Random Curiosity

「スイッチ・崖っぷち」 (Suicchi / Gakeppuchi)
“Switch / Cliffhanger”

Episode at a Glance:
After winning second prize in a shopping district lottery draw, Hikari receives seven tickets to the new Athletic Outlet amusement park and invites everyone out on Saturday. (Misspelled as “Athleteic” in the show.) However, it turns out everyone is busy that day, but Jun agrees to go, claiming his other commitment isn’t that important. Hearing this, Kei says he’ll make time to come along as well, so the three of the decide to go together. On Saturday, Hikari and Jun arrive at the front gate of the park first, when Sakura shows up questioning why he’s on a date with Hikari when he refuses all her invitations. Kei then arrives, telling her that it’s not a date since there are three of them, and soon has to deal with Hikari’s insistence that this is a contest and how he should be wearing a jersey like she is.

Seeing as Hikari’s all fired up about Kei pointing out the number one on her jersey, Jun tries to sneak away from Sakura, who tries to tell him that she doesn’t like having to follow him around and simply wants to hear an answer from him. After Sakura begs him to face her properly, Jun makes eye contact with Sakura and collapses, waking up shortly after as his other self. With Jun in Kei’s arms, Sakura tells Kei to hang onto him, but Jun wonders if that’s possible and kisses Kei, much to everyone’s shock. Unsurprisingly, Jun gets away, but Kei swears to find him and kill him, before being swarmed by a group of girls affected by Jun’s charm.

Kei chases them off with his “evil spirit” stare though, after which the three of them go off in search of Jun in the amusement park. Hikari catches sight of Kei jumping through trees and asking other guests if they’ve seen Jun, so she tries something similar to no avail. Sakura on the other hand, tries some more conventional means, prompting some other girls to ask if she’s Jun’s girlfriend. After claiming that she isn’t, they insinuate that she’s in an unrequited love, suggesting that it’s why Jun probably hates her and is running away. Hearing this reminds Sakura of when Jun told her that she’s a bother, echoing a thought she’s always had at the back of her mind; however, her inner thoughts reveal that she simply wants to hear it directly from Jun so that she can possibly give up on him. In their continuing search, Kei and Hikari find a huge crowd of girls at the burger shop, where Kei uses his appeal to get the girls to allow him through.

Finding Jun there, Kei is a bit furious, but notices Sakura behind him, whose eye contact with Jun knocks him out again, except this time it reverts him back to normal. He soon wakes up and begins tries to leave though, causing all the other girls to insinuate yet again that she’s pushy and hated; however, Jun speaks up telling them not to be over-familiar with her and speak badly of her, and claims that he’s the one at fault. While Sakura is touched by Jun’s defense of her, he takes off running soon after, so Hikari sends Sakura after her. This leaves the remaining girls restless though, so Hikari and Kei take it upon themselves to become substitutes, much to their delight.

In her pursuit of Jun, Sakura vows not to give up and makes her way through a hedge labyrinth, before finally stumbling and falling. Noticing this, Jun stops, turns around, and offers to help her, making Sakura wonder why he’s doing this when he always runs from her. However, Jun pulls back his outstretched hand at the last moment and diverts his gaze, convincing Sakura that she’s hated. In tears, she gives up and tells him to run away—an attitude which Jun claims is the best for her. Telling her that he runs away from her because he’s strange, Jun makes eye contact with her again, changes to his other self, and adds that it’s weird how he transforms now without it being a kiss. After Jun adds how being with him would be a bother for her, Sakura pauses for a second, before punching him in the face.

In a burst of outrage, she proclaims that that’s not what she’s asking, wonders how he can think she’ll get tired of him when she likes him this much, tells him to stop saying that he’s running away for her sake, and asks him if he likes her. Confessing that he does like her since that day, Jun says it can’t be helped because he has no other choice, seeing as eye contact already causes him to change. When he mentions how he can probably never touch her, Sakura suggests trying, so Jun gently touches her face while retaining his normal self and expresses how warm she is. Meanwhile, Hikari wonders if everything is going well, so Kei reassures her that everything will be fine since it’s Sakura.

At the Takishima Group office, Kei’s father receives a call from his own father, who informs him that Kei doesn’t need to attend school anymore since the time has come to act. At the same time, a helicopter lands at Hakusenkan and a man steps out.

Next Episode:
「敵う・叶う」 (Kanau / Kanau)
“To Rival / To Come True”

Impressions:
I think some fan girls will be pleased to see Jun and Kei making out, but it was a big “WTF” moment to me. Let’s just hope Jun refrained from using any tongue action. In either case, Kei was a man out on a mission to kill after that, but was rather composed for the most part. He didn’t fail to use his “sexiness” to his benefit, as he had a bunch of girls “kyaa-ing” all over him; however, it was funny to see Hikari’s interpretation of what just happened. Speaking of Hikari, she managed to turn on the charm too, when she and Kei were trying trying to calm the crowd that “opposite Jun” gathered and ran away from, with Sakura chasing after him. The funniest scene this episode had to be Hikari’s search for Jun though, where she tried to imitate Kei’s method, but failed miserably. The drawing she was holding looked like a rough sketch by a psychotic murderer, which Hikari’s sudden appearance on top of a duck boat pretty much looked like.

The main focus of the episode though was Jun and Sakura, who have officially become a couple this time around. I actually felt bad for Sakura on several occasions though, seeing as she tried so hard just to confirm Jun’s feelings, but kept getting the cold shoulder in return. However, with a cute girl who’s earnest in her feelings and likes the side of Jun that he hates, I would say it’s only natural for him to fall for her during the barbeque before. Seeing as Jun was transforming to his other self simply from making eye contact with Sakura and feared what would happen if he touched her, I thought it was ridiculously sweet of her to tell him to try touching her and seeing what happens. Luckily, Jun didn’t transform and instead, noticed how warm she is. As I mentioned before, I like Sakura’s character a lot and this is simply one of the many reasons why. As sweet as it was though, I’m glad they mixed in some humour into it, with Sakura clocking Jun nicely for avoiding her because he felt it would be less troublesome for her if he did. If only he knew all the turmoil he put her through by making her think that he hates her. Jun definitely deserved that punch and his reaction almost had me bursting out in laughter.

It looks like things are really starting to pick up next week with the arrival of Kei’s grandfather’s secretary. As president of the Takishima Group, Kei’s grandfather said that Kei doesn’t need to go to school anymore and also mentioned that now’s the time to act, making for a nice cliffhanger. If Kei is forced to leave school, this will obviously cause problems with getting closer to Hikari, so the series may be shifting towards finishing up the Kei x Hikari pairing now. Be forewarned that there are only four episodes left now, as the series is 24 episode long and not 26, the latter of which is a natural assumption.

Random thought: The preview shows Kei running along a bridge and jumping off, which made me instantly think of Solid Snake running and jumping off the Manhattan Bridge in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Given all the MGS4:GotP I’ve been playing lately, I guess it goes to show where my mind’s been.

Cast:
- Hanazono Hikari (華園 光) / Gotou Yuuko (後藤 邑子)
- Takishima Kei (滝島 彗) / Fukuyama Jun (福山 潤)
- Toudou Akira (東堂 明) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
- Karino Tadashi (狩野 宙) / Shimono Hiro (下野 紘)
- Yamamoto Megumi (山本 芽) / Takagaki Ayahi (高垣 彩陽)
- Yamamoto Jun (山本 純) / Yonaga Tsubasa (代永 翼)
- Tsuji Ryuu (辻 竜) / Horie Kazuma (堀江 一眞)
- Ushikubo Sakura (牛窪 桜) / Kuwatani Natsuko (桑谷 夏子)
- Father Takashima (滝島父) / Ogata Megumi (緒方 恵美)
- President (会長) / Ichijou Kazuya (一条 和矢)
- Shopping District Occhan (商店街のおっちゃん) / Matsuo Daisuke (松尾 大亮)
- Girl (女の子) / Nanase Ami (七瀬 亜深)