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「わくわく温泉名人」 (Wakuwaku Onsen Meijin)
“The Exciting Expert of the Hot Springs”
Tsukasa and Nasa get a Honeymoon Take 2, courtesy of onsen tickets Kaname and Aya’s AWOL mom wins in a contest. Tsukasa and Nasa are embarrassed as usual about doing couple things “We’re going to be alone at the onsen…!”. I was relieved that Chitose didn’t honeymoon crash on the pair-I groaned as soon as she came on screen. Thankfully, Kaname invites her to help clean the bathhouse, keeping her out of the couple’s hair. What follows is a weird and not really funny intermission poking fun at itself for the extraneousness of a scene with a teen girls’ bathing suit fight.
Meanwhile, back at the onsen, Nasa starts to enjoy a nice, relaxing soak before breaking out of his state of near enlightenment to frantically Google together a perfect vacation outline. The guy can’t even take a rest at an onsen- he’s truly something else. Makes me wonder how he doesn’t wear himself out. It was adorable though to see him switch into “Super Nasa mode”, getting super serious into his research for Tsukasa. Tsukasa doesn’t stay long to soak either, getting so worked up about spending some alone time with her honey that she needs to get out to cool her head. It is typical ToniKawa fashion that they haven’t even gotten to the open air bath in their room yet and they’re already super self-conscious-I’m sure they’ll practically explode once they get to that (which it looks like they might next week).
Tsukasa never stops being kind, even when he’s freaking out about planning the perfect agenda. A very confused-looking old lady stops him enroute and he can’t say “no”, which lands him with the job of guiding her around the onsen. Don’t let appearances fool you however- this is no helpless widow, but a wily grandmother- Tsukasa and Chitose’s grandmother, to be precise. It looks like the old lady shares Chitose’s love of barging in on the Yuzaki’s bliss-going so far as to “challenge herself” by adopting the role of the helpless widow, then pulling them into her spacious room for a meet and greet.
We get a bit of insight into Tsukasa’s personality through her interactions with her grandmother. Grandmother describes her as someone who “marches to the beat of her own drum” and an “ice queen”. That speaks to her strong, independent, stubborn spirit, which we catch glimpses of in the way she stands up for Nasa, not backing down against intimidating characters such as Ginga-kun and takes her own approach to her interests and day to day life.
Grandmother also brings up the point that it is important to put one’s love into words. It’s one thing to show it, but another thing to hear/say it- it affirms the other person and the relationship, there’s a power to words. It feels good to hear someone else say “I love you”, especially as a couple. Of course, actions are important too-you can’t have one without the other and I suppose some relationships can reach the point where no words are needed, but they’re still early in their relationship- plus it’s always nice to hear it in words. Tsukasa is still at the point where she’s embarrassed to say it (hence why she hasn’t introduced him to Grandmother yet), which I guess I can understand if she, as the “ice queen”, is not usually effervescent in expressing affection. It’s not something you can change overnight.
They practically hit you over the head with the moon rabbit’s mochi hammer, with all those hints about Tsukasa’s background. The call back to the moon rock at Chitose’s mansion, Grandma staring up at the moon, comments about “all these years”, and so on. And of course the moon connection with Tsukasa’s maiden name/Grandma’s name (“Tsukuyomi” “Moon Reading”). Not to mention Tsukasa name dropping the shoguns Yoritomo (the first ever shogun) and Yoshimune as if she knew them. Whether what’s clear to us as the omnipotent audience will be made clear in time to Nasa has yet to be seen. I thought for a second that Grandmother was going to sit Nasa down and tell him about Tsukasa’s past, but that didn’t happen. Which is a good thing if Tsukasa wasn’t ready to tell him that quite yet. I am curious what Nasa’s reaction will be when he eventually does find out (if he ever does)-I’m sure it won’t change his love for her regardless.
Preview
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Tsukasa is unintentionally dropping little clues to her background all the time, like namedropping shoguns in this episode (and Prince Shoutoku in S1), but Nasa doesn’t seem to pick up on them. Or maybe he does and he’s not saying anything just yet.
Still, onsen with private outdoor baths are the best!
Nasa might just think she’s a huge history fan and speaking from what she’s read or watched or speaking from her imagination. Nasa’s a pretty logical person, so I doubt he’d jump right to the “Moon Princess in the flesh” theory that we, as viewers, can.
Well, yes, going right back to the first episode of S1, the moon princess thing is laid on pretty thickly. And both the S1 and S2 OPs clearly imply that Tsukasa is a lot older than she claims to be. But as a manga reader, I shall quietly take my leave at this point!