「胸の底で、傷は静かに生きている。」 (Mune no Soko de, Kizu wa Shizuka ni Ikite Iru.)
“The Wound is at Her Heart”

Eight episodes in and now it all finally comes out into the open. I mean whoever thought Kiyotaka would be wooing the girls this quickly and effectively, all before the real testing begins? Also something something Kikyou giving far more reaction faces than honestly deserved – but then again we knew that was coming sooner rather than later. When it comes to crazy, it can never stay hidden for long.

Given how prolonged Kikyou’s development has been, I always had a chuckle out of this being the moment her history comes out after learning of it from the source material. Kikyou after all has been quite good at keeping her past a secret and ensuring those who do stumble across it are either isolated or quickly eliminated. It makes some sense such a situation would continue here given neither Kiyotaka or Suzune would’ve revealed anything (alongside spreading gossip not being Kakeru’s style), but it does add some very nice tension to what otherwise was set to be a fairly typical Youjitsu test. One way or another, there’s no margin of error this time around.

Of course what makes things so interesting this time around is that history of Kikyou’s, or rather her personality. While it’s easy for her (and Kiyotaka) to pin her nature on an underlying desire for attention, in reality she could also be considered a victim. Kikyou as shown was raised on praise and accolades, she grew up expecting it, so when true competition finally rolled around, no surprise she lacked the mental tools needed to handle it. Couple it with her (albeit exaggerated) lust for popularity by trying hard to be there for everyone – otherwise known as the glorified drink dispenser – and you can start appreciating why she eventually snapped once her coping mechanism was found out. She wanted the limelight without the struggle, popularity without internal development. By focusing so much on everyone else that blackmail became her end all be all she lost sight of how to properly go about getting her wants. It’s a lot like how Suzune started out with attempting to emulate her brother – with the difference being Suzune has learned how that approach was wrong and how she must be her own person.

Considering the stakes of this test involve potential expulsion of Suzune and Kiyotaka it’s a given Suzune won’t actually lose against Kikyou, but how she beats her is definitely the question going forward. How will Kikyou try leveraging Kakeru? Just how will Kiyotaka involve himself to see both Suzune and Class D win? And in what manner shall Maya and Kei inevitably find their crushes employed in the upcoming battles?

Who knew I’d ever wind up excited to see Monday roll around.

4 Comments

  1. the most interesting thing about this show is it makes you wonder what kind of weird stuff goes on in the authors mind when he wrote this as none of the characters in this show acts anything even remotely close to how people would act irl.

    The MC seems like he has a mega strong case of autism and every single girl has some weird problem that is just blown way out of proportion and ain’t an actual problem.

    What the author feels as cool and edgy is just mega cringe and gay…

    Still watching this show because I saw season 1 many years ago but I didn’t mind all that as much back then maybe because I was much younger…

    yodad
    1. > the most interesting thing about this show is it
      > makes you wonder what kind of weird stuff goes
      > on in the authors mind when he wrote this as
      > none of the characters in this show acts anything
      > even remotely close to how people would act irl.

      Well, the unique aspect of Anime and animation is, these characters all live vicariously in fake life. Also who’s to say how people act in real life is normal. We normal people constantly adjust and adapt to different personalities. The Vampire girls are just flaunting their race..

      Renasayers
      1. I don’t really understand your point. I was under the impression that this anime is in a non-fantasy setting with just a super rich school for elites that’s why they can afford all these crazy events to test the students and that’s why I’d expect the students to act in a way that’s close to how real people would act in terms of like for example –

        Kushida is an attention whore who just likes to be complimented by everyone so she helps everyone but she ends up being used as a pushover. She then flames all her classmates online on her priv blog and people found out that’s how she is then she retaliated by ratting everyone’s dirty secrets out.

        Normal people would just be like ok she badmouthed everyone who used her like a pushover and then those people found out okay cool who cares,

        but the show makes it seem like she murdered a whole classroom of people and she can’t have people knowing her past…it’s just silly

        “The Vampire girls are just flaunting their race” – What does this mean?

        yodad
  2. This is my favorite episode of the season 2 so far. There is a lot of development. Ayanokoji starts to stand out and has to reduce his standing, but with Kushida in the map, he cannot do it until she commits to the class D reaching class A. Later on, with Kushiida as an allied Horikita will be able to take lead of the class and Ayanakoji will be able to take a nap and plan from the shadows.

    Ayanokoji really needs to know to understand the nature of Kushiida, or else even if she stops to Sabotage Horikita she may destroy the class at anytime she gets funky. I am going to find how Kushiida is transformed into a productive member of class D very entertaining, maybe by threatening, bullying, point transfer, violence??

    Whesly

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