Ok, this episode had a lot to digest.
First, we get the introduction of 2 new characters: Ozu and Nao. Not really sure if Ozu is going to be an important character (he seemed like the guy that appears at the opening, but he isn's), but Nao certainly is going to be.
Nao seems like a really sly woman, that clearly puts up a fake persona to get what she wants. But it seems like she has a big backstory that we don't know about, especially with Ozu (which they emphasized a lot this episode, but we never got to know why they finished their relationship, because she was lying when she was talking to her "friends") and Kirishima.
Some way or another, Nao is related to what happened to Kirishima back in middle school, the thing they mentioned in episode 2, that made him join the Yakuza (and attack some people in a really agressive way). I feel like their relationship is really trobuled, but it does seem like they had more of a "sexual" relationship than anything else, since they only met to have sex apparentaly. Now here comes a problem than this anime shouldn't even have, and that is the fact that they showed us a 17 year Kirishima and (I suppose) 17/18 year old Nao doing the deed, but the thing is, they said they met 3 years before, so at least Kirishima was 14 when they had their "dates". Like, Kirishima wouldn't look like that at 14, I'm sorry. Also, 14 is like, really young, and it just feels unnecessary for him to be this young, because him being 17 now doesn't change the story a lot, so why didn't they make the protagonists older? Like, if he was 20 now, he would have been 17 now, and I feel like that would make more sense for the story too. Anyways, it's not like this doesn't happen in our reality, but Kirishima would certainly not look like that as a 14 year old.
Moving on, Yoshino and Kirishima get to spend the summer break at Osaka, Yoshino's home, and yess, Shouma is back. Honestly, the banana shirt was iconic. While there, Kirishima seems a bit aloof most of the times. Not sure what's that about.
The episode ends with the reveal that Kirishima and Nao have met again, and had sex once again (it was to be expected the moment he gave her that card with his number). Now, Nao wanted to meed with Kirishima, because she might be afraid of Ozu doing something to her, and probably wants Kirishima to be kind of a boyfriend to her. Not sure if Kirishima is up for that though...
I saw many people really surprised or completely furious with Kirishima, because he slept with another girl, but like, it's not like he didn't do that before in episode 3. Yeah, sure, I understand that now he and Yoshino are closer, but it's not like they are in a relationship either. And more importantly, I think people are not understanding Kirishima's character that much. It's clear that sex isn't something intimal or romantic to him. Like, he doesn't even know what he's feeling for Yoshino, since we clearly saw this episode that he compared his relationship with Yoshino as with a friendship with a male friend, when it clearly isn't. Kirishima has definetly trouble labeling what he's feeling and knowing "normal" relationships, so it doesn't surprise me that this attitude that he had is not seen by him as cheating (since he doesn't have anything official with Yoshino), even if he's totally in love with her. Also, it's not like he grew up with the Yakuza, and knowing he doesn't have any friends, he probably doesn't even know better either (Yoshino's grandfather had a daughter with a mistress, so...).
Above all, this episode showed us that Kirishima is a really lonely guy, and whatever happened in middle school shaped him into the closed person he is. He doesn't trust anyone and he doesn't like anyone besides Yoshino (that was made clear last episode), although this Nao girl might be a bit more important than other people for him (maybe it was his first "girlfriend"). The fact that he wanted that wool thing that Yoshino knitted in middle school, and the fact that his phone's lockscreen is a Yoshino picture shows his feelings for Yoshino are true to an extent, let's see how he's going to feel after what he did this episode. But it's clear that he doesn't really know what he is feeling either.
All this problems aside, we all know Shouma would be a better partner for Yoshino than Kirishima would ever be, but we all know the anime isn't taking that direction, so just let's accept that.
Now, was it only me, or the animation for this episode was BAD. This anime hasn't been particularly the top anime in terms of animation, but it was ok most of the time, but this episode, maybe because had a lot of moving around, but the animation was particularly bad, like the art style I kinda grew to like it, but this animation was making me dizzy sometimes, like, wow, it was bad. I hope this doesn't start to become a normal thing for the anime.
Also, I don't if they adapted more chapters this episode than in episode 4, but I felt that this episode was really rushed, they barely gave time for things between Kirishima and Shouma to heat up, or for some clean arrival to Osaka, they were just speeding through. Are they rushing this to end the cour in a really good arc, or are they just rushing it for the sake of it?
Being this episode 6, it means we are halfway through the anime I suppose, but the truth is that we still don't know how many episodes we are getting.
Edit: Also, it appears that Kirishima's ex girlfriend (at least one of them) actually toom his suggestion of "selling her body" and gave up on her dreams and started doing adult movies, before leaving Tokyo. I wonder if the story really is like that, and if that girl is Nao or some other important character. |