Stupid girls. Always trying to get in the way of friendship.
An Odd Ordering Choice
I found the decision to place this episode after the previous one odd. In episode three, Kaoru made his confession. Ritsuko never technically responded, but he already knew what she was going to say. So why wasn’t he embarrassed to see her throughout all of episode four, but he’s humiliated now?
It seems to me like it would have made more sense to swap the order of episodes four and five. It was a long time between Kaoru’s confession and Ritsuko’s response. It had seemed like they’d almost even forgot about it. But at the start of this episode, Ritsuko starts hiding from Kaoru for no apparent reason. It just seems like this awkwardness should have happened immediately after the confession if it was going to happen at all. What does everyone else think about this?
Time Flies Like an Arrow
Once again, this show doesn’t give a very good sense of the passage of time. One minute, Ritsuko replies to Kaoru’s confession. The next we’ve already passed winter vacation and Kaoru hasn’t been to her house at all. The only thing to tell us about the passage of time is Kaoru’s words, so it doesn’t really sink in. Although I hate to say this, it might have helped to have a few scenes of Kaoru sitting around at home looking miserable.
The creators do know how to show emotions like this: the scene of Kaoru eating Ritsuko’s rice ball, alone on the train at night, was beautiful. But the portrayal of time and the ordering of events is confusing.
Actually, in the manga, Episode 5 comes right after Kaoru kisses Ritsuko and learns about Sentarou’s past. Watanabe and…whoever wrote the P4 anime switched Episode 4’s events around so that it would end with Yurika falling in love with Jun, because apparently, that was the stronger ending.
Just goes to show that even with Watanabe’s skills, there are limits to adapting a nine-volume series in twelve episodes.
Huh, so in the original story the events actually were switched. No wonder it felt awkward.
And nine volumes in twelve episodes? Wow. It’s actually working out pretty well overall, my complaints are pretty minor. That’s impressive.
This explains that no reaction policy of last episode that i did not like last week.
Yeah. I liked the subdued reaction last week, but this week they pretty much undid everything and made one giant mess.
I didn’t notice the passage of time issue. Maybe winter vacation was just the time both Ritsuko and Kaoru needed to realize the situation and become awkward about it. To my experience, at least, these kinds of things sometimes do not immediately sink in but I really realize them only later, in a quiet period.
I liked Ritsuko’s sweater in the second pic. It’s so nice for once not to have everyone walking around in school uniform all day. Instead they can focus on some 1960s style casual clothes.
Haha, yes, the older style clothes are excellent. I kind of like Sentarou’s wardrobe as well, although I certainly wouldn’t call it stylish. It has that “wow, this looked cool at some point” look to it.