hontou ni sou omou?

Honoka-chan anxiously waits at the station after learning that Yamato and Suzuka didn’t return last night as the former said he would. Suzuka walks away and the couple have a very public display of affection. Later Honoka-chan cooks for him but Yasunobu’s stupid suggestion earlier (proving Mentar right) in the day triggers a massive hormonal surge that wipes out what little that is left of Yamato’s already minuscle common sense. Quite a high yuck factor in this episode due to Yamato’s beastly, if somewhat understandable and typically impulsive, behaviour. At least he went to apologize to her quickly. Omni also felt fairly neutral about this episode and his comparisons with the more explicit factors from the manga, that did not carry into the anime, bolstered my understanding of the dynamics of this episode immensely.

And this series certainly has got a repeating hand-focus motif. Check them out amid the 70+ screencaps that follow:

Public Display of Affection creates Two Person World (二人世界) A.T. Field exclusion zone in a crowded JR station. Feel the power of half-baked love!

Click on left image for full image.

Suzuka in confusion and denying her insane jealousy. Always cute that. Yuuka’s not particularly generous towards Yamato but just as there are no "rights" or "wrongs" in love, so it follows that there’s no "deserve" either.

Zyl’s pendantic blah blah: Animators probably don’t cook and only rely on conbini food. The slicing technique is all wrong… Especially for Japanese knifes, the cutting motion is usually using the sharp edge to glide forward rather than applying the weight of the blade to pull towards oneself. And although for safety the fingers should indeed be curled, the fingernails should be aligned parallel to the knife to hold the food in place but, more importantly, to prevent any injury in case the knife slips.

Click on right image for full image.

Since it was Yamato’s kindness that attracted Honoka-chan to him most, seeing this side of him (which was triggered off by his thoughts wandering back to Suzuka in conjunction with Yasunobu’s suggestive suggestion) must have terrified poor Honoka-chan. Well, at least she managed to get away in defiance of all the laws of physics and relative physical strength - look at how Yamato flies off her when she just gives him a push in the chest from a very unfavourable position.

Interesting how the eye-power polarity has reversed. From Honoka-chan looking at Yamato’s back and Yamato looking at Suzuka’s back to the other way round. Ditto the stalking dynamic.