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Fuuka continues to be such an aggravating show as Fuuka deals with her emotional immaturity, a selective memory, a life or death experience, and we get the type of cliffhanger which really tests your patience.
Episode Focus: Taking a Page Out Of Koyuki’s Songbook (Fuuka & Yuu)
After Fuuka spots Yuu and Koyuki being cute together, so sparks, not a sense of jealousy but a realization of “love.” Something Fuuka isn’t really fond of dealing with because Yuu not only belongs to another but is still as nice and kind to her as ever. Which is making life difficult. To the point that while these feels help her finally finish her song, she decides after their second gig as a band to go solo. Perhaps just so Yuu won’t have to be such an active part of her life.
Commentary
Excuse me if it sounds redundant at this point, but I find it so frustrating how the writer(s) memories are so selective. The first couple of episode made it seem that Fuuka was into Yuu, maybe thinking of dating him, especially with how episode 1 ended. Now, a person could argue that maybe with a soccer star for a dad, Fuuka grew up around boys so hanging out with one alone has not been a big deal to her. Heck, you could even argue that perhaps, because of that, she doesn’t know when she is flirting or saying the type of things which would imply a romantic interest. I’d give you that. However, considering how she understands Koyuki’s music and all this blushing and these cute moments she shared with Yuu, including being hurt when he didn’t trust her enough to say he knew Koyuki, come on!
But what got me this episode was first, that whole moment where she could have been hit by a truck, which seemed unnecessary, and then the sudden thought of leaving the band to go solo. Now, while I understand why she would go solo, what I don’t get is why she did it so abruptly. Much less, right after their first big performance in which there was no gloom on her face at all. Even after she sung her original song which was about how singing kept her close to the one she loves! I mean, lest we forget, Fuuka recruited every last person in that band, some of them by pushing them way out of their comfort zone. So the fact only Nichi is pissed after all she put them through, all that practice, and a performance where there were bottles being thrown at them, honestly made very little sense. Especially since no one was really asking why.
Subplot 1: The Return of Nico and Tama (Hedgehogs)
After a 6 year absence, Nico and Tama return from wherever they went.
Commentary
Is it wrong to say that with all that is happening with Fuuka, I wanted to know far more about where Nico and Tama went than dealing with her rapid recognition she has feelings for Yuu? Maybe it is because I am growing tired of teens and children being the focus of the anime I watch, but I want something a bit more mature, a bit more complicated but not focused on melodrama, and the breakup and reuniting of the Hedgehogs seems like a story which could contain that. It doesn’t seem we are going to get it since they brush over that 6 years of no contact pretty quickly, but wishful thinking had me hoping they’d bring some sort of realness to this show.
Subplot 2: So, Are They Dating Or Not? (Koyuki and Yuu)
They go on dates, Yuu’s sisters see them as a couple, but are they really? When Koyuki reminds Yuu [note]whose memory must be as bad as Fuuka [/note] that she wrote her lyrics about him, she once again gets flustered to the point of quickly ending their conversation. A conversation about helping Fuuka write her song.
Commentary
With us getting a week off from Fuuka comes a memory lapse of my own. Didn’t Yuu and Koyuki become some form of official? Don’t tell me Yuu running after her, going on what looked like a date, what definitely seemed like a date, was just his version of keeping Koyuki from exiting his life but stringing her along.
Hold up, let me stop pretending Fuuka would ever get that deep. At this point, I’d just like some form of clarification and consistency. For while I know this show is basic and wants to heavily push a love triangle, they failed in making a compelling one a long time ago so I wish it would just take its L and move the show forward.
Subplot 3: You’re Disowned (Makoto)
We learn Makoto’s father does not support his son’s music career at all. In fact, on top of likely being the reason he quit playing the piano when he was young, he is outright told that continuing to waste his time on music will have him disowned. Something Makoto’s sister doesn’t want for it would mean less time, and it being more difficult, to be with her big brother.
Commentary
Makoto is wasted on this show. Here is a character with real issues who gets pushed aside for some emotionally stunted girl who has broken out of her arrested development. Someone who, alongside Sara and Nichi, and now the Hedgehogs, who have a story you’d want to hear rather than Fuuka’s. Not alongside, but rather. Making it so the finale, honestly, couldn’t come soon enough.
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