Shit, I’m late! No homework this week. Let’s get to it.

Episode 8

1:07 – Oh boy, a full minute of silly trap jokes. Considering the usual stupid-joke-to-brilliant-insight ratio, the rest of this episode must be nuts

2:24 – Man, even this OP makes me stupid-happy at this point

2:49 – It is kind of funny that Trap and Yui have matching outfits

4:39 – waaaat

5:23 – Like with the stupid maid cafe, they sort of retroactively redeem the swimsuit stuff by contrasting it against his reaction to Yuki, who’s actually still wearing a shirt. They’re amping up the relationship between these two every episode now

6:18 – And then they do some more boob jokes. Dammit

8:46 – Hikki’s attitude: actually no different than the elementary schooler, but backed up by a whole lot of math and amateur psychology

11:18 – Hayama clear best costume

11:36 – “I have an idea.” “Looks like it isn’t a very good idea.” These two are getting way more playful in their banter. I’d think even Yui would notice it at this point

13:56 – This is a very complicated plan. I like how totally into it the popular crowd is getting, though

15:30 – Wow, I’m glad even Hayama realizes Hikki is just rationalizing here. Is that in line with his character? He’s more savvy than I thought

17:42 – “One small misstep and this could’ve turned into a huge problem.” No shit. That was a pretty demented plan, Hikki

18:48 – Brain’s Base getting their Shaft head tilt on

19:55 – Hayama is just a pretty great character. An actually well-adjusted teenager is weirdly enough one of the rarest character types to get such a full articulation (well, it’s not that weird, it’s probably because there’s less room for drama and character development with someone who’s already sure of who they are)

And Done

Hm, setting up some drama at the end there. It seems kinda weird to link Yui and Hikki’s past connection to Yuki in such a strained way, but I’m eager to get into more of Yuki’s family situation, so that’s something to look forward to.

As for the episode overall – eh, not my favorite. I was never hugely invested in the elementary schooler plotline outside of how it reflected on Hikki and Yuki’s own perspectives, and I’m a little disappointed this episode didn’t run with Yuki’s projection about the situation from the last one (saying the girl reminded her of Yui, when she’s clearly just a miniature Yuki), or her fight, for that matter. This episode did have some good Hayama moments, as well as a continuation of the changing relationship between Hikki and Yuki. Their banter only gets more adorable.

The resolution of the storyline was also pretty solid, and I particularly like how marginal their “fixing” of the situation really was – it’d be very out of character for anything in this show to really be that easy. This episode did have the highest concentration of scenes and jokes I could have done without (trap stuff, fanservice stuff, boob jokes), but I guess I’m just gonna have to learn to live with that.

Mainly I’m just mad I have to wait another week to finally get into Yuki’s issues. How this show tests me…