Karin – 06

Summary:
Karin has been making boxed lunches for Kenta, so that he’ll keep her secret and so that she can make him happy, which would solve her problem of getting excited while being around him. But with Kenta’s mother still unable to find a job, Kenta has to work extra hours at Julian’s. This causes him to be very tired, but he keeps working until he has a bad day filled with one disaster after another caused by his lack of rest. He eventually gets himself buried under some food sacks in the freezer room, but fortunately Karin feels his presence and is able to track him down. When she opens the door to the freezer though, a purple haze comes rushing out, forcing Karin has to shield herself from it. When it finally clears, Karin is able to save Kenta, but then she has a nosebleed from being near him. In the park after work, Karin is worried because she can’t do anything for him. When Kenta starts talking about his mother, Karin realizes all the problems he has and how concerned he is for his mother. Speaking of which, Kenta’s mother returns home from yet another failed job interview, one where the interviewer tried to assault her. She kicked him in the crotch, but that’s apparently the last bit of Karin’s energy that she had left in her. Kenta returns home to find his mother back to being depressed and the bite marks are nowhere to be found. And finally, an oddly robed and hat-wearing foreign-looking fellow arrives in the airport, saying that it’s been a long time since he’s been in Japan.

Well, either they stopped following the manga or this is just a filler episode or both. Even though it would have taken the focus away from Karin and Kenta, I would have preferred for them to animate the manga story with Kenta’s mother (Fumio) and Harumi at the love hotel. In the end, Fumio doesn’t have a job when she loses the bite mark, but I would have liked for them to show that at least she could get one.
As for our two main characters, Karin spends the episode running around worrying about Kenta and Kenta spends the episode worrying about his mother and his own work. The episode brings the two a bit closer together, but doesn’t really advance the storyline, except for introduction the mystery character at the end.