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Summary:
Unaware of the rumors going around, all seems to be going well at school for Sawako. Ayane and Chizuru, however, are constantly confronted with the rumors about them that Sawako supposedly spread. They’re fairly confident though that Sawako isn’t the person spreading the rumors, and the three continue to get along great. This all changes after the two overhear Sawako telling a girl that she isn’t actually friends with them. They’re unable though to hear the rest of what Sawako says because Pin drags them away to do an errand for him, and what they miss out on is Sawako explaining how she sees the two’s close relationship as being what constitutes friendship. She feels that it’s too presumptuous to call herself their friend in that same way, but she does love the two, and she wants to be friends with them like that someday. Because they missed out on this, Ayane and Chizuru give Sawako a chance to explain herself afterward, but they misunderstand Sawako’s attempt to clarify herself as her not liking them, and Sawako doesn’t realize it.
In the bathroom later, Sawako overhears some girls talking about her, and she gets the impression that the rumors are about her using Ayane, Chizuru, and Kazehaya and doing what she wants. She starts to think that the people around her are getting hurt because of her, and she begins to avoid Kazehaya for this very reason. The next morning, she apologizes to Ayane and Chizuru but continues not to clear up the misunderstanding, and it doesn’t make things any better. After Kazehaya sees her crying during class, he confronts her about it because he thinks it might be his fault, but Sawako ends up running away again. She’s now caught between many conflicting emotions because she wants to be with Kazehaya but at the same time doesn’t want to trouble him, and she’s ultimately unsure of what she should do.
Preview
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This was an incredibly frustrating episode to watch because it wouldn’t have taken much to clear up the misunderstandings, yet the circumstances caused things to snowball anyway to this point. If only Pin hadn’t been there, then there wouldn’t have been a problem. I think the fact that it gets me so riled up though is a sign that the story is pretty engaging and well written. I’m really starting to like the depth of the characters too, particularly in regard to Ayane and Chizuru, and them trusting Sawako in the beginning sort of set up a false sense of security that you can feel unfold as the episode progressed. I’m hoping now that they will get to bring down the hammer on whoever was behind the rumors in the first place (probably Hirano Aya’s character), but I suspect that Sawako will end up being forgiving.
As weird as it may sound, I’m finding myself really connecting with Sawako. The part where she says “They’re not my friends because I don’t think I can be considered their friend.” really gets to me because there have been times when I thought “I’m not really this person’s friend, they’re just being nice to me because they pity me.” only to find out later that they did, in fact, think of me as their friend. I’m really looking forward to the next episode. ^^
dammn my predictions were mostly wrong -_-
I was engaged by the story too. I like that the sequence of events was able to throw me off of my predictions, because being able to predict how a story turns out means you can’t really enjoy it since you know what is going to happen.
Yano and Yoshida are definitely nicely portrayed, their resulting split with Sadako plays a key role in showing that Sawako is still unable to fully clear up misunderstandings.
I think one of the real appeal of this show is in the way each of the main characters has their own unique form of honesty. Sawako has a pure but ignorant honesty, Yano’s is more seasoned and worldy, Yoshida’s is empathetic and bold, and Kazehaya is enthusiastic and all-inclusive. It’s interesting that while this episode doesn’t really move the story forward very much, one of the things it does accomplish is explicitly point out these facets in each character over the course of the episode. Yano and Yoshida point out that Sawako is “pure white,” the rumors about Yano and Yoshida have a pretty direct, if twisted, relationship to their chief attributes, and, well, the whole damn show is about how enthusiastic and accepting Kazehaya tends to be.
This girl has a pretty awful time with the Japanese language when it comes to people skills in general – a typical trait with smart, quiet types. For a person like her who seems to catch on to thing very fast she’s a complete idiot when it comes to thing of utter importance. Damn she needs a hug. I was like her in middle school, then I said ‘fuck it’. Going with the flow is much easier then always trying to push against it. Too bad for her that her flow is being creepy as hell & misunderstood by most.
That dumbass Pin really does play too much of an interloper role in this series. It even got to the place in the manga where I wanted to kill him – several times. Sawako is enough of a hindrance on her own. 40 chapters of hell & its still not finished…mainly because of another MFer that shows up in this mess that I REALLY want to kill.
huh. I just hate Kurumi!
I appreciate how Yano and Yoshida believe sawako.
Show Spoiler ▼
😛
totally ruined the first 3 eps, too much drama and stupidity in this ep
@ Olivia i’m guessing if you would have things your ways they anime would last six episodes? of which two introductions and the other 4 they lived hapily ever after :P.
Though i agree it wasn’t the best feeling seeing things go from bad to worse
poor sawako. lets all kill the person that spread the rumors.
Hmmm that was hard to watch
A bit hard to watch alright. Pin came at the wrong timing making me go “What the hell is that guy doing!?”. And Sawako should really speak up her mind instead of beating around the bush though….
i liked the teacher last week…. well, not anymore >:(
This arc always irked me in the manga, not because it wasn’t good (because it was really good) but because I got halfway through it and went ‘agh too much… making me sad~’ I’m glad they sped it up just a tad, but they left all the impact there
To me this show is turning out to be one of the BEST of the fall weason (alongside Kobato, Sacred Blacksmith, and Fairy Tail).
Many people hated this episode and rated it low for the wrong reasons. From the middle part to the end of the episode I was depressed. Not a good idea to watch if you want to relax. I just wish they resolved the problem quickly within the episode but the writers decided to end this with a cliffhanger and resolve the character conflicts next episode. It seems this series is suited for a marathon viewing, waiting for the next episode each week does not give the series justice since it ends mostly in a cliffhanger.
This was depressing… I love it! I was at the tip of my couch cursing at the mess a stupid rumor causes. I have been in the same spot at the office. Worse is that you ask who the hell is spreading this sh!! and no one wants to tell you. For some reason people like gossip; but don’t want you to go and kick the bastard that is spreading the crap about you. This is getting close to RL I’m scared! Please hug me
Awe, I love this story. I hope it all gets cleared up so Sawako gets her friends back.
@Chaos:
If she did that, then I wouldn’t have had to sit through 40 chapters of bullshit, especially chapters 30-39. They made me think that Sawako was some kind of souless alien.
Bah, this episode really didn’t point it out, but the girl is smart as hell (bookwise), mainly because she always studied instead of trying to make friends to hangout with. That introverted nature is what turned her into a creep. But that seems to be one of those “nice girl” attributes. Gievn that, she don’t understand what its like to have friends, be one, or be a ‘girlfriend’.
I know what Sawako was thinking, but she don’t know how to express her feeling to others let alone have a normal conversation with them w/o bugging them out. However some people are drawn to that – mainly because they were like that at some point, broke free of it, & don’t want to see other people in that funk. I should know because it happened to me form middle to high school. The only thing that killing this story is that the drawn folk don’t have the maturity to be patient with Sawako. Even Souta’s will run out at some point because of an unnamed bastard I want dead. You can’t force people out of their cubbyhole. The only thing you can do is stay the course with them until they come out themselves.
Olivia, I knew that problem will come up as soon as the anime reach that stage. Rest assure though, next episode will be back on track.
And like Megas point out: it’s not a matter of will, it’s a matter of how. Given that a girl who has very little interaction with people, her standard of norm and behavior can’t be expected to act different.
The one thing that makes Sawako different is that it’s an established ground rule that she inherently want to make friends and to get herself accepted.
I loved this episode! Kinda tough to wait a week for the next one…I’m seriously considering waiting until this one is over and marathon the whole thing….or at least half…dunno
When a series gives you characters that can make you feel so much, it’s a trademark of a classic.
this shows alright and all, but its just too outrageous. hard to watch…yeah…
I so want to dissect the person who spread the rumor and eat it’s black heart out…
RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEE!!!!!
ARGH I was so close to punching my screen when Pin showed up and then later when Yano and Yoshida stopped Sawako from finishing. Although you’re right about how since we’re getting so frustrated it means that we’re really invested in it. XD I guess that’s always a good thing.
LOL hard to watch, understatement! 😀 My wife loves this series already, and I decided not to show her this new eps until I had the resolution eps… but from what Megas is saying, hmm, looks like this isn’t the last time I’ll be so frustrated, mad and of course, sad, for so many characters all in just one eps! I guess I’ll show my wife so she can suffer with all us softies!!! LOL She relates way to much to Sawako, so I’ll have to have a few tissue boxes ready! *sigh*
I read ahead in the manga and even though its frustrating with all the misunderstandings it was a really really good arc. I got sniffly reading it.