Why chose between having a love triangle or shenanigans when you can have both at the same time?
This episode was pretty similar to episode 5, which I've repeatedly been asking more of. In fact, this episode felt like the people in charge of this series were directly listening to what I've been wishing for, from more cross-dressing Shun to another episode with a great balance of humor and character development (the former was a slightly joking request, but appreciated anyway!). While Shun far and away wins the trap award of the year, the others weren't too shabby either, with the exception of Kaname, who is apparently scarier as himself than as a ghost. That aside, a lot of the humor in this episode was situational, not just one liners or "wouldn't it be funny if" situations, but stuff that tied into what was actually going on in-between the characters. This show has already proven that it can handle both pretty well, and this episode also continued to show that the script does know when to tone it down for a serious moment, even when one of the characters is dressed up as Hanako the toilet ghost. Remember when they pointed out that Chizuru was starting to get a crush on Masaki? The unrequited love triangle is back in play in this episode, and now I'm even more interested in seeing where it goes.
The start of this episode and Chizuru's realization heavily hint that he wasn't aware of his feelings before (although the manga incident seemed to say differently), but it was still interesting to see. We watch Chizuru go from confused at the beginning of the episode to jealous of Shun around the middle to finally recognizing his feelings at the end but deciding to hide them with his usual smile. I was already rooting for him, since I think that they make a good match, and that last scene (so sad and yet so sweet!) makes me want to see him succeed even more. He genuinely cares about her feelings enough to hide his own. So at the end of the episode, the triangle looks like this: Chizuru and Shun are friends, Chizuru likes Masaki, Masaki likes Shun, and Shun is adorable and oblivious. It already really clear that Shun just doesn't see her that way, so I think that Masaki is heading straight towards heartbreak. Hopefully Chizuru will be around to help pick up the pieces. On a slightly different note, it looks like Kaname is still crushing on the older girl-next-door and yet another character has been introduced as a friend of the teacher's. I don't know what role this person will play just yet, since the only information we have to go off of right now is that they look like a high schooler without actually being a high schooler. In the meantime, go Chizuru! I'm rooting for you!
Additional Screenshots
Images from Crunchyroll.com.
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta