Yamato is completely over Honoka, and just wants to do well in track practice; however, with Suzuka giving him the shoulder of ice, he just can’t concentrate on anything. Yamato is completely sucking out, and Sasaki is really pissed about all the pointless running he has to do, because Yamato is always spaced out. Naturally, Miki is concerned and offers to help him with his baton work. None of this helps much, and Miki realizes why Yamato is preoccupied. Yamato regrets lying to Suzuka, but he decides to set things right himself, instead of having Miki talk to Suzuka about it. Naturally, this is easier said than done.
Using Gorou-chan to bait the trap, Yamato eventually manages to track down Suzuka and tell her the truth. Suzuka doesn’t immediately forgive him, but she secretly wants him so bad, that her anger quickly subsides. When Yamato happens to run into her again at the laundromat, she’s all ready to forgive him and eat his croquettes. Of course, this being Suzuka, she has to get angry at him, act all weird because she can’t take out her laundry in front of him, and then boss him around. Afterwards, she calls Yamato and lets him know that she’s no longer mad at him. Now, there’s only 5 more episodes left to fall madly in love, get back together, grow up, and return triumphantly to Hinata Sou.
Although Yamato is a bad boyfriend, at least he’s honest with himself. Of course it took about a million people telling him this, but he finally realized that he just goes with the flow and does a half-assed job at everything. In the continued soul searching, Yamato also realizes that the object of his affections is not perfect; she’s actually moody (UNDERSTATEMENT!!!) and childish. In other words, she’s an “Ordinarye” girl. Maybe they are a perfect couple, since they can certainly learn a lot together. It was a bit sad how Yamato is completely over Honoka (was she at track practice?), but at least he realizes now that even after everything, he still likes Suzuka best. The stage is set for some heroic track and field feats, accompanied by inspirational music and poorly animated movements!
However, it wouldn’t be a Suzuka episode without introducing some new questions. The first big question is: What in the world is Miki doing? Yasunobu picks up on this as well, leading to a hilarious exchange where he accuses Yamato of having no honor. Miki can’t possibly just be this nice, but I don’t really feel that vibe between her and Yamato. A part of me secretly hopes that she is using Yamato to get close to Yasunobu, while at the same time currying favor with Shogun Suzuka. Can’t you see this trickle down effect as stupid Yamato tells a salivating Yasunobu about how Miki stripped down in the park and helped him work on his “baton technique”? It’s a wonder Yasunobu hasn’t joined the track team! The other big question is: What was Suzuka washing? The natural assumption is that it was just underwear, but with Suzuka, you have to look beyond the surface. Perhaps she had her neko-meido cosplay gear in there? Tons of matching camouflage underwear for hanging out with Miki? A bunch of “I love Tsuda!” shirts? You just never know when it comes to Suzuka.
I can’t wait for Yamato and Suzuka to get together and have that awful awkwardness that you always get between two inexperienced daters who just started going out. It’ll be like when Yamato went out with Honoka, only about 100x worse because Suzuka isn’t nearly as bold as Honoka when it counts. Speaking of which, I also can’t wait to see Honoka witnessing this young love!
This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1970 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
> What was Suzuka washing?
Primula opens the toploader to find that the machine was actually empty. She gasps in horror. (cue discordant violin music)
LOL! That would actually be really hilarious!
At least we see Yamato growing some vertebrae. I agree that took the entire Suzuka-viewers community SHOUTING at their screens to make him less gastropodous. I particularly enjoyed this ep… (didn’t we all?) Yamato in the spaced-out scene at the laundromat, realizing that Suzuka has a temper straight-from-the-abyss-of-hell-and-beyond was simply … priceless.
Oh and the falling from the bed when Suzuka called in. It’s a cliche seen a zillionth of times, but it worked good for me, and I couldn’t help a laugh.
I vote for hiring Kabitzin and Zyl to write the script for the last 5 episodes. This is the only way to prevent this show from spiraling into the abyss by the end.
Finally I realized the art of token passing comes right after rocket science. I really wonder why Miki carries this big blue stick around. For relay race practice? Sure… You wonder why Suzuka was so embarassed about her stuff in the washing machine? I think you missed something. Where was Honoka? Wasn’t she about to confess (again) to Yamato last time?
I have a sneaking suspicion that Suzuka and Miki are not the harmless students they pretend to be. Remember the camouflaged Miki in the bushes when Yamato and Honoka kissed the first time? That was no coincidence and Miki was not sneaking after Yamato. My theory is that Suzuka and Miki were trying to assassinate Honoka and finally succeeded this time. So the relay practice was really just a pretence to keep Yamato away from Honoka. Miki knew that Yamato wouldn’t be able to resist her in her training clothes (“ZOMFG you’re virtually naked!”).
At the same time Suzuka murdered Honoka[1]. At the laundry she was of course afraid that her clothes would still be covered in blood which is why she couldn’t take them out with anyone – especially not Yamato – around.
This also explains why Gorou happily approached Suzuka: Its excellent nose sensed the blood and hoped for a piece of flesh.
By the way, did you notice the little angel wings on the back of Suzuka’s shirt? Ironic, isn’t it?
[1] Regarding Suzuka’s technique, I assume she jumps her victims to death by a precise back-flip against the neck and thus break it. You know, this is actually the perfect crime: Even if she gets caught, she can simply claim she was doing some practice when the victim passed by and it will appear to be an accident.
Another thing: Yamato’s technical problem is quite obvious, isn’t? He always forgets “Hand over that lovely token!”.
There’s only one problem with your theory Chris:
If Suzuka’s “Fatality Move” is really a high-jump to the neck, that would not be that bloody (assuming for a second that the head is not actually detached from the torso in the process). Perhaps there was a showdown, however, and Suzuka was wounded, while Honoka lived to fight another day?
I did notice the wings on the back of the shirt, although they were rather badly drawn, so I wasn’t completely sure they were wings (so I didn’t mention them). However, what better way to advertise your innocence after a murder than to wear an Angel/Ordinarye shirt!
Gorou-chan is like a shark in the water, I swear.
I look forward to more ‘Engrish’ shirts. Those always make my day and make me forget about the crappy animation in Suzuka =)
Chris, actually my theory is that Suzuka, with Miki as cover, snuck out to ask for a date from the now single Honoka and was turned down. Thus general grumpiness, anger at Yamato mixed with desire for company/food. ZOMG, if I keep this up, it’ll be the Very Secret Diaries of Suzuka Asahina next!