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「やはり、一色いろはは最強の後輩である。」 (Yahari, isshiki iroha wa saikyō no kōhai de aru.)
“Iroha Isshiki is the Strongest Junior, as Expected.”
With confirmation that Komachi and Kawasaki’s younger brother had both passed the entrance exam – the Imouto being stressed about exams arc has wholesomely concluded, allowing for the story to fully dedicate itself to what looks to be the primary focus this season. So as we said last week, a graduation prom looks to be on the books. Things seem like they are going smoothly. But I would be surprised if everything panned out perfectly without a hitch.
For now though, Yukino is doing an immaculate job of organizing the event. From nailing down the logistics to arranging a rehearsal that could be used as a promotional video. I have to admit, it was nice to see Hachiman getting involved with helping out, even though he concedes at the end that proms aren’t really for him. And that’s something I could really relate to. I always went to high school and uni proms, and chilled around watching people dance – joining in when prompted to. But I also never really enjoyed partaking in dances myself.
So, which girl is going to reign supreme at prom when it comes to becoming Hachiman’s girlfriend? I’m not sure if Iroha actually likes Hachiman. She certainly seems really playful and flirtatious with him. Exactly how much of it is meant to twist him around her fingers, as opposed to being genuine romantic interest, is hard to say. Then again I’m tone deaf to this kind of stuff and really struggle to pick up on hints. So my judgement was never going to be good in the first place. But I’m secretly hoping she’s the dark horse that will successfully upset the competition. She’s such a charming character. What isn’t there to love? My second favourite pairing would actually be Kawasaki. While she’s something of a side character, her chemistry with Hachiman feels so natural – and I might be pulling this out of my ass but they definitely have some latent sexual tension.
On the other hand, it’s really obvious that Yui likes him. She’s a nice person and tried really hard in this episode to catch his attention when paired together with him. I can appreciate her earnestness. But I’m really not feeling it. He definitely doesn’t see her as anything more than a friend – RIP handmade cookies. And of course, it was confirmed in Episode 1 of this season that Yukino sees Hachiman as more than just a friend. She’s the most likely character to take it all, by my conservative estimate. I hope she’s given space to realise what she wants and grow as a person by successfully handle the Prom with minimal assistance – as opposed to getting bailed out by the 8man in black armour.
Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. As always, thanks for reading this post – and see you next week to see how the graduation prom promotional video comes together – and how Yukino’s family-teacher consultation goes.
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Pretty sure Iroha likes 8man.
– Case 1: She completely stopped talking about Hayama, while “senpai” exclusively refers to 8man now.
– Case 2: She’s dropping serious hints left and right, while constantly implying she wants 8man to treat her more his equal, maybe even as a woman.. (E.g. how she’s not his little sister)
– Case 3: Her running gag slowly transformed from her refusing 8man even though he did not ask her out to where she’s actually not refusing him at all, just saying that 8man has to do it differently.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it’s getting painful to watch how the show slowly phases out side heroines, while stages everything around Yukino.
My gut tells me that she likes him. But my intuition for this kind of stuff is awful if real life experiences are anything to go by – so I’m doubting myself until evidence that’s more concrete comes to light.
As for the increasing focus on Yukino, it’s painful but rather necessary if the series is headed towards a conclusion. Dragging the harem shenanigans out is something a 200+ chapter romance manga serialization would do. And I’ve gotten pretty tired of those – having read way too many in my teenage years.
Unfortunately that is exactly what the author did. Everyone is shoved to the side and you are tunnel vision to Yukino.
But such is the waifu wars, we knew that Japanese animes ALWAYS goes with first girl trope. THe first girl he saw and we were introduced to was Yukino. You can argue that Yuigihama was the first but she saw him, not he saw her.
Iroha’s interaction with Hachiman is quite amusing. More so than YUs interaction with him . It’s almost like his interaction with his sister, but is fundamentally different.
Never trust quick rejections like that. So I say it’s quite possible for her to like him. Always thought she does, but it wasn’t like that at the begining.
Komachi already sees Yui as an older sister. That’s one hurdle down. Hachiman’s still keeping his distance, but would have to rewatch the previous seasons to know how much progress was made.
Iroha is best girl and if you have a problem with that you can meet me at your local Sonics!