Unfortunately, secrets always come out. Juuuuuust not in the way we think. Midway through the episode, Giraffe Guy suddenly asks Koyuki if she is hiding anything from him. After all, Koyuki doesn’t hide her feelings well. Keep her as far away from a poker table as you can. It’s just that everyone else on this show is clueless. Well, almost everyone. For Giraffe Guy to speak up, someone must have given him the elusive brain cell. Am I going to have to start referring to him by his actual name now?! But in all seriousness, he’s right: he lifted a burden off his chest when he told her about his crush, so she should do the same. Turnabout is fair play.
Again, Koyuki insists that she just wants to stay friends with Minato. But what’s implied there — whether she realizes it or not — is that Minato also has to remain inert. If he ever went and got a girlfriend, Koyuki would be devastated. She might think otherwise now, but she will be. Unfortunately, we get no further progress on this front. These two are the couple of the series, so I would imagine the mangaka wanting to milk this for as long as possible. All we get by the end of the episode is one photo of them together, and an invitation to a wrap-up party. Yay… Thankfully, there is progress on another front, specifically Miki and Giraffe Guy. Unfortunately, progress doesn’t imply a positive outcome..
When Miki and Giraffe Guy are alone, he gallantly protects her from a falling box. I think most people would’ve just tried catching the box, but this is anime so you gotta be dramatic about it. But through the ensuing awkwardness, Miki finally realizes that Giraffe Guy might have feelings for her. Aaaaaaaand she’s taking it the worst way possible: “Has our friendship been so one-sided all this time? If it’s all been a sham…” Well, good thing it’s not. It sounds like he legitimately fell in love with her after becoming her friend. But I get it — I understand her fears. What would happen if she rejected him? Would they stop being friends then? Sadly, lots of people do this, so it’s not an unwarranted fear. Lots of people start up friendships under false pretenses. Look no further than Momoka, who is starting up multiple friendships under false pretenses. Let’s not pretend that she’d keep hanging out with either Koyuki, Minato, or the rest of the gang if she ever got rejected. To make matters worse, a lot of rejectees then hide behind the “I need to stop talking to you to get over this, boo hoo” when you give them a firm no. So on the one hand, I wish Miki would be charitable and interpret Giraffe Guy’s intentions in good faith. As boring as he is — which is why I’ve been calling him Giraffe Guy all this time — he seems like a legitimately good guy. But on the other hand, we also have to be charitable to her. She literally just found out how he feels. Give her some space to process her feelings. The end of the season is near, so there will be plenty of time for that.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— Bzzt, nope, she is! Well, she’s not like “I’ll genocide people bad.” She’s not “I’m on Epstein’s list” bad. But for a high schooler, she’s pretty shady.
— Koyuki is in full cope mode. Yes, she doesn’t exactly want anything from Minato ’cause she thinks she doesn’t deserve to be loved, yadda yadda yadda. We’ve been through this. But she also rationalizes that Minato is nice to everyone, so it’s not like she’s special to him. Bzzt, wrong again. This sounds like someone trying to soften the blow for the inevitable bad news to come, ’cause any objective observer would tell you that Minato is bizarrely fixated on Koyuki. He has been since the start of the series.
— Hairstyles are so important to anime characters, because their faces are often so similar. As a result, these characters almost don’t look like themselves. You can barely spot Koyuki in this group photo.
— The sports festival plays out, but I don’t feel like there’s much to say about it. Akine is oddly slow, I guess?
— Koyuki suddenly runs off when she sees Momoka being friendly with everyone else. Hm, that’s an odd reaction. It’s not like she has her guard up about Momoka, so is she just plain jealous? First, Momoka threatens to steal Minato, and now she might steal the rest of the friend group away?
— This is one of my least favorite things about this show. Koyuki stumbles into Giraffe Guy, who catches her. Minato rounds the corner and sees them (gasp) touching. It’s barely worth emphasizing, but Koyuki nevertheless gets extra flustered, so she runs away, leaving Minato to catastrophize in the corner. Just drama after drama after drama, and it’s always born from a lack of communication. This is the anti-You and I Are Polar Opposites in both tone and duration! This series is still ongoing and yet the other one was cut short. Why? Probably because the mangaka couldn’t drum up enough drama to keep herself interested in continuing the latter. Happy people living their best lives? Ain’t nobody got time for that! But intense high school love polygons? Now that’s where it’s at!
— The primary love interest in these shows is always super duper hot that they make girls squee in person. It’s so shameless. But it cuts both ways. Even in other shows, the most they’ll ever settle for is the second hottest girl in class. I’m not saying you should make a story about two complete uggos falling in love, but you don’t have to be so blatant about the wish fulfillment angle. Oh, I’m just a wallflower, but somehow the hottest guy at school is interested in me! My steak is too juicy and my lobster is too buttery!
— It’s funny how people have blinders on. Minato wants a photo with Koyuki because he obviously has a crush on her. Momoka then walks up and asks for a photo with him. But does he suspect a thing? Of course not.
— Naturally, Koyuki runs into them in the most inopportune time. Man, I wish high school was actually this eventful.
— Giraffe Guy to the rescue, but the other two are so in their own heads that they can’t even smile for the camera.
— Ah, well, at least Minato asked for a do-over.
— No, you’re just being a coward.
