No fallout from Hikaru crossing the line, which is kind of disappointing. She needs to learn boundaries. Instead, the group discusses their aspirations to exhibit at the next Comitia. Teshima-sensei is initially against it for obvious reasons: gotta study, need funds, need parents’ permission… anything else? But all this does is give the girls targets to shoot for. If they take care of everything else in their lives, the girls deserve the opportunity to try. Teshima’s such a tsundere, too. She’s all “I’m against this,” but then spends all night drafting an itinerary for a trip that they might not even be able to go on. After all, getting their parents’ permission is the toughest hurdle, especially with Kokoro’s mom.
The girls only have a week to get their parents’ permission, so we get to see them grapple with that task one-by-one. I can’t remember if we’ve seen Ai’s parents before or if this is the first time ever. Well, they didn’t even know she had joined a club. Her mom starts grilling her; she’s a lot stricter than I had initially assumed. After all, Ai seems rather carefree. Maybe it’s due to her dad, who’s definitely the chill one. I’m not surprised to see Sachi easily secure her parents’ permission. In fact, make that just a single parent. We don’t get to see if her mom even exists or not. Well, those rambunctious boys must have come from somewhere. Hikaru is already attending Comitia regularly, so this is nothing new for her mom. In fact, is her mom a mangaka too? Sadly, Kokoro can’t summon the courage to bring up the topic to her mother; she keeps putting it off out of fear. Your kids should never be afraid to talk to you, especially about something they’re passionate about.
What follows makes me cringe out of my skin. Feeling that she needs her friends to support her, Kokoro invites the rest of the club over for a study session. Sachi quickly blabs about their manga club — and I’m not blaming her, but that’s literally how it played out — so Kokoro’s mom immediately starts reprimanding Kokoro in front of her friends. Sheesh, haven’t you ever heard of “praise in public, criticize in private?” I understand her mom is domineering, but the girl can’t even get a single word in. So what’s a girl to do? Well, it’s a show about manga, so she draws a manga! Duh! And it’s honestly pretty heartfelt; she pours her heart out on those panels. Just like that, her mother relents. Immediately, too. The only nitpick I have here is that it feels too schmaltzy. Strict mother has a change-of-heart after reading her daughter’s manga once! I think it would’ve been a little more realistic if maybe the mom took a night to think things over.
Still, Comitia is a go, and the girls are set to debut their first official volume. Teshima makes sure to temper their expectations, and I agree that bringing 1000 copies to your first exhibition is too ambitious. So under Teshima’s advice, they shoot for the much, much more modest 20. Teshima recalls a bad experience in which she had to throw her own manga away. But for the girls, surely they could just hand the leftovers out to their friends and family. Especially for their parents, it would be like proof of their hard work and dedication. But this might be all moot. Considering the Disney-like ending we got with Kokoro and her mom, the girls might be able to sell every single copy they bring.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— Dude, this looks unbearable. I need it to be extremely cool and dry when I sleep… though I do miss my cat snuggling up to me randomly at night.
— Hikaru simply books a room at Kokoro’s family inn, so now Kokoro’s mom has to treat them as honored guests. Quick thinking on her part.
— The girl confesses to having a hard time understanding how others feel, which is why she considers manga her only friend. For now, anyway. Still, I wonder if she’s on the spectrum. In another scene, we see her confused by a handshake. She knows how to inappropriately kiss her teacher, but not a handshake? C’mon.
— Hikaru is actually a year older than everyone. She’s been held back, because she spent too much time drawing manga instead of studying. Sounds like a fixation… but seriously, what is up with her mother? I guess that’s another potential source of conflict. Instead of being too strict like the other moms, Hikaru’s mother might be too permissive.
— Look how excited Teshima is to announce the group’s acceptance into Comitia! All that “I don’t approve” stuff from the start of the episode was nonsense.
— Family restaurants really let people hang around all day and draw manga? In fact, Teshima tells Ai a story about how she stayed at said restaurant overnight. She even passed out at her table and woke up to the break of dawn. So… the staff just let her sleep there? They didn’t check up on her? Her parents weren’t worried that she hadn’t come home? I dunno about that. It certainly conjures up a romantic image of a passionate mangaka toiling away through the night, but it seems farfetched. Still, when Ai finds herself unable to sleep, she follows in her sensei’s footsteps. And like Teshima, she even stays up overnight. Again, that’s romantic and all, but she’s going to be dead tired for the rest of the day. Don’t make it a habit, kids. Get all the sleep while you still can!
— Damn, we’re even getting the trip to Tokyo in this episode. This is all happening so quickly. I thought they would spend more time on drawing the manga, but all we got was a montage. I feel like we skipped an entire month of content.
— While the girls ooh and ahh over their first trip, Hikaru is almost never not on her phone. At least she doesn’t take it into the hot springs.
— I honestly thought Pokota would have more of a presence in the story, but I suppose you don’t need imaginary friends as much when you quickly find real friends.
