Go-Toubun no Hanayome S2 – 07

「攻略開始」 (Kouryaku Kaishi)
“Begin the Offensive”

In our most recent episode of Go-Toubun no Hanayome, Nino gets a harsh lesson in getting what you give when Fuutarou barely reacts to the gumption she had to confess to him right away. But she’s not the only one considering the individual struggles that Miku and Ichika have to figure out their own feelings and gain the courage to make that same move themselves.

In Part 2 of the Nino redemption arc, she confesses the feelings she developed for Fuutarou right away. One of her more admirable traits as a character is how she always says what she thinks and what she knows to be true in her heart of hearts. She’s willing to get pissed or be amorous if she’s feeling even an iota of hate or love respectively. You could say it even makes her a stronger character to acknowledge the feelings she has right away instead of dragging her feet through the mud like the other sisters to get even the smallest bit of their desires to be expressed.

You could also say that Fuutarou didn’t owe her jack. After spending so many months enduring her cruelty and abrasiveness, Fuutarou could easily be more blindsided than touched that Nino confessed to him. He seemed bothered and inconvenienced that she felt that about him to the point where he’d regularly start to shrug off her expressions of love.

With this in mind, the fact that Fuutarou never acknowledges the two confessions she gave him is a huge risk towards how we see Nino as a character. Rather than the tough and confident girl we’ve seen this whole time, we see a new light to her in this episode; a desperate light. With every new expression of affection, she becomes increasingly desperate, trying to stake her claim to a man who couldn’t care less about her love. She could beg Miku for a pet name to give to Fuutarou or try to wash him while they’re both naked, but he still insists on playing up the oblivious act and continues to kick her around.

On another note, Miku and Ichika have their own love developments as well. On Miku’s side, her failed attempt to confess after the finals demoralized her as she is now just impotently mad at Ichika for scoring better and even offers a pet name Nino could give to Fuutarou as Nino callously tries to cuckold her out in the open. Miku has one chance to get closer to Fuutarou at the grocery store, but abiding by her idiotic “whoops, because my scores weren’t high, I’ll just never express my feelings” stipulation really set her back.

The heel twist on Ichika’s side is also explored as she feels a small amount of guilt for making Miku lose her idiotic confession challenge. But as she contemplates whether it is fair for her to have tried to play wingman for her when she could probably give herself the prize of a confession, she is given even more conflicting feelings when she sees Nino beating her to the punch. With that in mind, it could easily plant other ideas in Ichika’s head as she is now running on a clock to get Fuutarou to understand where she’s coming from. We might not get as much next week on it, but with the Scrambled Eggs arc coming up next, we’re in for some more meaningful plot developments as far as who Fuutarou might choose.