A wild loli appears…
[] FIGHT [] Pkmn
[] ITEM [] RUN

Huh, never saw anything like this coming. I thought the cast was well established and that we’d just see things unfold between these five old friends and the new love rival Hoshino, not to mention that I never thought Shuu would have much time dedicated to his character. However, it’s not a bad thing at all, I’m always for token loli characters.

Episode Rating: 8/10

On his way home, Shuu spots a group of elementary school boys bullying a girl from their school, playing keep away with her bag. Shuu comes to her rescue, grabbing her bag back and chasing the boys off for her. Little did he know his small act of kindness was to put him in a situation that could get you arrested in many a country…

The next day after school the girl Shuu saved is waiting for him in front of the high school, she runs up and introduces herself as Mochida Hinako, thanking Shuu for the other day and returning Shuu’s student id which he had unknowingly dropped while fending off the bullies. But that’s not the end of it, the next day she’s back, waiting for Shuu and the gang in front of the gates once again. Shuu questions why she’s still hanging around them, but when he caves at Hinako’s puppy dog stare asking if she’s bothering him, he seals his fate as she promises to come meet him everyday. And surely enough, much to Shuu’s surprise and initial dismay, she keeps her word.

One night, Sana is getting ready to make himself some dinner, but when he opens his rice cooker he discovers he forgot to turn it on and is now left with nothing to eat (oh come on, it doesn’t take THAT long for rice to cook). He ends up going to a nearby family restaurant where he coincidentally bumps into Hinako, the two end up eating together. Hinako feels like Sana has a bit of a patronizing attitude towards her, treating her like a child. At 10 years old, Sana argues that she -IS- a child, this drives Hinako into a vitriolic rant about her maturity despite her age, but it all falls apart when the waitress brings her a kids meal. Hinako justifies herself by saying it’s for the toys that come with the meal, she’s collecting them, sympathizing with her, Sana buys one too and ends up giving it to Hinako, who accepts it in classic tsundere style.

One day, after parting ways, Hinako continues to follow Sana and Aoi toward their house, saying that she needs to talk to Sana about something important. Sana invites her to his apartment but unconsciously start to change clothes despite Hinako being there as well. Stopping to listen to Hinako’s important news, Sana is shocked and amused as it turns out Hinako is in love with Shuu. Seeing Sana laughing, Hinako gets up to leave, causing Sana to hurriedly try to stop her, he ends up tripping on the table and falling on top of her. Right on cue, Aoi walks in to see a half undressed Sana towering over Hinako and assumes the worst (RAEP TIEM!)

When the two explain the situation to Aoi, she apologizes for jumping to conclusions. Back to the topic, Sana understands Hinako’s feelings, but thinks the age difference really is too big. But Aoi rises up and declares that age and gender are irrelevant in love. Setting aside the gender part, Hinako is glad to have some support from Aoi, going as far as calling her onee-sama. And so the plans to help Hinako win over Shuu begin.

since knowing is half the battle, the obvious method to follow is to use Sana to figure out what Shuu looks for in a girl and tailor Hinako to his expectations. Sana’s first reconnaissance reveals that Shuu, like many other guys, is all about the breasts. Hinako lacking a bit in that department, seeks help from Aoi, but she says that hers just grew large naturally during middle school without any special tricks and suggests maybe asking her mom. This leads to Sana having to sit through a very awkward conversation on various methods of breast augmentation.

With that option out, Sana goes back for more info, this time Shuu says that cooking is also important, saying that a girl should at least know the basics. However, this doesn’t turn out well either, despite Aoi’s sincere efforts to teach Hinako to cook, all she can manage is the all too familiar purple fuming death curry, a signature dish of bad anime cooks everywhere, but that doesn’t stop her from shoving it down Sana’s throat anyways.

Sana’s last attempt reveals that Shuu happens to like girls who are soft spoken and calm. Hinako gives it a shot, but Shuu ends up telling her to act more like her cheerful self, because after all, kids should be cheerful. With all plans having failed, Aoi’s last recommendation is a straight up confession, but having cited what looks like a manga as her reference “love bible”, Hinako isn’t so sure about Aoi’s advice anymore…

But nevertheless, Aoi goes ahead and details the plan: Sana is to lure Shuu out to an aquarium (just the two of them) while trying not radiate gay vibes, and there, Hinako is to ‘coincidentally’ bump into them. Despite some painfully bad acting and suspicious behavior, the plan goes through and Shuu unquestioningly falls for it. While things look good, Sana sneaks away and turns his cell phone off, leaving the two alone.

After lunch, they meet up again and both sides apologize for losing each other and spending the day apart. Sana notices that Hinako is acting subdued and is unusually silent, taking it as a sign that things didn’t go so well, he suggests that they go home.

On their way home, Hinako puts a strong front to Sana, saying that he doesn’t need to pity her, that she isn’t sad because despite getting rejected, Shuu finally started looking at her as an adult. But Sana can tell that she’s ready to breakdown any minute. He gives her a hug and tells her that it’s okay to cry, that even adults cry when they have their hearts broken.

Afterwards, back at his house, Sana goes through the usual phone call with his mom, reassuring her that everything is going fine. With Hinako’s rejection on his mind, he asks his mom if she ever confessed to anyone before, misleading her into thinking that he found a girl he likes, which he profusely denies.

Thoughts

A surprisingly good episode, in my opinion. It was nice to see that they’re not afraid to introduce new characters and take some time to integrate them into the cast. Just as long as they don’t overdo it, I happen to like large casts over small ones, but Myself; Yourself only has 13 episodes to work with, they need to get working on the main storyline quickly, or else face a rushed ending, or even worse, the dreaded open ended ending D=

I lol’d when Shuu was describing his perfect woman and the description ending up being the polar opposite of his sister Shuri. When he started staring at her when Sana first asked, I got major siscon vibes, but that was quickly shattered as he proceeded to look for qualities exactly opposite her personality. Personally, I’d totally go for her…and by her I mean her voice…and by her voice I mean Nanoha…and by Nanoha, I really mean Feito-chan.

As for Hinako herself, she’s kind of a ‘meh’ character for me. By all rights she should be just my type in terms of anime girls, she’s a loli (in its truest meaning) and a pseudo-tsundere. But I dunno…the way it all comes together felt way too generic, and that’s saying a lot, since Myself; Yourself is a generic series to begin with. I can’t say she’s a carbon copy of other series’ characters, but her personality thus far had little that set her apart. While this is vastly true for the rest of the cast of Myself; Yourself, only in Hinako did I find it noticeable enough to be more or less uncaring to her.

Since this was a rather tangential episode, we didn’t get much info as to where the plot is going, but from the continuing phone calls, I’m still standing by my Sana is suicidal theory. I’ve never met anyone with parents overprotective enough to call their kids EVERY SINGLE DAY. But if I’m right, it begs the question: Why send your suicidal son to live on his own?

One thing this episode was sorely lacking in was Nanaka screentime, if I recall correctly, she didn’t have a single line this episode. That’s just wrong. So to make up for it…

Nanaka miko! Oh God the Chikane vibes I got from the preview shot were awesome, I need to rewatch Kannazuki. The preview for next week’s episode was weird, it felt like something more suited for Higurashi rather than Myself; Yourself. I highly doubt they’d veer off in that direction though, so my guess is that next week will be a festival episode with Nanaka putting on one of those traditional priestess dance things. Which means lots of Nanaka screentime to compensate for the complete lack of it this episode.

Just as planned.

~ Shirukii ~