I get that this episode was trying to build up the tension for when the vandalism is revealed. But to do so it spent an entire six minutes on Nakamura and Kasuga walking home from school. Not even saying a word to each other, just walking home. Later Kasuga spends an additional two minutes silently walking back to school. That’s eight minutes out of a twenty-something minute episode. I understand the idea here, but it’s not like I have all the time in the world.

With that said, the episode did succeed at helping the viewer share Kasuga’s mood of expectant waiting. I know the feel. It’s like when you’re waiting to open your Christmas presents and waiting to receive your college application rejection letters but even worse because you’re totally screwed no matter what. You just want to get it over with so that your suffering can end (or begin, in this case). This episode communicated that well. Still, I think they could have accomplished this without dedicating eight minutes of the episode to silent walking.

The students’ reaction to their classroom getting vandalized was pretty realistic. When I was in high school there was a month where someone would pull the fire alarm every day. We’d all have to evacuate and miss part of class. Everyone secretly thought it was great.