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Short Summary:
Yamato and the track team are headed to an Inter-High event in Hiroshima. As he continues to feel distanced from Suzuka, Honoka continues to feel distanced from him. Feeling rather down, he decides to focus his energies on training. And so it is at the field where Honoka finds him that night. She’s noticed that he’s not been feeling well and tries to help him. After cheering him up, she turns around to see Suzuka at the top of the stairs. Yamato also starts to turn around, but, not wanting him to see Suzuka, Honoka leans forward and kisses him. For the next day, that kiss remains on his mind. Then, watching Suzuka mobbed by reporters on the field after winning third place, Yamato finally takes Honoka’s hand on his own volition. After dinner that night, he is thinking about his situation with both Suzuka and Honoka when the latter shows up. A fish in the nearby pond splashes water onto Honoka, causing her to jump into Yamato’s arms. She tilts her head up for another kiss, but Yamato looks away, unsure of what to do. Seeing Honoka start to cry and starting to understand her feelings, Yamato leans down towards a surprised Honoka. Miki walks by looking for him, and astonished to see him kissing Honoka.
The bad news is that the animation is sub-par again this episode. Actually at this rate, the poor animation will become par. Anyway, the good news is that I rather enjoy the second half of this episode, basically everything from the first kiss on. These are pretty big parts of the story and the three key scenes (both kisses, plus the track scene where Yamato takes Honoka’s hand) are relatively well done. Honoka is still my favorite character, so its good to see the episode devoted to her. But (unfortunately), this series is titled Suzuka, so the story will start drifting back to her.
Looking ahead, the next episode I’m looking forward to is probably going to be the one that covers chapter 43, the turning point in Honoka and Yamato’s relationship. Probably two or three more weeks for that.
Give me this episode!!! )))
The art isn’t up to par with the 9-11 arc, unfortunately, but they did a good job with capturing the mood of the key scenes. All things considered, I’d say that this is the best episode in the show so far.
I’m a bit surprised at Omni’s slightly bleak-defeatist outlook on the next eps 😉 … I can only say that as a declared Honoka fanboy, I’m looking forward to the upcoming episodes quite a bit!
As much as I like Honoka, I can’t say much for the series itself, hence the “slightly bleak-defeatist outlook.”
Still lacking lots of dialogue of this great episode (especially between Hattori and Honoka on the train) I’m already aware how I love the timing of the development. Who knows how long Honoka would have remained too shy to confess? But Suzuka forced her rival-to-be into action here and now, and the miko girl did what she had to do. (I wonder whether Suzuka actually had seen Yamato and Honoka’s hands touching – given the nature of the staircase it might have been hidden from her.)
That fish in the pond probably was the obligatory Koi carp, right? 😉
Animation is starting to get on my nerves as well – Yamato looked overly childish in certain scenes. Then again, what did he expect when greeting Arima? Maybe the animation is just realistic… 😉 Then again, Yamato apparently starts to open his eyes to reality, and that’s what I was hoping for a long time now. Therefore the forthcoming episodes will very likely be great, as a relation isn’t something that miraculously works on its own…