Anime Review: Kimi to Boku - 6

And now, we turn to the sports channel, with the riveting coverage of this week’s thumb wrestling championship. Who’s going to come out on top!?

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This week’s episode makes up for last week’s lack of flash backs by taking place almost entirely within one. I actually prefer the longer flashbacks to the weird, pseudo-emotional ones we had in the very first episode. I feel like it’s a good way to get to know the characters better, and gosh darn it if I don’t love the twins more and more with every episode.

I was somewhat dreading this episode seeing that Shun has his lovely locks shorn off by the twins. Not to say that he doesn’t look good with his knew ‘do, but his longer hair set him apart from the other boys and matched his feminine personality. Even if you don’t watch Kimi to Boku with your slash goggles on, Shun is a girly guy. I just loved the color of his hair and the length so much, but as a girl with hair about as long as his was before it was cut, I can understand wanting to just hack it off in the heat of the summer.

Our flashback focused on the quartet when they were in middle school, which was a welcome change from their elementary school flashbacks. We see that Yuta and Yuki act a lot like they do around Chizuru when they were in middle school, sobered up a bit, and then completely relapsed when he showed up. They have a lot of energy, going so far as to practically throw furniture around in the heat of their thumb wrestling battles.

The issue of not being able to tell the twins apart was also brought up, and I didn’t realize that this was going to play in to the plot later on. When Yuta and Yuki aren’t wearing their respective blazer and sweater, I can’t tell them apart at all, which I feel I should be able to do since their bangs are different and all. But the fact that even Kaname has trouble was hilarious.

This is probably one of the funnier episodes so far in the season. Usually I crack a smile or two and maybe the occasional giggle, but Kimi to Boku is a relatively easygoing viewing experience. This episode had me breaking out in to loud laughter at parts like Kaname nearly getting his eyes poked out during the thumb wrestling match of the century.

We discover that Kaname is quite the vain little creature, which I really don’t find that surprising. Megane guys like him are usually stuffy and fashion-conscious, but going as far as to refuse to wear his glasses out of fear of how it would make him look is very humanizing. It seems like the kind of thing that may be “beneath” him, like something as silly as glasses couldn’t make him look bad. But it’s something that people worry about when they’re younger; I got my glasses too young to really empathize, but my brother hates to wear his glasses out in public even though he’s a high school student.

This episode was good, but unfortunately, I’m getting a bit tuckered out by these non-linear plot lines. Three out of the five anime I’m reviewing this season don’t have a particular story line that is being forwarded, and it sometimes leaves me hungry for more after the end of an anime like this one, regardless of how good it was.