To all of the fathers who happen to be readingh this blog: Happy Father’s day!
While this episode didn’t outright state this, it was without a doubt a father-themed episode. Erika’s father played a big role here (and we even got to see the point at which he met Erika’s mother! Yay for character development!), while the story of this episode was very much about a father-daughter relationship.
It was about the point at which kids are grown up, and ready to leave the house, combined with the sentiments that are involved. The father here was a typical farmer, who probably will be all alone as soon as his daughter, who found a nice boyfriend she wants to marry with, leaves the house. This episode consciously chose not to show anything about her fiancee, because that was not what this episode wanted to focus about. This wasn’t about a choice between love and family, but rather a story of growing up and realizing your own happiness.
The first half of this episode was seemingly pointless fluff, but the incredible amount of energy made it just as good to watch as the serious parts. Plus, we also got to know a lot more about Erika’s family as well, for example in the way that Erika taught her sister how to effectively cut up vegetables, or how Erika was somehow afraid of tomatoes.
It was also an excellent episode for Tsubomi to show her passion. This episode showed that she’s really interested in nature and flowers, but she also has this habit of completely getting engrossed into new hobbies that she never tried before. This episode turned her into a temporarily photographer as she was having fun with Erika’s father’s camera. It’s all done very naturally, I remember how as kid I also used to get really excited with the random hobbies, only to completely forget about most of them.
And on a side-note: I noticed that the creators were really playing around with Erika’s hairstyle in this episode. It’s great to see series that noticeably put effort into even the small details like that one.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
So Erika’s parents get an actual flashback as to where Tsubomi’s happened like it was yesterday in episode 9?
Yup. It’s short, but definitely a flashback.