It’s time for an image change! Everyone gets their moment this week, except maybe Kazusa, who is still feeling too many feels to really process what she’s going through right now. Let’s dig into this week’s youth-flavored adventure!

Japanese Original Episode Title: 本という存在

‘What is this, a manga!?’

Rika follows through on her magazine purchase and decides to try out a new look, and nobody at school seems to be able to handle it. She’s just so cute! Amagi’s incessant kindness and understanding seems to push her into remembering how horrible everyone seems to have been to her in the past and helps the viewer understand maybe how she came to have the crazy personality she does, but she’s seriously so cute, I am not sure why anyone would have called her ugly! He seems to melt away those bad memories. How did she manage to attract such a nice boy?

Kazusa is still finding it hard to process her feelings for Izumi and the things he said to her last episode, and Momoko is desperate to help her somehow but has never had feelings (for a boy) before, and doesn’t know how. She talks with Niina about it at a fast food place and Niina helps her realise a few things about herself and what it means to help a friend. Niina is straightforward about her closeness with Momoko and Kazusa and hearing so makes Momoko really, really happy…maybe too happy?

Hitoha is persistent in harassing her teacher. At first I was deeply suspicious of him but now I’m starting to feel bad for him. We hear a lot more from him this episode and get to understand his perspective a little better, and it turns out he’s pretty rude and very dramatic but I like him all the better for it. I wish he’d be a little firmer about putting Hitoha in her place, though…of all the people to take out sexual frustrations on and be explorative in that manner, your teacher is not one of them!

Momoko is invited to karaoke by her cram school classmates but has a really hard time with the atmosphere of the other guys. In fact, I think it’s our first time seeing her around boys at all and she seems to really hate it, haha. Luckily one of the guys realises how uncomfortable she is and he takes her for a break outside and we find out they used to go to school together a long time ago. It was a sweet reunion that could blossom into something more…!

‘I have no appetite for high school girls.’

Hitoha pushes Yamagishi-sensei into talking about their chatroom sessions and he launches into a dramatic spiel about how ‘unripe’ high school girls are and how he has no taste for him. You could interpret it as creepy, as it is a bit weird to talk about teenagers like that, but you have to remember he’s a literature nut and honestly the way he talks is just ridiculous – I kinda like it. It’s during this theatrical monologue that Yamagishi says he did not know or expect Hitoha to have been a high-schooler, and actually thought she would be a middle-aged man. This got me thinking – could it be that from the very start he never intended to have sex with his chatroom buddy at all? Or…could it be that he’s gay?! I want to know more about Milo-sensei!!

Speaking of which, Momoko says very specifically that she has never had feelings for a boy before and seems just a little bit too happy when Niina delegates her as one of the closest friends she has ever had in her whole life – could it be…? Niina holding up a potato fry in each hand as she says this is really cute. Her two potato fry friends. Momoko is so happy her face goes a bit crazy. I get it – I’d be delighted too if such a cool, intelligent and gorgeous girl declared me as one of her best friends. Actually, I’m not sure I’d be able to handle it either. I felt just like Momoko in this scene. Maybe we’re similar in more ways than I thought…

‘Wait, do I want Izumi to look at me like that…?’

There’s a consistent theme in this episode of the girls being lost in their romantic feelings and sexual passions, but finding it hard to differentiate the two – even Kazusa says the more she thinks about trying to put a name to these feelings, she loses sight of both. For many people it goes hand-in-hand; they want to do those kinds of things with people they love, or as they come to like someone, they feel more and more attracted to them in that way. But some people don’t – like Hitoha, who doesn’t seem interested in romance at all and certainly doesn’t fancy her teacher – but even so, she still has those racing thoughts and wants to act on them in her own way, healthily or not. It’s important to recognise everyone’s sexuality is different and the way each individual might respond to is different, and I like that this show is touching on this theme to a degree so far. As long as everyone’s happy and willing to do it, who says people need to be in love to enjoy sex?

‘Sonezaki-san is cute!’

It’s clear to me now that the way Rika has been treated in the past is the reason for her frigidness. Everyone called her ugly to the point where the only way she could deal with it was to put superficial things such as looks and appearance beneath her and prop herself and her own hobbies up to a ridiculous level. It all makes sense now. It’s why she is always so harsh and dismissive of the gyaru-ish girls in her class with heavy makeup, or of the boys who make (even nice) comments on her looks. It’s beneath her. It also explains why she always talks in such a dramatic manner using lots of big, self-important sounding words – her love for books and reading are all she has. In the end, all anyone can be is a product of their experiences.

There is one very short scene where Niina notices a poster for a play by the Soyokaze Theater Troupe in the train station, and watches a snippet of an interview with its director on her phone, a man called Hisashi Saegusa. Previously Niina has put her calmness and understanding with everything down to the acting troupe she used to be with – one by the very same name. The short clip we see has some pretty strange comments on the purity of children, which Niina promptly pauses watching and labels him a creep. I now wonder if her aloofness comes not from her experience as an actress in this troupe, but maybe from something a bit more sinister that happened to her during her time with them…

‘Teach me the reality!’

The plot thickens! No, really. How does Momoko really feel about Niina – and how does Niina feel about Izumi? I’m a bit late with this review so hopefully I can find out right now as I go and watch the next episode. Are you enjoying this series so far? Let us know and check out some of our other reviews for this season! This series is also part of our weekly anime previews.

NEXT TIME: Things That Changed Before We Knew It (私を知らぬ間に変えたもの)

O Maidens in Your Savage Season

Summer 2019 | Anime Info | Simulcast