. His first day is an all-nighter. Then another all-nighter. There is simply too much work, but he wouldn’t dream of complaining on his first day.

When he’s finally able to go home two days later, all he can do is collapse into his bed, utterly spent. But the next morning he decides to stop complaining, dust himself off, and get back to work. His chipper, never-say-die attitude transfers to his voiceover as he describes what a great company he works for, which contrasts with the awful things taking place in reality—including the CEO assaulting Saori without consent.

Ultimately, there is no way to sugarcoat what is going on at this exploitative company, and Akira loses both the will and energy to do so. Ground down into dust, he apologizes to mailboxes and is shambling around like, well, a zombie. One morning starts with Akira getting a letter stating he forgot to pay his bike parking fee. But when he goes to the office to sort it out, a man is eating a woman—both of whom have been turned into zombies.

Akira runs out of his building to find a full-on Zombie Apocalypse taking place in Tokyo, and all he can think about is how he’s going to be late for work…until he realizes there isn’t going to be work today, or tomorrow, or ever. The moment he realizes this is exceedingly cathartic and joyful, and the show’s house style turns his monochrome world into one of vivid color: blue skies, green trees…and red blood.

While an apocalypse for nearly everyone else, Akira feels like he’s been given a new lease on life (especially since his job was giving him suicidal thoughts), and he fully intends to do as much as he can with the time he now has at his disposal. The first thing he wants to do is properly confess his feelings for Saori, which he’s harbored since they first met.

Only when he arrives at her apartment, the CEO is there. Despite the CEO turning into a Bloater-like super zombie before his eyes, Akira calmly and professionally declares his resignation, before using his rugby background to shove his murderous boss off the balcony.

But if the boss is a zombie, it stands to reason Saori is too. And sure enough, she is. But in the few seconds he has before she rushes him with intent to eat his brains, he declares his love for her, and at least for a moment, in his head, he gets one last smile from Saori, before he has to run for his life. In both the resignation and confession scenes, Akira is essentially the straight man while the CEO and Saori are the comic in these deliciously dark double acts.

Akira stops by a konbini to buy a notebook and writes “100 Things I Want to Do Before I Turn into a Zombie”, which gives us the show’s playful title and also leads to the baller ED theme (which may end up being the OP theme in future episodes). With the affairs of his “old” life all squared away, he has truly turned a new page, and there’s nothing but adventure and excitement up ahead!

That is, unless he’s being overly optimistic to the point of delusion, like he was during his earlier tenure with the exploitative company—the kind on which the show levels ruthless, withering, in-your-face criticism. The contrast between Akira’s chipper-ness and the horrible zombie apocalypse milieu makes for a book full of blank checks the studio, Bug Films, seems fully capable of cashing.

I’m looking forward to seeing what he has in mind for his Zombie Bucket List, and who he’ll meet who still has a good head attached to their shoulders. Zom 100 also happens to be one of the most lushly animated and stylish cinematic series since Chainsaw Man, with a premise nearly as bodacious as Akiba Maid War. Mostly it’s just a bloody crowd-pleasing bucket of fun.

My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex – 11 – A Mess Under the Hood

Ahhh, is there anything nicer than a scene of two lovebirds talking on the phone just to hear each other’s voices? That’s how the episode starts, and it’s like being wrapped in a warm, fluffy blanket. So serene…but also so bittersweet. After the credits the Iridous have arrived at their relatives’ country house, and Yume meets Mizuto’s second cousin, who happens to be an absolute babe—a megane babe, at that!

When the fam hits the river for a barbecue, Madoka again compliments Yume’s figure and swimsuit, while also noting she’s “watched over” Mizuto since kindergarten. Mizuto is off in the shade reading and being antisocial, as always, but Yume learns that when his mom died, he and his dad must have endured a good bit of hardship, making her that much more determined to protect their new family by rejecting her feelings.

Later that night Yume enters the study of Mizuto’s late great-grandad’s study to tell him the bath’s ready, and finds him reading an old book entitled The Siberian Dancing Girl. Mizuto notes that it is his great-grandad’s autobiography of when he was interned in Siberia. It was the first book he ever read start to finish, and reads it every year he comes to his relatives.

He invites her to read it, and she takes him up on the offer, reading it through in one sitting. By the end, she’s in tears, and notices an old dried tear right next to her fresh one. She can’t help but feel closer to Mizuto, having now read the book that shaped him, which no one else but the two of them have ever read.

The next day, Madoka has laid out yukatas for the fireworks festival, and notices Yume sighing profusely. She quickly diagnoses it as Yume being in love with Mizuto and…Yume can’t necessarily refute that! Instead, she opens up a little to Madoka, who proves surprisingly deft at analyzing Yume’s whole deal, invalidating her feelings and trying to find excuses not to be with Mizuto

Madoka also figures the only thing for it is some direct action. To that end, she finagles things so Yume ends up alone in a relatively small, dark room with Mizuto for at least a half-hour. She figures that should be enough time for Yume to build up the courage to say what she wants to say and then say it.

At first, all Yume can do is look forlorn and say “Mizuto”, but in her head the words are streaming like the river she sat beside. She recalls the weight off her shoulders when they broke up, but she’s full of regret over things she never did that she should have, like call him over the summer, or sharing Christmas and Valentines with him.

It turns out, Mizuto doesn’t have to hear Yume say any of these things. It’s all in her face, and in the tears that start to fall. So he calls her as Ayai—which was just her old last name but sounds so much more intimate when he says it—and says that just this once, they can go back in time. So they embrace, and just hold one another until it’s dark out. They’re not pretending, they’re just being two people, not collections of ideals.

When Yume tells him how she figured Madoka was his first love, he immediately shoots that down; he never had feelings for her. He then tosses a jab at her—something about having so much good for her “on paper” but being a “mess under the hood.” He then says her nose is running, and she reacts, only for him to be kidding. That makes her laugh, which allows him to tell her who his actual first love was without saying it. He just says she loved to laugh. She still does!

I’m officially convinced that this show suffers from a terrible title, especially the English translation. All it does is tell you the surface scenario: step mom, daughter, ex. This is about that, but it’s also about so much more, about everything that came before that, and has managed to make something so wacky on paper incredibly moving and compelling under the hood.

GODDAMN TEARJERKER™ CERTIFIED

Osamake – 04 – Piling On

Osamake reiterates the fine mess that has been made as each vertex of the Shiro-Haru-Kuro love triangle wallows in misery in their dark bedrooms. Haru blames himself, Kuro blames Haru, and Shiro blames Kuro for the mess, but they’re all pretty much equally responsible.

Tetsu doesn’t make things easier for any of them the next day at school when he announces that his video of the whole horrific fiasco was watched by over a million people on “WeTube”, though his primary goal wasn’t to humiliate anyone but promote Haru’s potential comeback.

The video has the unexpected effect of attracting another woman from Haru’s acting past: the now famous and beloved star Momosaka Maria, who stakes out her territory immediately by coming into Haru’s class and glomming onto him. When Shiro and Kuro try to complain, she dismisses them as, respectively, the woman he used to like and the woman who rejected him about as publically as anyone could reject someone.

Bottom line, Momo-chan considers them to be in Haru’s rearview mirror, while she represents his future. Haru was this little sister figure’s first love, and she’s determined to hitch her star to his wagon, so to speak. After she departs for the time being, Tetsu treats Haru to an apology pizza, only to reveal it was procured by his “jack-of-all-trades” fixer, Asagi Rena, who smells “good money” on a Haru comeback.

But Rena’s intro is interrupted by Shiro, who with her friend Meiko’s help invites Haru to come to her house sometime, ostensibly to meet with her father again. When Kuro tries to intervene, the mere sight of her triggers Haru’s trauma over being rejected and he literally turns into a tiny monkey hiding behind Shiro, who lets Kuro have it on his behalf.

Haru doesn’t like how things ended with Kuro there, but he’s more distressed about the mess he helped make as a result of not fully understanding how Kuro felt despite being so close to her for so long. He talks with Tetsu on the phone about it, unaware that Tetsu has him on speaker and Kuro is listening. Tetsu asks what Kuro is going to do, but she doesn’t respond.

Meanwhile, Momo continues her campaign to conquer Haru and cut the other two out of his life by letting herself into his house and cooking him all his favorite dishes, which she learned of from his late mother way back when. Haru realizes that the press crush and online calming must’ve been Momo’s doing, while Momo admits that the video was the trigger to finally approach him about rejoining the agency where they first met, now run by Shun Hardy, son of its former boss, “Auntie Nina.”

She has two cards: one for Haru and one for Kuro, but then this development is interrupted by another: Kuro’s three sisters are at Haru’s door to report that…Kuro has developed amnesia. As sudden bouts of amnesia (especially those unexplained by an accident or other physical trauma) are my least favorite anime plot device, I sincerely hope this is another ruse. But even if it is a ruse, it’s simply one too many things going on. The gorgeous mess has become an ugly one.

Shiro’s continuing attempts to make Haru fall for him again, the viral video kickstarting Haru’s acting career, the sudden appearance of Momo and Rena, whatever Tetsu still may be planning, and now Kuro apparently has freakin’ amnesia? It’s needlessly, discouragingly too damn much. Combined with the increasingly apparent meh production values, the shine is starting to wear off Osamake. I’m morbidly curious to see what becomes of this amnesia issue, but the show needs to settle down and focus soon, or I’m out.

Osamake – 03 – Flipping a Switch

The day of the cultural festival and its all-important confession session have arrived, and Sueharu is ready to do battle with Mitsuru for Kachi’s heart. But just as Sueharu is causing Kuro to blush by complimenting her cute café outfit, he gets an unexpected visitor: Shirou, the kid he hung out with when he was little.

Of course, we know it’s just Kachi, with her seiyu Sakura Ayane only making her voice a little more boyish. To her surprise and delight, not only does Sueharu remember who she is, but remembers the promise he made to appear in something she wrote. Shirou reveals she is and was Kachi all along, and asks that he call her Shiro, and she’ll start calling him Su-chan again.

Kuro overhears this all, and isn’t ready to give Sueharu up just yet. Sueharu may not have known until now that Shirou was Kachi, but he knows Kuro well enough to know when she’s seeking attention, since she goes off on frustrated rants to him and only him. Everytime Kuro and Sueharu share the screen, you know you’re in for some wonderful character work.

Unfortunately their time together leading up to his big performance ends on a bitter note, as Kuro decides it’s necessary to “hit the reset button” on her and Sueharu’s relationship. She commemorates the moment with a slap, saying whatever he does with Kachi isn’t her concern. Though she runs off, she can’t help but turn back when Sueharu calls her name, and gives him just the saddest, loneliest smile as she wishes him luck on stage.

With that, the confession festival begins, and by God what a cur-sed exercise. Sure, it works out for one guy confessing his love to a girl who feels the same way, but seriously, if this is a real thing in schools these days I’m glad I’m not in high school anymore. I’ll confess to someone in private, thaaaaaanks.

The resulting song-and-dance-off between Mitsuru and Sueharu is suitably anticlimactic. I’m no dance instructor, but it looks like they’re both dancing like Elaine from Seinfeld, and their mouths rarely, if ever, move while they’re supposedly singing. Still, the scene is notable for not going the way I thought, with Sueharu suffering a sudden bout of stage fright and ruining his big chance, as several flags set earlier suggested.

I made special mention of Kuro’s parting smile immediately before his performance because that’s what I believe caused Sueharu to flip a switch of his own, and I’m not talking about going into stage mode. While he woke up that morning intending to confess to Shiro, his interactions with Kuro before and since have finally gelled into the realization that she is the one most important to him.

When Sueharu confesses to Kuro instead of Shiro, it’s a tremendous shock for both girls. Shiro is shook, while Kuro is caught so off guard she impulsively and very publically turns him down, still sore from when he turned her down.

As we learn in the aftermath of this total romantic fiasco when he and Tetsuhiko do the postgame show, Mitsuru wasn’t an asshole after all! Shiro was never dating him; he simply went along with it when she lied and then was too proud to take it back. Mitsuru intentionally chose a song that Sueharu was far better at performing, because he selfishly wanted to see Mitsuru back on stage.

Both Mitsuru and Tetsuhiko did all they could for Shiro and Sueharu, respectively. But when Sueharu changed on a dime who he’d be confessing to, he sealed his fate; Haru was under no obligation to say yes, due to a part of her wanting revenge against him for taking her for granted and pining for Shiro. Shiro, in turn, could have gotten Sueharu if she hadn’t lied about Mitsuru, which caused him and Haru to plot revenge against her.

Finally, Kuro played herself, because in hindsight the satisfaction she got from rejecting Sueharu simply wasn’t worth it. Now she regrets rejecting him, just as Shiro did after learning him quitting acting wasn’t his fault. The timing of all three sucked, resulting in all of them being alone and miserable.

And as complicated as this whole business felt, this is the last time it’s just Sueharu, Kuro, and Shiro, as a third girl is introduced post-credits, discovering her “Onii-chan” has returned to the stage. The messiness has just begun!

Osamake – 02 – The Cost of Assumptions

Maru Sueharu was indeed a famous and talented child actor, while his dad was a stuntman and his mother an “unsuccessful” actress. Abe Mitsuru asks why Sueharu suddenly quit acting six years ago, but I doubt the answer matters much to him, as once Mitsuru found out Sueharu liked Shirokusa, he decided to date her for the express purpose of humiliating him and proving that he “won”. I take it back; this guy’s a dick!

Mitsuru also makes clear his intentions to officially confess to Shirokusa at the confession festival, in hopes of squashing Suehar’s first love for good. Why he cares so much about Sueharu is anyone’s guess, but the bottom line is that if Sueharu will need to make a big splash at the festival to foil his scheme.

Despite Kuroha loudly proclaiming she and Sueharu are now dating, Shirokusa still agrees to write a script for a play Sueharu will perform for the festival—provided he’s the star and she gets properly compensated. She then contributes to his persona non grata status with the boys by exchanging NINE info with him.

Kuroha, who we learn is one of four beautiful Shida sisters who live next door to Sueharu, stops by to check on him. Once again the two exhibit a warm, lovely lived in chemistry. While she’s organizing his books, a photo slips out of one of them: a photo of him as a kid with someone who is clearly Shirokusa.

Sueharu, who calls Shirokusa Kachi, doesn’t make the connection to his old friend “Shiro”, because he is very dumb and possibly face-blind. Right on cue, Shirokusa then calls Sueharu up, and they have a playful little chat to arrange a place and time to meet and talk about the play. After the call, Kuroha knows it was Shirokusa on the line, and is worried about Sueharu jumping back into acting after so long.

She also makes clear that even if it doesn’t go well it doesn’t matter, because he has other qualities besides acting ability, and she reiterates that she likes him. When she teases his red face, he raises a mirror to show her hers, then tries to go further by taking her by the chin and teasing a kiss, only to chicken out when she was ready to go.

I realize I said this last week, but it sure would be a lot easier if he got over Shirokusa and dated Kuroha for real! I know, I know, love polygon romcoms need these kinds of bumps to provide drama. Speaking of drama, on the day Sueharu practices on stage with Tetsuhiko, he suddenly suffers what I’d describe as a panic attack and passes out.

He wakes up in the nurse’s office, with Shirokusa by his side, ready to begin their meeting when he’s ready. She admits she decided to write the script for him because she’s supporting him getting back into acting. As far as payment goes, she wants neither cash nor groveling, but an explanation for what happened to his acting career. Sueharu proceeds to tell a sad tale of his mother getting the role of his mother in the second season of Child Star, the show that made him famous.

But his mom put so much into her role, she ended up hitting her head while filming a scene where her character was to be hit by a car. The show was going to be cancelled, but Sueharu insisted the show go on. But after that second season it went on indefinite hiatus, along with his career. He couldn’t tell anyone at the time what happened due to a gag order.

Sueharu’s story moves Shirokusa to tears, and not just because it’s a sad story, but because it throws off her whole revenge plot against him—which predates his by six years! As expected, the “Shiro” Sueharu and Kuroha saw in the photo was her. She was spellbound by his performances on TV, and had him invited to her house to hang out. I particularly love how in this flashback her younger self looked his way with her head sideways on the desk, just like she did in the present when he asked her to write him a script.

Back then, she asks if she could write something for him to act in, and he was enthusiastic about it. He thus became her muse, as she began to write prolifically. But when he stopped coming by without explanation and his show ended, Shirokusa took it as a personal affront. She dedicated to becoming stronger, prettier, and famous to get back at him for leaving her.

As she walks home after their meeting, Shirokusa is in tears, because he’d gone from her first love to her hating him, and now she’s back to loving him, especially knowing what happened wasn’t her fault, or anyone’s. My questions are, is she in cahoots with Mitsuru or are they using each other to make Sueharu envious, and will this revelation lead to her cancelling her vendetta?

Whatever path she takes, Sueharu and Kuroha are proceeding with the play in which he upstages Mitsuru and confesses to Shirokusa. But Kuroha doesn’t trust Shirokusa and worries that this is a trap by her and Mitsuru to kick him as low as he can go just when he’s riding high. Nevertheless, Sueharu wants to give it a try.

While Kuroha is worried about him, as a childhood friend would, she’s also supportive, telling him that even after all this time his natural talent is still there, and he’s a better actor than he gives himself credit for. As long as he’s acting for someone, she knows he’ll do great. Ideally, that someone is her!

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl (Bunny Girl-Senpai Movie) – Heart of the Matter

From June 2019 (a much simpler time) comes the continuation of the Bunny Girl-Senpai anime, the broadcast of which ended without answering key questions about the nature of Sakuta’s first crush, Makinohara Shouko (Minase Inori). Don’t bother watching this movie without having seen the anime, my reviews for which you can read here.

Our titular Rascal Sakuta is actually doing fine with Mai as his busy actress/model girlfriend Mai. But one day a college-aged version of Shouko arrives at Sakuta’s apartment, ready to move in with the man she loves. Anxiety about the future from a much younger Shouko from the fourth grade led to her Adolescence Syndrome that created her future self in the present.

The younger Shouko reveals to Sakuta and Mai that she’s been in and out of the hospital all her life with a bum ticker; she wasn’t even expected to survive past middle school, hence her anxiety. The older Shouko was created to live out all of the plans her younger self couldn’t write down in that elementary school “future plans” exercise.

Those plans include not only graduating middle and high school and being admitted to college, but meeting the boy of her dreams, confess to him, and eventually marry him. For all those things to happen, Shouko needed a heart transplant, and while she’s doing a “trial run” wedding at a venue in a gown, Sakuta notices a scar on her chest and realizes it was he who gave her that new heart.

According to Rio, Shouko’s will was likely split between one who was resigned to dying young and one who sought to continue her life. Now the future Shouko tells Sakuta about a car accident that will claim his life and allow his heart to be donated to her. She gives him the choice between spending Christmas Eve with her or with Mai.

The wounds on Sakuta’s chest are the result of the contradiction of his heart being both in his chest and in that of the older Shouko. Now that Sakuta knows one version of his future and the doom that befalls him, it means he can act to change it. Preventing his accident spells doom for Shouko, but letting the accident happen means leaving Mai all alone.

Sakuta is desperate to try to have his cake and eat it to, but the bottom line is he simply can’t. And while it’s a tough choice, it’s not an impossible one. He visits the younger Shouko in the hospital to tell her that the both of them have done all they can.

For her part, Mai wants Sakuta to choose a future with her, and follow the older Shouko’s instructions to celebrate Christmas Eve at home where it’s safe. She even tries to lead him on a train journey to take them as far away as possible from a situation where she’d lose him, urging him to share the pain of choosing to live on with his girlfriend.

After paying young Shouko one last visit (she’s in the ICU), Sakuta has a change of heart, especially when he realizes Shouko knew he’d pick Mai. He rushes to meet with Shouko instead, and is almost run over by a van, but he’s saved by Mai, who dies in his place. This is a lot of story to keep track of, but it all unfolds relatively organically, and it’s all appropriately heartrending to behold.

Sakuta lives out a few more days after this Bad Ending partly in a numb daze, partly wracked in grief. His chest wounds are gone, which means Shouko never got his heart, and seemingly the entire region mourns the loss of the famous actress who was taken from them far too soon.

Sakuta wanders off, asking someone, anyone to save Mai, to not let things end this way. Then he’s approached…by Shouko. He may not have given her his heart, but she received Mai’s in secret and survived. Now she’s come to help him visualize the time they’re in as the future so he can travel back to the present and save Mai himself.

Sakuta falls asleep in a bed in the school infirmary and wakes up on Christmas Eve. He manages to find someone who can see and hear him (Koga Tomoe, who had a dream about him needing her in just such an occasion) and then reunites with Mai, the loss of whom is still so raw and fresh that he loses it upon seeing her.

Sakuta tells his past self that there’s nothing he can do for Shouko and that any attempt will cost Mai’s life, but as Sakuta is a stubborn ass, he doesn’t initially hear him. Meanwhile Mai tells him she was resolved to rescue him all along, and knows the other Sakuta would never save himself if it robbed Shouko of her future.

When the fateful moment at the icy intersection occurs this time, Sakuta is rescued by his future self (wearing a bunny mascot suit so his self won’t recognize him and cause a paradox). The future Sakuta then vanishes, merged with the present Sakuta…and Shouko vanishes as well. He then returns to a relieved Mai’s side.

Sacrificing Shouko still doesn’t sit right with Sakuta, however, so he and Mai agree to try to do what they can to help her, starting by visiting her in the ICU where she’s near death. But young Shouko tells Sakuta not to worry about her anymore; she’s seen everything that’s happened in her dreams, and intends to create a future where he and Mai won’t have the painful memories of her.

All the way back in the fourth grade, Shouko manages to fill out her future plans, resulting in a future where Sakuta and Mai indeed do not remember her, and seem to be far more at peace for it. They visit a shrine for the new year, and Sakuta prayed for less weird things to happen to him…a bit ironic considering that’s how he met Mai!

All the same, while discussing a movie in which Mai stars in a role identical to Shouko’s near the beach where Sakuta once dreamed of his first crush, he and Mai spot a girl running along the sand with her parents. It’s a young Shouko, alive and in good health. Suddenly memories of Shouko flood back into Sakuta’s head and he calls out her name…and she calls out his.

Dreaming Girl’s ninety minutes equate to five new episodes and a final arc that ties all of the anime’s storylines togethers. It’s a satisfying conclusion to as well as a dramatic elevation of the TV show; an emotional roller coaster that knows just which ways to twist and turn for maximum heart-wrenching. And it’s absolutely essential viewing for any Bunny Girl fan.

Domestic na Kanojo – 07 – Advance and Retreat

We begin with Natsuo and Hina going on a “date” to Kamakura. The teahouse lady mistakes them for a couple. They see the sights and have a lot of fun; their chemistry is unassailable. Then they head for the beach, and Natsuo brings up Hina’s “child” comment from earlier.

Hina admits she was just trying to say the thing that would hurt Natsuo most, since she was already in a relationship with Shuu and she and Natsuo were now siblings. Then she tells him how she met Shuu: like Natsuo with Hina, he was her teacher and first love.

When her friends shunned her for being too cute and flirty, he was her only friend. When they met up by chance years later, he was wearing a ring, but she couldn’t turn him or her happiness down when he said they should get together.

When Natsuo hands her his newly-completed novel, whose heroine is modeled after her, he confesses he’s been in love with her for a long time. Hina’s reaction follows the general pattern of their incident in her bedroom: she draws closer, taking his hand, and proposing they go out together, keeping it a secret from their family and everyone else.

But then, as when she basically teased Natsuo’s lack of experience, Hina brings the hammer down, taking Natsuo a bit too far into the surf to make a point: for them to be together when they’re family will most certainly backfire stupendously. She likens it to double suicide, be it socially or literally.

Natsuo knows it’s not possible, but merely asks they stay in the surf a bit longer so he can hug her and cry it out. That night after they get back home, Hina reads the whole book in one night, and it brings her to tears. Through the pages she can probably feel Natsuo’s longing, because it’s exactly how she felt with Shuu. She can hardly blame him for something when she knows full well we aren’t in control of who we fall for.

Things seem to return to a friendly sibling relationship between Natsuo and Hina, but Rui’s crush on Natsuo continues, culminating in her visiting Natsuo’s room one night. She notes that on the day they met (and did it), they never actually kissed. She wants to try doing so now.

Despite things being cordial with Hina, Natsuo is still a wreck, and it’s at least partially his desire to prove Hina wrong about something like them being utterly impossible that leads him to acquiesce to Rui’s request. To hear Rui so earnestly describe how calm and at rest she felt while kissing him, well…it certainly complicates matters for young Natsuo.

At this point Miu seems to be the best bet for him in terms of romantic interests who aren’t related to him, while Momo would obviously welcome his company anytime. Still, with Rui stating her intentions to keep continue their kissing sessions on the downlow, it’s clear that it’s not going to be as easy as going out with Miu or Momo.

After spending the evening with Natsuo and Rui tutoring them for their upcoming exams, Rui brings up Ashihara and his apparent rapport with her, intriguing Hina. Later that night, while perhaps going to visit Rui’s room, Natsuo sees that Hina’s door is open.

Before he can knock, he hears a…a noise, and when he peeks through the crack in the door, he sees Hina pleasuring herself, letting out Shuu’s name when she finishes. I’m not sure why she didn’t completely close the door, but never mind; the deeply private moment Natuso witnessed can’t be unseen or unheard.

As disturbing as it was to see Natsuo linger by the door as long as he did, he saw in Hina what she sensed in him: an unbearable longing for the one they love. She may have broken things off with Shuu but she’s most definitely not over him. No doubt that will evoke some guilt in Natsuo, who, along with Rui, gave Hina such a harsh “him or us” ultimatum.

Kuzu no Honkai – 04

Whew…well that was a properly intense episode. In it, we finally enter the head of Minagawa Akane and find out what makes her tick and what she says gives her joy in life: being desired by men. She started back when she was in school, stealing away her best friend’s crush even though she didn’t even like the guy.

Indeed, she’s only interested in guys other girls desire; it’s how she gauges their value. It’s as if she only derides pleasure from her contact with men if she knows it’s pleasure being taken from other women; depriving them of it.

Her latest victim is Hanabi, but what’s so insidious is that like her best friend’s crush, Akane wouldn’t even care about Kanai if Hanabi didn’t love him. Hanabi is unknowingly fueling her own despair by making it so clear to Akane that she’s into Onii-san. It makes Akane the villain – if you’re rooting for Hanabi. On the other hand, if you’re rooting for the one person who seems to be confident in what they’re doing, Akane’s your girl.

Akane believes it’s Hanabi’s own fault she’s in her predicament, but not because Hanabi has never gathered the stones to confess to Kanai, but because Hanabi should be on same side of this game. She kinda already is; Moca essentially feels for Mugi (whom Hanabi has) what Hanabi feels for Onii-san (whom Akane has). Akane’s become quite adept at taking full advantage of the situation, but Hanabi seems to lack the will.

We’re then thrust out of Akane’s head and into Kanai’s for the first time, and while I didn’t quite fathom the scope of Akane’s true personality before it was unveiled to us, Kanai is pretty much what I expected.

Kanai is normal, boring, and enough of a romantic to throw caution to the wind when someone like Akane appears in his life, even though a part of him knows (and is correct that) she’s too good to be true.

Demonstrating how experienced she is at this kind of thing, Akane executes a perfect reenactment of the way she hurt her friend when she separately tells both Kanai and Hanabi to be in the music room after school, then lets Kanai do the rest, confessing to an utterly disinterested Akane as Hanabi watches helplessly.

Akane’s eyes narrow and turn to see Hanabi, and then the episode fades to black in a spine-chilling close to Akane’s half of the episode. This show excels at many things, but it’s particularly good at transitioning from one “soliloquy” to another and keeping the flow moving. The fantastic score and cinematography pulls you into its dark soup of an atmosphere and makes it impossible to break free.

And we’re only halfway through! Good lord, the first half felt like a complete, and amazing, episode. Thankfully, it isn’t all downhill from here. In fact, Akane’s actions drive those of Hanabi, the main POV of the second half. They drive her to finally emulate the one who hurt her.

I’m not talking about getting hot and heavy with Mugi again, to Moca’s dismay. Seeking comfort from Mugi wouldn’t be possible without telling him what she knows about Akane (the poor bastard). So she heads home alone, in tatters, then realizes she’s been followed…by Ecchan.

Ecchan still wants Hanabi…very much so. So when Hanabi, in tatters, impulsively embraces Ecchan, then worries how it will feel to her, Ecchan assures her it’s all good. Hanabi this way is better than no Hanabi at all. Besides, Ecchan, makes no apologies for taking what she can when the opportunity arises, almost as payment for the pain Hanabi’s caused her to that point.

As they start having sex, Hanabi finds herself in an Onii-chan fantasy, but it’s soon broken by her waking senses making her see, smell, taste and touch Ecchan, and only Ecchan. Ecchan is ready to stop at any time, but Hanabi won’t tell her to, so she doesn’t. Ecchan wants Hanabi to be filled with her, and Hanabi lets her fill her void.

The experience, however, leaves Hanabi cold and alone, walking home in the rain, with only her force ghost as company, taunting her for destroying a friendship, notifying her that she’s actively taken advantage of someone’s feelings for the first time, and congratulating her for being scum just like Akane.

Her force ghost doesn’t tell her anything she doesn’t already know, it is her who is talking to her, after all. She’s having a conversation in her head, and the fact this part of her is mocking her means that she is no match whatsoever for Akane right now. But she wants to be a match, and she’s going to work towards it with everything she’s got. Dark shoujo.

In one last scene, Hanabi confronts Akane openly about being loved by people she doesn’t even like, and how it can be so fun for her. Akane’s response? There is no greater feeling than being desired by men. Whether she likes them or not is irrelevant, as long as they’re liked, preferably loved, by someone.

It’s a “get with the program” kind of line; one suspects if Hanabi somehow fell out of love with Kanai there’d be nothing left of him to interest Akane. You can have it like i have it, she seems to be telling Hanabi, as long as you’re able to redirect your energies.

Indeed, Hanabi already started with Ecchan, but if she’s serious about wanting to be a match for Akane, she’s got her work cut out for her. And I’m not saying she should! Shit’s already pretty damn heavy. Everyone has their limits. She may just not be cut out for it.

Kuzu no Honkai – 03

Just as Moca has a legitimate reason for loving Mugi (they’ve known each other a long time), Ecchan has one as well: Hanabi saved her from being assaulted on the train. When she ends up sharing Hanabi’s bed, Ecchan isn’t planning to do anything, but she just can’t hold back, and takes a gamble…one that doesn’t work out.

Hanabi thinks Ecchan is pretty, and she clearly values her as a friend, but when things get physical…it just doesn’t feel right for Hanabi, and not just because Ecchan is a girl. There’s a heavy weight she feels from being the object of Ecchan’s desires, accompanied by an acute, paralyzing fear.

We learn a little more about what sent Mugi head over heels in love with his tutor Akane; he had his cherry popped by a beautiful senpai who later dumps him and breaks his heart. There’s every indication the girl he was with treated their fling as just a fling: casual, secret, fun while it lasted. Then she moved on.

We see this unfold in what turns out to be a sexy dream Mugi wakes up from with an erection, just when Hanabi sneaks into his room for some contact. He initially stops her from touching him, worried he won’t be able to stop if they cross that line, but Hanabi doesn’t want him to stop, so she continues.

Just as he was once so inexperience with his first, Mugi no doubt sees a little of himself in Hanabi’s inexperience, but after she expresses a bit of smugness, she starts to tear up, because she’s realized something: what she gets from Mugi she can’t just get from anyone. She didn’t get it from Ecchan, whom she was too scared to touch. Mugi is different.

Then and there, he’s someone she can see falling in love with, even if he isn’t Onii-san. After all, if she came on to Onii-san, who’s to say he wouldn’t feel the same tense, uncomfortable weight she felt from Ecchan? This is Hanabi taking stock of what she has in Mugi and thinking about her best interests.

Later that night Mugi and Hanabi go to a family restaurant for dinner, and who do they run into but Akane-senpai, with a young-looking guy who definitely isn’t her brother who is really into him. Talk about awkward. Akane tries to be friendly, but the guy drags her away, clearly eager to continue their evening unfettered by her “students.”

The next day, Mugi tells Hanabi he recognized the guy as another student she’s tutoring. It’s all too clear he was more than that. Hanabi can’t believe how blind love makes Mugi, and is frustrated they don’t see things like this the same way, to the point she worries they weren’t as close as she thought.

But then she realizes of course they’re not that close, at least not yet: their relationship, such as it is, has only just begun, and both of them agreed at the start they’d see other people in each other. Seeing Akane out in public with a different guy threw that plan into chaos for Hanabi.

She decides what she’s feeling now is something approaching hatred for Akane, which isn’t allayed by their brief, uneasy encounter in the schoolyard. Hanabi asks Akane (still wearing the same clothes from last night) if that guy was her boyfriend; she said it was just a friend, and that they can talk about it later. Assuming neither of them want Onii-san to find out about them being with other guys, Hanabi contemplates her next move as Akane, her back turned to her, cracks a wry, knowing smile.

Kuzu continues to excel with its serious, weighty but deft internal drama (not of the melo- variety) and quietly steamy scenes of sensuality (one of which ends with the mundane practicality of having to wash dirty clothes). We’re with Hanabi and Mugi all the way as they endure and explore their pain and pleasure; their playfulness and despair; their confusion and their revelations.