Category: Finished Series: Romance

Whoa! The writing in this episode was even better than usual. It was to the point that the episode felt like it took much longer than the usual twenty minutes, so much did the creators manage to put into it, and the creators managed to significantly develop three major relationships at the same time.

The thing with this episode was not necessarily the characters hooking up: all of it had it coming from miles ago. It’s just… the characters just kept talking. And talking. About their feelings, about the feelings of others, about what to do, what they’re struggling with, and it was all in great detail. It’s probably something personal (in real life I’m also very occupied with these kinds of issues at the moment), but it really hit home, and it was quite thought-provoking for me. This all was with great voice-acting so I really loved this episode.

What I do hope for the next couple of episodes, is that Nanami will find her own guy, instead of sticking with Sorata. At this point she has to notice that it’s not going to work for her. I know that the love triangle will make for some easier drama, but it’s so much more interesting if she also manages to find someone for her own. Her role has been second choice for the enire series, only saved by her good characterization, but this episode really showed that she has an excellent character, who really feels a bit wasted in her current role.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

…

Hell yeah! Three Mari Okada series in one season again! And not only that, they’re all in their second halves. This will be awesome! Even though two of them are adaptations, she really is able to get the best out of the source material.

And this episode reminded me why I originally liked Sakurasou so much: the chemistry just amazing. This episode again made me laugh so much at the banter between the different cast members, but in particular Sorata and Shiina were wonderful in this episode. Sorata is also picking up on Shiina’s sharpness here. And I love how the creators tried to make up for the sister debacle: completely ignoring her and turning it into a hilarious joke for this episode. It’s a good start.

But something other happened: not just the chemistry was really sharp, the drama as well. Rita and Ryuunosuke keep developing, even though Rita is gone now. Shiina is now in love, and you can really notice it: she really wants to be with Sorata as much as possible, and keeps hanging around him. Sorata meanwhile said something really interesting here: he prefers the old Shiina more. I actually really like that way in which that subplot is going: Sorata wondering whether or not Shiina is heading into the right direction. Shiina’s development is really great, and yet it’s one of the characters who is fighting it. Aoyama meanwhile still has a dodgy part in this: I had hoped that she would move on, but instead we seem to be heading for a love triangle. Not sure whether I like that.

And then there is Misaki. Forceful is a word to use for her here, but unfortunately I do have to say that I can learn a thing or two from how she was acting in this episode. Here is one girl who really made up her mind on something.

One word on the new OP and ED by the way: they’re both pretty good. I just have one criticism for the ED: it doesn’t really work when the characters aren’t really synched to the music.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

And suddenly, the ED makes sense.

This episode really impressed me. Nyaboron at the start was quite the interesting animation project, and I like how the creators showed the whole thing. You could really see traces of everyone (including some of Shiina’s voices because there was no other good sound person available). Most interesting was how Jin screwed up the script with the word “love”, although that did lead to quite a memorable and for me quite confrontational scene.

In real life I’m struggling with my own shyness, so when Shiina started yelling it really hit home to me. Not to mention all of the confessions that followed after that. Just about every couple moved forward here in a really charming way. Two relationships seem to be put on a bus at the same time though (Rita went back to America and the guy who had a crush on Nanami got rejected), but I’d really like to see if the creators did more with them in the second half. These people were actually quite good in making this show move away from its harem format: turning this show into a show about multiple couples, which is much more interesting than watching a bunch of girls like one guy of who it’s entirely obvious who he likes and will end up with. Just… don’t bring back the sister.

Also, a few years ago I remember getting really annoying about all of the misunderstandings that romance anime kept pulling in order to create artificial drama. Thankfully the romances of the past years have moved away from this trend. This episode had one big misunderstanding, but it was resolved in this episode, fit the characters and actually was just a troll move from Rita that lead to quite a good confession
Rating: 5,5/8 (Excellent)

School festival arcs. Inherently boring, so series really need to add something to make it work. This series does that by just doing what it always does and making the school festival not the central focus. Instead, this was again about working hard to make something good, and very sharp dialogue and lots of addictive character chemistry.

I noticed that the bad school festival episodes just put too much emphasis on the school festival: just doing boring stuff like having a haunted house or a cafe, and having characters walk around without much passion. And really: having a school festival in real life sounds really fun, but only a few anime really manage to capture it. Sakurasou didn’t exactly capture it, but ir rather avoided it. Misaki’s bit with her sister was very surprising and a great way to develop her, but it had absolutely nothing to do with the school festival. Same for Mashiro’s subplot about returning to England.

There is one thing that I’m a bit bothered with: the way this show looks at Shiina. It’s a bit subtle, but sometimes the focus is a bit too much on her as a “pet”, rather than as an actual character. In this episode there was this focus about him not letting Shiina go back, as if she was his property. Only at the cliff-hanger the focus returned to what Shiina really wanted. It’s a missed opportunity.

Also, small detail: I like how Shiina’s painting on the wall stays there. Yay for continuity.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

And here Sakurasou comes with a pretty interesting climax here. I had this same sharpness that this show is known for, but was much more dramatic than usual. For the first time it really cut through the soft stuff and really started focusing on one of the characters, Rita.

At first her story was what you’d expect: she hates Shiina because of how talented she is, although then that hikkikomori came in and made things pretty interesting. Again, the sharpness of his words and how he saw right through her: in the way that she forgot about her original goals. That the biggest reason for her wanting Shiina to go back, was that she could feel a bit famous herself.

Although the thing with this talent is that there are probably a lot of artists who’d love to work together with someone as talented as Shiina. Her talent is something that can give so much inspiration when used well, and it can only make yourself better. It only gets bad when people want to stand in the spotlights, which is something that just won’t work.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

I’m thankful that in general, the trend of giving anime characters hair colours that match the rainbow has been reduced to a minority, rather than a majority. Having said that though, there is still a trend that refuses to die: if there’s an english character, then that character has to have yellow hair. It works a bit bizarre in this series when Shiina’s hair already is blond, so he character in question had to be even brighter in order to stay true to this, to the point where it just gets ridiculous.

What also bothered me about this episode was the repetition. This is the umpth girl that keeps clinging to Sorata, and it’s getting a bit much. The balance is starting to get a bit lost. On the other hand I liked thta the creators are hinting at an actual other potential relationship for Aoyama. Please develop this well so that we can also can get rid of that annoying love triangle.

And yeah, I did get the point that this episode wanted to make about how Mashiro’s art, and that message definitely delivered, and made this episode worth watching. It’s a big theme of this series: how ridiculous amounts of talent can be overwhelming, and this episode yet again asks the question of what to do with it. At this point it’s clear that Shiina is doing what she likes, but in the end those are just romantic comedy manga…

Wait a minute, is this show also trying to bite the hand that feeds it?
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)