hontou ni sou omou?

Ikuto adjusts to the low tech life of the island but his self-esteem takes repeated beatings as the girls show themselves to be so much more skilled at all the hard work of rural living. But he manages to salvage his manly pride by saving Rin, the Natsumi Tsujimoto strong woman of the island, from that dreaded enemy of the Keroseijin, the Nyororo. Further boost with Suzu telling him that she had felt lonely, being the only one living on her own and that she’s glad that Ikuto is coming home together with her after work, eating together and sleeping together (not in that way!). She says, ‘We are like family.’ The question is: like husband and wife? Or brother and sister? Or a 13 year old non-blood-related sister wanting to marry her brother!?

Much love for this episode. While faithfully drawing on selected material from Chapters 5 and 6, there was considerable more character development and much better use of Rin whom I felt was somewhat neglected in the first volume. There were also two important changes which got my thumbs up. Both of them. d_(^_^)_b

Firstly, our resident yuri imouto Mikoto shows up early (relative to the manga) in order to lavish her attentions on her Rin-oneesama. Ooooh yeah, you can never say ‘Oneesama’ too many times. Especially in that way.

And to warn off her competitor. Another candidate for the pantheon. LOL Definitely no Kaorin-type shrinking violet, our Mikoto. Suzu, in her typically good-naturedly and oh-so-innocently naive way, tells Ikuto that Mikoto really likes Rin and they are like sisters.

Rin, on the other hand, makes it clear that she doesn’t agree with Mikoto’s assertion that she belongs to her. In this respect, Mikoto is similar to Kaorin in the way that ‘it ain’t gonna happen’ and that the yuri is mainly deployed as a recurring joke rather than a real relationship that has the possibility of development. Ah well, we yuri fans can’t have everything…

Fang +3 to Kawaiiness

After a berserk rampage triggered by Ikuto’s ‘Shinji Ikari After Bardiel’ syndrome (which results in giant-mushroom imitator genocide), Rin chances upon him at his lowest state and tries to seduce him. (BTW her mom looks MILFy and certainly knows that if a woman is aiming to seduce a man by his stomach, she is aiming too low.) They get interrupted, mainly by Yukino.

Another loli using tentacle tactics against her opponents!

Rin’s phobia of the nyoro~nyoro~ worms is a nice touch, in addition to her shyness when proposing to Ikuto, to balance her otherwise quite butchy demeanor. Also a good device for Ikuto to be useful for once - a throwaway gag in the manga was effectively used to strengthen Rin’s Basis of Attraction to Ikuto as well as to give fans like me more screen time of Rin-nee being Absolutely Adorable.

Ayane made an unexpected appearance in this episode that had me absolutely screaming with laughter like the way a scene in the first episode of Azumanga. One of the girls breaks down after admitting that she was being tutored by Chiyo rather than Yukari’s initial impression of things being the other round; the humour really hitting when, after the scene transition, she’s still crying pathetically and her friend admonishes her while patting her head: ‘泣くな！’ (Stop crying already!) That still kills me every time I see it, even though I’ve seen it a dozen times and know exactly when to expect it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode and heartened at how FEEL has managed to build on and also improve on the manga’s material. Next week will probably be a Machi episode. Another oneesama 4tw! :)