Ichika’s true nature is revealed and it gets a kind of ho-hum reaction…
What They Say:
Now that the secret is out, Ichika has been avoiding Kaito. But with advice from Remon he tries to understand what Ichika is going through. Kanna bares it all to Ichika knowing in the end, she will be the one heartbroken.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the way events played out at the end of the last episode, everything became revealed to Ichika’s friends about what she really is, though Kaito doesn’t say much to indicate that he already knew. For Ichika, she manages to stand out well in a really good way here with her outfit, giving her a different kind of stature because of its design and how she carries herself. Everyone accepts everything rather easily, which isn’t a surprise, and they’re all very curious abou tthe ship and her situation. With everyone having become friends over the course of time since she came there, their lives changing a good bit, they’re more than content in keeping her secret and figuring out what they can do to help her. And to assuage her fears about the Men in Black that don’t really exist.
While there isn’t exactly fallout from this as everyone makes their way back home, there are some concerns and questions coming up as there’s still some sense of disbelief over it. But some of them simply find that accepting it as a truth rather than asking the hard questions or shaking their own beliefs is the easier route to take and they’re able to shift back to just enjoying their summer and that’s it. It’s kind of amusing to see how easily everything is accepted considering the truth at hand, but it’s pretty standard practice for most shows in general.
The episode does spend some time with how Kaito is grappling with things and Ichika’s own nervousness about the way everyone is acting around her, but in the end everyone is trying to pretend like this are normal. But there are some moments where some mild bits of truth come out, such as Tanigawa telling Ichika that she looks forward to the day when her rival leaves, but also that she doesn’t quite want her to leave. She wants to go toe to toe with Ichika in an honest way and Ichika’s not able to bring herself to do that because of who she is… where she’s from. There are things holding her back and it’s something that the two of them grapple with in a cutely emotional sequence that works in a basic way, even as neither really listens to the other for the most part.
In Summary:
While this series has largely underwhelmed me and only really held onto me because of its visual design and some of the cute Please! Teacher hooks that are in there, this episode does a pretty good job of dealing with the fallout from Ichika’s revelations. Some of it is less than interesting if only because the characters have been made uninteresting, but there are some good moments to be had, particularly with Tanigawa. What really sells it is the final couple of minutes as Ichika and Kaito really get down to talking, and acting on things, in a way most series of this nature either never do or do in their final moments of the last episode – and then to have it broken up by some comedy. Here, they carry through with it and it gives me some amount of hope for the remaining episodes that they can do something fun and interesting with it.
Grade: B
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed 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.
