What They Say:
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The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Okay, this show is still pretty focused on being a comedy for the time being. Given the Shakespeare theme, that’s probably for the best, because if it can’t focus on comedy for a big part of a second half, it’s destined to end up a tragedy, like the first half seemed to end with and it seems likely that such a fate would rather be avoided. Yes, there are serious moments sprinkled in there – obviously the main plot point is still a very serious affair – and a lot of the comedy stems from that, but overall, it feels like the series really doesn’t want to take itself overly serious anymore. As I’ve said before, this probably isn’t really a bad thing, but with so much of this kind of content in the past several episodes, I always have to wonder when it will return to something to really care about. After all, there are some major issues to deal with before the series is through, and those will need to be addressed in a much more serious light.
Fortunately, the episode ends with some minor little exchanges of words that anyone who’s been watching has likely been waiting for many episodes to hear, especially for the second of them. After the previous episode, it seemed like Hakaze’s feelings would have to be made clear pretty soon. However, even though almost half of this episode is spent showing Hakaze making it extremely obvious that she’s in love with Yoshino right to him, he manages to display the classic anime male lead denseness on a level that leaves even someone extremely familiar with this trope dumbfounded. Even after she spells it out completely, he hardly even seems like he understands.
This then prompts the second of these two reveals to other characters that the audience has long known about, this one known for a much longer time. The cast is now divided into two groups, but both groups seem to find out almost simultaneously. However, the far larger and, for the purposes of knowing this particular piece of information, far more important of the two groups doesn’t have it confirmed, but it is rather simply speculated as the obvious answer following a very comedic sequence of ridiculous guesses. Perhaps the most comical part of this whole scene is that it ends up being Hanemura of all people to actually have the common sense to find the obvious answer, and even he doesn’t understand how the rest of these people, who portray themselves as being pretty competent, can’t figure out something so obvious. Watching people act unbelievably dumb like this can be amusing but, like the deterioration of Hakaze’s strong characterization, feels very uncharacteristic and unnatural.
In Summary:
This episode has a lot more of the same we’ve been seeing lately, but manages to get to some major reveals near the end. None of these are actually revelations to the audience, though, but simply to the other characters. A lot of the comedy with the characters and how dense they can be is fun to watch, but can also be a little painful considering how serious they all used to be.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Toshiba Satellite L655-S5191 PSK2CU-1C301U Notebook PC.
