Karen's Anime Blog

Last time, Rintarou and Kaoruko decided they weren’t going to let the beef between their two high schools interfere in their friendship, but this episode shows that becoming close may be more difficult than they thought.

Chidori Public High School. Rintarou and Usami are excited for the upcoming Sports Festival, except there’s a problem: the two of them won’t be able to participate. Apparently, students who fail the midterm will have to sit out the festival, and their teacher is just assuming that they will fail, because they failed last year. Now, hang on a minute. I understand that the two of them may have serious academic challenges, but to assume they’re both going to fail in advance is wrong. To some extent, you get the results that you prepare for, and if you’re already assuming students are going to fail, you can’t really complain when they meet those expectations all too easily. Bad practice, Chidori Public High School.

“What? The next thing you’ll tell us is that we can’t have a Maid Cafe for the cultural festival!”

Usami wants their friend Saku to tutor them, but he’s had enough of them after tutoring them last year. Usami defiantly claims the two will study on their own, but it’s not clear how that’s going to work when neither of them understand the material.

In other news, Rintarou’s mom reminds him that it’s Discount Cake Day at Plain and he should invite Kaoruko over. A nice gesture, except Rintarou is agonizing over how to word a text to her about it during class, when he should be paying attention. This is why you fail tests, Rintarou! I’m so glad cell phones virtually didn’t exist back when I went to high school. Surprisingly, Kaoru says no to Discount Cake Day. How can this be?

Rintarou and Usami head to the local library to study, but it doesn’t take long for Usami to run out of steam. Bolstered by Rintarou’s claim that Saku is just playing hard-to-get, Usami runs off to apologize to Saku and bring him and their other friend back to the library with him. Rintarou stays a little longer, but ends up giving his seat to two girls who need a table; the girls aren’t from Kikyo, so they don’t look at Rintarou like he’s some kind of plague-carrying worm.

Two studious boys, studying hard for the sheer love of knowledge. Oh so studious.

Rintarou is walking towards the exit when he hears Kaoruko’s name, and peeks around the corner to see Kaoruko helping a classmate study. He smiles at hearing her use informal language, since she’s always so formal with him. He also overhears that she’s in the top of her class, which he didn’t know. Of course she is, all that cake she eats is good for brain development: I will happily die on this hill.

Rintarou goes outside where Kaoruko meets up with him. The two chat, and Kaoruko mentions her part-time job, which Rintarou is surprised to hear about because he assumed she was a rich girl; she lets him know that she’s actually not rich and got into Kikyo Academy on a scholarship, so she needs to keep her grades up. This is interesting to me, because I’ve noticed that whenever one of these elite academies appears in anime, the character attending is usually a scholarship student; Yumeiro Patisserie and Uta No Prince-Sama immediately come to mind. There’s this idea that wealthy people are inherently worse people than poorer folks who have to work hard, and though there’s some truth to it– it’s easier to be lazy when you have a lot of resources at your disposal– it still kind of bothers me a little. What if Kaoruko actually was a rich girl? Would that be so horrible?

Anime Food Watch: Delicious Rice Ball Sighted.

Rintarou asks Kaoruko if she would teach him how to study, and she agrees. I actually really appreciate this about Rintarou: that he actually was willing to ask for help. So many male protagonists in anime would have a mental breakdown over this, like “Should I ask Kaoruko-san to tutor me? No, I mustn’t, she must be so busy! How could I dare impose upon her that way!”

Everything is going swimmingly, then Kaoruko’s dumb silver-haired friend Subaru comes over and everything gets complicated again. “Stay away from Kaoruko, you Chidori swine” blah blah blah bitchyness. Naturally Rintarou’s friends come by at exactly the right moment for everything to get heated. Usami gets close to Kaoruko, likely because he recognizes her from last episode, and Rintarou pulls him back without thinking; he’s wired to protect Kaoruko now and doesn’t even realize it. Saku makes a comment about Subaru’s hair color, and she blanches; I bet her hair is naturally silver and she’s been sensitive about it for her whole life, not that her problems matter to me when she’s being such a twit. That’s going too far though, and Rintarou calls Saku out for it.

Rintarou tells the group that he was just apologizing to Kaoruko for scaring her the other day; he claims he spoke to her first, which is a lie, but he’s just trying to defuse the situation. Usami apologizes to Kaoruko for how he acted towards her last episode, which leads to Kaoruko apologizing to him, which surprises the hell out of everyone. Kaoruko even asks Subaru to apologize, but of course that’s not happening. Subaru gets going rather than endure this weird situation a moment longer.

A Kikyo girl apologizing! That’s against the law.

Back in the library, Subaru thinks of how Rintarou called out Saku for insulting her, and asks Kaoruko what Rintarou is like; Kaoruko responds “A very kind person.” I think Subaru is also developing a bit of a crush on Rintarou, which is inconvenient for her because she hates all men and treats them like dirt. What’s she going to say to him? “Go out with me, you pitiable waste of space who doesn’t deserve to breathe the air on this planet.”

Kaoruko calls Rintarou later to apologize for Subaru’s rudeness, and to apologize for making him lie on her behalf. Argh, there’s too much apologizing on this show. They make a study date for Saturday, and Rintarou asks her to start addressing him more casually. Go Rintarou! Keep asking for what you want like a boss.

That’s all for this week. I’m looking forward to the study date, which I assume will be next episode. I hope Kaoruko picks a place to study where all her obnoxious “friends” aren’t going to come find them and attack Rintarou just for existing.