Just what do you mean / By "I'm the main character?!" / I'm the real star here!
Summary:
Pouring himself a cup of coffee, Kou watches Nino as she sleeps on his couch. She wakes, and is somewhat surprised that she is in the vacation house again, having sleepwalked (or sleep climbed, more accurately… a truly frightening thought) into his room at some point during the night. Still sleepy, she returns to her own home, but not before she is spotted by Hoshi (the star-headed guy).
The following Sunday, Sister invites Kou into the confessional where he is confronted by an outraged Hoshi, who demands all the details of Kou’s relationship with Nino. Convinced that Kou would never tell him the truth, Hoshi brings Sister in to mediate and act as a human lie detector to uncover all of Kou’s secrets. Much to Hoshi’s disbelief (and eventual amusement) Kou reveals that there is very little going on between the two of them as they haven’t even been on a date, leading Hoshi to the inevitable conclusion that Kou is gay.
Wanted the laundry / Prepared for nothing clean, right? / Lie terminator.
Hoshi continues to pile on the insults, and even threatens to ask Nino out, prompting Kou to level him with the fact that he gets 3000 Valentines a year. Angry, Kou vows that he will ask Nino out on a date, while Nino, unaware of their conversation, enjoys the cookies that the other two have forfeited.
Talking himself up, Kou prepares to ask Nino out, but for all his bluster he again makes it clear that he has absolutely no experience with women. Even worse, the 3000 Valentines he boasted of receiving earlier turned out to be a nightmare, as Kou could not possibly accept a single one of them. Confident that he has learned all he needs to know from Shoujo manga, however, Kou fortifies himself with a flashy super car and matching bouquet of roses and goes to sweep Nino off of her feet.
Shouldn't have borrowed / Makoto's books: critical / Mass is impending.
Nino, sailing grass boats down the river, is unimpressed by Kou’s lines and fancy accoutrements, so Kou breaks out the presentation he has prepared to fully explain the date to Nino. Nino enjoys Kou’s artistic expression, but still doesn’t grasp exactly what he is getting at, until Kou pushes her on the issue of leaving the riverbank. This puts Nino back in Venusian mode, and Kou realizes that he is making her uncomfortable. Finally, as he should have done in the first place, Kou asks Nino where she would like to go and she tells him she’d like to visit the place where the river meets the ocean, so that she can see how her boats have fared. Touched by her simple request, and recognizing that Nino is stepping outside her comfort zone, Kou offers her the dress he planned to give her for their date, and is stunned by how beautiful she looks.
I swear if you say / "Isn't she pretty in pink" / I'm gonna shank ya.
Reaction:
Hoshi was definitely the star of the episode (no groans, you knew that was coming), with his outrageous conclusions and trash talking. Watching his reactions run the gamut from enraged jealousy to utter disbelief and back again was a lot of fun, and his and Kou’s antics contrasted with Sister’s imperturbable analysis of the situation made them that much more amusing. Another great moment in the episode was the Chief’s amazing magic trick in which he “magically” transforms into a young guy wearing jeans. I totally cracked up at that point, and though the following jokes weren’t anywhere near as entertaining, I still can’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the kappa’s “illusion.” As usual, however, the laughs in the episode were secondary to the excellent character development.
I really enjoyed the progression in Nino’s character in this episode. In the beginning we can see that her subconscious, or at the very least her desire to be warm, is pulling her toward Kou, though she returns to her normal distance once she wakes. But by the end of the episode we see that Kou has even begun to influence her waking moments, as she has started thinking about places beyond the bridge and the paths that must be traveled to reach them. And while the final “change” in the episode, Nino exchanging her shorts and jacket for the ball gown, may be the most noticeable, it is also the most insignificant, as even surface-obsessed Kou admits that she is already perfect.
Though Kou’s opening monologue to the last episode makes it somewhat obvious, the river flowing into the sea is an excellent metaphor for the interaction between Nino and Kou. Kou, though he continues to lapse back into his shallow ways, even asking at one point “if I’m not popular, who would I be?” is slowly coming to terms with some of the traumatic incidents of his past, in this case Valentine’s Day, exploring a bit of his stagnant deeper sea. And Nino, rather than simply drifting like the river, is taking an active interest in the outside world, beginning to wonder what is happening beyond her small sphere. Her curiosity about the fate of the boats, and her desire to see the place where the sea and the river come together, are the first steps in expanding her world, but also an acknowledgement that there may be a growing connection between the two of them, a space where they are beginning to influence one another.
Nino wonders aloud if the river ever truly reaches the sea, but the effects of her interaction with Kou are becoming more and more apparent as time goes by. As Nino pours into Kou he begins to consider things a little more carefully, becoming quicker to put aside his shallow desires and actually listen to what Nino has to say. His insight into Nino’s pattern of invoking Venus, and his final line in the episode in which he expresses actual curiosity about her past are the proof of this. For Nino’s part, her willingness to try things outside of her normal routine is evidence that the “place” where their thoughts meet and combine with one another actually exists. Though we are again left without any clues as to Nino’s past, it is clear that Kou will not continue to content himself with his shallow impression of her, and just as the two explore the intersection of the river and the sea, I’m looking forward to them discovering the connection between them that is already deeper than they realize.
Related posts:
This post was written by...
Halfadeckshort – who has written 92 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
I always wanted to be the handler of a hot all-girl spy team, and joining Sea Slugs! made that dream come true. Well, the being part of a team portion of the dream, anyway. When I'm not busy trying to accomplish the rest of my goal, I enjoy watching anime from almost every genre with a focus on anything featuring sultry female voice acting or meganekko.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Considering how little I actually thought of this series upon watching the first ep. Its grown to be one of my faves amongst School prez is a maid and giant killing. Hoshi and Sister were a perfect double act during confession although i’m more looking forward to meeting that rooster guy and his bee? girlfriend.
I’m looking forward to meeting more of the other characters too, since everyone we’ve been introduced to so far has been really entertaining. I’m curious about the pink-haired woman in the ED who kept giving the odd marks during the gag contest. She looks normal enough to catch Kou’s eye, and I wonder if there will be any developments in that direction.
The part that I fount the most impressive was when Kou realizes that Nino starts speaking about Venus when she doesn’t want to do something, it just clicked with her personality. It made me think of Watashitachi no Tamura-kun (novel/manga by Toradora’s author)
That was pretty insightful on his part, I just wonder how many times he’s going to backslide into attempting to make her fit into one of his molds before he really takes it to heart. I thought the Toradora anime was pretty decent, so I’ll give that manga a look.
The humor is really starting to click for me now — Hoshi’s overreactions in concert with Sister’s utter calm are funny as hell. I also love how the characters seem to be aware and not aware of their neuroses at the same time — like, they’ll totally use them when it’s advantageous to do so. I’m surprised Kou hasn’t come up with a scheme to rope people into things by using his asthma to earn sympathy.
Nice observations about the character development btw.
Like the Cheif’s amazing illusion (which is still cracking me up). For Kou’s part, I don’t think he would be able to accept anyone’s sympathy (even though he sorta worked for it) without triggering a truly deadly asthma attack. And I’m glad that you’re starting to enjoy the show more.
It’s brilliant how this show is so funny and yet carries such serious undertones, esp in terms of relationship building and societal norms. Your thoughts on both Nino and Recruit’s growth in character are really insightful and I love that you tie it all back to Recruit’s opening monologues.
I try.
I was worried at first that the whole message about accepting others was going to be very heavy-handed (and have more of the focus), but so far the show has done an excellent job using humor to get us to question those norms without being too preachy about it. It helps that Kou, the “normal” one we’re supposed to identify with, is one of the craziest of the lot. Your comment also reminds me that I’m going to have to start calling him Recruit eventually.
I had to force myself to switch too, haha.
I glad you made a note of that. From the episode I was getting this feeling that only Kou was going to be influenced by Nino only, but the fact that they are able to somewhat connect is a good thing.
I didn’t expect the dress to be so…expensive looking. And she knew how to wear despite Kou’s disbelief.
Before this episode we hadn’t been exposed to any instances where Nino was thinking about something beyond the bridge, but with Kou’s influence we are starting to see that happening. I didn’t expect the dress to be so flashy either, but I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised given his posh bridge piling penthouse.
Wow, Hoshi is so lucky he didn’t start questioning Kou further into Kou’s relationship with Nino or there could have been some crazy awkward moments in that confessional… Like what if Kou had just started listing kama sutra positions followed by Sister saying, “It’s true”? What would Hoshi have done then as Kou laughed in his face?
Slowly catching up on this series now that Epi is back covering FMAB and Maid-sama! As pointed out by remm, Kou’s moment of empathy about Nino’s Venusian mode was really touching. Despite all the damage inflicted by his upbringing and education, the moment of understanding makes me feel that the possibility of their hearts opening up to each other is a good one.
I’m not sure if I buy the imagery of Kou as the sea/ocean but I certainly agree with the parallel between Nino and the river. Wrt the former, I tend to think (maybe due to the OP) of Kou like a fish out of (very large but very stagnant) water, learning to navigate and adapt to the new waters of Nino. But your post also helped me to see how changes are also afoot wrt Nino.