Special A – 15

「仁義・上等」 (Jingi / Joutou)
“Moral Code / Superiority”

Episode at a Glance:
Reminded of how she invited Kei out for a stress-relieving day on Sunday, Hikari tries to invite others along, but they all happen to be busy. After Kei provokes her about being scared to go on a date with him alone, Hikari studies a date book the night before, then tries several cute tactics on him during the date, but to no avail. Kei however, notices that he’s being followed by his father’s men, but chooses to hide this from Hikari and take out his followers alone. Hikari realizes something’s wrong though and comes along to help, which annoys Kei since she’s able to notice such meaningless stuff, but can’t take a hint on the more “important” things.

After running away, Hikari is distrot about not being able to realize that Kei’s in a bind and believes she’s a failure as a rival, so Kei tells her he’s running away from an arranged marriage meeting that his father set him up for. Hearing this, Hikari tells him he hurry up and go if that’s the case, which Kei agrees to do since Hikari was the one that told him to. As he tries to leave though, Hikari unconsciously grabs his shirt (*cue music for fundamental moment in the series*), but releases it soon after, wondering what she’s doing. Kei’s father then shows up begging him to come out, as does Ushikubo Sakura, the girl he was supposed to meet. As payback for standing her up, Sakura decides to borrow his “girlfriend” for a bit.

Wondering why she’s been dragged off instead, Hikari finds out that Kei’s not Sakura’s type at all, and that she feels he’s better off with a girl like her anyway. Sakura then questions what their relationship is, to which Hikari says they’re rivals, prompting her to comment on how great that is. Ridiculously overjoyed at her reaction, Hikari feels Kei’s an idiot for passing on a girl like this. Two guys then try to pick them up, but after Sakura realizes their routine, she punches one of them out and says she hates liars. Hikari then realizes that this is why Kei’s father was frantically trying to get Kei to go to this arranged marriage meeting, but then gets wrapped up in Sakura’s comments about moral code instead. Later at a cafe, Hikari finds out that Sakura’s ideal man is like a prince, so she adds that Kei’s kind of like a prince, but Sakura retorts that he’s more like a demon. After Hikari agrees to help her in any way she can, Sakura asks her to find out what type of girls Kei likes, as she wants to impartially make this arranged marriage work.

Back at school, Hikari asks Kei the big question, but he is simply shocked, saying he can’t answer such a stupid question. Unable to get him to answer, Hikari asks Akira if she knows, but she just breaks down in tears at the thought of Hikari’s interest. When Ryuu, Jun, and Megumi refuse to say either, the silent twin says that asking other people when Kei won’t tell is like losing to him. After freaking out, Hikari challenges Kei in order to find out his type, but he simply questions if Sakura put her up to it, and how helping her contradicts what she did on Sunday. She tells him it was just a tease though, then runs away wondering why she did stop him that time.

Hikari later meets up with Sakura again, who says that her father was able to “convince” his former university whipping boy to set up another meeting for her. Because of this, she’d like to find out Kei’s type soon. On a ranch somewhere, Sakura meets up with Yahiro, and finds a bit more about Kei and Hikari. At the S.A greenhouse, Hikari challenges Kei again, who decides to just tell her that his type is just a regular girl, because she seems troubled if she doesn’t find out. Sakura later arrives and lashes out at Hikari, believing that she didn’t tell her Kei’s type because she’s actually his girlfriend, but Hikari starts tearing up wondering why she can’t say what his type is. Ryuu and the Yamamoto twins then arrive, and Sakura immediately sees Jun as her prince.

 

Next Episode:
「好き・キス」 (Suki / Kisu)
“Love / Kiss”

Impressions:
It’s been a while since I’ve seen a series with Kuwatani Natsuko (Ayase Yue in Negima!, Suiseiseki in Rozen Maiden, Asakura Ryouko in The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Maki in Seto no Hanayome), but I’ve seen a fair amount of her work and haven’t heard her use a voice like she did for Sakura here. I guess this, along with the roles listed above, just goes to show the range that she has. Plus, she’s good friends with Horie Yui, but I’ll stop myself before I go off on a seiyuu tangent here.

In any case, I really enjoyed this episode simply because there was a new, cute girl in the mix for Kei’s affection, plus Hikari seems to be unconsciously drawn to Kei now. Given how much spunk and frightening aura Sakura has, I thought she would’ve been “good interference” between Kei and Hikari, so I was a little disappointed when she immediately set her eyes on Jun at the very end. By “good interference”, I mean I would’ve liked to see if Hikari would’ve become unconsciously jealous of Sakura, as we’ve already seen how Kei reacts to a similar situation. On the plus side, Kei did question why Hikari was helping Sakura find out what his tastes are in women, especially when she stopped him from leaving earlier, so at least Hikari is starting to question why she did that, even though she told him that she was just pestering him. (lol. Poor Kei.)

Next time though, it looks like we’ll see more of Sakura, but this time in her pursuit of Jun. Megumi doesn’t look very happy about this though, and we should see more of a girl from someone’s past.

 

Cast:
– Hanazono Hikari (華園 光) / Gotou Yuuko (後藤 邑子)
– Takishima Kei (滝島 彗) / Fukuyama Jun (福山 潤)
– Toudou Akira (東堂 明) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
– Karino Tadashi (狩野 宙) / Shimono Hiro (下野 紘)
– Yamamoto Megumi (山本 芽) / Takagaki Ayahi (高垣 彩陽)
– Yamamoto Jun (山本 純) / Yonaga Tsubasa (代永 翼)
– Tsuji Ryuu (辻 竜) / Horie Kazuma (堀江 一眞)
– Saiga Yahiro (雑賀 八尋) / Taniyama Kishou (谷山 紀章)
– Ushikubo Sakura (牛窪 桜) / Kuwatani Natsuko (桑谷 夏子)
– Father Takashima (滝島父) / Ogata Megumi (緒方 恵美)
– Sakura’s father (桜の父) / Ootake Hiroshi (大竹 宏)
– Father Takashima’s subordinate (滝島父の手下) / Matsuo Daisuke (松尾 大亮)