Epi on December 3, 2009 · in Kimi ni Todoke

Summary:

It’s soccer practice and Sawako astonishes everyone with her amazingly improved soccer ability. It seems Kazehaya’s special after-school lessons have proved to be quite fruitful. Chizu is all psyched up now that Sawako is playing well as they may actually have a chance to win it all this year.

After practice, Sawako encounters Kurumi at the classroom entrance. Excited that she’s meeting the ‘French doll’ girl who picked up her papers a while back, Sawako gets all fan-girlish. Kurumi proves to be quite friendly to Sawako and chats with her for a bit, and even calls her a doll. Interestingly though, while Kurumi is actually thinking the same thing as Ayane and Chizu (pictured above), Sawako is overjoyed that someone thinks she looks like a cute doll. As Sawako goes all fangirl on Kurumi, she tells Chizu and Ayane about her being called a doll and the two have some creepy thoughts. Moments later, Kazehaya walks into class and Ayane tries unsuccessfully to get Kazehaya to call Sawako by her real name as he’s too embarrassed to go through with it.

That day as Sawako is yet again moving a huge stack of papers, she happens to see Kazehaya and Kurumi chatting in the halls and realizes how good they look together. This is compounded by the fact that a passing guy makes this remark as well to his not so pleased girlfriend (at least she’s not hitting his Escalade with golf clubs…).

Still mesmerized by all that is Kurumi, Sawako considers changing her hair to something more bouncy like Kurumi’s beautiful locks. As Ayane and Chizu try to imagine how Sawako would look with various hairstyles, the two agree that she should stick to her current style.

After school the three girls decide to practice some more soccer and as Sawako waits at the school entrance, she see Kazehaya talking to one of his friends from his middle school. During their conversation he mentions Kurumi by her first name. Shocked at how naturally he was able to call her by her first name (and was not able to call her by her first name earlier in the day), Sawako starts getting all *DOKI DOKI* and even perhaps jealous. Seeing her distress Kazehaya asks Sawako what’s up but she’s paralyzed with shock. He does pick up on what she’s thinking though and just as he’s about to say her name, Kurumi bursts onto the scene.

Abruptly changing the mood, Kurumi quickly pronounces Sawako as her friend in front of Kazehaya and fangirl Sawako is overjoyed at this outcome…

This week’s Kawaii Sawako pic of the week:

Reaction:

Wow. Just wow. As much as I didn’t want things to be like this, my last hopes have almost been dashed. While we still might be able to explain away Kurumi’s actions, I’m 99% sure now that she is actively two-faced and manipulative inside. While that makes some other bloggers probably pretty happy, I myself would have liked Kurumi to be more innocent but I digress…

I was taken aback at just how powerful Kurumi’s manipulation skills were. The way that she was able to happily call Sawako a ‘doll’ with a huge smile on her face while actually meaning that maliciously (and thinking maliciously in her mind with a HAPPY VOICE) is a level of doublespeak that I have not seen in a long, long time. Add to that, we have what looks like Kurumi’s probable plan of attack in deflecting off Sawako from Kazehaya.

Previously Kurumi proved too smart in that she realized that actively acting on the rumours about Sawako would be a bad way to get on Kazehaya’s good side. Perhaps she even released the rumours herself in a bid to test the waters to plan her next move. Knowing how close Kazehaya is to Sawako, it seems Kurumi has decided the best way to get ‘rid’ of Sawako is to not get rid of her at all. Allow me to explain. Knowing that Sawako herself is extremely timid and naive in nature, Kurumi falls upon the old maxim: “Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer”. I believe her plan will be to befriend Sawako, then tell Sawako that she likes Kazehaya. Knowing that Sawako is not in tune with her own feelings, she will likely manipulate Sawako into supporting her love. In that way, Kurumi manages to get even closer to Kazehaya without him being suspicious and also with making Sawako keep her distance willingly.

Of course judging from Chizu’s expression when they mentioned Kurumi’s name a few episodes back I think Chizu and Ayane will expose the truth and figure out how to help Sawako. Either way I expect a lot of catfights in the episodes ahead.