「淋しい熱帯魚」 (Sabishii Nettaigyo)
“Lonely Tropical Fish”

Ask and you shall receive seems to be the case here, as the story is finally starting to string together like I’ve been waiting for. This season, it looks like things are focusing on Arashi and Hajime, who suddenly lose the ability to time slip together after their relationship enters some rocky waters.

Things start off with Sayaka’s ongoing confusion that time travel is some sort of anti-aging machine, a misconception that has hilariously dated back to season one. At this point, everyone’s pretty much given up on trying to explain it to her, while Kaya’s on the verge of smashing her own head against the wall over it. Spoiled raw oysters aside, Yayoi comes up with a brilliant use for their time traveling abilities — instantly pickled food by hiding the containers in Hakobune a few days earlier. Arashi’s idea to do the same with wet laundry isn’t successful though, since her and Hajime decided to shove it in the fridge of all places. During everyone’s complete disregard for the spacetime continuum, Jun’s dwelling over the thought of Arashi and the others disappearing at the end of summer, making her feel sorry that they can’t get attached to anyone and fall in love. However, she’s surprised by Hajime’s faith in and devotion to Arashi, which keeps him completely unfazed even when Yamashiro asks Arashi out on a date.

Surprisingly, Arashi agrees to go without too much thought. While she’s off on her relatively innocent date, Hajime learns the truth from Jun and asks Arashi about it later that night. Arashi explains how they’ll be forgotten after they disappear, leaving any chance of continuing on as-is next summer highly unlikely. Despite this, Hajime swears he’ll never forget her and confesses his feelings, but Arashi stops him part way before he can finish. Rejected, Hajime runs off in tears while Arashi thinks to herself how painful it would be to fall in love with someone only to be forgotten by them. The next day, the two of them act as if nothing happened, but an attempt to time slip together fails.

 

Somehow, Sayaka’s stupidity with regards to time travel still hasn’t gotten old to me. I just love watching the others more or less facepalm themselves because of how dumb she is. What did surprise me though is how Yayoi is able to connect with practically anyone now. There’s Yamashiro’s dog Josephine, then Sayaka, and Hajime (whom she first lept with in season one). Humour-wise, it was pretty amusing watching everyone’s reaction to Yamashiro telling Arashi that she and the others seem a lot older than they look. Arashi, Kaya, Kanako, and Yayoi were pretty worried about coming off as old grandmas at that point, which they basically are since they’ve been “alive” for well over 60 years now. Sayaka was quick to hop on Yamashiro’s taste in older woman, but unfortunately for her, she only looks the part.

While I’m not sure if they’ll carry this breakdown between Arashi and Hajime till the end of the season, I definitely wouldn’t mind after the semi-serious turn the story has taken. Hajime’s confession wasn’t really that surprising to anyone since Arashi basically knew his feelings all along, but I did like how he manned up when he was put on the spot. It looks like all his lecturing to Jun on how to be a man wasn’t without weight after all. I’m curious where things go from here now that his link to Arashi is severed, but I hope they don’t resolve it too easily at the same time. This has more than enough potential to form some overarching story, so I want to see them do just that.

 

Preview

17 Comments

  1. “What did surprise me though is how Yayoi is able to connect with practically anyone now. First it was Yamashiro’s dog Josephine, then Sayaka, and now even Hajime.”

    Actually, the first was Hajime, when they travelled back to the time when they were still alive.

    viral
  2. I knew this was going to end great. All the silliness gone for some serious business. Just like season one. Another hero that was man enough to confess and get rejected noooo

    Didn’t Yayoi connect with Hideo too? But he was to wasted connecting with her and Kanakp that’s when they decide to use Josephine.

    Please don’t let the end of summer come!!!!!

    Island esper
  3. AzncCoffee@ I am wondering the same thing..
    Shinji and SFW groups have released only the first episode.. I don’t know about Shinji but SFW stated on their website that this series is under their “current projects”..

    Tumty
  4. Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion or Arashi…..who’s more cock-eyed?

    glad shaft (for once) have stopped being self-indulgent in an anime adaption and banged on with the source material. May the lack of placards and selfish shaft-ness last longer than one episode.

    ark noir
  5. AznCoffee => HorribleSubs “do” it. But since they just use the script of crunchyroll i dunno if it’ll interest you (depends if you dont like crunchyroll cause of their translations or cause of their practice).
    Beside them i dont know any team subing this show 🙁

    This episode was great and i’m happy they come with a serious arc to finish the season, like they did with season 1. I’m wondering why arashi and hajime cant connect anymore. I think of few possibilities :
    – their recent heart-breaking talk have made them confused enough to loose their ability.
    – arashi inconciensly stop the connection to avoid beiing closer to hajime.
    – arashi have come to discover she realy like hajime, and she have lost her ability as a ghost in compensation of beiing able to stay after summer.

    Zeross
  6. Angel Mercury:
    It’s far from being a series I’d recommend to anyone. While it does have some quirky humour and surprise plot developments to offer, I’d only suggest it to those who 1.) watch a lot of anime concurrently and need more shows or 2.) are looking for something different from their usual stuff. However, be aware that you need to watch the original season before this one.

  7. Judging by how they always began the series with I will always remember the summer of my 13th year, he will remember Arashi despite the fact that she says he won’t. Though, that just makes it even more interesting…

    Tiger

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