First Impressions / Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru

Summary:
In contrast to how Mariya easily accepts Ichiko, Yukari faints when she comes to Mizuho’s room and sees Ichiko halfway through Mariya’s body. With Kana watching over the unconscious Yukari in the other room, Mariya decides to reveal to Ichiko that Mizuho is actually a guy. Ichiko looks surprised at first, but she is actually overjoyed to hear this. In fact, she wants to become Mizuho’s bride. Ichiko explains that it’s her dream to marry her Elder Sister, but back then, that Elder was a real girl, so Ichiko had wanted a guy in the role. While Mizuho is in class thinking about all this, Ichiko is back at the dormitory trying desperately to leave the building, but an invisible wall is stopping her. Unable to go see Mizuho, Ichiko notices that Yukari’s room is open and Yukari is in bed. Of course, Yukari freaks out when she opens her eyes to see a ghost floating at her bedside. All those tears and screaming causes Ichiko herself to start crying and apologizing for being a ghost. This makes Yukari calm down, and by the time the other girls return to the dorm, Ichiko and Yukari have become friends.
Although the days that follow are quite happy, Mizuho can’t help but think about how he’s substituting for the Elder Sister that Ichiko wants to see again. When he asks her directly about the previous Elder Sister, Ichiko recalls that she was gentle and mysterious. Back then, Ichiko had been running late and had bumped into her along the road. With a gentle smile, the Elder Sister told her that it’s all right because the world wouldn’t be ruined if Ichiko was late. Ichiko also remembers how the Elder would comfort her when she was feeling down by patting her on the head under the shade of a tree. This surprises Mizuho because he has memories of his mother doing the same thing. He later goes to the library to look up the past Elder from past graduation albums and runs into Takako there. Takako thinks that Mizuho is studying past Elders and school traditions, but freaks out again when Mizuho reveals it’s related to a ghost. When Mizuho is alone again, he finds the page that confirms what he had started to suspect. At that exact moment, he sees a familiar person walk by, so he chases that figure – his mother – all the way outside until she disappears. Mizuho realizes that he’s studying at a school that his mother studied at, walking the road that his mother walked, and living in the room that his mother lived in – that’s why his grandfather put him in that room.
Having returned to the dorm, Mizuho finds Ichiko crying in his closet. It seems that Ichiko slept for a while, but woke up scared that her Elder Sister was gone again. With Ichiko wanting to be together forever and someday to become his bride, Mizuho can see how lonely Ichiko has been all these years. He decides to take her out that night, which is made possible if the two of them are touching each other by holding hands. Knowing what Ichiko’s previous Elder Sister wasn’t able to do, Mizuho carries her to a church. Ichiko’s dream was to become her Elder Sister’s bride here, so Mizuho hugs her and strokes her head, just like his mother did. He explains that these are the memories of his mother and also Ichiko’s memories of her Elder Sister, which makes Ichiko realizes that Mizuho is Sachiho’s son. He even kisses her on the forehead, just like she remembers Sachiho doing. A crying Ichiko suddenly starts glowing and rising up above the altar, which she thinks is because her wish has been granted by what Mizuho did. Filled with gratitude towards him and his mother Sachiho, Ichiko goes through a tearful goodbye before she disappears. On the way home, Mizuho encounters Mariya who has figured out that Ichiko is gone. She tries to cheer him up and takes him home where a big surprise is waiting: Ichiko. It seems that she has returned and is back to stay.

Well that got resolved pretty quickly. I had thought that Mizuho’s mother might have been a central character to the overall plot, and although she still may be, her relationship with Ichiko was pretty much entirely explained in this episode. Actually, I’m not sure what the overall plot is, aside from inserting a boy dressed as a girl into an all-girls school. I guess that in itself is entertaining enough to make a show out of, though this episode was again heavier on the drama than it is the humor. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy this episode though. Heck, like last episode, Yuuko Gotou’s voicing of Ichiko was enough to make this enjoyable.
Next week, a Takako and Mariya episode.

41 Comments

  11. Yuririffic?

    You know… it’s almost like they knew Ichiko’s spirit was in there, which is part of why Mizuho went in – to lay some old ghosts to rest, as it were… as well as to cause a bit of havoc, while being THE top girl in the school – which is a bit ironic.

    Haesslich
    Reply

  12. man!
    chibi Mizuho is so much like a male clon of his mother! If I was Ichiko, I’d also confuse her with her mother!… o______o’ wonder if Mizuho’s dad is bishounen-ish as him…

    Yagami Iori
    Reply

  13. Mariya flipped up Mizuho’s skirt early in this episode to show Ichiko she was a boy. After a dramatic pause, Ichiko was thrilled: now she could be her onee-sama’s bride! Apparently Mizuho’s mother had once told her she wished she were a boy so they could get married. Gotou Yuuko’s voice (as Ichiko) is moe to the tenth power. She slows down her delivery a bit in this episode and turns on the Mikuru moe.

    hashihime
    Reply

  17. https://randomc.net/image/Otome%20wa%20Boku%20ni%20Koishiteru/Otome%20wa%20Boku%20ni%20Koishiteru%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2030.jpg

    Why? Why? Why? does she have to be a dude.

    That scene would have been so full of win and good, if one of the girls wasn’t sportin’ a one eyed trouser snake. (Unless that’s his Mom in a flashback, and then I’m gonna need about 5 minutes alone time.)

    I still can’t quite bring myself to subscribe to Kurogane’s “Fap First Worry Later” maxim.

    Baka-Kun
    Reply

  29. That “bastard”
    A lot of virgin girls and no HOLY DICK GRAIL lesson????????
    Even souls must be baptized by the HOLY…… 😆
    URAYAMASHI!!!!!!!!MUKATSUKU SUGIRU!!!!!!!!!

    tensai_otaku
    Reply

  31. The mother was a closet lesbian that secretly wanted a sex change…

    …but she got interested in men long enough to have a son…maybe she was crushed by the death of her hidden lover…

    …however before she can do anything else she died from some illness…but not before conveying her desires to her doting father…

    …who deeply cared for her and wanted to fulfill her wish even if it is posthumously…

    …so the obvious thing left to do is to emasculate her son and send him (in the most generous sense) back to the girl’s private to pick up where his disfunctional mother left off…

    …=_=;…

    /manical laughter

    …I want what the scriptwriters were drinking…

    Zzz...
    Reply

  33. to tensai_otaku:

    Excited sir?
    Of course this isn’t like what we got in strwberry pnic or in marimite. This one’s a guy in a “forbidden” garden for guys. He should never have been there form the start. Look at how his disguise was quickly stripped off in front of Shion in ep 2. It’s like she’s psychic…

    ….>_

    Moondoggiebuiscuits
    Reply

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