Welcome back to another, delayed, episode of Yofukashi no Uta! while last week was a bit of a disappointment with its new cast, this week more than made up for it. Relationships progress, Nazuna and Ko have meaningful conversations, and we even get our first new male character. A lot happens! So without further ado, lets dive into the episode.
Like I said, as a follow up to last week I actually really liked this one. The introduction of a timer feels like it has kickstarted Nazuna and Ko a bit. They are finally starting to be proactive about this relationship rather than just languishing together and let it happen. I think that’s really important for a romance! If the leads are just standing around doing nothing, reacting to situations and letting that inform their feelings, then as a viewer it feels like no progress is being made. At least if they are actively trying to do stuff, even if they fail, it feels like things are moving. It’s effectively the difference between the characters being reactive vs proactive. And in a story like this, I feel that proactive is almost always better. So long as one of them is that way at least.
The first evidence we see of this change is in Ko himself. He starts wondering what he should do, asking for advice from others. He’s no longer content to just wing it himself. And while the advice comes from a questionable source, Seri though all of the vampires would probably be bad at it, the idea isn’t a bad one: A date! Despite his desire to love Nazuna, despite that desire actually relating to being a vampire rather than loving her but thats a whole different issue, Ko has never truly courted her. There’s only one problem though. Ko has no idea what a date truly is. And when getting advice from Seri, it seems like he has completely missed the point.
Simply put, a date is a 2 person activity. You can plan it yourself as a surprise, sure. But you have to consider what the other party would enjoy. You have to understand them, to think about their feelings, and build a good night for both of you. Ko’s inexperience however, and bad advice, lead him to create the most stereotypical thing imaginable: A romantic movie, dinner and watching the city. This is fine if it’s what the other party wanted. But it’s clear that none of this is really Nazuna’s scene. She’s terrible with romance, and feelings in general, so a movie like that would suck for her. And you can’t really have a conversation about something she hated. Because of this, the entire date no doubt felt artificial to her. Which it should, since Ko isn’t the one who made it!
What’s funny about it though is that Nazuna at least seems to know this. The first bit about how a date should be I mean, she figured out it was artificial very quickly. She just enjoys Ko’s company, and knows it’s the same for him. So in that sense, so long as you are enjoying yourself and you both understand there are romantic feelings there, everything they do is a date. There’s no need for all the fancy bullshit or to try and do something special. It’s nice at times yeah, but it’s better to just spend time with each other with those feelings out in the open rather than apply labels. I thought all of this was great! Like I said, it felt like something was really happening here and I loved it. I hope we get to see more proactive Ko moving forward.
As for the other half of the episode, we meet Mahiru, the first new male cast member! I’m so glad Mahiru exists. I was legitimately worried that Yofukashi would just be a harem of women or something. And you know what else? I actually thought Mahiru might be gay for most of the episode. Would be kinda cool I think, a non-stereotypical gay man in a japanese anime. Instead it ends up to be a more platonic relationship, which is fine to, but he still seems to be a very important role model for Ko. This kind of “I want to be that cool” sort of thing. Only for Mahiru to reveal that it’s not all that great, that these people aren’t really his friends. Maybe Ko will break down some of his barriers in a way only the nighttime revelery can!
The only thing off-putting about Mahiru to me was how shoehorned in he was to Akira’s backstory. Don’t just force him into existing flashbacks where he didn’t exist before. Either hint at him when those are shown for the first time or give him his own. But don’t take something we’ve already seen then show “1 second later” like it justifies him flashing into existence in those scenes. I absolutely hate it and think its a really cheap way to shove a character into the story. Hopefully this is the last time Yofukashi does it. Though I would be surprised if we got any more new characters this late into the season to begin with.
Anyways yeah, all in all I think this was a good episode for Yofukashi. It gave me exactly what I wanted last week but didn’t get: A male cast member and proactive progression on Ko and Nazuna’s relationship. If it can continue that trend into a big finale, Yofukashi might end on a high note yet. The alternative is that it commits to much to this vampire politics crap without ever giving us anything meaty to go along with it. Then it will just putter out and die. But lets hope that doesn’t happen, eh?
Am I the only one who thinks the reasoning behind the two getting together and making progress feels forced? It feels like the vampures girls were forcing the two to become a couple instead of letting things play out naturally.
You’re not wrong, but I’m really just taking what I can get. All I want is for a romance series to not sit in a perpetual “will they wont they” state. If some vampire ladies have to show up and force that to happen with a time skip? Then fine. It’s better than nothing happening at all. Even if I’d prefer they progress naturally without them.