I would like to take a moment to appreciate how hilariously appropriate Akira's umbrella is.
Once again, Tsuritama surprised me. I thought that this episode would be Haru-centric, given what happened last week, but now I'm starting to think that the supernatural side of the plot is more deeply tied to the emotional side than I originally guessed. As usual, anything goes for this show and it makes fantastic use of the character development we've been seeing all this time.
That's not to say that the events of last week were glossed over though; I'm even more convinced than I was before that what happened was a form of possession after seeing Haru try to deal with it this episode. Things are slightly less complicated than they could be, since Yuki and Natsuki don't remember anything (leaving Akira, but he's always seemed to know more than anyone else in the main cast) but they know Haru well enough to think that his sudden disinterest in fishing is strange. Haru is scared enough of whatever is out be Akemi to attempt to reverse everything he's accomplished to avoid going out there again and putting his friends in danger. That says a lot about how powerful this dragon/god/portable Bermuda Triangle is.
And it looks like Haru's not the only one who's character arc is getting underway; Akira is beginning to make leaps and bounds in that department as well. He started off as someone who was completely focused on his mission of surveilance, but now he's deliberately hanging out with the group and having fun (whether he realizes it or not). It apparent that he's eventually going to clash with his Dubai overlords, since they've warned him twice now not to get too close. However, from what we've seen so far, I'm convinced that they're monitoring the wrong alien and should take a closer look at Akemi.
But the show stealer this time around was Natsuki's family, as everything that was hinted at over the first half of the show blew up in everyone's face. The assumption that I've been working on for most of this show's duration is that Natsuki is mad that his dad has moved on to someone else. However, we don't know how long she's been gone or what the circumstances of her death were, so there could be more going on than we know.
Anyway, working under the above assumption, I was always pretty interested in Natsuki's little sister, since she didn't harbor any of the same resentment that her brother does. It's been obvious that she just wants everyone to be happy and get along, but when she explained that the extra bracelet was for her mother--and then loses it due to bad timing--it became clear that yes, she does miss her, but she's better at dealing with the situation than Natsuki is. She was completely in the right to call Natsuki out on his behavior and I admit that my opinion of him plummeted when he slapped her for doing the same thing he'd been doing to his father minutes before.
Since this ended in Sakura running away, I think that it's going to be Natsuki's turn to overcome his personal problems, since it looks like we're pretty much done with Yuki. He's over his fear of confrontation enough that he also called Natsuki out on his behavior, which I think was a big moment considering that this was the guy who barely spoke out loud for the first three episodes. Some traces of it still remain though--he makes his "stone fish" face when he answers his phone but immediately snaps back to normal when he realizes he's talking to someone he knows. I don't know what form Natsuki's growth will take, but at the very least he needs to sit down and have a long conversation with his family about what's bothering him once they find Sakura.
Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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