Tonikaku Kawaii S2 – 03

「花火が消える前に」 (Hanabi ga Kieru Mae ni)
“Before the Fireworks Go Out”

The amusement park date is one of those obligatory episodes that every rom-com has to have, it would seem. Tsukasa’s so excited as a first-timer to Muffy Land, not even the rain dampens her expectations. The rain, as it would turn out, is actually a pretty lucky thing for Nasa, giving him the chance to see Tsukasa in a kawaii animal raincoat (and Nasa is just as adorable as Tsukasa in those).

They make their way through the typical Disney inspired rides (with One Piece aka Pirate of Jump ride thrown in in place of Pirates of the Caribbean LOL), Tsukasa’s favorite being the Star Wars ride-which did look pretty cool. Surprisingly, Tsukasa and Nasa don’t take advantage of the Haunted Mansion to cuddle up-I was expecting at least one of them to jump scare. I’ll admit, any kind of haunted house, even the super dinky ones scare the crap out of me, so I guess the pair must be far braver than I am. When the annoying trio first showed up, I was dreading their interference in Nasa and Tsukasa’s date-but I was pleasantly surprised. I guess they can take a hint and stay in the background after all.

The main entertainment of the day comes from the Yanagi and Taniguchi sensei (“just co-workers”) pair. Yanagi really is denser than a lead weight-or at least so it appears at first. Tsukasa has sharp intuition into people and quickly puts two and two together that Taniguchi is a lot more interested in the “boring” Yanagi-sensei than just a co-worker. Thanks to her decisive action, she pulls the equally dense Nasa to another galaxy far, far away (in the park), avoiding a date-crash.

What comes next was my favorite part of the episode. Nasa and Tsukasa’s play by play commentary on Taniguchi’s attempt to bat a confession to Yanagi was hilarious. As was Taniguchi’s panicked reaction when he’s unintentionally outed by the (conveniently placed) teenage couple in front of them. Not that Taniguchi had anything to worry about-even with such an obvious parallel in front of her, Yanagi is still clueless, though I suspect she might be playing dumb. Asking him why he invited her is such a leading question, it’s like she wanted him to ‘fess up.

In the following innings of the Will Taniguchi Match, Yanagi hints that she realizes more than she lets on- stealing Taniguchi’s move, boldly taking his hand (the old “I’m scared” trick) in the Pirate of Jump ride. Looks like “Muffy” is not the only pirate in the park. I highly doubt that was coincidental. Yanagi totally grand slammed Taniguchi in the end there-not only confessing to him, but also jumping straight into a marriage proposal-following in her former student’s steps. How ironic that while Taniguchi hems and haws over making the right move, the supposedly clueless Yanagi beats him to the punch. They both recognize they’ve got a good thing going and it was a genuine “Awww” moment to see them make it official without further ado.

Of course, Team Yuzaki doesn’t take a back seat to Team Sensei, with plenty of moments of their own. The buffet scene was adorable with the flirty “pick my meal” game. Of course Nasa picks curry, his self-proclaimed “all-nutrition in one meal” from season 1. While Tsukasa’s looks much prettier and well-balanced, no doubt Nasa’s is just as tasty, though heavy on the stomach (seriously-all those sausages on top of fried shrimp and curry-that spells indigestion). While plating is important, the taste and thought that goes into the food trumps everything-after all, that food will ultimately get messed up in the stomach’s digestive juices anyway-at least, that’s how I see it.

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