What’s with the clones?
What They Say:
“Piano”
Toko Fukami’s family runs a glassware craft studio. Toko and her friends often gather at Cafe Kazemichi, at her friend’s house, to relax. During the summer holidays in their final year, a new boy, Kakeru Okikura, joins their high school. He tells Toko that he can hear voices from the future. If she could know what happens in the future, what would she wish for? Toko feels a strange jolting sensation she has never felt before, while noticing an urge she cannot ignore welling up.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The couples are coming together, ever so slowly.
Hiro lead Sachi up the mountain for a cute little hike together. Their relationship has been tumultuous, but definitely the most adorable. Sachi’s character motivations for “breaking up” the first time aside, it’s clear they love each other and that bond will only grow.
Yana and Yuki went to her dance class together and, just like Hina’s middle school swim team, the girls at the class stared at Yuki in wonder. “Who is that guy?” “What’s your relationship with him?” “Why is he so sexy?” Ok, they didn’t ask that last one, at least not according to Yana to Yuki, but I’m sure they would have if given a little more time. Despite his insistence to see Touko again, I don’t think it’s to confess a second time. I think it’s to lay those feelings to waste and—of course, since this is anime—get the incest on. I’m not as creeped out by this as I was with Oreimo and that’s because the show treats Yana and Yuki like characters and not like enabler and enabled. It’s still weird though.
Touko and Okikura…There’s something about them that I don’t like. Okikura is so…wishy-washy. I wish Touko would just chose Yuki, in my heart, but I know it won’t happen. What I really want is for Okikura to stop being so weird. He’s constantly asserting himself in ways that just don’t work for me and Touko is seemingly taking it because she doesn’t know better.
In Summary:
This episode wasn’t too bad, though. She said they wanted to go on a walk and she’s pushing forward the narrative instead of being pushed forward by Okikura, as it has been recently and as I have disliked throughout. The strong parts of the narrative—when the relationships are focused on and the future seeing is pushed into the background—shined in this episode because each move was determined by the character themselves, not a different character.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: Radeon 7850, 24” Dell UltraSharp U2410 set at 1920 x 1200, Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II
