Makio says she can’t take on the responsibility of adopting Asa and becoming a foster mom. Hopefully, she never says that around the girl. She’s with her friends at the moment, and she should be able to open up to them about her true, honest feelings… even if some of those feelings are pretty silly. I mean, of course Asa can be immature at times. She’s fifteen! Makio also says, “Still, I cower at the thought of her being that woman’s child.” C’mon, they’re two separate people. Most of all, no kid wants to hear that they’re exhausting to be around. Makio keeps insisting that she’s barely related to Asa, but I have no clue what that means. Okay, I know what she means; what Makio really wants to say is that she barely knows Asa. But the kid’s literally your sister’s daughter. You are so related. There is just no relationship.

A lot of this sounds like it’s coming from a woman who still hasn’t finished processing her current situation. And sure, I feel for her. The rest of the family basically dumped Asa into Makio’s lap and bailed. Her boundaries were breached without a second thought. The only way she can even regain some semblance of control over the situation is to piss and moan to her friends who won’t judge — to draw this weird arbitrary line in the sand about how she and Asa aren’t related. But again, I hope none of this comes back to the girl. I hope it’s just a vent session between the girlfriends and the girlfriends only. But you never know how your resentment might leak out in other ways. It might show up in her words, her facial expressions, her actions, etc. Makio needs to sort her feelings out, because whether she likes it or not, she has a teenager at home.

Later, Shingo finally drops by and introduces himself to Asa. And boy is he formal. I get that people still use business cards in Japan, but even with the kids? I dunno, it just feels so stiff. Plus — and I feel like I use this phrase a lot — I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a business card. Anyway, we learn that Asa can polish off a liter of milk in a single day. Makio bizarrely needs milk with her coffee right now, so she dashes out of the apartment to go buy some. She’s in such a hurry that she leaves her niece with a man the girl just met. I know they used to date and everything — and we shouldn’t treat every man like a predator — but still, it’s careless. This is what I mean about what her actions might entail. Asa might not read it this way, but it just screams, “I need to get out of here. I feel trapped in my own home.”

Makio is shocked to hear that her sister referred to her as “Makio-chan.” The bigger shock is hearing that her sister actually acknowledged her career choice by calling her a novelist. Apparently, the woman used to mock Makio’s work, but over time, her stance softened. Maybe having her own child did the trick, i.e. “I want my child to be whatever she wants to be… so I regret the words I said to my own sister.” But who knows? I’m just speculating. Ultimately, time heals all things eventually, even broken relationships. But the accident robbed the sisters the small possibility to mend their relationship. For me, the real tragedy is thinking about what could have been.

Makio keeps telling Asa to keep her journal closed, because she’s tempted to read it if she sees it lying around opened. Asa, however, doesn’t mind if her aunt does read it. It’s a very interesting dichotomy. On the one hand, you have a woman who’s desperately clinging onto whatever private life she has left. She’s just lost most of it thanks to taking Asa in, so she thinks there’s nothing more valuable. On the other hand, you have a girl who wants to open up to an aunt who was a stranger to her up until recently. Sometimes, it’s easier to say what you need to say when you have the opportunity to sit down and write it all out. In other words, Asa is inviting Makio to get to know her. I hope the latter can stop projecting and just take the golden chance she’s been given. Most teenagers wouldn’t open themselves up like this to their parents or guardians.

It’s the first day of school, and Emiri is with her mother. Asa didn’t want Makio to come along, though. It feels like she doesn’t want to put even more burden on Makio’s shoulders. Earlier in the episode, Shingo just said that adults can be more sensitive than we think, but I think that applies to everyone. Asa knows Makio suddenly had to upend her life in order to take her in. Asa knows Makio suddenly has a new mouth to feed. Maybe Asa even knows Makio doesn’t feel adequate enough to bcome a foster mom. So this is her way of saying, “Look, you don’t gotta worry about all of that. You’re not my mom, and I’m not your child.” The girl is all smiles right now, but you never really know how she’s holding out on the inside. Maybe her true thoughts are in her journal, but Makio’ll never know if she never reads it. When Makio asked if she should come to the entrance ceremony, she probably wanted to respect Asa’s feelings. But her question might have had an opposite effect; it might have communicated, “Do I really need to do this as well?”

Even though Asa didn’t want anyone to know about her parents’ death at her middle school graduation, she immediately goes and tells her new high school friends about it. Apparently, she wanted to stand out, but she ironically just made herself feel isolated all over again. After all, most people can’t relate to her situation. All they can really say is, “Sounds like a movie plot.” Nevertheless, she tells Makio about it afterwards, expecting advice that would’ve come out of her own mother’s mouth. But Makio, stumped on what to say or how to react, simply tells the girl to go wash her hands so she can start eating. Sheesh. Whether or not Asa wants Makio to be her mom, every kid wants a mom. I can’t tell if Makio can see that, and is just refusing to even acknowledge it.

At the same time, I guess we need to be a little more charitable to Makio. After all, she’s her own person. Even if she were to take on mom responsibilities in the future, she’s not her sister so she would never give Asa the same advice or lectures. Asa should expect Makio to do things like attend an entrance ceremony, but she shouldn’t expect Makio to have the same reactions as her mother.

Unfortunately, there’s always going to be this uncomfortable distance between Asa and Makio, because the latter refuses to address the elephant in the room: her estranged relationship with her sister. But you have your sister’s daughter in your home, living with you. You can’t avoid talking about her for the next however many years of cohabitation. But maybe that’s the problem. Maybe the problem is that Makio sees a finish line to not just them sharing a living space, but their relationship altogether. “If I can just reject this topic for the next few years, the kid will eventually leave and I’ll have my desert all to myself again.” Like I’ve said, Makio might try to hide her resentment, but we’re not as good at hiding our true feelings as we think we are. She says she’s not mad that Asa keeps prying, but she sure sounds mad.

After this point, Makio isn’t even trying to hide her feelings anymore. When Asa finally invites Emiri over, Makio’s discomfort is in full display. The way she’s stooped over the sink, how her body tenses up, how she tells Emiri that she absolutely won’t even entertain the thought of being nice with the girl’s mother… man, I don’t know. It’s a bit pathetic. I just think an adult should be a little more composed than this. These are children you’re talking to. If you wanna be mad — if you’re frustrated about how suffocated you feel — then go yell at the rest of the family that has been a complete no-show since the funeral. Unfortunately, Asa is left to eat her dinner alone. She’s left to process her feelings alone. The girl is so mentally exhausted that she randomly passes out in the middle of the day. She needs someone to talk to. Only when she starts outwardly sobbing — ’cause let’s face it, she’s been sobbing internally — does Makio finally step up to the plate. I mean, great, it’s progress, but it shouldn’t have gotten this far. But better them talking now than never, I suppose.

Hearing Makio say she’s fond of Asa makes me think back to something Shingo said earlier. How unfortunate.

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Stray thoughts & observations:

• Looks like… potato salad?
• Damn, to have such a tight-knit friend group from childhood to adulthood… I’m jealous.
• Speaking of things that I don’t seem to do anymore, I can’t remember the last time I drank milk. No, I’m not a cereal guy. Or a breakfast guy. Eggs in this economy? C’mon.
• Is Shingo holding out hope or what? Sounds like he still has lingering feelings for Makio. But unless they fix the problem that separated the two of them in the first place, I wouldn’t have too much hope for the second go-around.
• A lot of adults are just children with legal responsibilities thrust upon them.
• I like how the speech bubble has to specify that Shingo meal-preps in his PJs. So do I. I’m not getting dressed to cook in my own home.
• What’s wrong with tupperware?
• Barely related, my ass.
• The business card finds its way into the journal and everything. It’s probably for the best. It’s like a relic.
• Most anime series have such revealing high school uniforms, it’s jarring to see what actual high school uniforms would look like.
• Well, at least it looks like she has no trouble making friends.
• Oh my god, even the kids have business cards.
• Why does this girl look so much like her aunt?
• I assume it’s normal for parents to attend the ceremony. Basically, Asa is the only kid without any adult accompanying her.
• I half-expected to see her meet up with Emiri again after school and at least yap about how they think the next three years will play out.
• I love the slow pan from Asa eating on one side of the apartment to Makio typing away on her computer in the complete darkness on the other side. They’re just so far apart despite sharing the same home.
• There’s no point even broaching the topic of therapy when it comes to anime, ’cause outside of those little haha moments with Loid pretending to be a doctor in Spy x Family, when’s the last time you’ve seen a therapy session in a show? But boy does Asa need one. I mean, who does she have to talk to? She has to cry in order to get her aunt to notice her.
• C’mon, that’s such a cop-out.
• Not if we carry out the Human Instrumentality Project!
• We get to see Makio turning to Shingo and confiding in him about her troubles. I just wish she would realize that Asa doesn’t have the same opportunity. Sure, she has Emiri, but maybe she feels awkward ranting about her aunt to her best friend. It’s a bit gauche.