Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn.

Plot summary: Yoshino and Mahiro share a night under the stars. Flashbacks then give us a closer look at the relationship between not just Aika and Yoshino, but Aika and Mahiro as well as Yoshino and Mahiro. Yes, it’s that exciting…

Notes:

• “Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. For ’tis a question left us yet to prove.” These words are spoken by the Player King (i.e. one of the actors of a traveling troupe) in Hamlet, but I do believe the order has been reversed. Not as a flaw, mind you, because we soon see a clock’s arms turning backwards. The Player King’s speech involves the fleeting nature of not just love, but other human emotions as well. More importantly, however, the speech is a cynical take on love. People will flock to you, for instance, if you’re rich, but when you’re down on hard times, watch as friends quickly desert you. But what does this mean within the context of the anime?

These lines follow a scene in which Mahiro debates his feelings for Aika. He seems hesitant to say that he truly feels anything for her. Perhaps these lines are meant to reflect his cynical hope that his feelings for Aika are nothing more than an irrational fancy that will eventually pass (little did he know that these feelings would lead him on a vengeful crusade). But why the backwards-turning clock? Why are the two sentences out of order? Maybe love is accidental: Yoshino simply caught Aika’s eyes first. Maybe had Mahiro and Aika not been “siblings,” they would’ve become a couple. Either way, love is thus nothing more than fortune itself leading the blind.

Or maybe the clock is just meant to signal that we’re about to get an episode full of flashbacks.

• The first flashback would seem to hint that Yoshino got closer to Aika before he really became Mahiro’s friend. She in fact encourages Yoshino to be friendlier with Mahiro, suggesting at the same time that no one else is up to the task. I wonder if the girl had an ulterior motive in dating Yoshino.

• You gotta be kidding me, right? A flashback about a double date? We even have generic comedy anime music playing in the background.

• Huh, is this how double dates typically go in Japan?

The guys walk together while the girls follow behind them? Of course, the two guys spend all night competing with one another instead of actually talking to the girls. I’m sure someone’s already shipping our two protagonists anyway.

• Yoshino seems to hold a traditional, Hallmark-esque view of courtship. Meanwhile, Mahiro has no problems just picking up two random college girls then ditching them afterwards. This scene just reinforces the earlier notion that love is accidental and fleeting. On the other hand, Yoshino offers up the challenge. After all, he’s the one who actually says, “For ’tis a question left us yet to prove.” Perhaps he thinks his relationship with Aika proves otherwise, i.e. the love between them is actually meaningful and not contingent upon cynical variables.

• To be honest though, I’m struggling to make this interesting.

• Man, Aika’s dropping some realtalk about Yoshino. How much of what she’s saying here is her honest opinion though? At first, you might assume that she’s merely trying to divert Mahiro’s attention away from the fact that she’s been secretly dating Yoshino, but much of what she’s saying here is actually true. Yoshino is a bit of a wimp, though I’m not quite convinced he’s as duplicitous as my readers often seem to suggest. This ambiguity in the intent behind Aika’s words point to, again, the possibility that she may have had an ulterior motive in dating Yoshino. Perhaps, then, fortune leads love, and Yoshino has something that Aika wants: the possibility of friendship between him and Mahiro.

• Even the sister is shipping the two!

• I like how Mahiro’s first reaction isn’t “I’m not gay,” but instead, “Me?”

• Aika: “I’m certain that no matter what happens, he will stay by your side.” Yeah, she obviously knows what’s going to happen, and she wants to make sure Mahiro had someone he could depend on.

• Now that I think about it, the surrounding area has been quarantined as a result of the black iron syndrome, right? So there shouldn’t be any signs of life out there, right? Our two heroes are also sorta traveling incognito, right? So uh, why are they keeping the lamp burning even if it’s cold? Seems to me the two of them are just asking for trouble to pay them a visit in the middle of the night.

• Now they’re reminiscing about stargazing. :I

• Speaking of which, these characters have some strange ideas about stars.

• And now, we have Mahiro badmouthing Aika to Yoshino. It’s like a regular ol’ soap opera at this point. I thought we were gonna get a debate on whether or not Hakaze’s actually dead, but I guess a quasi-incestuous love triangle is a whole lot more compelling to Bones.

• Oh my God, you guys are alone right now. Just kiss. Just do it. The sunflowers represent the sea of stars from the night before. Do eeeet… they didn’t kiss. Ugh, why am I watching this?

• Mahiro: “Hamlet, huh? Not bad.” Well, it’s been the only play you guys have been quoting all series long! I’m not so sure it’s quite so impressive anymore.

• Anyway, let’s get to that Hamlet quote: “Purpose is but the slave to memory. What we do determine, oft we break.” Again, we’re quoting the Player King. We’re also quoting the same speech I had mentioned earlier. The Player King is responding to the Player Queen, who claims that one never remarries out of love. The Player King then basically says, “Sure, that’s what you think now, but soon, your memories will fade, and along with it, your convictions.”

I guess Yoshino is recontextualizing these lines in a way to fit his relationship with Mahiro. Mahiro says he wouldn’t shoot Yoshino, but just think how quickly our hot-headed protagonist might forget this very fact if he ever finds out that Yoshino had secretly dated Aika. Then again, the former probably already knows. But anyway, just as love is fleeting, so are perhaps friendships, especially if said friendship had been formed under false pretenses.

• “But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill.” Horatio utters this line very early on in the play. It pretty much kickstarts the rest of Hamlet‘s narrative. Let’s hope this line does the same for our anime.