First Impressions / Special A

「高熱・情熱」 (Kounetsu / Jounetsu)
“High Fever / Passion”

Episode at a Glance:
After receiving a phone call from Yahiro about Hikari’s date with Tadashi, Kei rushes back to Japan to get her, but catches a fever from overworking himself in Shanghai. With Kei sick, they head back to his house, where Hikari tries to take care of him by cooking him okayu (お粥), i.e. rice porridge, feeding him, cooling his fever with boulders of ice, and changing his clothes. While Sui is concerned about his beloved brother during this time, Kei insists on having Hikari take him as part of the recent competition that he won. Kei also refuses to sleep while Hikari’s around, but eventually passes out. In his dream, Kei recalls a scene from a movie that he saw earlier and imagines Hikari responding with, “I’d like to go anywhere where everyone will have fun.”

Waking up later, Kei’s wonders why he can never express his gratitude properly to Hikari. Believing she had already left, he’s surprised to find her sleeping on the couch downstairs. Hikari wakes up soon after and invites Kei to do something next Sunday as recreation and relieve some stress. Taken back by this invitation, Kei asks Hikari where they should go (as per the movie), but is further shocked to hear her say that she’d like to go anywhere because any place is fun with him. Thinking spring has finally come for him, Kei soon finds out that Hikari only sees this as a form of atonement for always being a bother to him. However, Kei realizes that Hikari’s the only person that can make his heart waver, so he kisses her saying it’s payback. Unexpectedly, Hikari erupts in response and tells Kei to not come close to her ever again, but Kei just revels in her reaction.

 

Next Episode:
「魔法・友達」 (Mahou / Tomodachi)
“Magic / Friend”

Impressions:
In a somewhat obvious Densha Otoko reference, I had an urge to scream 「キスがキター！」 (“The kiss has come!”) at this point, as we’ve probably been waiting for this moment to come for some time now. With Kei beating around the bush with his feelings and Hikari being the thickheaded girl that she is, I was starting to wonder how the two of them would ever start getting closer together. As I suspected before though, Yahiro turned out to be the key character in getting those two together, as he just happens to make Kei jealous enough to finally act. As for Hikari, she happens to say the right things all the time, thus leading Kei in the right direction, but her subsequent words always seem to destroy the mood. Hikari really is a case of “KY”, which just so happens to be a trendy term in Japan right now. “KY” stands for “Kuuki Yomenai” 「空気読めない」, which means, “Can’t read/sense the mood”.

Comedy-wise, it was the usual Special A type reactions, but it was more humorous this time around with Kei trying to get Hikari to feed him and help him change. I almost choked on the fried rice I made when Hikari dropped that huge sack of ice right on Kei’s face too. Akira, Ryuu, and the Yamamoto twins were non-existent this week, but Akira and Megumi’s seiyuus did make a brief appearance as the maids of the Takashima house.

Next time, it looks like we’ll see a new girl and who I believe is Yahiro up to something again. Perhaps we’ll see some more of the Yahiro x Akira side of things too, if this shot is an indication of anything.

 

Cast:
– Hanazono Hikari (華園 光) / Gotou Yuuko (後藤 邑子)
– Takishima Kei (滝島 彗) / Fukuyama Jun (福山 潤)
– Karino Tadashi (狩野 宙) / Shimono Hiro (下野 紘)
– Saiga Yahiro (雑賀 八尋) / Taniyama Kishou (谷山 紀章)
– Takashima Sui (滝島 翠) / Shimizu Kaori (清水 香里)
– Father Takashima (滝島父) / Ogata Megumi (緒方 恵美)
– Takashima household Maid B (滝島家メイドB) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
– Takashima household Maid C (滝島家メイドC) / Takagaki Ayahi (高垣 彩陽)

19 Comments

  1. OMG! KISSUUUUUUUUU!! CHUU :3!! lol awww the pic with sleeping hikari on the chair is cute x3
    yeah, i agree, hikari always says the right words, but then her next sentence just crushes everything. i feel so sorry for kei xD! lol, but he stays true to his feelings and keeps up trying to prove he likes her, awwww
    but, this epi looks like a lot of fun (comedy) 8D. looking forward to the subs!!~

    Furuba
    Reply

  2. The next ep starts the Yahiro and Akira back story part it seems. Though this could take 2 or 3 eps depending on how quick or slow they go through the events.

    For those who read the manga though. A new chapter was released today, and it’s <3!

    GP
    Reply

  3. GP-san, I as a fan of Tadashi x Akira has got to agree with you! >w< I can’t wait for the next episode since there’s gonna be parts that involves the two of them.. mah.. 😛 chap. 37 is uber o<

    kp-chan
    Reply

  4. This next episode is the part of the manga when they finally decide to start developing all the side chara’s relationships… and there are more than a couple random pairings

    PhantomX
    Reply

  16. I’m torn on if I want to continue this series. I’ve read the manga up to 13, Show Spoiler ▼

    However, the anime hasn’t been exactly following the manga so far, so things could turn out different. I think my biggest fear is that since the manga is still ongoing, we’ll get an ambiguous, unsatisfying, open-ended ending just like all the other anime that occur during the middle of a manga run.

    I think i’ll give it another ep or two, then decide.

    CassiusOS
    Reply

  17. Probably my favourite ep so far.

    I’ve read up to the end of Volume 4 of the manga (V5 due out in August) so I knew how the story went, yet some new twists like Sui’s “misunderstanding” and Kei & Hikari’s ending argument were great.

    And of course, whilst you gotta get annoyed at Kei’s “Shoot Downs” by Hikari whenever his emotions reach a high point, you can’t help but laugh.

    FX102
    Reply

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