Wandering Son - Episode 6

After building up to it over its previous three episodes, it's finally the day of the school culture festival, and of course that all-important performance of the version of Romeo and Juliet worked on by the class.

Before that however, we get to enjoy a little of the culture festival itself, from some surprise visitors including model Maiko and Takatsuki's friend Yuki (who, of course, was cross-dressing as a boy complete with a suit for the occasion) through to early preparations for the play, with Makoto understandably nervous about taking on Juliet's role while Chiba is the snarkiest, most ice cold Romeo you'll probably ever find.  The highlight of the pre-play goings on however must surely be the world's least scary haunted house, which many of our main characters somehow manage to make the most of anyway in a decidedly amusing fashion.

This takes us to the play itself, and after an abortive attempt by Makoto to deliver his opening lines a heartfelt plea to the audience to start over manages to break the tension and allow for the rest of the play to go smoothly, complete with hammy acting and comedy moustaches.  All in all the play is a hit and the overall venture is a success, but has it changed the relationship between Chiba and Makoto at all?  The bunch of (admittedly second hand) flowers given by the former to the latter suggest so, as well as being a role reversal in itself, but with Chiba's icy demeanour it's hard to tell anything for sure.

This might not have made for the most innovative episode of Wandering Son, but it was still an entertaining one that managed to effortlessly squeeze comedy from aspects of its scenario without ever casting aspersions upon its central premise - if anything, its focus on Makoto this episode helped to strengthen that while posing some curious questions about his own desires and emotions away from the main focus upon Nitori and Takatsuki the series tends towards.  If nothing else this proves how robust Wandering Son's character dynamics are as a whole, rather than having to rely solely on its two leads, which can't be a bad thing.