Monday 5 March 2012

Ano Natsu de Matteru - Episode 9

No matter how occasionally clumsy any previous attempts to keep her true identity hidden from her new-found friends, there's no hiding the truth about Ichika now thanks to the rather major incident with the rescue pod despatched to save her which put in its appearance at the end of last week's episode.

Thus, there's no choice for Ichika but to explain the whole thing to the assembled group - her alien origins, her spacecraft, and of course that rescue pod.  All things considered, her friends take the whole thing in their stride for the most part, and agree to keep her secret just that from any prying eyes that may come their way.


Although this resolves any immediate issues, there's still a whole bundle of other concerns for Ichika, as she frets about exposing her friends to further danger or inconvenience... then of course there's Kaito, with her feelings for him making life incredibly difficult and leading to her more or less avoiding him entirely.  Kaito, too, has misgivings about his place in proceedings going forward, meaning that it's up to Remon to stir him into life and give him a much-needed nudge in the right direction.  Of all people, it's Kanna who does likewise for Ichika, confronting her with both her own feelings and her realisation of what Kaito and Ichika have come to mean for one another.  With one relationship thus cemented (for the time being at least), just where is this series going to take us next?

Despite the revelations to the gang at the end of the previous instalment, the first half of this week's Ano Natsu de Matteru was actually a little slow, and perhaps rightly so as it let things sink in as well as granting us a quick glimpse back into Kanna's first meeting with Kaito.  This slow pace did little to prepare me for what was to come next, with Kanna in particular putting herself agonisingly in the proverbial firing line for the sake of the boy she loves - a painfully beautiful scene followed by the sweetest of confessions between the show's new couple.  It's the bitter-sweet journey of love summed up in few simple minutes, and it's why there's nothing but utter love in my heart for this series now come the end of another largely marvellous episode.

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