Kashimashi – 06

Summary:
After walking in on Hazumu and Yasuna kissing, Tomari collects herself by acting nonchalant and then hurries out of the room. Hazumu wants to give chase, but Yasuna stops her. As Tomari runs out trying to justify things in her head, Sora sees her and comments to himself that love really is a difficult emotion to control. Angsting alone, Tomari remembers a scene from her childhood when Hazumu wanted to become her bride. She had told him that boys have to be grooms, so he had then vowed to become her groom. But the Tomari now doesn’t think that those words were a promise and she tries to dispel the image from her mind.
The next morning, Tomari happily picks up Hazumu in the morning as if nothing had happened. But it becomes apparent that she’s been affected when she announces to Asuta and Ayuki that Hazumu and Yasuna are going out. And when Yasuna appears in front of them, Tomari even pushes Hazumu toward her new lover. For the rest of the day, Hazumu is a bit absent-minded around Yasuna and instead tries to interact with Tomari. But at every turn, Tomari sends her back to Yasuna. After Tomari rejects Hazumu’s offer to eat lunch together, she confides to Ayuki about how detestable she feels. Over lunch with Yasuna, Hazumu realizes that the girl she accepted is in front of her, and so she once again starts to act happily. Because Hazumu is enjoying the food so much, Yasuna invites her home to give her a recipe book.
While Hazumu is at Yasuna’s house, Tomari is out at karaoke with her friends. Ayuki puts a stop to it by telling Tomari that singing won’t allow her to run away and reminds her that it was her choice to go up on stage. Meanwhile, Yasuna and Hazumu are having fun playing chess when Hazumu recognizes a CD on Yasuna’s desk. The two bond over their books and music, and Hazumu feels that they’re growing closer together, little by little. This leads to Yasuna closing her eyes and waiting for a kiss, but it never comes because each time Hazumu gets close, she remembers Tomari. Hazumu goes home and thinks about it in the bath until she finally remembers that time from her childhood. Back then, Tomari had told Hazumu that in order to be a groom, he needed to be strong, cool, and manly.
Hazumu finds Tomari sitting alone by the same stream where they had this childhood memory. Trying to convey her feelings, Hazumu tells Tomari that she’s an important person, the kind of person she’d want to be with forever. However, just as it seems like Hazumu is about to confess, Tomari slaps her. Tomari reminds Hazumu that she already decided to like Yasuna, and while Hazumu doesn’t refute that, she doesn’t want to lose Tomari either. Hazumu tells her of the almost-kiss at Yasuna’s house that didn’t happen because of the promise with Tomari. The final part of that memory had Hazumu trying to prove that he should be Tomari’s groom by trying to reach the opposite riverbank via the stepping stones. Seeing Hazumu repeating this now, Tomari runs towards her in tears. Tomari, who wants to be considered the same as Yasuna, surprises Hazumu by closing her eyes for a kiss, but then gives Hazumu a hug instead. Hazumu says that although she can’t be a groom anymore, she can be a bride now. Thinking to herself, Tomari admits that she likes Hazumu.

It occurs to me that after having written five entries for this series, I haven’t really commented on the soundtrack yet. The BGMs are one of my favorite parts of this series, second only to the story itself. Each song seems to capture the mood of the scene it’s featured in so well. I really am looking forward to hearing the OST. Icing on the cake: they used a special piano version of Michishirube for the ending song. If I actually gave each episode a grade, then stuff like this amounts to major bonus points.
As for the story, Tomari is on stage and has elevated herself to Yasuna’s level (almost) in terms of her relationship with Hazumu. This episode should have a lot more people rooting for her now (though not me…yet). The childhood promise of marriage that gets explained so much more than the manga that I even dare say that the Kashimashi anime has passed the manga in quality. The series is still following the same order though, so next week will be the beach episode.