Wednesday 16 February 2011

Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season - Episode 6

Oh Kimi ni Todoke, will you ever stop tugging on my heartstrings?  In fact, will you ever stop tearing them out and brutalising them for my enjoyment and entertainment?  On the evidence of this episode, quite possibly not.

Things were quite clearly about to get messy come last week's cliffhanger, with Kento and Kazehaya all set to face-off over a bawling Sawako... and so it goes, with Shouta demanding from his possible love rival just what Ken has done to make her cry.  As if this wasn't tricky enough, a bunch of Kazehaya's friends show up at this moment, pointing out that this looks like some kind of love triangle and thus pushing a terse confession to Sawako from Kazehaya himself - not quite the stuff from romance novels that's for sure, and with so many conflicting voices present it perhaps isn't entirely surprising that Sawako simply doesn't understand exactly what Kazehaya is trying to say.


As Shouta storms off in a huff Sawako gives chase, giving rise to a more private conversation between the two of them - even given this direct exchange, things somehow manage to get worse rather than better, with both individuals somehow managing to misconstrue the other's meaning of how and why the like the other so that the two of them both leave the conversation thinking that they've been rejected.  Ouch.  When neither party turns up for afternoon registration it's pretty obvious to the rest of their class that something is up, especially as rumours of this lunchtime entangle pass through the school, so of course it's up to Yano and Yoshida to try and at least attempt to clear up this whole mess - surprisingly, it's the latter who says what really needs to be relayed to Sawako, that being that she effectively needs to stop feeling sorry for herself and assuming that everyone looks down on her when it's no longer the case.  Is this enough to light a fire under Sawako?  Quite possibly, although this show being what it is it's unlikely that things between herself and Kazehaya will be quite that simple...

Although part of me wants to moan a little about the misunderstandings between Kazehaya and Sawako in this episode being too contrived, another part of me remembers when I was a shy teenager who point-blank refused to believe that anyone fancied me even when I had 100% reliable information that suggested they did, so perhaps what we see here isn't so far-fetched after all.  Anyway, before I start with my outpourings of teenage regret this was another top-notch roller coaster of emotion, bringing me close to tears on the one hand before soothing those tears with depictions of wonderful friendships, then throwing in a bit of comedy to add some laughter to proceedings too.  It's an eclectic mix which sometimes shifts from joy to tears ridiculously quickly yet still manages to pull it off every time.  Unlike the characters in this show, I'm not afraid to confess my love for Kimi ni Todoketo all and sundry, and right now it certainly seems to be at another high point when it comes to chaining and enslaving me to its romantic cause.

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