Tonikaku Kawaii Joshikou-hen – 04 (END)

「千の夜を超えて」 (Sen no Yoru wo Koete)
“Across a Thousand Nights”

Who needs hacking when you’ve been around for at least over a century. Her jack of all trades genius actually reminded me somewhat of Nasa. Hints of her moon and specifically Princess Kaguya connection were dropped pretty heavy, with her friend’s “she’s just like a princess”, mysterious Tsukasa-like comments on history, and her last name (Gekko means “moon glow”). Kaguya just wants to understand the world- that’s a pretty hard task. Even with living a god-tier lifespan, that wouldn’t be enough to figure out the world- people and society in general can be unfathomable at times.

The world’s hardest three word phrase: “I love you” (at least for Tsukasa it is). While it is important for each party to reciprocate affection, different personality styles express that love in different ways. For Tsukasa, perhaps, while embarrassed by verbalizing it, she shows it through how she cooks and looks after Nasa, whereas Nasa is a more verbal type. What’s important is that each person understand how the other communicates. Though saying “I love you” out loud is still an important thing to learn.

However, I don’t think that communication extends to the level of mindreading. No matter how long you’ve known someone, one should never assume they can read the other’s mind, that’s a recipe for misunderstandings. Exhibit A, telling Nasa about what’s underneath her pajamas then tucking in for the night. Now that’s unfair, leaving him on a cliffhanger like that. At least one person won’t be getting any sleep that night.

The cute lovey dovey scenes with Nasa and Tsukasa (correctly) guessing each other’s flavors and sharing ice cream, conveying their feelings to each other were a perfect fluffy way to end this mini-season. Much as I adore the adorableness, the real meat of the episode was at the end.

Tsukasa is a figure of dreams, not just in her perfection, but in literally showing up in Kaguya and Nasa’s dreams. This is the first time we’ve seen Nasa dream of her past like this and the contents suggest that they had a connection in the past life- one in which Nasa was apparently an emperor. His interaction with Tsukasa sheds a fair bit of (moon) light and begs more than a few questions. For one thing, Tsukasa addresses him as “omae” and not danna-san, which is how she typically addresses Nasa in the present day, implying that they were not married in that life. Tsukasa also mentions planning a trip with her younger sister- a sister who though unnamed, is most likely Kaguya. Why she is taking the trip isn’t explicitly mentioned, but it’s implied that it’s on behalf of Nasa- my assumption based on the time period would be overseas on some sort of embassy quest, which was common in those days. The finality of their parting in the dream was enough to jolt Nasa out of his reverie and running in search of Tsukasa- a Tsukasa who has finally found her home in peace with him in the present day. The ending had a “happy ever after” feel to it, which leaves me wondering if it will be continuing for another season (I certainly hope so) or if this is it.

I enjoyed this arc far better than expected. From the premise, I thought it would be mostly high school girl antics with minimal Tsukasa, but I was pleasantly surprised. Some new insight was added into the back story and of course, I can never get enough of the cute couple dynamics between anime’s best married pair.