「かわいいひとたち」 (Kawaii Hitotachi)
“Pretty People”

Hmm, things are getting pretty deep here. And by that, I mean they’ve dug themselves into one complicated, relationship hole. It’s a trap!

Long story short, Ushio becomes infatuated with a female reader who is cute enough to be featured in a fashion magazine. However, this girl is actually our trap, Akemiya Masaki, who started cross-dressing in an attempt to catch Sumika’s eye after he realized she seems to prefer girls (i.e. Ushio) over guys. His younger sister had found out about his secret and sent his picture to the magazine, leading us to where we are now.

What was surprising about this episode though is how quickly they got everyone’s true feelings across. There’s no beating around the bush here. While Ushio’s still clueless about Masaki’s secret, Sumika has already admitted that she can’t help liking her even though she’s not Ushio’s type. Too tall and too cool. Not small, fragile, and “omochikaeri” cute apparently. Similarly, Masaki more or less confessed to Sumika already on two separate occasions, plus had his cover blown by her.

Coming into this series, I thought the trap figure would secretly hang out with our two female leads and be in heart-wrenching situations day in and day out as he watched his crush only take interest in the other girl. Instead, the cross-dressing secret is out in the open and Sumika doesn’t hate Masaki for it, nor does she try to deter him from liking her. Because of that, the story seems to be a matter of whether Sumika will end up changing Ushio’s image of her or if she’ll give up and settle for a straight relationship with Masaki. Seeing as this is a yuri series, I’d imagine the conclusion to be pretty clear from the onset. Luckily though, that doesn’t take away from all the awkward emotional situations we’re bound to run into with this unidirectional one-sided love triangle.

As for this particular episode, I found it a bit painful watching Ushio unknowingly crush Sumika’s hopes when she told her she wasn’t her type. It’s probably safe to say that a lot of us have been in Sumika’s shoes before. It’s one thing to conclude yourself that someone isn’t interested in you, but it’s completely different when he/she outright says so. As such, I couldn’t help but feel bad for Sumika there, even though she picked herself back up pretty quickly. For now, it looks like the stage is set. Masaki > Sumika > Ushio > Masaki’s female self — someone’s bound to be the odd person out.

 

Preview

32 Comments

  1. Are you actually going to make categories for these?

    Cause if you’re still blogging past 02, it’s going to be hard to find older posts when they’re all lumped under ‘Snapshots.’

    Anonymous
  2. Anonymous:
    I’m glad you brought this up.

    Omni doesn’t like cluttering up the already jam-packed category list, so I haven’t made any for the shows I may not continue covering.

    As for what shows I’m planning to, I gave a semi-finalized list in the comments here. Since most people didn’t seem to mind, don’t care, or are okay with letting us blog whatever we want, I’ll likely go with that.

    I wanted to write at least two posts of every show, so that I have a better of what might be worth blogging about. (Based on personal interest and reader interest.) This post marks the end of the second week, so you’ll probably see less stuff in “Snapshots” starting tomorrow.

    My apologies for all the clutter in this category. It’s become a bit of a mess like “Series Introduction”, which contains lots of posts that can only be found in there. It’s sort of a “post graveyard” if you will.

  3. oh my god… i thought this was a simple lesbo story….

    why am i not watching this… I love gender bender… it teases me… no just kidding…

    but ahh wow i guess i found something else to watch while waiting for Darker than black to finish

    Putang
  4. holy shittt..! a high schooler TRANNY…and he’s cute, ya know i read in some jap’s “maido and cosplay” site that some jap’s male prefer dressed and walkin’ around like a girl (especially at akihabara street)and some of ’em really look like or even cuter than a real girl! (there’s a video too showed a boy dressed in maido outfit if he didn’t speak i wouldn’t know that he’s infact a boy!)

    bakabakashi
  5. Anyone with half a brain could have guessed that the poor boy was that model – especially since yall was talking about some silly secret in the 1st episode comments. This really is a complete triangle, unlike those which arrows just point to person. I like it, but it is just a little predictable. But atleast they’ll have fun along the way. Ushio’s one-track mind just seems too off from “reality”. Her fickleness really doesn’t deserve anyone. Now in Masaki’s case – that’s some commitment, twisted, but still commitment.

    Oh well, to steam things up some more. We actually had some cross-dressers in my HS back in the 70s. Hell, I even ate lunch with them everyday for 3 years. I was & still am a pretty liberal person. Anyone that could put up with my blabber could be my friend. That said, one of those boys annoyed me to no end because I was actually attracted to him. I just shiver at the thought that I could have ended up gay because of him. I just thank the stars that his attitude was terrible 😛

    Megas
  6. i see, so his talking about it being hard to search for? i think i know what he means then, when ever i try to search a Anime there’s a lot of other random stuff that comes up. it’s hard to find the main one. i hope you guys can put them all in a group or something.

    Mearex
  7. @ Divine

    I read your comment on the other page saying you might not continue blogging about this show, and I have to “protest”.

    I think it’s a great little mix up from the general shows you’re already blogging, and I think it gives itself a little bit of a better flavor ontop of all the action and blatant comedies xP

    Besides, what else is there to watch on Wednesdays?

    Having read this series manga, some great plot points are sure to be present in the near future, including getting to know the two girls that Sumi and Ushio saw kissing, who themselves are actually quite interesting.

    There’s some more good stuff coming up in the anime, so I protest to you not blogging it in the future.

    *steps off podium*

    Lillium
  8. Lillium:
    Protest duly noted!

    You’re right, there isn’t anything else on Wednesdays. The thing is, I actually plan to continue watching all the shows I stop blogging on a regular basis. The reason for cutting back is just to free up some time away from the site and to ensure that I don’t take on more than I can handle down the stretch.

    However, I’m starting to think the hell with that and just blog everything I can until it actually becomes a commitment problem. If I end up biting off more than I can chew, only then do I cut back coverage on shows. Lately, I’ve gotten pretty quick at jotting down some thoughts and summarizing as needed within the same blurp, so it’s been pretty manageable so far.

    That said, I really do appreciate all the supportive readers out there and your concern on what’s covered here. Sometimes I wonder why you guys even want to read the stuff I spew out. While Omni tends to go for the sophisticated, analytical, dissection of a series, I just tend to make some (bad) jokes and go off on a tangent saying whatever’s on my mind! <3

  9. Another “protest” for Sasameki. There’s not enough exposure on yuri anime out there and this is one of the better yuri series. I’m not sure exactly what they’re planning for the anime, but there will be plenty of things to talk about as more episodes appear.

    ramram
  10. I admit that, from the first glance, I intend to see this anime because it has megane girl.
    But after a couple of episodes, I feel that this show has things more interesting than what I was expecting, just my own opinion anyway.
    I rarely post comment even if I read constantly.
    But I will be happy if you really blog this anime in the future.

    PS. I also think your opinions so far are ok.
    Even if your claim that it is not sophisticated,…..,etc, it sometimes gave me different point of views and more understanding.

    Mistoltean
  11. man, this show is noting like Aoi_Hana, Aoi hana is more boring…. i just finsh witch the entire thing and it was….. lets just say there’s no story to it. it wouldn’t be coming close to this one. where there’s actually something happening.

    Mearex
  12. …yeah, I haven’t had time to watch lately, but I love the manga (it gets a lot better later on; Tomoe and Miyako are excellent characters, and they’ll probably be introduced next episode, I’d think) and I’d like this to continue being blogged, so…another “protest”.

    Not that it isn’t your choice, of course, but if you’re really taking note of who wants it blogged…

    Story
  13. i want this to continue being blogged too! its nice ^^ so another protest XDD
    yuri is always welcome ^^ nice
    i liked this ep, misaki is a nice boy XD and it was pretty funny, i liked this ep more than the first one

    lol
  14. Oh my Goodness… this is good, so good to be real. I like how everyone, except Ushio of course, is honest wirh their feelings. No bullshits, no half-hearted confessions… I like it!

    Syaoran Li

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