Woah.  WOAH.  Mary, you put your shirt back on this instance.  I expected this from other shows this season, but not you!

——

Episode Seven

Thankfully, Mary spends the episode fully clothed; her promiscuous behavior is just a figment of Chizuru’s imagination.  Our focus in this episode is Valentine’s Day, something that’s always an endless source of amusement for me.  Valentine’s Day is such a carefree, happy holiday, so to see all the drama that surrounds the romantic holiday in anime cracks me up.  There’s the main story line, but I was admittedly thrilled to see Takahashi, Yuta’s love interest from episode seven in the first season.  She’s one of my favorites of the girls, so to see even just a flash of her made the episode.

The two arcs we follow in this episode are tied together by Mary; the main one focuses on Chizuru, while the sub-arc focuses on a girl from another school confessing to Shun.  I’ll admit, I was very surprised that he turned her down.  She was very cute and had sincere reasons for having a crush on him, so I was just as surprised as Mary and Chizuru when he rejected her (kindly, mind you).  I think it added some dimension to his character, because although sweet as sugar, he can be a bit flat.

And as I see more of Chizuru and Mary, the more I want to wave my shipper flag and cheer them on.  I abhorred the pairing to begin with, largely linking to Mary’s personality before we saw more of them, but as I see more of her, I just can’t help but love her.  She acts like a love-sick teenager, which is exactly what she is.  She gets so frustrated with herself that she bursts into tears, and convinces herself that nothing she does is good enough for Shun.  It makes her seem a bit immature, but I think it also flushes her out.  Not everyone can be cute and happy all the time; I think Mary’s flaws are wonderful, and I love seeing what’s going on inside her head rather than just the tsundere we were initially introduced to.

And, of course, I could sit here and sing heralds to Chizuru all day.  He’s my favorite of the male characters, and to see him lamenting his unrequited love was heartbreaking.  But, as is true to his character, he doesn’t let it weigh him down.  Despite knowing that he won’t receive an answer, he confesses to Mary anyways, and just letting her know made him so happy I found myself smiling with him.

There was a great mix of humor (jealousy over the chocolate, Shun just plain flipping out when he receives his chocolate) and drama, and I was much happier with the way things went in this episode compared to the last couple.  You’re on the right track again, Kimi to Boku!

GO Rating: 4/5

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Episode Eight

This episode was a guilty pleasure to me, featuring my all-time favorite established couple: Shun’s brother Fuyuki and his girlfriend Mamiya.  We spend so much time looking at these relationships where people are dancing around each other, so I genuinely enjoy when we shift our focus to a couple who is already together and still working through their problems.

The problem Fuyuki has is that, essentially, he’s a pervert.  He cares very much for Mamiya, spending the entire episode on cloud nine after he kisses her for the first time in the beginning.  But he’s not very good at keeping his desires in check, and we find him wanting to keep pushing things forwards even though Mamiya may not exactly be comfortable with it.  This is shown in a scene at karaoke where he touches her chest, and although she gave him permission, she bursts into tears and has to excuse herself.

The thing about them is that Mamiya realizes that Fuyuki is, unfortunately, a teenage boy, and he’s going to do a lot of thinking with his other head.  If she wants to be with him, that’s just something she’s going to have to accept.  At the end of the episode, she can smile while teasing him about being a pervert, so I think they’re going to be okay.

Ultimately, this was a wonderful episode, but the one thing that’s going to knock the rating down a point or so is Shun’s reaction to everything.  It’s only natural to be worried about your middle-school aged brother doing the nasty with his girlfriend, but having your friends stalk him while he’s on a date (the stalking thing is so funny to me, at this point, because it seems to happen in almost EVERY EPISODE) and berate him for his “tendencies” at home in front of his girlfriend.  Shun isn’t really reprimanded for his meddling behavior or totally outing his private life to his girlfriend, and he doesn’t really seem sorry, either.

So although this episode was really sweet and focused on accepting your partner for who they are as well as encouraging self-control to make the person you’re with happy, Shun’s outbursts and overbearing attitude just left an incredibly sour taste in my mouth.  I know he wants to look after his little brother, but he takes it to a completely unnecessary level.

GO Rating: 3.5/5