A Sign of Affection – 06 – Sunlight Through Crystal

As soon as Itsuomi kisses Yuki’s hands, she tries to analyze the meaning of such a kiss and briefly overheats. She separates from him, and he texts her if she’s okay, and if she’s okay, to look his way. He texts how Rin seemed to be coming to the bar to see Kyouya. Itsuomi asks Yuki if she was coming to see him. She nods her head, but doubts he knows how intense her feelings have become, or how much she still has to learn about them.

Even so, she signs “I love you”—exactly when he’s suddenly looking away on a phone call. Not only that, the call is from Kyouya; they have a private party and he has to go in early, so he’s headed home Also, he’ll be abroad for a month and change that Monday. He asks her (out loud) if he can fall for her, but doesn’t really get an answer. All of a sudden, things seem to be conspiring to delay the inevitable. Damn!

Hell, we even get a scene of Oushi managing to finagle Yuki’s phone number from her mom, who thinks things are all hunky-dory between them. Yuki’s mom: They’re not! Ugh. But then, things start to look up. after the wedding afterparty where Itsuomi nabs all of the ladies’ attention, Kyouya reminds him that he said he didn’t want a girlfriend, in part due to all the traveling.

If that’s still the case, then Kyouya asks him point blank, what is the deal with Yuki. Yes, part of this is that like Rin Kyouya is a ravenous romance gossip gremlin. But he’s also worried about Yuki. That’s when Itsuomi tells Kyouya what he needs to know, and in the same flowery poetic language as Yuki’s inner monologue.

Yuki is crystal clear, having never heard an ill word uttered about her, or anyone. Likening all people to empty glasses at first which eventually get fogged or scratched up. Yuki’s beautiful eyes, hands, and expressions were clear crystal he wanted to gaze at forever. But now he admits he’s not just watching anymore. Like she is with him, he’s become captivated by her.

Kyouya worries that Itsuomi doesn’t realize how “down bad” he is, but he worries needlessly. When Yuki and Rin come by late (Yuki is staying overnight with Rin, so no curfew), Kyouya immediately borrows Yuki. She asks him via whiteboard if they’re intruding, and when he sneezes, she offers her scarf. Instead, he puts his arm around her.

As he holds her, he writes how he didn’t think he’d see her again before her next trip. He was going to tell her something when he got back, but he’s decided to tell her now. When she looks up at him, he signs something, and Yuki’s first thought is whether he understands what he’s signing. He does. Turning to face her, he asks her if she wants to become a couple.

She asks why, and he responds because he wants to go out with her. She asks why, and he responds that no matter where he goes and who he’ll meet, none of those places have her. Her vision gets blurry she can’t see everything he’s signing, but gets the just. When he asks for her answer, she nods very clearly and directly.

That, my dear readers, is how you orchestrate a romantic confession scene. It’s the shoujo romance version of a climactic mech battle or sword duel. Every gesture and shimmer of the eye made the moment feel momentous as it was.

And when the two return to the earth and re-enter the bar with Itsuomi’s arm around a blushing Yuki, our gossip gremlins perk up. Itsuomi’s “Yeah, so we’re going out now” almost breaks them. That shit’s just so pure and uncut, y’know?!

After quickly downing a beer to celebrate (I gotta admit, I cracked one open too – a Heinekin 0.0), Itsuomi offers to walk Yuki to Rin’s place, which lets them be alone together a little longer, and also allows Rin and Kyouya some time alone to process what they just witnessed.

Rin thought Itsuomi was carrying himself the same ultra-cool way as always even after asking Yuki out, but Kyouya, who has known him longer, could tell he was unusually happy; giddy even. Then these two get a chance to blush when Shin pops in asking for Itsuomi, then leaves so as not to be a third wheel.

On their walk to Rin’s Itsuomi makes clear to Yuki that he just let Emma borrow his apartment for a night, something he won’t allow again. It’s a nice gesture, and probably what you’d expect of a boyfriend (i.e. don’t let other beautiful girls who are in love with you crash at your place), but Yuki isn’t in this to control his friendships or “make his world smaller”.

Itsuomi asks if Yuki has a passport. She doesn’t, but she’ll work to get one and save up so they can go abroad together. That’s really the best of both worlds, for both of them. The show could’ve made Itsuomi’s incessant wanderlust and time away more of an obstacle in their budding relationship.

Hell, it might yet, but I’m fine with it instead being an opportunity for Yuki to spread her wings and for their worlds to come together in lovely harmony. What an absolute romantic banger to herald in Valentine’s Day next Wednesday. And this is just the midpoint of the series!

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Masamune-kun’s Revenge R – 05 – Il n’y pas de retour en arriere

Aki is stunned when Masamune tells her he’s the real Masamune, but she doesn’t disbelieve him. Gasou Kanetsugu isn’t ready to take his interference lying down, but his, or rather her further efforts to keep Aki in the dark fall to the wayside when, in the course of her struggle with Masamune, her shirt is pulled open, revealing her cleavage.

Kanetsugu makes a hasty retreat, leaving Aki and Masamune together for the first time ever with Aki knowing who he really is and Masamune knowing she wasn’t the one who called him Pig’s Foot and sent him away. She repeats all the insults Masamune threw at her, and then, to his shock, she accepts the request he made in the heat of the moment. She’ll go out wit him, the real Makabe Masamune.

When Kanetsugu visits his little sister, and in fact the moment Aki found out her gender, I didn’t just start being more empathetic with Kanetsugu, but also started to like her. She’s done shitty things, but her sister was never an excuse for those things. Her sister is everything to her, and clearly the opposite is also true.

That night, Chinatsu can’t get her brother’s attention, and she even startles him off the treadmill, he’s unresponsive to the point she’s worried he died. But no, he’d not dead, he’s just dating! And before they parted that night, Aki makes it clear he’s the one who asked her out. That gives her the upper hand.

The next morning, word has already spread to the entire school that Masamune and Aki have become a “supercouple.” That doesn’t stop a cute underclassman from asking to be his side piece and happily settling for his half-drunk sports drink. And while Masamune senses Neko is down, she doesn’t want to hear his official rejection. She’s still holding out for the possibility he ends up single again, and then she’ll strike.

Neko’s position isn’t entirely unreasonable when we watch Masamune’s first day as a kept man unfold. Her demands for him to go on the school store bread runs are immediate and insistent. And who should be working at the store but Kanetsugu, now presenting as a woman?

This caught me completely by surprised, but I loved every minute of their subsequent conversation in the hall. That’s something I don’t think I could have said even last week of these two characters. But as Kanetsugu says, she’s basically free now. She sold her family’s mansion to pay the debts, and she no longer has to try to get Aki to marry her.

No longer weighed down by that debt or her male disguise, she just looks and sounds like a happier person. By the same measure, she senses Masamune is genuinely concerned for her, because in his heart he’s still that sweet, wimpy fat boy Aki fell for. This is why when she jokes about him making her his wife, it only seems like half joking.

Despite the horror movie lighting of the athletic storage shed, once Masamune arrives with Aki’s food, and helps her with the stove, their unassailable chemistry reasserts itself. Even if they’re prickly with one another, you can tell a part of both of them is happy they’re finally at this point.

When Aki immediately tries to change her man by insisting he eat more junk and fatten up, it occurs to Masamune he only transformed his body into a slab of granite for revenge. But now that revenge is unnecessary. When she asks what she can do to reward him for getting her food, he draws in close—to kissing proximity—to tell her the sentiment is enough.

When Yoshino arrives with kerosene for the stove, she knows she’s interrupted something, no matter how innocent, and Masamune sheepishly takes his leave. But he does ask if his Master can meet with him again, because he wants to know how she’s doing.

Yoshino is doing fine, especially considering Masamune didn’t tell Aki about what she did eight years ago. His thinking is that it would serve no purpose; Yoshino already feels plenty of remorse for what she did. Instead, he asks her for help with Aki, because, as it happens, going out with someone is super hard!

Yoshino will only say that Aki’s birthday is Christmas Eve, and she’ll be very happy if Masamune shares it with her. Only five episodes into the season, it’s not outside the realm of possibility Masamune misses that date for some reason, and ends up back in Aki’s not-so-good graces.

But I don’t want to jump ahead or be pessimistic. It’s weird and awkward, but it’s far too early to say Aki x Masamune isn’t working. Even if it was corrupted by a couple of outside impostors, their feelings for each other are still there. Little does Masamune know that Yoshino has her own feelings for him, and that’s why she can’t meet with him or be his Master anymore.

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! – 13 (Fin) – No Complaints

The twelfth episode was so good, thirteen was going to be all gravy…as long as it didn’t undo what twelve started. That’s the one fatal mistake it could make that would sour the entire season for me. At the same time, I didn’t want the epilogue to be too fluffy. This show was so good at really digging into its characters and making them think and act in believable and compelling ways.

The episode delivered on both of these conditions, and then some. Yes Tomo and Jun are on the same page regarding their feelings, but they don’t just ease straight into a GF/BF situation at the drop of a hat. This is a transitional period, with all its excitement for what’s to come, and a few speed bumps along the way.

Jun is so relaxed, she’s so nervous, and she and Jun are getting along so well, Tomo confides to Misuzu and Carol that she feels like she lost to Jun for harboring anxieties. They know all too well he’s harboring them too, but sometimes better at hiding them. She wants to throw him off balance to even the playing field. Misuzu suggests they see a romantic film.

Now that the confessions are out of the way, it’s great to really see Jun take to boyfriend mode with aplomb. He may be self-critical, but his direct honest manner is part of what made Tomo fall for him, and that’s on display as he praises her cute look, gives her “T” earrings for Christmas, and immediately dons the muffler she knitted for him.

Throughout the date, Tomo notices that Jun is incredibly focused. He softens when saying that he never really connected with romance movies before, and considers that falling for Tomo made them resonate more. When they’re about to part ways, Tomo has to make a move, and she does: inviting herself to Jun’s house.

What ensues is a wonderfully awkward and all-too-relatable scene of two people who like each other, but have never been in this type of situation, kinda freezing up with nervousness and self-consciousness. Tomo again asks to sit next to Jun on his bed, but eventually snaps and tells him she came there for a sole purpose: to kiss him.

Jun admits he wants to to that stuff too, but her father told him he couldn’t go out with her until he defeated him. This is an entirely unfair bargain, as even Jun is no match for Tomo’s dad, a legit master and gigantic dude. Even her dad seems to know he kinda fucked up royally, but you can tell he did it out of love and not a desire to control her life.

But miserable as he is (Tomo confronts him and then tells him she hates him—perhaps a first in their relationship as father and daughter) he can’t take back what he said. A warrior’s word being their bond aside, Jun has heard the challenge and can’t ignore it.

While Tomo was being coy about her intentions to, in so many words, “spice things up” by trying to “beat” Jun to a kiss, Jun makes a rookie BF mistake by keeping something extremely important (her dad’s challenge) from her. Everyone (including her dad) erred, but she and Jun are well-developed enough that you totally understand why they erred.

In the midst of all this relationship turmoil, Misuzu and Carol are left out of the lurch, as Tomo doesn’t contact them for all of winter break. Again, this is rookie relationship behavior, getting so involved that your time with your friends dwindles or vanishes. It’s something Tomo can learn from, and in the meantime, both the girls and Kousuke are willing to hear her problems and offer possible solutions.

Misuzu suspects that Tomo isn’t content to watch the two most important men in her life slug it out while she waits passively. No, if Jun thinks he has to do this, he needs all the encouragement he can get, so she comes to the dojo in the middle of their fight.

This gives Jun a far bigger boost than Tomo realizes, because while he no longer regards her from a high pedestal, there’s still a good amount of that adoration for her, such that he believes he can’t stand still for a moment lest she get too far away from him.

His inferiority issues don’t magically disappear now that they both know each others’ feelings. Instead, he holds himself to an even higher standard. Jun, despite not being the sharpest tack on the board, realizes her dad is leaving openings on purpose to compel him to come in close to deliver a crushing blow, at great risk to himself.

Tomo’s dad knows Tomo will rush ahead. He wants to make sure Jun is someone who won’t just watch adoringly, but run beside her, and back her up in this rhetorical hero scenario. Jun doesn’t know if he can put his life on the line for a stranger, but for Tomo? He’ll walk through the gates of hell.

Jun wins the duel with Tomo’s dad by delivering what would have been a knockout punch if his opponent had been anyone else. But when her dad still won’t go down (even though his hand touched the ground), her mom finishes him off with a brutal smackdown. Jun is the winner, and Tomo leaps into his arms with abandon.

With that symbolic hurdle out of the way, Tomo and Jun are free to go out. When Jun interrupts Tomo to tell her he loves her and asks her to go out with him, she curses him for beating her to it. Her punishment is to take things a step further, so she gives him a big old smooch on the lips, in the perfect time and place.

Their kiss mirrors the poster of the movie they saw, and while they’re still far from ready for some of the later steps the movie couple took after the kissing, this is still a huge deal for these two. The floodgates of love are open, some initial stumbling blocks have been overcome, and they’re poised to begin a race that will continue for the rest of their lives together: the race to make each other’s hearts race faster.