The past haunts the present for Haruna and Kohei may be the one to help ease her into a solution.
What They Say:
Episode 6: Letter
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Fortune Arterial moves up to its halfway point with this episode and we get some good back story material mixed into things that help to solidify the connections. While the present kicks off with a school image month activity that the student council is involved in, there are some good tender moments shared that has Kohei remembering the past when it was time to leave this academy, and Haruna at that time. The two were close in their own way back then, as close as two kids can be without it truly being anything more, so seeing them go through the revelation of his moving again because of his parents work shows things nicely in how Erika handled it and the way it wasn’t a very good moment at all for those involved.
With the letter from the past tying things together, the present is a bit more focused as Hina knows what it’s all about and does her best to push Kohei and Haruna closer together. It’s rather endearing in her little busybody way since she’s so outgoing and I like when we do have one character that’s not interested in the main lead that wants to help him in other ways. Thankfully, though, this doesn’t dominate the episode as the focus is shifted more towards the image month activity that everyone is involved in. Of course, that event is something that will have Haruna being involved in and seeing her in the maid style uniform of the school certainly catches Kohei’s eye. The more you watch shows like this the more you want to be in this kind of difficult situation so you can see if it’s really as crazy as it looks and as difficult to decide.
What helps to drive a show like this is that while you can see that there is an ideal pairing, it’s when you can provide legitimate characters that could also fill the role as well. Often shows end up introducing characters that want the lead themselves but are in no way really compatible, leading to clashes and uninteresting attempts at seducing them. Fortune Arterial has some of the usual clichés of the genre, especially this one with Haruna and her memory loss, but it uses it well and has Haruna going a bit against type as her problem is more with her sister and how they’re living their lives because of the accident and the memory loss. And the surprisingly honest discussion Haruna has with Kohei about it only further points to the way they’re compatible and comfortable with each other, rather than just more gags and misunderstandings leading to potentially awkward situations.
In Summary:
What continues to impress me with this show is that it’s surviving on its own strengths rather than just on the entire vampire angle that’s been brought in. It’s there, but it’s not dominating it and not every situation revolves around it. In fact, it’s such a background piece that it’s easy to see why it would frustrate people. Yet having it in that mode, keeping it to a factor of it rather than the entirety of it, is what makes it so appealing. The strength comes back to the characters, their interactions and the pasts that are slowly being dredged up. Haruna’s focus here is definitely welcome since it adds more to her with the memory loss and her feelings towards Hina over it, while also exploring why Hina acts like she does. Fortune Arterial continues to be a very nicely done character driven show and this episode is no exception.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
