©2024 Kamoshida Kazushi/Kadokawa/Aohibu Project
As with the other first episodes in every arc so far this season, this episode is more important than anything else. The show’s writing is tight enough that we can be sure that there are few (if any) details that surface. While you might think this will give us a great chance to figure out what is going on, there is a problem that prevents us from doing this: two mysteries happen immediately and we don’t know which information applies to the situation.
From the previous episode, the first mystery was built on a cliff. Sakuta was in panic after hearing that Mai was in danger. His focus is to keep her safe, which makes sense. Remember, Sakuta saw Mai’s death. Of course, technically, the memory may come from another version of himself, but it also traumatizes them equally. Other than that, all of this happens at the same time of the year, and you can also understand why his usually calm veneer slips off.
His meeting with Touko has this tension, even if we get some much needed information about her claim to spread adolescent syndrome like Santa. Although there is some truth to what she says, it is not targeted, even if it is intentional. Touko loves singing and songwriting, and hopes that her music touches the hearts of those who listen. Of course, it happens that the songs mentioned usually lead to people becoming introspective, which in turn leads to an adolescent syndrome outbreak. Although Touko does say she hates Mai (and refuses to elaborate), she obviously uses past tense to describe her feelings.
Another mystery we have is what exactly happened to Himeji. While we haven’t been with her directly, she’s been around more than a few times so far throughout the series – whether it’s the misunderstanding of romance with her teacher or it seems to be hitting in Sakuta.
Even after this episode, what we really know is that she has puberty syndrome, which is caused by her inability to overcome her heartbreak. Add to that some seemingly prophetic dreams, Sakuta dates Mai with Himeji on Christmas Eve (which should be unthinkable given his current mentality), and we have a confusing case because it is disturbing. Now that the general setup is out of reach, it’s time to see how these parts fall in place.
grade:
Random thought:
•Mai continues to be MVP girlfriend. She knew that even without what he said would bother Sakuta – if that means he could relax and willing to give up on her birthday plan.
• Since so many people online seem to think Mai is Touko, I wonder if the danger to Mai is Touko will be her result-the result is both, letting Touko take control.
•The thing about prophecy is that it always depends on explanation. The “date” we see may just be Sakuta and Himeji have Christmas dates on a completely different day, because seeing the above activities in his dream is the reason why Sakuta can cure her pubertal syndrome.
•I was surprised that Sakuta did not refuse Himeji to join his class, just to see what would happen.
Rascal doesn’t dream of Santa Currently flowing
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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One of the companies mentioned in this article is part of the Kadokawa Group.
