No rest for the ‘rohas, apparently. Hikki’s finally repaired his relationship with his friends, and this episode did a wonderful job of conveying both the old sense of easy banter between them and the new degree of honesty all three of them share. But the big moments here were the last two – that gorgeous moment on the rollercoaster, and Iroha’s long-awaited confession to Hayato. Season two just keeps giving us these unexpected gifts of presentation; normally it comes down to the animation, but here, the framing was just so damn on-point. There’s no stopping this train.
Here’s my oversized ANN review again. And plenty of notes below!
And now Hikki’s feeling super embarrassed about his performance. Very cute
“I’m having a little identity crisis right now”
“The people who yap about identities all the time are usually the ones with no identity. Like something that changes so easily could be an ‘identity,’ anyway.” Dang, Komachi
Komachi once again the good sibling, telling him he won’t change that easily
Feeling awkward outside the club door
And he enters and it’s just him and Yukino
But Yukino is just as nervous as he is. With the divide broken, we’re finally able to see that clearly again
Yui getting up in Yukino’s space. Yui couldn’t be more direct in her happiness at having her friends back – now that she’s not artificially acting chipper to keep things peaceful, she’s just brimming with actual happiness
Hikki and Yukino are both very bad at gracefully coughing to draw attention to themselves
Iroha trolling so hard with that bag pass to Hikki. What a great moment
“Just watching them irritates me.” It’s so nice to have the whole team back together. I’m gonna have to watch the first season or something after this, it’s such a relief seeing them be friends. You can’t do only drama all the time
Aaand Sensei single joke. Always gotta be
Yukino being tempted by Pan-san the panda. Cute things, her only weakness
Man, I forgot how cozy this show can be. These characters are great
Yukino being pretty moe about pandas
Hikki now helping out in convincing Yukino to join them at the amusement park. Actively working to mend and maintain his friendships
And Hayama’s whole group ends up coming along
So now we’re in Christmas land!
Yui and Yukino are more of a couple here than anyone else
And now Ebina gets in the fujoshi gag. A return to normalcy does mean a return to some crappy light novel humor
Ebina apologizing for causing trouble in Hikki’s group. A nice gesture
Very full animation depicting just Yukino’s legs walking into the roller coaster. Which is… an odd choice? I can’t even call it fanservice, it’s not really sensual or anything
Yukino doesn’t let anyone talk during the Pan-san ride. Pretty great
Iroha maintaining Pan-san peace
Yui and Hikki have quite A Moment here
Yui says she wants to come back here, implying she wants to come back here with them, or him specifically. Hikki flashes back to her saying she’d make the first move back at the end of the first season. Oh boy
And Hikki suggests they try another place in his very roundabout way. The ways these guys avoid putting themselves out to be burned while saying what they want to say is always so well-articulated
Even putting Yukino in cat ears. This episode’s laying it on pretty thick
Both Hikki and Yukino stepping forward. Hikki trying to be accommodating of how Yukino’s uncomfortable, and Yukino basically saying “if I felt comfortable riding it with Yui, I should be fine with you too”
Yukino opening up about issues with her sister
“Hey, Hikigaya-kun. Save me someday?” And then they go over the edge, and his stomach literally drops out from under him as the perspective shifts. What a beautifully composed bit of visual storytelling
“I know that behind my back, people said I was unfriendly and unlikable.” Yukino really being honest here. She said she didn’t know what to do last episode, but she’s following through beautifully
“I didn’t know how I was expected to behave”
Wow, this last scene with Hayato and Irohas is SO GOOD. Perfect music, perfect framing. We just see it through the crowd, surrounded by glowing lights
Rollercoaster scene felt a bit underwhelming. Yui and Iroha’s scenes honestly felt like they had a bigger impact, even though Yukino’s was by far the biggest scene in that chapter of the LN.
Very pretty backgrounds though
Looks like you might have missed out on that little bit where, right after the roller coaster ride, Yukino was shown as being startled by Hikki when he returned with drinks and slipped the photo she was looking at into her bag. The photo was probably from the ride, as there is a flash of light on Hikki as the roller coaster went down. Yukino getting pretty cute on her feelings here :p
Also, my first viewing of the “save me someday” scene made me feel a little underwhelmed at first, but that’s probably because of the hype people had been giving to that scene. Upon viewing it again (and many times after, it was just that good), I began to like it more and more and now I think that the scene couldnt have been handled better. Some may have wanted a PA works or KyoAni style of doing that scene, but this relatively quiet “confession” made it work even more for me.
Just me 2 cents after that incredible episode ^^
Did not notice that! I’ll have to watch again, that’s a really cute detail.
Any particular reason for the “-” in the A-? This seasons been shifting between a pretty solid A to A+ for me so far. Not to disregard the rest of your review, agree with pretty much all of it, just wondering at the negative tint.
Mainly just dinging it for falling back on those crappy light novel jokes. But that’s a small mark against the episode – keep in mind, this show overall is an A+ for me, so an A- episode of it isn’t exactly the worst case scenario.
Hmm. Sometimes you wish anime would just transcend its tropes… Its still a light novel that has to sell while coping with deadlines and corporate editors. And Wataru is massively aware of the tropes he is subverting even as he gingerly works around them. Theres a subtle harem there. Gosh darn if it isn’t beautifully done though.
What I am saying is fair enough.
Two quick comments:
1. I think you meant to say “breathe” instead of “breath” in the ANN review’s first sentence.
It’s kind of unfortunate that subtitle-makers translate the verb “tasukeru” as “save” when it can also simply mean “help” as well.
I don’t know Japanese, but I wonder if the fan translator of the LN translated that verb based on context: He used ‘help’ for the plunge, while using ‘save’ when Yukino was vaguely explaining why she wanted something Haruno & Hikigaya didn’t have.
Also, since you were so impressed with the waterfall scene, I’ll post the passage from the LN, which is a lovely piece of writing in its own right and probably had a certain portion of the readership anticipating its execution in the anime even more than ‘the real thing’ scene:
Iwas a bit underwhelmed by the presentation of the Yukino scene since I thought it didn’t do justice to the novel. Thanks for writing the passage so others can see for themselves what I mean.
My very personal impression, is that Feel has been somehwat downplaying some of these moments between Hikigaya and Yukino. I don’t know if its a conscious creative decision or just part of the economy of cramming all the content of 3 novels in 13 episodes.