The heart’s desires are sometimes the hardest things to bear.
What They Say:
Just before winter vacation, as Chizuru wanders through town without any Christmas plans, he runs into Masaki carefully considering her potential purchase. When he realizes She is shopping for a Christmas gift for Shun, Chizuru finds himself unable to be frank with Masaki as she happily chooses her gift. Later, when Masaki arrives at the classroom to give Shun his gift, a classmate takes the present.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While the show focuses heavily on the boys, there are girls that cross paths here and there, mostly just in the form of a parent or two. This episode expands the focus a bit to bring in Masaki, a fellow classmate who has a certain interest in Shun which is completely oblivious to him since he’s just a nice guy who doesn’t think about these things. When Masaki gives him a small Santa style bear, he’s just talkative about it and thankful with her, but it’s like he doesn’t quite make the connect of what the present means to her. Chizuru, however, does because he has an interest in Masaki and seeing this unfold kind of bites him in a small and dark way that does bother him.
The present giving doesn’t go unnoticed by others in the class as well and that causes some of the girls to be all gossipy about it, giggling and asking Masaki outright, even though she denies that they’re going out. In fact, it’s Kaname who takes things very seriously on this front and pushes back against it which in turn just gets Chizuru more upset because he views it as though Kaname already has enough women in his life and acting like this will draw Masaki to his side. Chizuru is so drawn to her and her cuteness that it’s just adorable the way he thinks about her in a very simple and polite way. He sees things while out shopping that would look great on her, but it’s something as simple as a little ribbon or bow rather than something more intense. Simply put, Chizuru couldn’t handle more intense.
Even as the two do get closer here, it’s not the kind of closeness that Masaki wants to be a part of because she fears it can be misinterpreted, which would cause trouble in her pursuit of Shun. But Chizuru is still the stand up kind of guy who will take comments like that and work with it as best as he can, to be the good guy that he is and hope for the best even as he’s feeling very defeated. You can see it in how he’s looking here in the third act after the time in the rain as he feels like the world is against him and he’s just going to roll with it all. You can see things going through the changes that happen, and it’s welcome, but I really liked that Chizuru ended up so quietly crushed along the way.
In Summary:
While You & Me is definitely all about the boys, it’s not a surprise to see a little female attention creep in here during the second season with Masaki making a stronger appearance. With Chizuru having such an interest in her, I liked the back and forth that played out with it and the way it impacted both of them very differently as they worked towards their hearts goals and desires. The other boys make their appearances here and there and have some great comments, but this is largely a Chizuru story, one that didn’t bother me, and helped to make Masaki a bit more bearable. She was alright in her first season appearances but largely felt like an afterthought. Here, she becomes a bit more fully formed and it’s because of Chizuru that it happens. Very sweet and enjoyable stuff.
Grade: B
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.