Summary:
With Christmas coming up, Elis is hanging up ornaments on the tree while waiting for her brother to come home. In Hiroki’s room, she finds a teaching book which once again gets her thinking about Hiroki becoming a teacher. While lying on his bed, she gets a phone call from him telling her that he’s out with Kiri. It seems that Hiroki has accepted Kiri’s feelings. At home later, Hiroki starts having fantasies about her, but as happy as he is thinking about her, he is also concerned about what will happen with Elis.
On the school’s rooftop the next day, Elis overhears Sumire’s singing. Elis starts wondering what she’ll be doing for Christmas. She brings this up because Hiroki had recorded a TV program discussing the future prospects of education. Sumire tries to praise Hiroki for his enthusiasm towards studying, but Elis misses the more mischievous brother that she once knew. During this time, Hiroki and Kiri are trying to make Christmas plans, but Hiroki’s suggestions are unromantic. Kiri realizes that Hiroki has Elis in mind, so she calls him a good brother. Back on the rooftop, Elis says that a drawn picture most eloquently depicts the artist’s heart. With Hiroki no longer drawing, Elis feels like she doesn’t understand him at all anymore. Elis calls herself selfish, but Sumire disagrees and seems to think that a teacher can understand a teacher’s heart, which reminds Elis of Kiri. Though she’s still got her own worries on her mind, Elis is alarmed when she finds Tomoko in the hallway, her face flushed and breathing heavily.
Fortunately, Tomoko has taken her medicine and is soon back up on her feet. The two see a Christmas party poster, and promise to go buy presents together. In the chorus room, Sumire is told that she’s going to have a solo singing part at the Christmas party. Sumire later expresses a lack of self-confidence, but Hagino tells her not to worry about it. Actually, Sumire is more worried about Elis. Hiroki happens to pass by the two girls and ends up consulting them about how to spend Christmas. Kana tells him that a woman basically wants to spend a White Christmas together with her lover. Following this advice, Hiroki invites Kiri to see the snow on Christmas. Kiri’s face lights up and she jumps at the chance. After she goes to make some coffee, Hiroki remembers the conversation he had with Sumire earlier. She had asked him for a reward if she sang well at the Christmas party – for the sake of a very lonely person, she wanted him to draw. Hiroki knew that Sumire was talking about Elis, but he thought that she would be ok. In response, Sumire called him a liar.
In the art room after school, Elis is working on a drawing of a boy on a bicycle in the woods. Knowing that Elis’ drawings say a lot about herself, Takeuchi thinks that it’s a little lonely. Meanwhile, Hiroki tells Kiri about Elis wanting him to draw. Hiroki says that he can’t find a subject to draw, and Kiri thinks that Hiroki has still lost his way. With some shopping to do, Kiri goes into the city and encounters Elis on the street. She tries to explain that Hiroki is still lost, but Elis claims that she has also always felt lost, even now. In talking about what had happened the day before, Kiri reveals that she confessed to Hiroki again and about how they’re spending Christmas together. Elis tries to keep a happy face, but as she’s walking away, she thinks to herself that she can’t depend on her brother any longer. In a daze, Elis doesn’t notice the crossing signal turn red, and is caught wide-eyed as a car slams into her. At home, Hiroki drops and breaks a plate just as the phone starts to ring.

This is a pretty big episode in terms of having brought Kiri and Hiroki together, but having Elis and Hiroki grow further apart. Elis’ statement to Sumire that a drawn picture most eloquently depicts the artist’s heart seems to apply to herself with the lonely picture of the boy in the woods that she drew. And after learning about Kiri’s confession (which I really wish we had seen the full conclusion to), the parallels with her drawing become more pronounced when she’s shown as the only color in a monochrome world.
But then there’s the car crash. This plot device will probably only re-bridge the gap between her and Hiroki (making them brother/sister/friends), and I still think that HirokixKiri is the ending we’re headed to. Actually there really hasn’t been any doubt in my mind since episode ten about that. I think I’ve said this before, but I also think that Kiri will be Hiroki’s muse and the “subject” that he’s missing, in the same way she inspired him to draw the sketch that Yanagi ultimately stole.
Next episode, Kiri’s probably going to feel awful for what she said to Elis and at fault for what happened. And why the heck is Shouta showing up again? We were doing so well without him…

19 Comments

  1. Another cliffhanger…
    Show Spoiler ▼

    MonkeyBrains
  2. I hope so too Monkey, the last three episodes are 2006-
    03-12 22. On An Indigo Dawn
    インディゴの夜明けに
    INDIGO no yoake ni
    2006-
    03-19 23. Christmas Coloured Decision
    クリスマスカラーの決意
    KURISUMASU KARA no ketsui
    2006-
    03-26 24. Rainbow Coloured Finale
    虹色(なないろ)のフィナーレ
    Nanairo no FINALE
    So maybe on 23 he’ll fully tell Kiri he loves her and such or maybe Elis makes the decision to leave for france, then 24 she says goodbye and KiriXHiroki finally get together and have a baby ^^ MY Guess or Prediciton as I say

    Fury
  3. Show Spoiler ▼

    MonkeyBrains
  4. Aha! I knew it would be KirixHiroki. The staff did the right thing choosing the Kiri storyline (although I TOTALLY didn’t expect a car crash, didn’t think the series would drift away that much from the game).

    Rasmiel
  5. More than the world turning monochrome, it appeared that Elis also starts to see only happy couples around her (reminds me of that alternative name for Valentine’s Day – “Single Persons Awareness Day”.

    It still bugs me that they didn’t show exactly what happened next on the roof. Anyway, it’s going to be pretty hard to shift away from KirixHiroki ending to ElisxHiroki now, with the events of the last 3 episodes, and now Hiroki even fantasizing about Kiri. BUT, I’m still pessimistic because of the whole end-game painting issue… They showed the Kiri painting from the game already, which keeps making me think that they’ll have to show the Elis painting from the game too. I’m beginning to think maybe Hiroki will paint Elis, but still end up with Kiri. I could be dead wrong, though. The game is totally not a good judge for the TV series, so I should really just be ignoring it.

    MonkeyBrains
  6. With 3 episodes, it could go either way. The game has been abandoned at this point. I figure we will see a Hiroki & Kiri pairing to end the series, but the ending could be used to move that back to Hiroki & Elis. The episode summaries on the series website are rather vague, Hmmm . . . .

    LOPLOP

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