「変わる世界」 (Kawaru Sekai)
“Changing World”

Kotoura has run away from home, but hell will anyone let her run away…except for Manabe-kun.

In an ironic twist, it is Manabe himself who gives up the search for Kotoura first, disheartened that his search gave no fruit. While this initially comes off as a pansy attempt, it’s not like Manabe didn’t put in enough effort. Manabe gave up at a reasonable threshold, an uncommon sight in the world of anime drama. After scouting out all “reasonable” modes of finding out where Kotoura is, Manabe is obviously disappointed, yet attempts to move forward, albeit with a falsely cheerful demeanor. Though this brings his character down from a shining paragon of manliness, in exchange our perverted friend becomes a more realistic character. I’m sure we’ve all had our moments when we wanted to chase after the passions of our life and chase down that dream with all our hearts…yet we hesitate and let “reality” take its course as a bitter pill to swallow. The real world often wins in this case, ending many situations in disappointment and sadness.

But alas, such a story cannot end here, nor can such a permanent tragedy befall our budding couple now. Thanks to Kotoura’s extraordinary friends, the elusive ESP is found, bringing everyone back together plus one. Other than a desire to bring back home a girl who has done no wrong, each character has their own untied knots that bring them all to unite at Kotoura’s family estate.

Mifune and Muroto, armed with a fervor to protect the occult and convenient access to CC systems, manage to spark Manabe’s own fervor to find Kotoura once more, though for entirely different reasons. As opposed to earlier episodes, Mifune showed no hints of her ulterior motives this week, though we can expect a crack in Mifune’s intentions with the entrance of Moritani. However, as readers pointed out, some part of Mifune genuinely cares for Kotoura, however clouded a desire it may be (though her excitement for the occult is 125% genuine). The fact that she spoke up and called out against Manabe’s false satisfaction with the status quo speaks volumes for her core character–even if Mifune is wearing a mask, even she can’t help taking it off for the sake of poor Manabe. The ambiguity that arises from having doubts about Mifune’s mindset creates an appealing depth to her character that the story would be wise to capitalize on.

On the flipside, a less ridiculous yet still crazy investigation led Moritani to meet with Kotoura as well, though locating her was only a fourth of her battle. Moritani, after being spared a most humiliating and disgraceful future, must somehow express her apologies and her gratitude at the same time. Of course it doesn’t help that Manabe is also present, but somehow, again with Kotoura’s support, manages to find the means to make amends. This switch from being Kotoura’s absolute enemy to a supportive friend may prove to be irksome to some–the comments expressed a large chunk of people displeased with Moritani’s terrible attitude–yet in time, I’m sure that Moritani will find a way to redeem herself to the audience. This of course includes how Moritani will make it up to Manabe for getting him seriously injured. Normally Manabe’s attitude towards Moritani’s apology comes off as disrespectful, but in this situation, hell, the girl almost killed him. He has every right to be pissed at her and not be as quick to forgive her wrongdoings, especially without the knowledge and understanding Kotoura naturally has. I expect it’ll be awhile before Moritani gains the trust of the other club members, but if I had to predict anything, Moritani will most likely end up as one of Kotoura’s best supporters and friends, especially when Mifune’s true intentions inevitably spill into the open.

But of course, let’s not forget Manabe. Despite acting a bit tsundere with his thoughts this time around, Manabe continues to be an honest fellow in his actions and his thoughts. While he may put on a cheerful mask to hide the disappointment in himself, our perverted protagonist has no problem fighting to be honest with himself. Though he claims to accompany the club in order to bring Kotoura purely to defend a promise of protecting her, the real reason finally cracks through, which in my opinion, happens to be the reason why anyone says something like that. Manabe is a good person in admitting his basic desire to be with Kotoura, instead of hiding behind these fringe reasons we often use to dilute or mask our desires for companionship. Yeah Manabe, you go guy! The world needs more people who can admit to their feelings honestly and not hide behind a bunch of excuses to get close to someone!

Now that we’ve closed the books on introducing the cast proper, hopefully the real meat of Kotoura is yet to come. The dynamics between mother and daughter are still to be resolved (as hinted in the OP) as well as seeing the fruition of Mifune’s master plan. While the general shock drama has gone down since episode one, we can hope to expect an increase now that the cast is in full swing. Will Kotoura be able to break and mend our hearts once again before the series is over? Eight more episodes will tell.

Full-length images: 4, 12, 18, 28, 31, 40.

 

Preview

28 Comments

  1. manabe still bit sad wonder of where is kotoura give esp club have been found her give daichi hack into train camera to find kotoura so catch is on & oh where to stay night the shrine temple.

    while meet shrine priest give he know kotoura give also cared for her & tell them kotoura is at her grandpa’s house so arrive meet grandpa yep he same like manabe as well give he had kotoura on his seat.

    enter kotoura chase is on & after hearing manabe worry give oops spank mention caught & net kotoura after some talk give kotoura still worry manabe chase her all tell her come back all ok.

    then hiyori come in give confess sorry for all damage want to make it all with everything yep kotoura all is fine with everything all happy & good times.

    maby
  2. It was all good until the last four minutes. Let me get it out of the way – Moritani’s “redemption” is an example of poor execution. I mean, they could have done it in another episode. I’m not one to crucify Moritani to the cross for everything that she did, but the way it was watered down like it was nothing was just bad.

    But I digress. The episode was still fun to watch. Haruka’s grandpa is just plain sick. No wonder she’s used to Manabe’s antics. I mean, poor girl, she can’t just say no to her biggest benefactor. And it’s really ironic that the two people she trusts the most both have sex in their heads.

    I guess the anime will spend the bigger bulk of the episodes with the mother. I mean, what she did to Haruka all these years does not compare to weeks of Moritani’s jealousy fits. And there’s Yuriko too, but there’s a reason why Muroto is around. She might do something evil, but I don’t think it will be that bad.

    So yeah, can’t wait for the next one. It’s another painful week of waiting. 🙂

    Does anyone have a link to the manga? I wanna check out how the original did it.

    sadakups
  3. Moritani & Kotoura are just too damn annoying, for completely opposite reasons of course. Well at least the petty BS is out of the way. Now maybe they can on get with the ridiculous garbage that literally made me burn the manga.

    On a side note, just how many more of these episodes are gonna have epilogue like endings…

    Megas
  4. Sure, she apologized but I still want to kill Moritani. She did order her goons to beat up Manabe and driven Kotoura to drop out of school and that’s not something an apology can fix.

    legwkio
  5. Kotoura’s realization that people change is one of the most important points of this episode, IMO. I think that’ll have a very big effect in how she interacts with others and sees the world, from now on.

    Tulicloure
  6. A couple of annoying things were pulled out of the writers behind (hacking into the camera system, “I hired a detective to track you down”)… I think Moritani’s redemption would have been better executed had had she accompanied the trio of Kotoura-san hunters. Otherwise, still good episode.

    J_the_Man
    1. It would have been better if Moritani was instrumental in finding Haruka for the group. That would have made it part of her penance for her actions. It could have even been anonymous with Haruka only finding out because of her ESP with Moritani breaking down and apologizing after she had been outed.

      Bear
      1. Pretty much, yes. I honestly thought it would go that way, that Moritani would tip off the club about Haruka’s location other than Muroto conveniently hacking through surveillance cameras. If she was with the club during the search, I wouldn’t mind her being redeemed in this episode.

        Bad pacing and writing is the culprit it seems.

        sadakups
  7. I thought this was the best episode so far, myself, though not without some usual flaws.

    First of all, Kotoura is forgiving Moritani too easily, obviously. It’s something I’m used to at this point (I’ve seen shows where massmurderers get let off because of the silliest of reasons and freudian excuses) and Kotoura is forgiving to a fault, so eh. She’ll have to do quite a lot more than apologize to make up for it. I absolutely *loved* Manabe’s reaction though. She’s all sniveling in front of him, but he still doesn’t give a damn and what does he say? ‘You’re disgusting!’ with a bored look on his face. Phahahaha. Manabe, BOSS of the season! While Kotoura may have forgiven her, I do hope it takes somewhat longer for the rest to do so. Also, the opening scene was kinda silly (I could imagine a giant middle finger rising from the sea).

    I liked the support Kotoura’s friends gave her though, calling her out on her attitude and just pretty much dragging her back home. They certainly are a loyal bunch. Not to mention that Kotoura does have at least have some other people left in this world, the priest and her grandpa – he may be a pervert, but he’s a lot better person than her actual parents. I’m guessing he’ll come into conflict with his daughter at some point as well, as the OP shows the return of Kotoura’s mother.

    Dvalinn
  8. In Manabe’s defense(?) she left without a word. He’d promised to stay by her no matter what and he obviously loves her. He was devastated and probably thinks that Haruka doesn’t care about him. He also is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. He just ran out of options.

    Moritani’s apology was disappointing to say the least. They needed to spend more time showing her feelings of remorse and made the final apology more intense for something so important. They could have left the actual reconciliation for the beginning of the next episode or gotten rid of the ecchi with grandpa.

    While grandpa ecchi could just go off and die, I did like the Buddhist priest. When he and Mifume found out they were soulmates in ESP I had the second hardest laugh of the episode. The first being Manabe being dragged down the stairs. I know that’s wrong but it was still funny.

    Bear
  9. Sheesh that Kotoura…

    Manabe and crew came all the way to find and take her back to school but she has to go all
    Demo Demo Demo on them. It took some convincing, spanking threats, not to mention
    that petty redhead apologizing, thanking her, and becoming her friend that she’s finally all Yoshi Yoshi Yoshi about going back
    to school.

    Now she’s all Koshi Koshi Koshi with Manabe again…

    kondee
  10. So if anybody send people to beat someone up and send him to the hospital, two things can happen:
    – If it’s a guy then he’s a villain and he deserves nothing.
    – If it’s a girl and she cried a little tears, all is forgiven.

    WProxy
    1. This anime has been either funny as hell or serious as hell with no room in the middle. That’s understandable if that’s how they want to do it. However, the way they played that scene off was just inconceivable.

      Sometimes I wonder just WTF these creatures are thinking? What point are they trying to get across? Are any actions forgivable with just a few feminine tears?

      Just how 2-faced is this show gonna get? Oh yeah, they still have to deal with Mom.

      Megas
  11. Rehabilitation of a minor that suffered from chronic mental abuse is a long and delicate process. Even with all the friends that she has, there are surely up’s and down’s, just as the last couple episodes have shown. This makes me look forward to the remaining season to see how the story will develop.

    Matroid
  12. I just thought that Zanibas will not be posting the review/reaction since I watched the episode 4 last friday, I keep on finding your review after I watched it because I wanted to know your opinion because I love the way you write. and I think i had a habit of reading the review/reaction after watching the episode. So I’m happy that you are able to post this one because I thought you drop the anime or whatsoever.Better late than never.Haha 🙂

  13. Funny how Moritani’s behavior was so chastised but pervert gramps’ behavior gets off because one was played for laughs while the other was played to tug at the heart strings even though both are deplorable in real life. Just sayin’.

    Naiika
    1. true, to a point but if Kotoura doesn’t like gramps’ behavior all she has to do is keep some physical distant between the two, bullying and beating up people on the other hand……

      Banshee
  14. Just dropped this.I wonder what peoples reaction would be if it was the other way around.If it was a guy who sent a bunch of thugs to beat up the girl he liked because he was pissed and she just waved it away as no big deal.

    randomviewer

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *