Koi wa Ameagari no You ni – 08

「静雨」 (Seiu)
“Quiet Rain”

Just be friends – all we gotta do is just be friends.

General Impressions

Boy, this week’s episode caught me off guard in so many different ways that I’m still a little shocked that they were able to pack so much into such a short amount of time. Kicking things off with the most light hearted moment, let’s take a few minutes to talk about this budding relationship between Yoshizawa and Yui. For one, I’m so happy to see he’s become more than just the guy who was specifically introduced for Tachibana to shoot down. With his high energy and happy-go-lucky attitude, he’s provided a great contrast compared to our rather reserved cast. In addition to his unique personality and behavior, I’m so happy to see that he might be making progress with Yui since it’s been tough to watch him get shut down time after time by Tachibana. Add in the fact that Tachibana basically spelled out that she isn’t interested straight to Yui and I can’t help but feel like we have a great scenario where something awesome could happen between two smaller characters trying to make their mark on a show that’s normally hyper focused on two specific people.

With that one out of the way, I think we can dive into the nitty gritty of this week’s drama between Tachibana and Kondou. Or rather, complete lack of drama and some unexpected relationship development! At this point in the game, I have no idea how I should feel about the two. They’ve overcome a lot to make it this far and I think I’m at the point where any type of development between them (good or bad) is something that I will enjoy watching. Luckily this week’s landed on the good side and I don’t think we could have asked for a cuter moment between them. And for the naysayers who are out there saying that Kondou was just geeking out over some great Japanese literature, that side of Kondou is exactly what I’m referring to when I say cute (and don’t get me started on Tachibana, she was cute the entire time).

But can you believe it — there’s more! What probably surprised me the most was just how quickly the story is addressing Tachibana’s friendship with Haruka. Sure, there have been some obvious shots on Tachibana’s bag with the charm from Haruka, but I was absolutely in love when the last few minutes of the episode were devoted to the two hanging out together. Not only because it was great to see Haruka get an immediate payoff after that great talk with soccer-senpai, but I was nearly seething when I realized that the story was using the idea of Tachibana going to the festival with Kondou as a red herring.

Overall, a pretty great episode with a ton packed into it. An episode with so much stuff that I’ll admit I went back to watch it a second time just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Anyways, I’ll catch you guys next week where we’ll hopefully get to see just how far down the rabbit hole we’re going to go. See you then!