YAY! She smiles!!!
Summary:
Loli Sawako!!! (Just for you Shin)
The episode begins with a short retrospective of Sawako’s early years. Apparently it was a pure mistake which led to Shino calling her Sadako and the name stuck ever since. From there rumours of her supernatural powers grew year by year until she was completely shunned in high school.
If this were live-action, I bet all those girls would be Gyarus
Moving back to the present, we go back to the end of last week’s episode where Sawako is cornered by the girls in the bathroom. Her pleas to rectify the ‘misunderstanding’ fall on deaf ears though, and soon a crowd gathers in front of the bathroom expecting a fight. Realizing that Sawako is caught in it all, Kazehaya tries his hardest not to intervene as he realizes that it isn’t his fight but Sawako, Yano and Yoshida’s fight although he is quite vocal about Sawako’s innocence to the crowd.
Ryuu thinks to himself that Kazehaya's pretty cute... OH NOES!!!
Not caring about what she was saying, the leader of the girls pushes Sawako over but Sawako is relentless. The misunderstanding must be cleared up and she musters up all of her courage to try and clear Yano and Yoshida’s name. Meanwhile the two girls hear about the ‘fight’ themselves, and rush into the washroom to help Sawako. They overhear Sawako defending them, and pretty soon words spreads outside that Sawako is trying to clear up everything. Finally Yano and Yoshida have enough, and they forcefully move the bullies away and protect Sawako.
***HUGS***~~~~~~~~ ^_^
As the bullies leave, everyone outside acknowledges that there was no way Sawako could have spread the rumours and her reputation is restored. Meanwhile in the bathroom, Sawako confesses to the girls how much she likes them as the girls hug her and declare that they are good friends after all.
If this were shonen, Kazehaya would be in for a breakdown/new weapon/revenge killing/used by bad guy for bad guy's aims/misunderstandings time
The next day with exams over, everyone rejoices at their higher grades thanks to Sawako’s notes. Unfortunately, the Ringu-girl herself only managed to rank 30th as she was quite stressed about the rumours during test time. Still, with misunderstandings cleared up, everyone resumes their gradual and increasing approval of Sawako and she is overjoyed. That afternoon after school, Yano and Yoshida invite Sawako out for ramen – because that’s what friends do. Seeing this, Kazehaya suddenly has a wave of jealousy as Sawako is no longer just his alone and he slouches on the ground, sad at this prospect.
Now that you have real friends, I can stop pretending to care about you, isn't that great Sadako?
As the girls head off to ramen, her old ‘friend’ Shino makes an awkward appearance, telling Sawako she’s really happy for her to finally have friends as she runs off with her real friends leaving Sawako to Yano and Yoshida.
Finally, we flashback to the school as the bullies realize that their rumour plan backfired and that Kazehaya was not amused. It seems the leader of the bully group Yuuka has had a crush on Kazehaya since middle school and now was crushed upon realizing that Kazehaya did not approve of the rumours. The episode ends as we see the other love interest girl remark to herself that those girls are kids as they should realize that Kazehaya is beyond such things…
The TRUE rival
And finally…
This week's Sawako cute pic of the week!
Reaction:
It was really, really nice to see everything cleared up by the end. It was already quite obvious from the previous episode that those bully girls were the ones responsible for the entire rumour fiasco, but until the last moment of this episode, I was pretty convinced that they were working for that other girl (voiced by Aya Hirano). It seems though that they are unconnected, a revelation whic generally blindsided everyone watching this series.
I’m impressed at the amount of depth in this series so far. I wonder if this means that there may be many more potential suitors for Kazehaya than previously imagined. It also seems that the other girl isn’t as dumb as previously thought. Instead of being a cardboard ‘other girl’ character, she’s actually smart enough to realize that the rumours were a dumb idea. I can even see her potentially being an actual friend of Sawako (not just pretending) but then having to fight over Kazehaya.
Another aspect of this episode which I liked is that, while Sawako is extremely naive she is willing to stand up for herself quite forcefully. Even in front of obvious bullies and with no one else obviously there she defended her friends to the end. Although she appears quite shy, Sawako is probably the bravest one of all in this anime so far.
The Kazehaya jealousy question is something else that hangs over the air. Will his jealousy be a constructive or destructive force? I can concievably see, that as Sawako gets closer and closer to Yano, Yoshida and everyone else, she will naturally drift away from Kazehaya whom she regards more as a saviour than as a love interest. If that were true, then it would be time for the OTHER GIRL to make her move. And then what? Or will Kazehaya himself start getting vindictive and try to separate Sawako from the others?
Finally, what’s up with Shino? At first I thought she was Sawako’s actual friend. But now I think that she just felt bad for naming Sawako “Sadako” in the first place, and pretended to be nice to her because of that. Either way, glad to see that such fake friends are out of the way and now Sawako really has people she can count on.
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6 Comments
The ending came off to me more like
Aya Hiranothe new chick having some lulz at the other girls for being out in the open with their mistaken accusations regarding the rumors instead of subterfuging that shit. I don’t think it is implied that this group of girls started the rumor; rather, they picked up on the rumor and mocked Sawako because they’re assholes. They probably helped the rumor spread quicker, but I don’t think it originated with them.But I do agree that Aya’s character and these girls are unconnected, if only because these girls are dopes. lol
Rumours do have to start somewhere, and it seems these girls were the most logical starting point. Either way seems like everyone just took it for granted that Aya Hirano’s character started the rumours, but it really looks not true at this point. So I am happy it turned out that way, because it means this show may be much more unpredictable than we’d think.
While I am glad that the situation between Sawako, Yano, and Yoshida was cleared up this episode, I don’t think we’ve reached the root of the rumor situation yet. It was pretty clear that the girls in the bathroom were responsible for spreading some of the rumors, but I agree with Shinmaru in that I don’t think that they were the source. From the way that Yuka talked to Sawako, it seemed that she honestly believed that Sawako had started the rumors, and Yuka had planned to bring this all to light in order to gain favor with Kazehaya at the expense of Sawako. Of course, this plan backfired in a major way, but I think that was the extent of their involvement. They didn’t start the rumors, they just sought to turn the situation to their advantage.
While we can’t assume that rival girl started the rumors, her remark at the end made it clear that she believes herself to be smarter than the girls who had been spreading them. So, whether it was her or someone else who used the bathroom bullies, and everyone else really, as pawns, I think the source will soon be revealed.
Hmm that’s a good point, i didn’t think about it like that. Now I’m starting to wonder myself…
Amazing how much depth a shojo anime can have!!
Well, I’m glad everything turned back into normal. But there wasn’t the knock-out I hoped for.
I’m afraid we can expect more mean things from that secretly-fallen-for-Kazehaya girl.
Awww She´s so cute *^* As moe as I like, Sawako-chan XD And Kazekaya is great! I love them