Summary:

When Kyousuke had found out that Hiro was a mangaka, he agreed to keep it a secret under one condition. This involved Hiro inviting Kei over so that Kyousuke could ask her to go out with him, and it results in her slapping both of them for teasing her. Kyousuke then shows Kei a movie that she finds boring, and he questions why she feels that way. Upon figuring out that she has good judgment, he asks her to appear in his movie. He wants to film her life without a script, but Hiro questions if he can do it without some sort of vision first. The two get into an argument about this and about their own artistic motivations, but Kei ends it by pointing out that she hasn’t agreed to appear in the film yet. While walking Kei home, Hiro warns her to be careful about Kyousuke since he’s quick in forming relationships with women, and she takes that to mean that Hiro is worried about her. Changing the subject, Kei asks Hiro if Miyako comes to his room often, and he reveals that it’s only been a few times. She then wonders if he finds her annoying, but he denies it. After getting a message from Chihiro about Renji, Kei asks Hiro to come to her basketball game on Sunday. She’s confident that they’ll win and vows to tell him something important when that time comes.

Renji meanwhile goes to see Yuu at the church and wonders why Chihiro wrote what she did. Yuu explains that writing is the same as surviving for Chihiro because of how her future self is a different existence from her past self. Her trying to convey her image accurately to another existence is the same as what a writer does. When Renji then questions who Yuu is and why he’s always at the church, Yuu answers that he’s waiting for someone. Returning to help Chihiro, Renji hears the next part of her story with the girl on the island starting to paint. The problem is that Chihiro can’t imagine the castle’s storehouse where everything is kept, including the books. Recognizing that she needs source material to draw from, Renji thinks of the library at school, so he suggests that they go there. To do this, they need a uniform for Chihiro, so Renji asks his mother, and she points him to his neighbor Kuze. Indeed, Kuze does have a spare uniform, and Chihiro is excited to be able to wear it. When they get to the school library, Chihiro is further delighted to see all the books, and she thanks Renji.

While this is going on, Kei meets with Miyako beside some train tracks and reveals her past connection to Hiro. As a child, he had no friends, and because she couldn’t bear to watch him be alone, she brought him home with her. Kei had a lot of shoujo manga in her room, and he got quite absorbed in them, though she didn’t think that he’d become a professional mangaka. She then explains that she feels that people who make an effort don’t acknowledge those who do nothing, or at the very least, they won’t like them. As a train passes between them, Kei declares that she’s always had and always will have feelings for Hiro. She refuses to lose and vows to erase Miyako’s existence from his heart. For once, these words actually have a huge impact on Miyako as she worries about disappearing again. With this in mind, Miyako brings Hiro lunch the next day and asks him to go out with her on Sunday. When he claims not to have time to play with her, she calls him a liar because she thinks he’s actually going to the basketball game. As it turns out though, Hiro had merely forgotten about the basketball game. He doesn’t think that he promised that he’d go, so Miyako jumps at the chance to get him to promise to go on a date with her.

When Sunday comes around, Kyousuke films Kei as she plays basketball, but she injures her knee. He continues filming her depressed look in the infirmary afterwards, despite her threat of hitting him, because he knows this is a moment that can be filmed only now. Kyousuke feels that if he lets it slip by once, then he won’t be able to ever get it back again, and so he wants to capture what he considers to be an irreplaceable moment. He also addresses her fear of failure by declaring that it’s not over if he doesn’t give up. To Kei’s surprise, Hiro then shows up because Kyousuke had called him, and Hiro carries her home on his back. Along the way, she notices that he’s wearing his good clothes and deduces that he was going on a date with Miyako. This causes him to realize that he stood Miyako up, but he knows that he can’t leave Kei alone. Hiro also remembers that Kei had something she wanted to tell him, but as she holds on to him now, she doesn’t want to say it anymore. Back at home, Hiro’s cell phone is ringing and has 99 missed calls.

ED Sequence

ED: 「空の夢」 Sora no Yume by やなせなつみ (Yanase Natsumi)
Watch the ED! Mirror 1, Mirror 2

I really liked this episode, and admittedly that’s largely because it focused on Kei, Miyako, Hiro, and Kyousuke rather than Chihiro and Renji. The battle lines have now been drawn, and there’s going to be a lot of tension between the two girls from now on, but I’m still having a hard time deciding which of them is better for Hiro to end up with. Kei had all kinds of harsh language for Miyako during the train tracks scene and looked almost evil at one point, but Miyako responded by trying to steal Hiro away from attending the basketball game (though he probably would have forgotten about it if she hadn’t said anything). What’s disturbing is the 99 missed phone calls on Hiro’s cell phone at the end of the episode, most likely from Miyako. Having stalker tendencies like that make me think that she’s liable to crack at any moment (probably not to that degree), though from what we know, if might be her fear of disappearing talking. Regardless, the drama is ramping up now and hopefully they’ll be able to keep it going.

41 Comments

  1. yeah, that is pretty obsessive behaviour from Miyako! 99 messages is really creepy. This episode was awesome. I love Kei smack down on those two, both of them deserved it. Hiro for using Kei to keep that guy quiet about he doing manga and Kyousuke for the bad Joke. The two nice moments with Kei and Hiro were awesome.

    golthin
  2. Wow, Hiro has some lucky having two clingy girls fall for him and he is completely oblivious to both of their feelings. This is a disaster waiting to happen!

    By the way what did Hiro and Kyousuke argue about? It was something to do with art and professionalism, but most of it just flew right over my head.

    Lana
  3. they were arguing about being professional and doing the things you like to do etc etc. just a pointless argument because both basically agreed at the end , of course Kei never agreed with doing the project thus why she was confused.

    golthin
  4. We can’t really say yet which of the two will get with Hiro, I like Kei a bit more though, but we see more of her anyways. And we have Kei’s backstory and her connection with Hiro is deeper. For that reason I think Kei will be the one, but we’ll see.

    GP
  5. I thought that Miyako was going to end with Hiro too, but we have seen a 180 turn in this episode. Hiro skipped the date to help Kei plus he had two nice moments with Kei from his own choosing. So far the only thing in common that he has with Miyako is that both like to skip classes on the roof. Also, Miyako force herself more on hiro than Kei! I am rooting for Kei for two reasons, I want to see a child hood friend get the guy at least once this year and I like her more.

    golthin
  6. It seems to me that the story is more about the sisters than the two guys. That’s also why I see Kei winning in the end. Call me silly but if you look at how it starts and ends and all the visual bits between scenes that show the two sisters it’s pretty clear that in this show the “main characters” are those two.

    GP
  7. He’s super busy, the life of a Manga-ka isn’t easy. That’s why all the big named ones have an army of helpers to do work. Poor Hiro is on his own. And he’s got that problem with his hand.

    GP
  8. i guess i’m one of the few who isnt very fond of Kei, it just turns me off when i think that it was her selfish jealousy that totally ruined her ister’s life when they were little and it doesnt seem to give a rats ass about it instead she focuses on how to get her childhood friend away from another chick, the confrontation in the last episode when Kei went up to Miyako and started bitching her about leaving Hiro alone was classic, especially when Miyako bite back and kei was like “WTH just happened”

    sushi
  9. i guess i’m one of the few who isnt very fond of Kei, it just turns me off when i think that it was her selfish jealousy that totally ruined her ister’s life when they were little

    Haha, I dislike Kei, but c’mon. She was a kid.

    Niou
  10. Lawl how come Hiro can mishear Unagi no Hitsumabushi as Unagi no Himatsubushi xD
    Miyako so cute today…she and Kei makes this episode a winning epic..
    Looking forward for the next episode..

    margafred
  11. Kyo
  12. no yuuko this week =/

    in fact, yuuko’s importance in the entire series so far has been quite underplayed compared to the game… but i guess they need to sacrifice somthing to achieve the excellent pacing, tho im not happy that theyre cutting into yuuko’s development =/

    lulu
  13. Kei’s promise to tell Hiro something if she won her game reminded me of that basketball movie that I can’t remember the name of, lol.

    I’m still liking Chihiro’s story a lot more than the Kei/Miyako one. The love triangle is just so typical. =\

  14. While love triangles are typical, that’s what makes this SR, if it wasn’t than it would be in a different catagory imo. But anyways, as to which is better, I dunno, I guess i’m bias towards Kei cuz I like to root for the underdog childhood friend all the time. It’s a one in a million shot, and doesn’t happen often in either shows or in real life, so it’s just one of those events I like to see.

    That’s not to say Miyako isn’t bad, well, she’s a good cook, but what she actually wants is not clear. Does she just have a love at first sight thing going? Or is she hanging around Hiro cuz she’s bored? I think if he wasn’t a mangaka she would’ve left him alone by now. That’s just the feeling I get from her.

    GP
  15. Chihiro’s story is still better for me, largely due to the fact that the symbolism that they use for her amnesia and how Renji is extending her memory [the hand grabbing scene]is just so poetic.

    As for the love triangle the line “I will wipe you from Onii-chan’s heart, then he and I will begin from there” [Mendoi-Conclave | unsure of line] seriously won me over to Kei’s side.

    Gravmech
  16. Kei bothers me since she embodies the saying “shit or get off the pot”. She’s been controlling Hiro for years now and openly displays jealously but she’s too stupid to let him know how she feels. It’s only when Miyako, who definitely has a good eye for people, shows up that she realizes “hey maybe I should tell Hiro” and when she gets the opportunity she decides not to. Plus she vows to erase Miyako from Hiro’s life (who does that?), I don’t see how anyone can root for someone so indecisive and malicious.

    Miyako, on the other hand, might be a little obsessed with the idea that she might be forgotten although the truth is she actually was totally forgotten about at the last part of this episode. Yeah, 99 missed calls is a lot, but really, it doesn’t have quite the same dramatic effect as, say, 10. She clearly has some trauma about being forgotten and discarded and is desperate not to have that happen again. Besides, she is “that colour” (made painfully obvious in episode 4 I think) that is missing from Hiro’s otherwise monotonous life.

    Eh
  17. Nah, you’re making Miyako sound like some sorta victom here. You say she’s more carefree, to me it’s like she just doesn’t have anything to do. And Hiro is your average male main character in this situation. He’s nice to everyone, so he’s nice to Miyako, but love? He’s never shown that he’s even thought about that towards her or any other girl.

    Kei saying what she says was a great touch. Miyako wanted to make this seem like a game or that she didn’t care right, well, she does now eh. And trying to get him to go out with her by making a promise. Kei finally decided to go for Hiro, does that make her jealous so to speek, because again, there is no solid Hiro x Miyako going on. It’s Miyako cutting into Hiro’s life and nothing more. She’s being more assurtave than all the years Kei has been with Hiro.

    Kei isn’t bosing him around or anything really. She’s more of the little sister time, aka calling him big brother. They help you out where you need it, ie waking him up for school. And just to make sure she’s not doing too much she even asked in this ep, if she’s being a pain. And he said no.

    So in the end, ones pushing herself in to his life by any means she can find, and the other is just finally deciding to be true to her feelings. Nothing odd or new or weird. But who Hiro likes or even “loves” is not clear. Right now he cares about Kei more as we see in this ep. Totally forgetting Miyako and rushing over to help Kei, even carry her home. As of now, there is no Miyako love going on in his head, he’s too busy with his manga to think about that.

    GP
  18. I think anime just got better. Although Clannad is beautiful as well, I really like Shaft’s use of unorthodox angles and their color scheme, as it really shows just how much more powerful it is with these small differences.

    Hedric
  19. I wouldn’t say she’s cutting into his life, it’s not like Miyako is forcing him to do something he doesn’t want to do. Miyako also isn’t trying to prevent Hiro from seeing Kei. Yes, Kei did decide to go for Hiro but that’s only after Miyako came onto the scene. In fact, it looks like she’s doing it just to spite Miyako. Before that, everything was just same old-same old and when she comes in everything changes (for better or worse).

    Regardless, it’s a real bitch move for someone to say “I’m not letting you see this guy because I like him.”

    Eh
  20. Now, had Miyako been a completely negative impact in Hiro’s life, I would support her decision. But the fact is, Miyako has done more good for Hiro than Kei has. As someone else have said it before, Miyako might be the missing colour that Hiro has been searching for all this time.

    (The fact that he’s missing it, means that it wasn’t originally there =p )

    Chaos2Frozen
  21. Kei is so wrong for doing that to her sister. She was jealous of her beccause she felt that Hiro like her sister more than her. And now she’s jealous of Miyako. That girl Kei has some serious jealousy issues.

    yahiko

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