hontou ni sou omou?

Episode 1 - The Long Night: Winter break’s almost over. The Yamayurikai go over to Sachiko’s palatial house to celebrate the New Year and some stay for a slumber party. Yumi looks forward to the New Year.

Some great comedic moments in this episode when Yumi thinks that Sei has tricked her into agreeing to going on an overnight one-on-one outing. No such luck though. Bah! Loved it when Sei treats Yumi like a favourite pet in front of Sachiko. Like Sister, like Brother - Yumi’s brother, Yuuki, gets picked up by that rather creepy debonair cousin of Sachiko’s. Obscenely rich people have plenty of neuroses as well - given how all the married men in the Ogasawara household go to spend New Year’s Day at their mistresses’ place. That’s enough to make a girl look favourably on shoujou ai. :P Sei doesn’t even attempt to tease Yumi when they all go to bed together. Hmph.

An aside, the above can be interpreted as a 甲乙图 (basic martial arts diagram) that shows one method of countering Stripey’s supreme skill, the ultimate ladykiller family of techniques, 九阳假正经 - the Nine Masculine of Appearing to be Pure & Honourable. Sachiko-sama is powerful indeed!

Episode 2 - The Precipitate Yellow Rose: Torii Eriko, Rosa Foetida, has apparently been caught in the act of enjou kousai ( “subsidised dating” - euphemism for schoolgirl prostitution - and yeah, I can so see my search engine hits going up now).

Turns out she merely has to entertain her over-protective brothers and father who have Sis-con and Daughter-con respectively. Augh.

And she is pursuing a science teacher ten years older than her. An insight into Eriko’s whimsical yet persistent nature. My respect for the school principal (who is a nun) went up a few notches for her understanding of and showing understanding for the ways of schoolgirls.

And most importantly, Sei flirts with Yumi again! Yay!

Episode 3: An Extremely Busy Day. As a result of another one of Sei’s psychological ops/pranks on Yumi, the boutons put together a farewell show (mostly humiliating themselves) for their beloved Onee-samas, on top of having to prepare for the graduation ceremony (geez, student council with so few minions?). Yumi is over-wrought and faints. Everything turns out well though. Duh.

Turns out it is merely an evil plot to get stuffy ole Sachiko to loosen up further. Sachiko and Yumi, made for each other blah blah. No Sei-Yumi action unfortunately.