Hi Irina! Here we are at the weekend again and I am glad we are discussing this series yet again. Its so much fun and just continues to be adorable.
Hi Scott, I hope this weekend was better than the last! How are you feeling this week? I saw that you’re getting ready for the annual Mecha March! That’s exciting! I always look forward to it every year.
Yay, you saying that makes me happy! I feel like I put a lot of work on myself for this session of Mecha March, but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I just know it!
As for the weekend, it’s been a lot slower of a weekend this last time. I slept in a lot more and stayed home a lot more to allow for more sleeping. How has your weekend? Find some time to relax?
Oh man, my weekend is awesome! I usually get up at 5 a.m. and once your internal clock gets used to it, you just sort of wake up early no matter what. So even on days off, I tend to be up by 7 or so, which is in fact me sleeping in a lot. Well today I woke up at 8:30. I feel so rested and happy! It’s amazing what a little (a lot of) sleep can do.
I also hope that you enjoyed this week’s Sasaki and Miyano! I did!
I did too. I’m glad that they went over some of the romantic hurdles this time in interesting ways.
You know how everybody makes fun of Superman because his big disguise is glasses. I do too. I mean, it’s pretty obviously the same guy. But you know, I feel like that would work in anime. At least on me.
Miyano’s friend, Kuresawa, had his glasses off in that first scene, and I had no idea who it was. I sort of guessed because of the green eyes, but if someone had introduced him as a brand new character we’ve never seen before, I would have believed it! And I like Kuresawa.
I was there with you honestly, I was wondering if there was a character that I forgot about or if there was a new character here. I feel like this shows how viable the superman situation is other then people confusing who I am when I am not wearing a hat like usual.
I like Kuresawa a lot too and yet I guess the feature that I focus on are the glasses. Maybe that means not knowing him enough besides knowing that he has a girlfriend he likes to show pictures of to other people.
I have never been a huge fan of a “will they won’t they” that lasts forever. I don’t mind staying in that uncertain zone for a little while. It can be exciting and it builds up the tension for the eventual moment of truth. But if it goes on for too long, I tend to lose interest. I was a big Sailor Moon fan as a kid, and I honestly stopped caring about Serena and Tuxedo Mask ages before that storyline went anywhere. Fortunately in that case, there’s a lot of other stuff happening in the series so it’s no big deal if the romantic subplot isn’t resonating with me anymore.
In a romance anime that really focuses mostly on that, it can completely destroy my enjoyment of the series when they leave us hanging for too long. Know what I mean?
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I feel like that depends on the ages for me because if its like Tagaki-san where the characters are in middle school and one character doesn’t understand what liking someone is like, it’s generally fine. That is why that show works for me.
But as the characters get older, you would think they would understand how they feel about other characters and should be able to express themselves. That also depends too, you know…waiting too long is annoying…
Fortunately, that’s not the case for Sasaki and Miyano. I honestly thought they would stretch it out for another episode or two, but I guess Sasaki got too impatient.
What did you think of that confession?
I loved how this confession was executed. It was so flawed in a realistic way with Sasaki just going for it and letting Miyano know it wasn’t all talk or anything else. Especially since he didn’t think about it too much, which is like him. The question that Miyano asked and the flub questioned itself was just perfect to create some realistic tension there.
Personally, I also really liked it, The confession proper. I thought it was nice how understated but direct it was. No room for wacky misunderstandings here. No “did he mean he likes me as a friend” nonsense. If anything, I thought it was a bit too smooth considering how flustered Sasaki tends to get.
But that got fixed right away with Miyano’s follow up question. You know, the second he said it I thought to myself, wrong answer dude. And for the record, I’m also not psyched when someone tells me they like me because of my face. It’s a bit better than telling someone you like them because of their body, I suppose, but it still feels pretty shallow. And it sounds like the sort of thing that could just disappear from one day to the next. You can easily stop liking someone’s face once the novelty wears off.
The good part is that Sasaki also immediately knew he screwed up. And more importantly, that it wasn’t what he meant. Awwwww.
I was there to and it was just…man. Awww… It’s not like he can’t get out of that situation, but he certainly dug a hole for himself that he didn’t know how to dig himself out of yet. I’m glad that Hirano is there and knew what was up or just knew at least a way in how to solve it even if that was up to Sasaki in the end.
I think it was in one of the last scenes, right after Miyano wakes up and Hirano tells him to leave. So Sasaki and Hirano are left alone in the student council room. It’s a very quiet scene. There’s a good stretch without any dialogue and what’s more, it doesn’t have any music.
It’s been bugging me since the beginning. Why does Sasaki and Miyano keep reminding me of Horimiya. And I think this is it. Both series have this very interesting use of silence. More specifically, silence without any background music, is how both shows illustrate moments of self-reflection and emotional breakthroughs. And I really like that. Quiet and calm little scenes that mark the emotional highs. Even the designs and animation become restrained in these moments.
I can’t really explain it better but it works on me!
I feel like Horimiya must have affected you a lot more than me because I haven’t been thinking about that show at all. I was caught up in a lot of the cool direction in this episode though from the letter boxing to the very colorful displays here and there as the characters interact with each other or just the interesting visual metaphors going around. Especially with the continuous focus on eyes and the cats in the background.
Oh and before I forget, you know what else I really liked about this scene. Yes, kissing someone without their ok is definitely not good. Thank you Sasaki for clearing that up! Man that trope is way too common.
Yes, I am glad that Sasaki constantly remembers to give Miyano his space besides that one time where he put his arm around Miyano to what he thought was protecting him. Other then that small moment, he really has been very good and not letting his instincts take over.
Next week, we will be halfway through Sasaki and Miyano and he boys will have to deal with the fallout of that confession. Any guesses for what’s coming up?
I hope that Miyano gives an answer at the end of the episode. Maybe it will be an episode of reflection. Hard to tell really, but I feel like I will be happy with the result no matter what it is. Do you as a manga reader have an idea?
Well yeah but I like to pretend that I don’t. Because I find it more fun that way and I don’t want to ruin it for our readers. This said, I think we all know where this is going right? A bloodbath!
Mechanical Anime Reviews 
2 comments