The story shifts its focus to Miu for awhile as life continues to add pressures onto her.
What They Say:
The mental and physical stress is starting to show and Miu’s classmates are concerned. As Miu wonders around Ikebukuro thinking, she runs into Nimura who treats her to a date.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the problems of where they live having been taken care of through the intervention of the landlady, that’s removed some of the stress that everyone has been under, especially Yuuta. It did show him that his friends are there to support him and to help out when it comes to the girls, especially with what Raika said, and it was the kind of episode that did a good job of showing some general compassion across the board. The landlady scolding her daughter over being so strict and literal definitely hit home since you have so many situations where the rules are so stringent and tight that there’s no flexibility. And a lot of it is self imposed, which she started to understand as she began to feel older than she really is.
While the show has focused on everyone to varying degrees, it’s been welcome in that it doesn’t really do much in the way of single character focus episodes. But those can be fun when done well, such as this one that deals with Miu a good deal as she copes with all the changes. It’s cute watching how she and Sora are trying to do right by the situation, especially when it comes to their schooling and making sure Yuuta isn’t getting overwhelmed by what they have going on. While they’re doing well, things are still impacting them and we can see that Miu is tiring and getting worn down from it all with the way school takes up so much time just in getting back and forth with Sora.
What helps to ease things for Miu is that she ends up on a bit of a “date”, though it’s one that’s just kind of silly in a way since the guy is older and someone she’s known for awhile that obviously wouldn’t happen at the age she’s at. But they do a bunch of the usual date routine material and it’s cute and fun, giving Miu the chance to stand on her own, do something positive and enjoyable like shopping, going for a treat and just being girly. The date has a lot of positives but she knows some things just aren’t acceptable at the moment since she won’t let him hold her hand since that’s a pretty big thing to happen on a date. That just reinforces the innocence of Miu and really drives it home smoothly. The episode lets a bit of her thoughts on recent events come out as well, but even as much as she does reveal, she’s still guarded and it’s good to see that she’s not completely open about things, but willing to share some with those important to her.
In Summary:
Focusing on just one character for the episode goes against the past episodes a bit, but it’s pretty welcome to show how the middle child is handling things since there’s so many different emotions, stresses and pressures on her. All three girls are coping well with their loss – too well when you get down to it – but seeing some of the cracks in the face she presents is nicely done here as it also shows her core strength. Miu hasn’t gotten lost in the shuffle as the show focuses either on Sora’s mild crush or the way Hina just stands out, but she’s not gotten quite the same attention as the others. Here, she gets to really shine well and it’s just as relaxed as past episodes while building and adding to all that has come before.
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.
