Ugh, Arata is one of those annoying, people-pleasing pushovers, and this is going to bite him in the ass. The producer already lied to him by dragging him onto a talk show instead of the evening news. Even worse, she still intends to keep putting him on TV. Just say no! Whip out that backbone and back out right now. But Arata says nothing. He implicitly agrees to keep doing whatever Takamine tells him to do, because he thinks doing these shows will help Kuroe/Harugon. It’s madness.

Then as Arata gets ready to leave the studio, he runs into an actress bullying her assistant. Apparently, this lady was set to appear on the talk show, but our resident Prince of Kaiju took priority. Well, that’s not Arata’s fault! Blame the TV execs! They’re the ones who call the shots! Nevertheless, Arata runs in to defend the girl (fine), then offers to do anything to make it up to this random actress (not fine).

Nice guys like him — not to be confused with “nice guys” — are insufferable, because 1) they’re not nice to themselves by being a doormat and 2) their misguided actions often lead to someone else suffering. I can already see it: Arata will have to spend time with this actress both on-air and in real life, and the still-insecure Kuroe will see this and assume he has a girlfriend. And it’ll be all Arata’s fault. He won’t have anyone to blame but himself. It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion.

It doesn’t help that Kuroe seems to have a jealous streak. Just hearing about Arata meeting the actress is enough to set her off. The thing is, she’s not the only teenager going through physical and emotional changes. So’s Harugon. And as a kaiju going through puberty, it’s going to, uh, develop in certain ways. Like, y’know, firing laser beams out of its mouth. Just typical girl kaiju things.

Unfortunately, it’s too late to back out now. We’re deep into the “neglect your girlfriend” arc. The next day at school, Arata is mobbed by his classmates when he tries to go see Kuroe. So just tell them to back off. Tell them you’re here to see somebody. Tell them you’re spending time with your girlfriend. This isn’t being mean. This is actually being nice to yourself and your girlfriend. Arata doesn’t owe his classmates anything. Unfortunately, he’s a predictable people pleaser, so he doesn’t take any of the sensible options in front of him. And there’s nothing I hate more than when romance series use misunderstandings and a lack of communication as a crutch.

To make matters worse, someone caught Kuroe shooting out those laser beams last night. This new stranger just so happens to be a boy her age. Immediately, he threatens to expose her: if she wants him to stay mum about her being a kaiju, then she has to spend time with him. Great, so now we’ll have yet another misunderstanding on our hands. When you double down on the potential cheating subplot like this, you’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel. I’m so disappointed in this show. It was interesting when the kaiju thing served as a metaphor for a young girl’s insecurities in a world that demands women to always look their best. I’m not remotely interested in any of this cheap-ass relationship drama.

But for now, this subplot will have to remain unresolved, because what we see next is Rinko returning to the scene of the crime, i.e. the island where she found Kuroe’s egg. Kotaro also happens to be there; he just knew she would show up after the island was recently on the news. And now we get a flashback. There were several eggs back when Rinko fell into the cave where she found Kuroe. We also know that at least one of them hatched. So where are they? Where is Kuroe’s sibling? On top of that, one of the eggs never hatched. Instead, it just kept growing and growing. In fact, Rinko is already planning on raising “Kuroe’s little sister,” but uh, I don’t think you want a baby this large.

Back in the present, Kotaro goes on and on about how Rinko may have endangered the entire world by trying to raise a kaiju in secret. After all, what if Kuroe goes out of control! I guess it’s kinda like how you can’t randomly domesticate a wild animal. You can raise, say, a lion from the time it was a cub, but you can’t get rid of its feral instincts. It can attack you at any point, and there’s little that the average person can do against a fully-grown lion. Maybe Kotaro thinks of Kuroe the same way, but… I mean, he’s spent time with her. She’s not a wild animal.

And look, I’m no animal scientist, but shouldn’t there be a point when general intelligence takes over? Yes, a lion can still obey its feral instincts and attack you, but you can’t really say the same about someone who can clearly talk, reason, cry, laugh, so on and so forth. Yes, Kuroe loses herself in her emotions. When she gets emotionally overwhelmed, she transforms and throws a tantrum. But that’s still different from a predator simply obeying a prey drive.

Nevertheless, this is all too much for Kotaro, so he tries to report everything to the organization he’s working for. Rinko anticipated his move, so she quickly has him at gunpoint. Mamas will do whatever it takes to protect their babies, I suppose. Even so, there’s a disturbing casualness to how she’s approaching the situation: “That’d be fine too [if Kuroe ever loses control]. A world where Kuro-tan… where this little girl can live freely… might be a more beautiful one, right?” No, it’s not! Your daughter isn’t the only person who matters. There are other daughters (and sons) out there. Why should they have to suffer for your kaiju baby? This woman is sick in the head. The sad thing is, Kuroe wouldn’t want this either. Rinko doesn’t seem to understand her own child.

In the ensuing struggle, Rinko gets knocked back into the large egg, which causes it to hatch a little prematurely. The emerging kaiju then flies off and… it looks like it’s beelining for Kuroe? Again, I preferred it when this story was more allegorical. But if I really have to choose between cheap romantic drama and two kaijus clashing, I guess the latter is a little more preferable.

Stray thoughts & observations:

• For the time being, Arata has become too famous to meet up with Kuroe in public. Since her mother suddenly left to go do… something, Kuroe takes this opportunity to invite Arata up to her place. Once she realizes that she’s alone with her boyfriend — I mean, what did she expect? — her mind starts running wild. But the show pulls an uno reverso on us, because Arata just wants to pet the dog. Guess she’s hornier than he is.
• Kuroe sounds like my mom: “The place is kind of a mess, though…” It’s completely spotless.
• Yeah, part of Arata’s plan was stupid in the first place. He really thought going on TV would make the public less interested in him. Right… I think this kid is just your classic himbo.