The Dangers in My Heart – 12.5 (Special) – The Little Things

This compilation of web shorts cleverly titled “Bonus Dangers” serves as an delightful sampler of amuse-bouches that delivers a rapid-fire assault of romantic adorableness.

Ichikawa manages to finally say “Good Morning” to Yamada; we learn Yamada has AB blood while he and Kana have B; he has his mom buy him an oversized gym uniform in case Yamada needs to borrow it; Yamada asks if he’d be able to kill her if she turned into a zombie (yes, but he’d kill himself right afterwards!)

There are little captured moments of their evening texting; Yamada ensures she and Ichikawa order different buns so they can each try both, resulting in indirect kisses; after cleaning duty, Yamada whisks him away hand-in-hand; we learn that Yamada wouldn’t be able to kill Ichikawa even if he became a zombie.

Finally, while he’s unable to say “bye-bye”, he does manage a “see you later” that makes Yamada beam like crazy. After the credits there’s a Christmas-themed bit, as they try to see if Yamada’s red stocking will fit on her foot.

It hasn’t been long since I caught up on Dangers, but this lovely collection of heartwarming little moments only further heightens my excitement for the upcoming second season.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War – The First Kiss That Never Ends – 03 – Dropping the Masks

Kaguya remains in Icy Mode, but her ice melts a little when she spots another one of Miyuki’s classic homemade bento boxes, a callback to the very first episode. Unlike that time, she’s determined to try a bite, and so loudly proclaims her hunger.

As she rejects Chika and Miko’s offers of food (and they both run off crying), Miyuki, who is sporting dark bags under his eyes from lack of sleep, insists that he “man up” and offer Miyuki a bite. But his octopus weiner slides off the toothpick, and a swooping Kaguya’s mouth closes on his finger instead.

When he tells her there’s ketchup on her face, she locks both his hands in hers and tells him to clean it off. Again Miyuki enters a “man up” spiral, and it eventually overwhelms him, causing him to faint and collapse. This is the reverse of what happened when Miyuki touched Kaguya’s cheek removing lint from her hair, which in hindsight should have been a hint of what (and who) was to come.

As for Ice Kaguya, she’s done, and wants to tag out with SD Idiot Kaguya, presented as her waking her up from a nap, the lump on her head from the gavel strike still fresh. Ice Kaguya tells her all she can do is hurt those close to her by being who she is, a personality forged in the crucible of a hard upbringing.

She’d known that her “true self” was harmful to others for quite a while. Her name and family brought people before her with ease, but all of them ran from her crying in the end. She resigned herself to solitude, enduring the loneliness because at least she wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Then she met Miyuki and fell in love with him. But now she’s hurt him too, with her aggresive, selfish, antagonistic, ugly self. so she wants to tag out and leave it to SD Idiot Kaguya, who can be kind to him. But Idiot Kaguya refuses.

She won’t let Icy Kaguya give up on her dream to kiss Miyuki. It goes without saying, but Kona Ali is so, so good throughout this scene, carrying on a conversation with herself.

When Icy says she doesn’t care, “Ribbon” Kaguya joins SD Kaguya in telling her that all of them (being Kaguya’s various personas) share the same dream, and all of them would die happy if the most high-maintenance, unpleasant of them achieved that dream.

The other two Kaguyas take Icy Kaguya’s hands in theirs, offering their support for her. When Kaguya leaves her mindspace, Miyuki is finally coming to, and that’s when Kaguya-sama legend (and unapologetic romantic) Doctor Tanuma Shouzou and his Nurse arrive to diagnose the problem.

As Ai comforts a thoroughly distraught Kaguya, saying all they can do right now is pray the President will be okay, Dr. Tanuma pretty quickly concludes that Miyuki, like Kaguya before, is suffering from heartsickness. At first, Miyuki doesn’t take this diagnosis seriously, but when told he can spill his guts to them without fear, he proceeds to do just that.

Like Kaguya, Miyuki has been hiding his true self. Also like Kaguya, he hates that true self. In her case, it’s a prickly, poisonous person who hurts anyone she tries to get close to. In his case, it’s a worthless failure. When Miyuki failed to get into a fancy kindergarten or elementary school, he could feel his mother losing interest in him. Then she left him and his dad and sister.

Miyuki admits that it was the hope his mother would return if he got his act together and started working his butt off. But then he encountered Kaguya, who was at the top of the class, embraced bravado as his StuCo senpais suggested, challenged her to a ranking duel, and won. It’s only natural for him to believe if he ever slipped up again, she’d leave him like his mom did.

Carrying on that social mask has caused a tremendous strain, and Dr. Tanuma asks if he could just lighten up and take it easy, but Miyuki rejects this. He believes to make Kaguya fall for him and stay in love with him, he has to “go far enough to collapse once or twice.”

This is where the Nurse steps in, much to Tanuma’s chagrin, and tells Miyuki what he needs to hear: that Kaguya was pale and worried as she sat by his bed. It always “gets to her” when she sees a gung-ho kid in a moment of weakness, and believes Kaguya feels the same.

Sure enough, it is, because Kaguya and Ai are eavesdropping on the session. Kaguya admits she loves the Miyuki who gives his all and achieves, but like the nurse she also doesn’t mind seeing him vulnerable. In any case, now she knows both of them are wearing masks, and being cowardly about exposing their true selves.

This is where Ai comes in and once again proves she’s the sneaky MVP of the whole series. Donning a paper Miyuki mask and armed with an open text line to a recovered Miyuki back home, she plays the role of Miyuki so Kaguya can practice being open and honest with him.

Ai texts Miyuki that Kaguya wants to be kinder to him, but her pride gets in the way. Kaguya then asks Ai questions she wants Miyuki to answer, and Miyuki starts to catch on. Even if he doesn’t know Kaguya is right next to Ai, Ai is close enough to know Kaguya better than anyone, so the text conversation feels genuine and stimulating.

When they kissed on the clock tower, Kaguya was heart-burstingly happy and thought it would last, but became devastated by the prospect of him never showing her all of him. That’s why she’s decided she’ll be the one to confess, and to tell him that she loves all of him, not just the overachieving President Shirogane.

Ai relays to Miyuki that Kaguya seeks a relationship in which neither she nor he hide their souls. But Miyuki is still convinced his “obsequious, cowardly, inept” true self simply won’t cut it, and he vows never to show it to Kaguya as long as he lives.

Instead, as the clock ticks to 12:00 midnight on Christmas Eve, he enters his room plastered with notes on how to win Kaguya’s heart, mans his desk, and prepares for another all-nighter of planning his romantic redemption. I just hope it doesn’t lead to a romantic impasse.

Insomniacs After School – 03 – Laid-Back Astronomy Camp

By signing their names to a sheet, Ganta and Isaki bring the Astronomy Club back to life, but as cool as Kurashiki-sensei has been about all this, she warns them the form is not just a formality. As president, Ganta will have to attend the school club budgetary meeting and not only report on legitimate club activities, but compete for school funding.

While Kurashiki is happy to serve as club advisor, she has nothing to advise on the day-to-day activities of the astronomy club. However, she does point Ganta and Isaki to someone who does: Shiromaru Yui, an alumnus and the last member of the astronomy club before it was shut down. Ganta and Isaki take a train out to rural Wakuraonsen and traverse seemingly endless rice paddies to find this Shiromaru.

When they finally find her workplace, it’s an arcade with a deafening din. At first, Yui asks these two minors what they’re doing there after school, but she then recognizes their Kuyo High uniforms and deduces that Kurashiki-sensei sent them, and that they’re seeking her council.

Yui invites the pair to her cargo container converted into a pretty awesome apartment, and even treats them to some carbonara (and a brief look at her unmentionables). Yui looks through Ganta’s camera and determines that he still needs to learn the basics of night photography (she also sees photos Ganta took of Isaki, which are informative in another way).

After dinner, Yui takes the kids out, where it’s now dark and a new moon, perfect for shooting pics of stars. She shows Ganta how to use manual focus and adjust the f-stop and ISO levels. These pointers result in him taking his very first in-focus photo of stars, and he and Isaki are so jazzed that Yui herself can’t help but smile. While she’s been a loner for a long time and may even prefer it, she’s clearly a kind, sweet, and generous individual.

That’s confirmed when Yui takes an active interest in these kids’ resurrection of the astronomy club by paying a visit to the observatory. When Isaki arrives after swimming practice with a bad case of the yawns, she’s revitalized not just by the presence of Yui, but of a tent in the observatory. It, along with a camp chair and other comforts, are crucial for a successfull night photography session.

Ganta and Isaki head home that night extremely excited at the prospect of planning a Perseid meteor shower viewing party in August. Ganta is less confident of not embarrassing himself by submitting an entry for a national astrophotography contest, but as Kurashiki says, it’s a small price to pay for the potential reward of prestige—and more funds from the school.

Later that night, Yui pulls a Shima Rin and engages in a full-bore iyashikei late night photography session, even bringing along her awesome cat Rollo. As her camera takes a long-exposure shot of a torii gate, she makes a fluffy pancake with her camp stove. The resulting shot is so pretty, she can’t resist wanting to send it to Ganta and Isaki, but hesitates since it’s pushing 2 AM.

Of course, we know Ganta and Isaki are most likely wide awake at home around that time, and apparently so does Rollo, as he nudges Yui’s finger so it presses the send button. She freaks out, but only for a few moments, as she gets immediate, enthusiastic replies from her two kohai, who are clearly night owls.

As I said, it’s clear Shiromaru Yui has adopted a number of tools that enable her to not just survive but thrive in her somewhat monastic life of solitude. But it’s clear from the numerous cute expressions she makes throughout the episode that she’s hardly opposed to social interaction.

In fact, she was eager to share the beauty of the night sky with others, since sharing it only enhanced her enjoyment. It’s a triumphant introduction of another endearing addition to the cast, voiced with a wonderful humanity and nuance by Tomatsu Haruka. Between her and Kurashiki-sensei, Ganta and Isaki are in good hands!

Insomniacs After School – 02 – Going Legit

After waking up and making himself and his dad lunch, Ganta arrives to find Isaki’s friends wrapping her in the classroom curtains. When she suddenly emerges, she looks like a perfect princess. Ganta desperately wants to say good morning, and she prepares to do the same, but he gives her the cold shoulder.

It’s not that he suddenly doesn’t like Isaki—far from it. He explains through texts that it’s in both their best interests not to draw too much attention to their sudden buddying up. Rumors could spread like wildfire, both about them, their hideout, and their insomnia. Isaki agrees, and everything stays their little secret.

The two agree that the observatory could be comfier, however, so Isaki brings a bunch of games and toys and such that will create an environment conducive to sleep. On the physical comfort level, they luck out when a cushy red leather chair and couch are due to be tossed. They start with lugging the chair up to the observatory, which proves so taxing they don’t bother with the couch.

Of course, that means playing rock-paper-scissors to determine who gets the chair first. Isaki wins, and immediately wants for a leg rest. As gunta is pulling a table towards her, she playfully rests her legs on his back, briefly using him as an ottoman. He protests, but methinks he doth protest too much. If a girl is comfortable enough to rest her legs on you, you’re doing something right!

When they hear the door to the observatory creak, they hide behind the chair, wondering if it’s an intruder (or a ghost), but it turns out to be a bicolor cat who has been wandering the school grounds. It makes itself at home on the chair, and Isaki draws close to admire one of the “grandmasters of sleep”. My own cat was in a nearly identical sleeping position not three feet from me as I was watching this.

Isaki buys ice cream for herself and Ganta at the school store, but while she’s gone, the cat returns to the observatory with a piece of lettuce … from Kurashiki-sensei’s sandwich. That brings her to the door that Ganta is currently repairing, and just like that, they’re discovered.

Ganta at first takes full responsibility, saying he acted alone, but when Isaki happily returns with the ice cream, Kurashiki-sensei not unreasonably asks if they’ve been having sex up there. Ganta tells her the truth: this is the only place the both of them can get proper rest.

But even if their intentions and actions are totally innocent and Kurashiki-sensei agrees it’s a hell of a hideout, it’s still her job to report this to the faculty and their parents. Absolutely crestfallen, the two eat their melted ice cream in silence, with Isaki unable to hold back tears.

So that’s it, right? After just two episodes, the dream is over, right? Well…not quite. When Kurashiki-sensei mentioned that the school was considering reviving the observatory for astronomic purposes, Gunta is quick to offer to join the astronomy club. But she questions his motives, and the next day he and Isaki are called to the faculty lounge fearing the worst.

Luckily for them, Kurashiki-sensei is cool. She told her higher-ups that the two of them offered to revive the astronomy club, which is exactly what those higher-ups wanted to hear. The vice principal also remarks that this will put to rest rumors about the student who died haunting the observatory…ya know, the rumors Isaki started.

The news that they’ll still have their palace of seclusion causes such a release of stress and tension that as soon as the two leave the lounge, they start running down the hall smiling and laughing their asses off. It’s a testament to the character design, quality of animation, writing and voice acting working in unity that after so little time I am totally invested in these two adorkable kids and would glad fight a war for them.

That said, they actually will have to do astronomy stuff, so Ganta obtains a basic toy telescope and assembles it on the roof to observe the moon. Isaki repeats her earlier praise for Ganta’s affinity for mechanical stuff, but wait till she learns the guy’s a great cook too!

Once the telescope is assembled, Ganta and Isaki take turns looking at the moon, even bumping heads due to lack of coordination. But when it’s Ganta’s turn to look Isaki aligns herself so the moonlight hits her just right, and she’s a magical princess again, this time telling Ganta “If I end up on the moon, then I’ll wave down to you.”

Ganta at first thinks she’s joking about the ghost again, but Isaki shoots him a far more serious and earnest face than he was expecting. I gotta say, it was the first time I worried this show might eventually enter Your Lie in April territory with Isaki, but I prefer to be more optimistic and upbeat with these too. After all, they fought the law and won!

Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible – 06 – Lean On Me

It’s not quite Valentine’s Day without a good rom-com, and this week Kubo delivers, featuring lots of sweet little moments in between Shiraishi continuing not to notice Kubo’s romantic interest in him. If patience is a virtue, Kubo is a saint…and may also be a masochist!

But if learning more about someone endears them to you more, Shiraishi made some progress this week. First, he learned the bookstore lady is indeed Kubo’s big sister. He also meets Kubo’s cousin Saki, who also notices him, and looks exactly like Kubo when she was in middle school.

Were Shiraishi a shrewd fellow, he’d use the adorable photo of middle school Kubo Akina gave him to mess with Kubo the way she often messes with him. It’s not like he isn’t aware she enjoys messing with him; it’s why he initially hesitates to ask her for help studying when they cross paths in the library.

In this case, Kubo-sensei doesn’t make fun of Shiraishi, because he’s genuinely trying his best to get a good grade. Kubo also turns out to be a very good tutor—and the fake glasses she borrows from her friend contribute to her teacherly aura.

Both Kubo and Shiraishi are looking forward to meeting in the library tomorrow to study, but when tomorrow comes, Shiraishi is absent with a fever. Kubo misses him immediately, and the entire day goes by in a haze as she tries to find the right message to send to him.

She settles on a question: Are you coming to school tomorrow? He says he will, and then sends an I miss you that causes her heart to skip. He then immediately texts back that his little brother sent it on accident (the truth). She sends him a Lonely without you sticker in reply, then says her sister sent it (not the truth!)

This was a case where Kubo could have really been more aggressive, asking the teacher if there are any printouts so she has a good excuse to pay him a house visit. The next day Shiraishi is back, but is late for first period and considers waiting in the hall until the second.

That’s when Kubo leaves the classroom looking very out of it; she also came down with a fever. She’s headed to the nurse’s office, but Shiraishi is concerned with how woozy and unsteady she is, so he offers to escort her. He says she can even lean on him, and boy howdy does she take him up on that!

While her face is flush due to her fever, there’s no doubt she loves the fact that Shiraishi took the initiative for once; it makes up a bit for her lack of action on the day he was sick. Once he has her in bed, he starts to look for the nurse, but she stops him by taking his hand, saying it feels cold and nice. He, in turn, says her hand is warm.

The nurse shows up, and with Kubo in good hands (and fast asleep), Shiraishi takes his leave, feeling…different. In fact, for the first time he can recall, he feels like a main character. Not surprising, considering all of the firsts he’s experiencing thanks to Kubo’s friendship.

My Senpai is Annoying – 04 – Futaba and Takeda’s Dizzy Fever Days

Despite wearing the fluffy scarf Takeda gave her for Christmas, Futaba catches a cold. She has to take off work, it’s the first time she’s had a fever since living on her own, and she’s never felt lonelier. Just as her thoughts go to some dark places, she determines she needs to eat something…but the fridge is empty.

Just as she opens her apartment door for an ill-advised trip to buy food, Takeda is on the other side, a bag of groceries in hand. He finds his way around her kitchen and whips up a hot bowl of the udon he knows she likes. It’s exactly what she needs when she needs it, and it isn’t until he’s already left that she realizes he’s seen her apartment in a less-than-ideal state.

The next day, Futaba is all better, and it soon becomes public knowledge in the office that Takeda went to her place to take care of her. But he almost wasn’t in time because of his antiquated company cell phone. He wants a smartphone to keep in better touch, so Futaba offers to go shopping with him. In one regard, it’s to pay him back, but it’s also a fine excuse to hang out with her senpai on their day off.

Futaba also tells Takeda she’d take care of him if he ever got sick, but never expected that to happen until Takeda calls in sick one day. Takeda is similarly out of food and about to head to the konbini when he finds Futaba at the door with groceries. Their timing is so perfect, her finger is on the doorbell but hadn’t pressed it yet!

Futaba whips up a bowl of hot rice porridge with extra scallions and ginger, and Takeda is legitimately impressed by her cooking, saying she’ll make a fine wife someday. After eating Takeda falls asleep, and Futaba finds herself alone with a guy in his room for the first time.

She looks at all the manly things around her (and the tie she gave him that he now wears regularly), then gets as close as she dares to his face, even touching his chin stubble, the prickliness of which causes her to shout and wake him up. At that point she gives him a chop to the back and makes her escape, wondering what the heck she was thinking.

The next morning, Takeda is back and right as rain, and thanks her—in full earshot of Sakurai and Kazama—for coming by his place to take care of him. Later, he asks her if she’ll cook for him again sometime, even boldly requesting Hamburg steak, which is a dish I’m sure she could nail easily.

As an unrepentant sucker for episodes where one half of a couple gets sick and the other rolls up their sleeves and takes care of them, an episode like this where both sides got to do this was basically catnip. Little by little, these two lovely people are growing closer to and comfortable with each other as more than just co-workers. I wouldn’t call them an official couple yet or anything, but they’re well on their way!

Yuru Camp△ 2 – 08 – Wabi-Sabi Worrywart

Chiaki, Aoi, and Ena take the episode off this week, as aside from a sprinkling of Sakura it’s a totally Nadeshiko & Rin show, and every moment of it is superbly sublime. It may be my imagination, but this is also an episode that gets a little more creative with camera angles and techniques.

We start with a very cinematic opening shot of Nadeshiko walking through a tunnel. It almost appears like Nadeshiko is walking down the tunnel to enter a Space Shuttle, but the drama is nicely subverted by her singing to herself about towns and the foods they’re known for.

In the middle of her uphill trudge, she stops to soak up the gorgeous view, only to stop herself lest she spoil the view from the campsite. Once she’s arrives, she revels in the wide open space, inspects the clean facilities, and says hi to a camping dad and his two kids.

Nadeshiko gets swept off her feet while laying out her ground cover, and bends one of her tent pegs (just like Rin did once), but is otherwise able to get her tent up without any trouble. She then breaks out all the groceries she bought and prepares for some culinary experimentation. The older of the two camping kids is bemused by this “loner girl”.

Meanwhile, Rin fakes out the audience by first lamenting another path closed for the winter (with another cool camera angle), but it’s a tunnel she already knew would be closed, which coincidentally leads to the Yashajin Pass, where she met the tea shop lady. After arriving in famously scenic Hayakawa and attempting to cross the suspension bridge over the lake, she continues on the Rindou Ikawa Amehata Line to the hot springs.

This also marks the first time a character in the show has uttered the term wabi-sabi, an aesthetic philosophy centered around the “acceptance of and appreciation for transience, imperfection, and incompletion”. In its depictions of Japan’s infrastructure and nature, Yuru Camp and its characters have been uniformly enthusiastic devotees of this worldview.

We get a Sakura sighting as she’s at a store that sells wild game considering whether to buy some deer or some bear paw, but after a quick Googling reveals a far-too-laborious process for cooking said paws, she goes for the easier deer. The final shot in the store is a novel fish-eye surveillance camera filming her from behind and at a distance.

After soaking in the pleasantly not-too-hot spring, Rin enjoys a spell in a massage chair, which must feel especially heavenly after all those hours in the moped saddle. She notices that Nadeshiko hasn’t texted her anything since the photo of her at the Tomato Mart, and decides to give her a call, only to get an automated “phone turned off or out of range” message.

That would be that, except that Rin is both a caring friend and feels responsible for Nadeshiko’s safety after getting her so interested in solo camping. Try as she might to put worries out of her mind, she instead envisions how she’d worry about her at various stages of her own camping trip.

She decides the only way to allay those fears is to take a slight detour and go check on her. Sakura seems to be on the same wavelength as Rin, as she uses the Find My Family app to discern Nadeshiko’s precise location.

Nadeshiko is actually doing just fine, having wrapped all of her veggies in foil and roasted them in a campfire she made inside the cooking pavilion. But when the two camping kids go to the pavilion to heat up their konbini dinners, again the older sister is bemused and a bit weary. Nadeshiko breaks out a little old country granny, further adding to the witch-like aura.

The little brother is the first to approach her, and learns that if she is a witch, she’s a good and kind witch, and one that’s great at outdoor cooking! She roasts a little bit of everything, with the tomato, potato, eggplant and sweet potatoes being particularly successful, the avocado less so, and the carrot gets over-charred.

Nadeshiko not only makes friends of the family, but also inspires the kids to cook next time they go camping, after finding out how easy it can be—literally just wrap a cheap sweet potato in foil, toss it into the flame, and wait! As they part ways, Rin arrives at the campsite to find that Nadeshiko is find, and cell phones just get spotty reception.

When she returns to the parking lot she encounters two glowing eyes and is scared shitless, but it’s just fellow worrywart Sakura, secretly checking in on her sister. The two decide, while they’re there, they might as well go up to the top to see the famously awesome nightscape. I mean, it’s a nightscape!

They do so—and the view is indeed awesome—but are almost caught but for the fact they could hear Nadeshiko coming from her singing to herself. They dash into the tall grass as Nadeshiko beholds the nightscape, takes a selfie, and then wanders around the area trying to find a bar with which to send it.

Rin and Sakura make it out of there without being seen, and as they drive off together, Sakura gets the selfie from Nadeshiko and has Rin stop so she can see it too, then offers to buy her dinner in town. As for Nadeshiko, she sets herself up in her cozy, toasty caterpillar-like sleeping bag on a bench overlooking the nightscape.

I for one am glad she didn’t spot Rin or Sakura, as it preserves the spirit, if not the letter, of the “solo-ness” of her trip, since she didn’t actually ask anyone to stop by and check on her, and there was no need to do so as she was perfectly fine on her own. That said, I’m sure she would have felt good knowing her friend and sister wouldn’t hesitate to do so, even if it diverted them from their own plans. That’s love, baby!

Yuru Camp△ 2 – 07 – Going Solo

Chiaki, Aoi, and Ena were a lot of fun these past two episodes, but by the end of their Lake Yamanaka trip I was ready for some Rin and Nadeshiko time, and that’s what we get here! After Ena shows Chiaki some photos from their almost-ill-fated trip, it finally happens: Rin’s little grill is used as an offertory box, as they drop a coin in and praise their mutual savior. Rin’s deadpan reply is simple and perfect: “No worshipping.”

Ena splits, enabling Nadeshiko to talk solo camping with Rin. Rin’s a little surprised someone as gregarious as Nadeshiko has taken an interest in it, but is happy to offer all the advice she can. In what seems like an intentional contrast to Chiaki mostly winging it, relying on luck, and paying the price, Nadeshiko is determined to plan her first trip The Right Way, and not bite off more than she can chew.

Rin’s insights and advice prove indispensable as Nadeshiko makes a master list of things to do. First, she tells her family she’s going solo, and Sakura quickly and clandestinely downloads a GPS app so they’ll know where she is—a move that’s as wise as Nadeshiko’s curious “What are you doing?” is hilarious.

She finds a spot that won’t be too cold that’s within walking distance of a train station (and in cellular range), checks the weather and in particular the day-to-night changes in temperature, and makes a list of things to do while she’s there so she doesn’t get bored. The big day arrives, and after sliding all of her gear onto her back with a “hup”, she’s off to Fujikawa by way of Fujinomiya.

Rin, who also has the weekend off, decides to take a solo trip of her own, this time heading to Lake Amehata in picturesque Hayakawa, first stopping at a super-cozy home café in Akasawa for mamemochi and amazake (with barley tea on the house).

Nadeshiko reports via photo of her arrival in Fujinomiya, and after praying at the temple there for a safe and fun solo camping trip, she stays the growling of her stomach as she passes restaurants on the way to the yakisoba place her sister recommended.

Sakura, who is also getting her sister’s photo updates, is driving … somewhere. Where precisely, we’re not told, but it looks for all the world like she’s trailing Nadeshiko like an overprotective parent, even though that seems like overkill. Nadeshiko even senses she’s being followed and looks behind her several times.

Rin leaves Akasawa and visits the Giant Cedar of Yushima. All the gorgeous scenery she rides and walks through really gives you the warm exciting feeling of exploring new and unfamiliar places. And then, as she pulls into a café near the Lake Narada Hot Springs, the Sakura mystery is solved, with Rin finding her car parked in the lot.

As Rin spots Sakura and starts to follow her, Nadeshiko finally gets a spot in the yakisoba place, and once seated, she quickly learns she’d better shout out her order when requested or she’ll be passed up. Trusting in her fellow orderers, she gets a gomoku shigure-yaki, a thoroughly rib-sticking local specialty of okonomiyaki and Fujinomiya yakisoba.

Due to the set up, we’re able to watch along with Nadeshiko every step of the way as her food comes together, and the opposite is true as well: the cook is able to see Nadeshiko’s patented “This is Super Tasty” Face. She snaps a pic for Rin, who is viewing it just as Sakura walks up to her.

Her “cover” blown, Rin decides to have some tea with Sakura, and while initially finds their silence awkward due to Nadeshiko not being there, Sakura is always ready to talk Moped Stories, the show Rin watched with the others during Christmas Camping. Rin also learns that Sakura is a fellow solo-er, taking a drive once a month or so to places featured on travel shows.

When talk turns to Nadeshiko, Rin can tell Sakura is worried, but right on cue Nadeshiko texts both of them a photo of her superbly round and jolly face standing outside the Tomato Food Market, where she’ll shop for dinner supplies before heading to the campsite.

Sakura heads to the hot spring, Rin continues on to her campsite, and Nadeshiko arrives in Fujikawa. She’s only a 5.5km (around 3.4 miles) walk from the “Fujikawa Healthy Greenspace Campsite”, the fictional version of Nodayama Health Ryokuchi Park. Thanks to the physical conditioning her sister forced upon her, it should indeed be a walk in the park!

Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun – 10 – Not-So-Laid-Back Camp▽

After a very cute meet-up with Mimimi at the local train, Tomozaki finds suddenly himself on a perfectly conventional normie event, in which he, Mimimi, Hinami, and Mizusawa are scheming to bring Nakamura and Yuzu closer together, starting with the two sitting next to each other on the train to their camping spot. Also, Takei is there. Hinami sits with Tomozaki, and assigns his task for the trip: tease, make a suggestion, and/or disagree with Nakamura three times, with the aim of becoming his friend.

As I suspected, both she and Tomozaki learned the wrong lesson from Fuuka’s “hard to talk to” comment: It’s clear Fuuka preferred when he was just being himself and talking with her naturally rather than parroting normie lines when he fundamentally isn’t a normie. I understand Tomozaki’s obliviousness, but why Hinami doesn’t grasp this I cannot say. Maybe she’s just that far removed from non-normie life?

After arriving at Hanno Station the group heads to their campsite and goes full Yuru Camp, complete with barbecue (prepared by Yuzu and Nakamura) tarp and chairs (Mizusawa, Mimimi and Takei) and a fire, which is handled by Hinami and Tomozaki. Himami later explains why she chose the groups, and in grouped herself with him in part so she wouldn’t have to “put on an act” all the time, as she admits its tiring.

While Tomozaki reacts with relief to learn she gets tired about something, I still feel her comment flies under his radar. Not only does it confirm that she’s not a true normie (who wouldn’t have to “put on” an act or even recognize it as such), but also feels most at ease around him, with whom she can be herself. She’s a wonderful enigma: she’s both the normiest normie who ever normied, and yet to maintain that requires someone who is literally not a normie.

After a feast, some mild riverside swimsuit fanservice, and a nice accidental assist by Takei to get Yuzu literally in Nakamura’s arms, the boys and girls retire to their respective cabins for some down time. Talk of Shuuji’s ex Shimano comes up, and Tomozaki scores the first of three points by teasing that Shimano is stringing him along, engendering laughter from Nakamura and Takei.

Takei unwittingly assists the others again by distracting Nakamura with arm wrestling while they all LINE about how the operation is going. The guys report that Shuuji mentioned a girl he could see himself going out with, but who is asking him for advice about a guy she likes. The girls confirm that it’s Yuzu telling Shuuji there’s a hypothetical guy she’s interested in.

During a game of tycoon in which Hinami and Tomozaki dominate, Tomozaki gets in his second tease by pointing out Nakamura never made it past Commoner in the game. Nakamura concedes the point, then moves on to Mizusawa, and how he’s been flirting with a girl from another school. This almost seems to irk Mizusawa, as he excuses himself to go to the bathroom.

Tomozaki follows him, and Mizusawa seems comfortable talking about it with him more. Tomozaki can’t imagine himself being bold enough to ask out a girl from another school, and when Mizusawa admits he might not like her, Tomozaki asks why he’d date someone he didn’t like. Mizusawa’s response under his breath, “You’re not just being polite, are you?” is cryptic.

Maybe the girl is just good in bed. Maybe he’s seeking to date someone outside of their circle, say, to give Tomozaki a chance at Hinami. In any case, when the boys are bathing, the other three learn that Tomozaki is hung, nicknaming him “Army Boy”, and he scores his first point by playfully calling Nakamura “tiny.” Hinami and Mimimi can apparently hear all of this.

While it was hinted that Hinami might’ve been lying when she denied she and Mizusawa were dating, but this episode seems to help make the case she was being honest. For while show is eminently comfortable executing its more nuanced version of the standard High School Camping Trip scenario, Tomozaki is anything but laid-back, especially when the Test of Courage comes around.

After Nakamura and Yuzu head off together as planned, rock-paper-scissors puts Hinami and Tomozaki together once more. This presumably means Hinami can relax and “drop the act” like when they were building the fire. Instead, she decides to make it walking-confidently-with-a-scared-girl practice for Tomozaki, suddenly acting timid and clinging to him.

Tomozaki is convinced Hinami is merely teasing her, deriving pleasure by getting him all flustered. But considering she’s never been this close and physical with him, you have to wonder if her motives go beyond mere teasing, and whether she’s using that as an excuse to be genuinely clingy with him. Otherwise, how far would this kind of “practice” go?

The episode seems on the cusp of answering that question when Tomozaki attempts to exact revenge by disturbing a live cicada. It works better than he expected, as she seems 100% genuine in being so horribly startled she ends up on her knees. She insists he help her up, and she wraps her arms around him, the two seem to realize in what a romantic position they’ve ended up. As his gaze settles on Hinami’s soft lips, both we and Tomozaki have to ponder: is simply practice taken to the HEXtreme, or is it something else … something real?

 

Yuru Camp△ – 06 – Girls with Grills

Rin should close up the library, but the heater is so nice she’s hesitant to leave. She realizes she has a package in her bag, and opens it to reveal a collapsible compact portable grill, which is a pretty nifty bit of kit. She also has yet to bump into Nadeshiko in order to give her her gift of chocolate buns from Nagano, but as she tells Ena, she just “can’t get used to the vibe” in the Outclub room.

Rin’s reluctance will soften at some point, what with the opening scene of the series showing both Rin and Ena camping with the Outclub. And her gateway drug to the Outclub is Nadeshiko, whom Rin finds sleeping in the stacks, also enjoying the library heat. Rin can’t help but smile watching Nadeshiko quickly house the chocolate buns.

Knowing that watching Nadeshiko eat something makes that thing look at least twice as delicious, she agrees to go with her on a camping trip, which will also be an opportunity to put her new portable grill—which both Ena and Nadeshiko initially mistake for a metal offertory box—through its paces.

After five episodes of beating around the bush, it’s finally happening: Rin and Nadeshiko are officially taking camping trip together. It was nice to see Sakura, apparently the only fam Nadeshiko has, meeting Rin’s mom, who may be Rin’s only fam. Rin is also struck by Sakura’s beauty, especially in contrast to her “blah” kid sister!

Sakura has agreed to drive them to the Lake Shibire Campgrounds, a little-known spot among the five lakes recommended by Chiaki for their autumnal splendor. Rin and Nadeshiko hit up the supermarket first, and while they’re initially crestfallen by the lack of pork jowl, horumon (offal), skirt, tongue, and ribeye, they do find some convenient and tasty pork and chicken skewers, while Nadeshiko plans to make a mini hot-pot as well.

Their feast thus purchased (and rung up by none other than Aoi, who just so happened to get a job at that particular supermarket), Sakura drives them the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Chiaki is already scouting out another campground for the Outclub’s next excursion, and meets one classy grandpa living his best life in the woods with a single pole tent and a big steak cooking on a cast-iron skillet.

Rin and Nadeshiko arrive and soak in the lovely foliage, then head to the other side of the lake where their campsite is located. Sakura orders a hot chai and takes in the scenery on her own before heading back, planning to return tomorrow at noon. Nadeshiko insists her big sis loves driving—and with that ultra-cool Rasheen, I can’t blame her!—but I felt she put out kind of a lonely vibe this week.

Maybe I’m just misreading her neutral expression. At any rate, I’m super-excited for Rin and Nadeshiko’s first official camping trip. Nadeshiko may crumple at the mere mention of ghosts, such as that of a cow believed to haunt the lake, but with someone as tough as Rin as her campmate, she has nothing to worry about. If anything, that ghost cow should worry about being turned into ghost barbecue!

Yuru Camp△ – 05 – So Far and Yet So Close

The contrasts between the two parallel camping trips continue. The Outclub takes a relaxing dip at the hot springs with an excellent view, while Rin is…still on her bike. As it gets colder and colder she wonders if she was too ambitious right after getting her license.

Still, she presses on due to the rewards of reaching her destination: a rare and unique view that includes Matsumoto City, Lake Suwa, and Fuji-san all together…and the promise of hot springs to warm her road-chilled bones. When all’s said and done, she logged over 150 kilometers.

It is then heartbreaking when, after finally biking the extra 6 km to the hot springs, parking her bike, and grabbing her towel, Rin is greeted by a locked door and a sign saying the springs are closed. Bummer!

Her hot spring plans are dashed, but she’s still excited at the prospect of that rare view…only for it to be covered in thick grey clouds at the designated vantage point. Fortunately, upon reaching the peak of Mt. Takabotchi, the clouds part and reveal a heavenly sight. Heartened and energized, she whips up her first camp meal of one-pot soup-style pasta.

Rin sends a pic of her tasty-looking meal to Nadeshiko, waking her up. She, Aoi and Chiaki went and overslept at the hot springs lounge, underscoring the dangers of hot springs: once you go, it’s very hard to leave! Fortunately, the campground manager doesn’t mind their lateness.

The girls set up their campsite, which also sports a lovely and expansive view. For their first fire they try a Swedish torch, then Nadeshiko prepares a “stewed” curry with tonkatsu ramen powder in the broth, a nifty little hack she’s glad Chiaki notices.

After dinner and marshmallows by the fire, the three soon learn that one tent isn’t big enough for the three of them. Aoi and Chiaki play scissors to Nadeshiko’s paper, so she ends up alone in the crappy blue tent with their gear. No matter; before going to sleep Nadeshiko contacts Rin, who herself is still awake.

The two leave the warmth and comfort of their winter sleeping bags to venture out to the spots with the best night view possible, all so they can exchange where they are with one another. As the soundtrack swells their reactions to receiving each other’s photos says it all: While they may be far away from each other, overlooking different glowing cityscapes, they share the same starry night sky.

It’s a beautiful way to conclude both Rin and the Outclub’s most ambitious camping trips yet, Rin’s long cold ride being a particularly impressive accomplishment. She and Nadeshiko may have shared a couple of meals, but they still have yet to officially camp together. We’ll see if they’ll remain apart for their next excursions, or if Rin and Nadeshiko ditch the LINE and experience the sky while standing beside each other.

Yuru Camp△ – 04 – Go-Go Outclub Rangers!

The newly three-member Outclub kicks into gear with preparations for their first camping trip together, starting with trying to keep the budget as tight as possible. While experimenting with different forms of insulation for an otherwise useless-in-the-winter summer sleeping bag, Nadeshiko repeatedly runs into the school and back to retrieve materials they need, like an eager puppy.

Nadeshiko and Aoi are able to make Chiaki warm, but at the cost of being all packed up and ready to ship to Abu Dhabi, like Nermal. They ultimately decide to buy winter sleeping bags, ensuring they each get a unique color. Nadeshiko will be Outclub Red, Aoi Outclub Blue, and Chiaki Outclub Yellow.

Meanwhile, Rin prepares to kick into literal gear of her moped, now that she’s gotten her license. We also learns she works part-time at at bookstore to fund her solo camping obsession. What a good kid! Nadeshiko texts her a photo of Chiaki all packed up, leading Rin to wonder just what the heck those weird girls are up to!

The Outclub picks a campground and a date, and hit up the store to buy all of the stuff they don’t already have. My one wish is that we’d have gotten an exact figure for the total cost of their supplies, but that’s okay. As for Rin, by God is she inspiring, heading out in the early morn with her little bike packed to the gills with gear.

The next day, Nadeshiko misses a bus, but it’s no big deal. The three of them aren’t in any rush; the whole point of their excursion is to relax! Chiaki and Aoi note that Nadeshiko is carrying all her gear on her back, while they have more convenient dollies. They worry she won’t be able to make the four-kilometer hike from the station to the campground.

In what should come as no surprise, Nadeshiko’s energy stores prove inexhaustible. She’s not just a puppy, she’s a pack mule! Speaking of cute animals, Rin encounters a puppy in the back window of a van that moves to whatever side of the lane on which she stops. When the van turns off, Rin is sad, only to find another van ahead of her filled with many dogs!

When the Outclub reaches a famous vantage point at Fuefuki Park, Nadeshiko can’t resist a photo shoot, which she shares with Rin via LINE-like app. The three decide to hit up a café for some sugary treats to recharge their batteries, each sharing one another’s desserts and making me wish I could safely go to cafés with my friends! Maybe someday…

Rin gets Nadeshiko’s message about the apple soft just as she’s pulled into a rest stop at Kirigamine, and decides to stop in to warm up a bit; the closer she gets to her destination of Nagano, the colder it gets, but it’s clear she’s not afraid of a challenge. She picks a cozy spot by the iron wood stove in a room she has all to herself.

Recalling she has some cash to spend from her job, she decides to splurge on a Borscht lunch set with a Caramel Macchiato, and does not regret it, as the Slavic soup quickly distributes warmth to every corner of her body. She texts her feast to Nadeshiko, who asks where she’s headed, and rather than simply text back “Nagano”, Rin chooses a unique way to respond: by sending Nadeshiko a link to a live webcam then waving to her in real time.

The Outclub unanimously decided to stop by the Hottokeya Hot Springs before continuing on to the Eastwood Campgrounds, but as soon as they enter the lounging area, they worry about relaxing so damn hard they won’t be able to leave and go do what they came to do…camp!

This Yuru Camp felt like the best of both worlds: the Outclub’s more spirited and boisterous three-girl journey, cross-cut with Rin’s more Zen solo trip. Both look like a lot of fun! There’s also a wonderful shifting between hot and cold; between exertion and relaxation. Every Outclub member is a ton of fun, but Rin remains the show’s undisputed MVP and my personal hero.

Wonder Egg Priority – 03 – Soft-Boiled

The bright colors and dark themes continue to intermesh as the third girl of the series is introduced. Kawai Rika’s ash-blonde hair is set off by a hot pink highlight and a magenta-and-purple jacket. Like Ai, she has a statue of someone she’s trying to save, though she makes a point to tell her she’s fat and ugly and her palm sweaty. When Ai meets her at the egg gachapon, Rika is on the ground, holding her ribs, but soon recovers miraculously.

After commenting on Ai’s heterochromia, and promptly asks for some spare change. Aka and Ura-Aka, always seated around a game of go, aren’t concerned with the injuries the girls endure; it’s part of the job. Ai’s excitement to meet a new egg heroine quickly shifts to bemusement, as her interaction with Rika feels like a “one-girl handshake event”, as Ai puts it to Neiru, with whom she’s now texting on the regular.

Between barging in on Ai’s visit with Neiru, always making sure people know her name is Kawai because she’s so darn cute, calling the doctor hot, labeling Neiru a tsundere, and most distressingly eating up all the kiwi, Rika creates the impression of a superficial, shameless, self-involved brat. Nevertheless, she keeps following Ai around, inviting herself over to her house (causing Ai’s counselor Sawaki—whom Rika also calls hot—to leave) and unilaterally deciding to sleep over.

When Ai tells her about why she’s currently a shut-in, Rika immediately jumps to the conclusion Ai is seeking attention from the hot Sawaki. Then Ai tells her about Koito, then asks about the person Rika is trying to save. Rika makes clear the “ugly fatty” Chiemi isn’t her friend, but her fan, and also refers to her as a patron and a wallet. Ai is more or less appalled.

As Rika bathes we see scars on her arm from cutting, which she’s promised to stop. It was clear she was using a veneer of carefree bravado to hide deeper issues, but the scars confirm it without anyone saying a word. She says everyone’s the same in that when you “scratch the surface” they’re all “slimy”—something you could also say of an egg. Neiru texts Ai to be careful with Rika, warning that “junior idol could mean bedroom stuff.” That Ai earnestly asks “like pillow fights?” really says it all about Ai’s sheltered existence.

Ai dreams of a memory of her walking in on Koito crying while in Sawaki’s arms, adding a fresh dimension to their past together. One could interpret such a scene in any number of ways both innocent and otherwise, but Ai quickly apologizes and shuts the classroom door, believing she’d seen something she shouldn’t have. She’s also pondered ever since whether Sawaki was a factor Koito’s suicide. She wakes up in her cocoon bed, over 50% of which is being taken up by the smaller Rika.

Ai then awakes in Rika’s dream. Due to their proximity in bed they “synchonized”, as Ura-Aka tells them, and it’s Rika’s dream because she’s apparently the one with the stronger feelings. They crack their eggs at once, revealing two fans of the singer “Yu-Yu”. They were so fanatical, in fact, that when Yu-Yu committed suicide, they did the same. When Ai says “just like that?” Rika corrects her: their choice was neither easy nor casual. She knows, because she had a fan.

When the usual horde of Seeno Evils (which Rika calls “bystanders”) starts to swarm, Rika and Ai get to work smiting them with their weapons; Rika’s two swords resembling giant versions of the box cutter she used to cut herself. It’s determined the field of flowers is too wide open, so the four girls head to a lighthouse within the nearby woods. It’s there, while they have a couple minutes to catch their breath, that Ai asks Rika to tell her about Chiemi.

After hand-waving the scars Ai spots as “just a youthful whatever”, Rika starts out by explaining the formal and emotional context of a junior-idol handshake event. When you’re only mildly popular like her group was, the lines were shorter, which meant the same fans would line up over and over. Chiemi did this with Rika, who shook her sweaty hand many hundreds of times.

Eventually, Chiemi would give Rika money. Rika accepted it, and began to expect and even rely on it. Like the two Yu-Yu fans who had “sugar daddies”, Rika saw Chiemi as a rich patron. She later learned Chiemi was shoplifting and fencing stuff to make money to give her. When Chiemi started to think of them as friends, Rika ended their relationship, ripping Chiemi off like a Band-Aid and telling her she was too fat and ugly to be anything more than a fan and a wallet.

She never saw Chiemi again until her funeral, and was forever haunted by what she saw that day. In a gutting inversion of the geography of the handshake event, Rika and Chiemi have switched places. Peering into the open casket, Rika saw nothing but skin and bones, like a mummy. Knowing she’ll never be able to forget her if she tried, Rika took Chiemi’s hand one more time. Since then, she’s vowed to kill as many Seenos and Wonder Killers as it takes if it will bring her back.

The Seenos break through, leading to a frenetic chase up the spiraling lighthouse stairs. Ai stumbles, still processing Rika’s heartbreaking tale, but also acknowledging that while she receded into the Seenos at a crucial time due to fear, a part of her also resented Koito for never talking to her like friends should; the kind of talking she just experienced with Rika, which helped her understand better where she’s coming from and why she is the way she is.

She also looks on the Yu-Yu fangirls with a measure of envy. They were able to die with their idol. If Koito had asked her to die with her, she thinks she would have. But what’s done is done, and what was left unsaid remains so. Ai gets back on her feet and powers up her rainbow mace, striking a very cool heroine pose at the top of the steps and assuring Rika she’ll kill ’em all with her. Rika’s quizzical reaction is priceless.

From there, we meet the fangirls’ Wonder Killer, an older woman who stalked Yu-Yu and pushed her into suicide. Ai and Rika spring into action like the pair of valiant heroines they are. Rika frees the fans by slicing off the Killer’s arm, while Ai delivers a crushing blow to the face with her mace.

What follows is why it’s particularly hazardous to engage in boss fights before you’re aware of their special moves. The Killer unleashes a cloud of dark smoke that everyone is able to dodge except Rika, who is immediately paralyzed and soon turns to stone. Before her face petrifies, she wishes Ai good luck. It’s all up to Ai now: she must protect the petrified Rika and the helpless Yu-Yu fans while defeating the biggest toughest Wonder Killer yet.

Perhaps Ai and/or Rika haven’t considered that Aka and Ura-Aka are just using them. Or they’re fighting even while part of them is well aware they may end up getting cheated. But in either case they have no other choice. Now Ai’s mettle will be tested like never before. Hopefully she can get the job done and wake up beside Rika, with neither of them too seriously injured.