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Previously
Haruyuki learned about the Brain Burst game and battles, and defeats Ash Roller. Snow Black is about to take off with Haruyuki, but childhood friend Chiyuri stops them.
About this episode
Catfight between Chiyu and Snow Black (who’s real name we still don’t know) ensures. Snow Black can be pretty cunning and evil when she wants to. I have the feeling that she’ll end up as a “bad guy” later in the series, or that at least some kind of moral dilemma will make Haru wonder if he’ll side with Snow Black or not. Anyways, she’s positive: she decided that she wasn’t dumped but is just “waiting for a reply” after her confession. Not that it matters, since Haru doesn’t have the guts to say anything at all when he’s in a tight spot, but Snow Black is using this to her advantage all the time.
That was plain evil there.
I like how characters love the phrase “It’s hard to explain”. Especially when Snow Black says this, but explains all of this a few minutes later. It wasn’t that hard though, it just took a while. By the way, the fact that Chiyuri has a boyfriend is pretty interesting too. This means that he won’t get a harem that easily after all. But this also makes the relationship between Haruyuki and Chiyuri interesting. I mean, if you’ve got a boyfriend, why would you make sandwiches for another guy? Out of pity?
It’s good and bad at the same time, but this episode spends half of its time on a long explanation. A few questions have been answered now though: why Snow Black needed Haruyuki, what her role exactly is and what the goal is for them. I said this in the review for episode 2, but just surviving and getting new points isn’t a very interesting goal for the series. But now we got it right in our faces: defeat the “kings” of the game and become level 10 and learn the truth about all of this. And for Snow Black some revenge too. But it’s very harsh that you lose all your powers in a lv 9 vs lv 9 duel and it makes sense that this makes people paranoid. We also got another new and interesting fact: the Neuro Linker has only been around for 15 years and that’s the reason only kids can play. But stuff got more interesting when we find out that Snow Black has an enemy in school. I already predicted Chiyuri before we saw this, since it makes a lot of sense that they hate each other if they keep fighting at school. But I don’t buy the idea that Snow Black can’t battle Chiyuri. Her argument is that she can’t make it known that she’s Black Lotus to Chiyuri, because Chiyuri might give information to the kings. But didn’t she say before that the kings want to hide their identity? So how would Chiyuri find the kings? And what would she gain from telling the kings about Snow Black’s identity? So for all of their challenges, she has to run away for half an (accelerated) hour.
It felt like a lot of stalling for time when Snow Black first explained how they could find their enemy but then says she’s pretty sure that it’s Chiyuri. Oh well, I get the idea now.
After this and the part with Taku that wasn’t interesting enough to talk about we get the one of the weirdest scenes I’ve ever seen in an anime. It’s always strange when Snow Black and Haruyuki are cabling since their mouths don’t move when they’re talking, but this went so much further. It might be my conservative attitude though, but when Haruyuki shouted “Please cable with me!” and Chiyuri started blushing, I knew instantly that stuff was getting real awkward now.
This is weird in so many ways. And why would boyfriend and girlfriend cable more intimately?
Since Haruyuki is pretty much a cabling virgin, he’s having a hard time putting his cable into Chiyuri’s socket. But it’s necessary after all, because in the future people can’t have serious conversations anymore out loud. Obviously.
Moving his fingers like this is so weird. I don't get why Chiyuri doesn't notice or care though.
By now I think I can follow the conversation without being all weirded out by the way this looks. So Haruyuki, Taku and Chiyuri were childhood friends, and eventually Taku confessed to Chiyuri. She hints that she also would have become Haru’s girlfriend if he asked her instead. This made their relationship somewhat awkward, because Haru didn’t want to “bother” the two of them so he took some distance. I know the feeling Haru has (I’ve had a similar situation a few years ago), and it is a very awkward situation to be in. It would be nice if the three of them become friends again later in the show, I really hope this happens. What Chiyuri says about Snow Black is also interesting to note: she could do in an afternoon what Chiyuri could never do for Haruyuki. Of course, Snow Black has her epic acceleration powers. But doesn’t Chiyu have those too? This is confirmed towards the end of the episode that Chiyuri had them all along. Maybe she’s afraid to use her points and lose her acceleration? Or maybe she never thought about using her power to help out Haru? Anyways, it’s pretty mean how Haruyuki is trying to get the information while having a conversation like this one. Especially since Chiyuri is so honest and starts crying. If he breaks her heart in the next episode I’d be ready to slaughter and cook him.
She's not bothered by the fat kid on top of her? This part looks pretty funny actually.
Rating: +
This was a good episode. Most of our questions have been answered and the scene with Chiyuri was touching and funny at the same time which I’ve never seen before. I was expecting some action though, but even without this left me satisfied. The preview for next week doesn’t help me out a lot so I don’t know what to expect of it. We’ll have to see.
Semai Sekaide 