Thursday, 12 November 2009

Kimi ni Todoke - Episode 6

After the last episode of Kimi ni Todoke quickly brought Sawako and Kazehaya back on speaking terms, much to the relief of all concerned, we were still forced to wait until this sixth instalment before getting to see exactly how things panned out concerning Yano and Yoshida.


After a brief flashback through Sawako's school life thus far and how the "Sadako" nickname stuck, we soon return to the bathroom where Sawako has finally (albeit inadvertently) tracked down the source of all the rumours surrounding Yano and Yoshida. Spying her chance, Sawako appears to clear up any misunderstandings without really holding any understanding as to why these rumours were spread in the first place. Thus, rather than being greeted as any kind of saviour, she finds herself pushed away and threatened by the group of girls involved yet further.

Thankfully, Yano and Yoshida themselves are soon on-hand to hear exactly what is going on, and once they have a clearer understanding of Sawako's predicament they move quickly to rescue her, resulting in some emotional reunions between the trio as their friendships are sealed in the kind of beautiful yet tear-jerking way which Kimi ni Todoke seems to carry out so effortlessly. Yes, in other words it did make me cry like a girl.

So, Sawako has now regained all of her friends and a new place in the hearts of her classmates, and everyone is happy... Or are they? Poor old Kazehaya soon realises that he might well have done himself out of a place closer to Sawako as Yano and Yoshida monopolise her time, while it seems that some rivals for Kazehaya's affections are now on the horizon....

To be honest, any series that can move me to tears twice in as many episodes is well worthy of praise if you ask me, and that's exactly what the last couple of instalments of Kimi ni Todoke have managed to do - It's quite simply proving to be a beautiful study of love and friendship, packed with some great and eminently likeable characters that fit in perfectly to the utterly believable circumstances with which they are presented. Roll it all together, and you can perhaps see why this continues to be my favourite show of this season thus far.

1 comment:

DoctorG said...

Well, that was . . . . . nice.

Girls being girls, after some pretty lame to and fro it all got settled with talk, tears and touchy-feely instead of a cathartic punch-up behind the bike sheds - although Sawako did, technically, “win” by getting a retraction from bully number 1 before proceedings terminated. Well, it is shoujo anime, and very shoujo at that. Whatever, Sawako coming further out of her shell afterwards was for the win, and the distinction drawn at the end between someone you know (the girl who gave her the nickname in junior school, and felt guilty about it) and real friends was a good point.

The male characters were good this week – the irresponsible teacher Pin wanting to see a good fight was very amusing, and Ryuu is just so cool – he sees everything that’s going on, but really has better things to do with his time (like sleeping) than getting involved. As for Kazehaya – well, he got pwned by Sawako when she went off with her friends (unwittingly, for sure), and we got the second indication that he isn’t perfect – the flaw in his shining armour is that he is just a little possessive. Wonder if that will develop, or if it just gets played for laughs?

Even though you know you shouldn’t, you can’t help getting involved in this series, can you?