hontou ni sou omou?

Chikane recalls her love-at-first-sight experience with Himeko and is torn between supporting Himeko’s relationship with Souma and wanting her for herself, an opportunity which is spotted by Miyako who watches through reflective surfaces (like Despair of the Endless). The Ame no Murakamo ceremony only manages to break half of six sealing swords before Himeko collapses. Kazuki smells a rat as the strain starts to show on Chikane.

Even the puppy is initially afraid of Chikane. But not Himeko. Well, I suppose the questions of why Souma (last ep) and Chikane are attracted to Himeko have been answered.

So far Otoha’s little bouts of jealousy have been quite amusing as she sees Himeko as slowly but surely enroaching on her turf. I have no idea how anyone can dislike shiitake though. It’s really quite a delicious meaty-tasting mushroom.

First of Chikane’s flip-flopping. She casually lies about about the rose hairclip that she stole and then later delivers Himeko into the hands of the Male Enemy by arranging the bento offer and even reinstating the Souma-Himeko date.

Both of the girls blushing when Himeko wiped the mud off Chikane’s face, hair billowing in the wind and all. Yurilicious.

In the first episode, I was wondering why Himeko was leading a sort of double life when dealing with Chikane - addressing her as “Miya-sama” in public but as “Chikane-chan” in private. The jealousy-inspired bullying in Ep 3 suggested that this was for Himeko’s sake rather than any desire for public propriety by Chikane and the recounting of their initial encounter confirms this - after Himeko had realized what Chikane’s social status was, she just became too awkward in public - though I think Chikane should have insisted on a consistent “Chikane-chan” treatment and defend that in public.

“I’ve learned that you can’t make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and give in.”

“You put the red hairclip on Himeko and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe that you and Himeko are both straight. You put the blue hairclip on Himeko and you stay in Yuriland, and I show you how deep your angst goes.”

Another flash of Chikane’s ulterior motive in pushing Himeko to carry on with the revival ceremony. But she still arranges Himeko’s cancelled date behind her back.

The whole Himeko’s happiness vs. Chikane’s desire dynamic might be seen as superfluous if one belongs to the “Be True to Yourself” school of thought. For one thing, being true to yourself can have disastrous consequences if your true self ain’t a pretty thang. And also it’s hard to be true to yourself, when you haven’t figured out who you truly are and if there really is any authenticity to your existence.

Some of BluWacky’s observations for this episode are a riot as usual but it is a tad harsh. I suppose I had the benefit of knowing that I would like the ending. However I do agree that Chikane is doing too much on Himeko’s behalf but even more seriously, she is doing it based on what will turn out to be erroneous assumptions. It is pretty agonising how the Himeko-Chikane pairing is going nowhere despite being bombarded by it in the OP and ED as well as their obvious mutual chemistry but what is needed is patience, grasshopper… Just two more eps to go.