KKUKUKUKUKU ^_^
Summary:
Word quickly spreads through the school about Yoshida’s beady eyes and delinquent days, and Yano’s wide-open-legged sluttyness in middle school. Of course accompanying these rumours is the critical part that the originator was none other than Sawako. Having none of it, Yoshida and Yano believe in Sawako’s innocence, but not without a bit of doubt. After talking with Sawako at school that day they reassure themselves that she’s completely innocent.
Meanwhile Kazehaya is quite late for school that day, as he’s held up by Pin (the supply teacher/gym teacher) in the teacher’s room. Pin discusses his drunken mishaps and wonders if staring into Sawako’s eyes was the cause of it all, and also teases Kazehaya about their relationship together. Startled, Kazahaya runs to class. There Sawako notices his AWESOME SHINY FOREHEAD (extra points for fighting out who that is in the pic).
Three girls died in a freak propane explosion at school today. When questioned about why there was a huge propane tank on school grounds, the principal replied 'it seemed like a good idea at the time, and I mean we really like teppanyaki...'
Later that day, Sawako shares a nice lunch with Yano and Yoshida outside and realizes how great her life is. After lunch, Yano and Yoshida are confronted by some other girls (who look like they belong in a Ghibli movie) about the rumours, as the two try and defend Sawako. At the same time, Sawako meets up with her middle school friend who notices that Sawako has really opened up lately. When asked about her relationship with Yano and Yoshida, the two girls happen to listen in to hear Sawako say that they are not her friends. Unfortunately before she could finish what she really wanted to say, Yano and Yoshida are dragged off by Pin to get them to hand Ryuu some baseball info. As Sawako finishes, she explains to her friend that she’s not sure if she can call the two girls her friends yet as they are not that close but that she really does like them and would like to be their friends someday.
Pin plays some Kancho on Yoshida (and then puts his arms around the girls really quickly :P)
Dismayed by the fact that Sawako said she didn’t consider them their friend, Yano and Yoshida ponder what she really meant by that. Perhaps it was because they had just met and that they themselves would still feel a bit awkward to admit that Sawako was their friend and that she felt the same way. Determined to find out the truth, Yano tells Sawako that she really likes her, and asks what she thinks back. Sawako responds with “Rather than saying I like you, I’d rather say…”. Before she can finish, Yano cuts her off believing that Sawako doesn’t like them at all as Sawako wonders if they really understood her point. While pondering this in the toilet, she overhears some girls talk about her and the rumours. The girls accuse Sawako of using Yano, Yoshida and Kazehaya in order to be popular and the girls remark that Kazehaya is going to lose his popularity real fast if he keeps hanging around Sawako. Astonished by this revelation, Sawako decides that she is just too much of a bother to everyone and decides to keep her distance yet again.
Huh huh huh huh, that's some good stuff man!
The next day, Yano and Yoshida meet each other as they walk to school, both having cried their eyes out the night before as Sawako’s rejection. Once again they wonder if it was all a misunderstanding or if Sawako really did start those rumours about them and really was using them. The girls bump into Sawako at school where sensing that they are sad (although Sawako misunderstands the real reason why) Sawako apologizes preemptively to them and runs away. She vows to herself that she will clear up the rumours and let everyone know that Yano and Yoshida aren’t her pawns.
The episode ends off as Kazehaya confronts Sawako about being distant. She mutters that no matter what, she could never hate him as she runs off.
Although a sad episode, I cannot miss the Kawaii Sawako pic of the week!
Reaction:
I was actually very pleasantly surprised at this episode. In my last episode review, I had commented about how if the story presented the rumour episode as the standard ’stupid misunderstanding and everyone believing things too easily’ type deal this series would be at best mediocre. Happily this was not the case.
I don’t ever remember a single anime that I’ve seen where characters have been so skeptical as to rumours and innuendo. Yano and Yoshida managed to give Sawako the benefit of the doubt after hearing that she may have started the rumours. They gave her the benefit of the doubt when they overheard her say that she didn’t think of them as friends. They gave her the benefit of the doubt when she said she wouldn’t say she liked them to their face, and finally they still gave her the benefit of the doubt when she preemptively apologized for ‘making them sad’.
Meanwhile Sawako herself, while misunderstanding, really does try hard to clear things up, but she’s just really bad at clearing things up. Instead of the typical anime ‘too much pride to clear things up’ kind of deal, Sawako has very little of that and really does try her best to make things good.
That ladies and gentlemen is the absolute opposite of basically every other anime I’ve ever seen where rumours and innuendo are taken too easily and too seriously and are not corrected by sheer stupidity. It was actually quite spectacular to see, and very unexpected.
Kimi no Todoke, I salute you, you truly are the best show of the season so far.
Next episode: Will Sawako fix things or not just yet?
Related posts:
8 Comments
Midou Madoka!! I had no idea that you were also a fan of Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko.
In terms of the episode, I’ll agree with everyone else who has said that the frustration we feel at this situation is the mark of a truly excellent series.
Wow the first poster got it! I have to make these harder
Yeah Yamamoto Yohko is great if only for the all-star cast, and of course I’m a huge fan of anything space-fighting pre-CGI days.
Yamamoto Yohko is also one of Shinbo’s less quirky works (compared to Studio SHAFT’s more recent series I mean).
The more realistical reaction to rumours of the main characters was indeed surprising, although it was clear it is a great show before this episode. And although in terms of good entertainment it’s good that this arc lasts as long as a normal plotline, I still would prefer things to clear up as soon as possible.
>>Next episode: Will Sawako fix things or not just yet?
Show ▼
I love how Sawako was like “It’s not so much that I like you, but blah blah blah blah blah…” and her friends were like “OMG, TL;DR, she hates us!” Damn those short attention spans!
Don’t worry Sawako, they’ll come crawling back when it’s exam time.
Perhaps it’s a ‘lost in translation’ case. In my subs, she was saying ‘rather than like, I, um…’ — ‘rather’ is for me an announcement of something more-than. Apparently it’s different in Japanese.
This episode almost made me want to put the series on hold until I’d built up a bit of a backlog for it. Of course, I immediately caved in when episode five came out, but I was resolute for at least ten minutes or so. Hopefully angst mode won’t last for too much longer without giving us a break, I’m already having enough trouble waiting for this to come out every week.
LOL, let’s hope this series doesn’t go that route.
My queues were messed up and didn’t get episode 5 till later. But my review will be coming out very soon!