Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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Haruto’s crush on Hazuki remains the focus as Komiya is really trying to push Izumi into letting her use that photo she took to save her club.
Previous Recap: Episode 2 “Question”
Summary (with Commentary)
Everyone seems to be in a state of just going through the motions. Not a single one from Natsume, Izumi, Haruto or Hazuki seem that excited about the future. High school is ending, as is their adolescence, so they are going to college and/or getting jobs as expected.
But, as Haruto has shown, it isn’t just adolescence they are leaving behind but also the things which made their childhoods fun. Haruto is giving up baseball, Hazuki is talking about giving up band, and what we get presented with are the characters who don’t make it big. We are given the people who aren’t the best in their class, region, state, country and etc. These are average, every day, kids.
The kind who weren’t terrible at whatever they did, like Komiya with her photography, but never became noteworthy enough to win awards, scholarships, and seemingly get the kind of push which would make them want to continue. Which is, of course, sad for some, like Hazuki, but what are her options? As she notes, she has family duties. She can’t be like Yoriko and dedicate herself to her field forever. She has a family business and younger siblings to take care of. Especially since her dad isn’t around much and her mom relies on her heavily.
Though, there may be one area where everyone has some form of hope: Love. Despite adulthood looming like a dark cloud, crushes still bloom and seem to grow. Haruto, thanks to Yoriko trying to hook him up, gets some time with Hazuki. Natsume strangely gets mad at Izumi for not being more active in their text conversations, and apparently, Yoriko likes someone. It isn’t clear who, but that is something to expect on the horizon.
Highlights
Featuring: Normal Kids
One of the things which makes the slice of life genre so appealing is that it doesn’t feature special snowflakes like the action and sci-fi genre. Most of the time, there is a relatability factor that other genres really don’t pursue. Something that can really hit you hard with Just Because!, especially if you are either about to graduate high school or are somewhere in your twenties.
Speaking for me personally, I can totally relate to the idea of just going through the motions when it came to school. I didn’t discover I was particularly great at anything, at least to the point of a teacher or someone pushing me toward a job or major, so I got a degree since that is expected of you. Especially if you want to make the type of money to live on your own and not live paycheck to paycheck.
So, to say the least, listening to everyone not have that usual excitement of getting older hits me right in the gut and brings me back a few years.
On The Fence
Haruto’s Crush
I think it is safe to assume that most anime are written by men. Which I say only because the anime industry has similarities to the film industry. In which, more often than not, it is the male character(s) who are focused on, made rich, and when you see who directed and wrote something, it is a guy. When it comes to other things, like art, editing, and the jobs which don’t always get the glory, then you’ll see women. But for those who get to be front and center, but aren’t the actors, it is men.
Something I bring up solely because of the way Haruto’s crush on Hazuki is played out. What we get presented here is the overzealous boy in love with this cute girl. A possible relationship which so far has been appealing. However, I’m slowly getting the vibe it could lead into the unfortunate trope of “No matter how much you try, she’ll never notice you” type of story. Which if they have Haruto accept this, that will be cool. But there is this vibe that Haruto wants at least one significant win before leaving high school and he wants Hazuki to be it. So with it seeming like she is this prize to earn more than a girl to really befriend and fall in love with, it gives me slight pause.
Mind you, it isn’t a story featuring a boy dull as paint and the girl is this manic pixie dream girl, but it is always hard to tell when a program may commit to being different or not.
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