Keima’s plans to help Chihiro have hit quite the unexpected snag.
What They Say:
An extremely fired-up Keima and somewhat apathetic Chihiro have spent many days going through possible situations and conversations to prepare for the conquest of Yuta. Everything is going smoothly as the day of the confession finally arrives——However, Chihiro says something which leaves Keima dumbfounded…Will this be the first failure for the God of Conquest?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Watching the trials and tribulations that Keima is going through in this arc has been fun as he started off pretty dejected by the reality of the situation and managed to work himself up to the right level to help out Chihiro when it comes to her getting closer to her true love, Yuta. It took a bit for him to get to that point, but the previous episode was so laden with atmosphere when it came to the mood and setting that even the viewer should have gotten appropriately worked up to see things followed through on. With the time almost at hand, Keima’s now just going through his last round of calculations and plans to help out Chihiro, though things would go a bit easier if it wasn’t for the constant downpours that seem to be going on.
Mood and setting are again a big part of the show here as we have the opening minutes where Chihiro is walking through town on her way to school and it’s set up with some beautiful music tied to a few small breaks in the clouds. There’s a real softness and connection you can draw to Chihiro here as she goes through all of this as it does feel like the clouds will break in her life and you want to see her go from this particular mood to one filled with sunshine and smiles. The show hits an interesting moment in all of this when she meets up with Keima in the park where he’s writing out various confession scenarios. She has an upbeat tone to her, but there’s a somber moment as well where she wonders out loud whether she should even confess to these feelings. It completely sets off Keima after all the work he’s done, but he does that without finding out why she doesn’t want to really confess. There could be any number of reasons, from self perceptions to potential interest in someone else, but he flies off the handle at first and then ends up being frustrated with himself when she does lay it all out for him.
When the two finally do get together, again in the deep rain of the day, to talk about everything, it’s the kind of piece that has a great haunting feel to it. Her explanations aren’t info dumps or anything, but come across as heartfelt emotions about what’s going on and how she’s feeling that she stands within the world. Keima’s pushing back against her in interesting ways, not exactly clumsy but not with a whole lot of smoothness either, as he tries to get her to understand that the way she’s looking at things is not how the world views her, or others in general. When it reaches its climax, a truly beautiful scene, they do it in such a cinematic and expressive way that one can’t help but to smile and fall in love with it. It’s surprising in a lot of ways but it fits in perfectly with the nature of this storyline as it draws everything together and does whatever it can to put Chihiro in the right frame of mind.
In Summary:
There’s a lot to like with this episode as it works the atmosphere beautifully, much as it did in the last episode, and then ramps up the emotional side in a couple of areas to produce something that you wish the show could achieve with every arc. It has had really strong arcs, but this one feels more personal for Keima and the results are very strong because of it. At times, Keima can be a hard character to deal with and some of the girls aren’t quite as deep as you’d like, but this storyline with Chihiro has hit a high point in just about every way and already has me wanting to go back and re-watch it again. Definitely an excellent episode all around.
Grade: A-
Simulcast By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.