Hokay.
I don't know that we know how long Nagomu and Kanoko were an item prior to his heading back home in response to what he was informed of as a major emergency; some seem to think it was from the day he arrived in the town she was in, and i kinda doubt that.
I'll grant that he tends to not project to the world a This is Serious, Very Very Serious vice even when that really is the case, but I'd also argue that if they'd been together a significant period of time... she should have known that.
As well as knowing that there are things he wouldn't joke about, despite whatever his demeaner said.
Given what all she knows about Japanese sweets of the type the family shop carries, and that she knew what a stab to the heart saying, "I like Western Sweets" would be as an exit line, it does argue for an extended period of time associating with each other.
Thus, I'm with Nagomu in regard to his thinking she dumped him being a valid perception of things.
I'm having a slightly harder time wrapping my mind around, "Yeah, stab him in the heart, now I'll go back and we can laugh about it, wait he's gone? What, for real? The [redacted] dumped me!"
I'm not seeing how one can sy he choose family over her when she herself admits the offer was there to go with him and she didn't do anything one could consider discussion or negotiation, just behaved such that it was reasonable to think she'd delivered not just a "No," but a "Hell, no!"
Guess that says something concerning how I view the world, I guess.
Outside of that, Kanoko seems like a nice gal.
And much more effective in a public service position.
Actually, the latter might be relevant.
You spend all your time being pleasant and smiling and courteous, etc., when dealing with asshat customers, you might be a tad shell-shocked when not 'on-stage' and not be at your best.
I can be that way.
So, mitigating circumstances are possible.
We'll see what she's like going forward.
The next episode preview indicates she is wise enough to not get hired at the family shop given all the unresolved issues there, but did find work at a similar establishment, but not a direct competitor, nearby.
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I've mixed feelings concerning Itsuka's pops.
He did abandon her.
He did first get someplace where he thought, correctly as it turns out, that the folks there would care for her properly.
How they're doing that without legal guardianship papers baffles me a bit, but, hey, it's fiction.
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Itsuka is young, OK?
It's reasonable, to me at least, that she's still hoping her pops will come back; from her various flashbacks there were good things about their life together.
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Nagomu may be a tad inept at times (What? Really?!), but his strength is that he cares.
Mind, that's also a downside when it comes to selling their sweets, but hey, it's better than other potential character flaws, OK?
When asked to go home after ten years away due to his father's ill health, he did so with no hesitation.
When he learned Itsuka was missing, he dropped everything to go looking for her, and found her.
So I'm none too pleased with those thinking the story would be better without him.
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Anyway, enough of that.
I enjoyed the episode very much.
We got a ton of backstory in a manner that made it not be an info dump.
We got to see some pretty positive group dynamics, and some things went down that might alter Itsuka's perception of Nagomu in a positive manner.
Kanoko showed up, and in a fashion that shows she's a good person despite the interactions between her and Nagomu at the time he received his orders home.
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