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Short Summary:
Yamato goes to school with Suzuka, but is left out of both Suzuka’s and Yasunobu’s circle of friends. He’s feeling alone when a beautiful girl approaches him. She introduces herself as Sakurai Honoka and claims to know Yamato from long ago. Before he can ask her more, the teacher comes in to start class. Off to the side, Suzuka notices that Honoka was talking with Yamato. After school, Yamato asks Suzuka to go home together, since she asked him earlier to help her carry sports drinks, but she brushes him off. Instead, he gets acquainted with Honoka and learns that he helped her out in the past and the two made a promise to keep a secret. After Yamato remembers, Honoka asks to walk home with him. Suzuka, after practice, finds Yamato waiting at the school gates. Apparently, he turned down Honoka so that he could keep his promise with Suzuka. However, because he waited for her, Yamato develops a cold the next day. After noticing that Yamato was missing, Honoka visits him at home with Yasunobu’s help. They talk, and as she’s about to leave to get some groceries, she catches Suzuka about to ring the doorbell. Suzuka walks off without going inside. Dinner that night is cooked by Honoka, but is crashed by Yasunobu and Saotome. After everyone is gone, Suzuka brings over some honey and lemon drink and eggs. The two have another moment together.
Yes I know I keep saying that I’m doing this subbed, but I apparently have a lot of free time on my hands on Wednesdays.
We are introduced to one of my favorite characters, Sakurai Honoka. Unfortunately, I really don’t like the voice actress they gave her. She just seems to deliver the lines rather flat. I really hope that Hosono Yumiko-san can ease into the role a bit more, else I’m going to have a really hard time liking some of the more dramatic episodes involving Honoka in the future.
I am beginning to like the music of this series more and more. Just has a quaint slice of life feeling. The animation quality varied quite a bit, and I hope it gets more consistant as we go on.
This episode covers up to the end of volume one of the manga, which I think is a pretty good speed; plus they’re following the manga pretty closely. That means they’re on pace to get through some six volumes, but I suspect they’ll throw in some original material, so we’ll see. I’m looking forward to next episode as it has a very good SuzukaXYamato scene.
Edit Several Hours Later: Made a correction thanks to what Mentar pointed out.
Sasuga Omni-san! Hayai!
One minor correction which may let you see the first half in a slightly different light: It’s not that Yamato asked Suzuka to walk home alone, it was Suzuka who begged him to accompany her because she needed to buy and carry heavy sports drinks. Only when Suzuka saw Yamato and Honoka chatting, she got angry – because Hattori insinuated that they’d already be talking about going on a date later on. Yamato however turned Honoka down to honor his promise to Suzuka – but then gets brushed off icily by her. He shouldn’t bother, she’d be fine. Yamato keeps his promise however and waits for her (who never expected him to wait) – for over 5 hours, developing a cold.
I have a better feeling about Honoka’s seiyuu than you have so far. Yes, her timid-weak and particularly _jerky_ way to talk was not appealing at all. However, this is how I think her character should be like right now – I count on the fact that this was intentional. When you rewatch the episode, listen to her voice when she is thinking to herself without being embarrassed – especially the scene with her in the bath thinking about Yamato kindly. Then her melting voice turns very appealing and enticing.
That’s the thing, in my opinion. Honoka doesn’t sparkle now, she’s still too timid. Over the course of the anime, where she grows in courage and confidence, THIS is when I _hope_ that Hosono Yumiko will give us her best – underlining Honoka’s growth and change. She definitely has the potential IMHO – as I said, rewatch the Honoka-only scenes. I hope that this will become her “true” voice eventually.
One more thing: Do you know if chapter 69 is out already? I’m _dying_ to know how this unexpected encounter from the end of 67 will develop. Because frankly, I feel absolutely unable to make a prediction. Crunch time!
… asked Suzuka to walk home TOGETHER of course, not alone.
I had some semblance of that when I was watching the episode, but it didn’t make a strong enough impression on me when I wrote the summary (if that makes any sense). Thanks for clearing it up though! I find myself actually going through the manga and translating line by line (or attempting to) if I don’t understand something, and I just neglected that part.
As for Honoka’s voice, I’m not quite sure what I was expecting. I think I was leaning towards something of a cross between like Nodoka of Negima and insert-timid-harem-girl here (I dunno, mainly Nodoka). I really do expect that Hosono-san will grow better into the voice, and I was getting more used to it as the episode went on. But still, at first, it really did get on my nerves.
And as for Chapter 69, I do believe it is out. I’m writing this from my laptop right now and I think I read 69 earlier. If 68 was the chapter with Suzuka reflecting on her past two years ago and her sempai’s death, then 69 is a very good chapter (angst-wise) between Suzuka and Honoka. I don’t want to spoil it too much, so go read it! 🙂