So everything went all smooth, and Kouchi especially, made up for his lack of balls in the past 12 episodes! Yuumi’s sudden aggressiveness must have gotten him into thinking that he should be THE MAN for that job, and not the other way around like last time.

Kouichi x Yuumi

Yuumi is leaving in a month’s time, as was hinted early on. Instead of getting all emo over this separation anxiety, Kouchi declares that he will save their relationship, and that love will conquer all! He plans to take up a job, to save up for the rather expensive transportation fares, and go visit her every week. There was no mention about where Yuumi will exactly move to, but considering her reaction, I’d say it’s really far. Like the distance from Fukuoka to Tokyo perhaps, similar to Takaki and Akari’s situation in Byousoku 5cm.

Admirable as Kouichi was with that promise with Yuumi, I’d say that the words he uttered are purely idealistic at this point. They are still high school students. Considering how a roundtrip ticket to that distant place in Japan will cost about 30k to 50k yen, and a part-time job pays an average of 1000 yen per hour, Kouichi would have to work for about 5-6 hours a day if he wants to visit Yuumi every week. It’s not impossible, but he’ll face burnout sooner or later, from balancing school, work, and love life. He can opt to work and study in the area where Yuumi will be moving, but that’ll further increase his expenditures, namely for food and shelter. And… I still don’t think the bond between Kouichi and Yuumi is that deep yet, to make them last a long-distance relationship especially. That’s just how I see it, from a realistic point of view, but of course Kouichi and/or Yuumi can prove me wrong anytime.

The thing that worries me about Kouichi x Yuumi at this point is that so many things can still happen in the span of the remaining 12 episodes. If this were the second to the last episode, I can imagine how they will give an idealistic epilogue where Kouichi ends up with Yuumi amidst the distance they have. But given the fact that we’re only halfway through the series, there might just be a chance that some more twists will happen. I actually wonder if the sudden appearance of Mao (when she kissed his forehead) in Kouchi’s thoughts is a foreboding to some surprise in the future.

Mao x Kai

Mao turned to Kai in this episode, after realizing that he’s like the only guy who pampers her with such attention. Mao’s feelings for Kai (or even for Kouichi) is yet to be settled however. We’ll see how Mao will react to the news of Yuumi moving out, but she’s most likely gonna cheer him on in his fight for love, just like what she’s done so in the past. What will make Kouichi x Yuumi break up, is if Kouichi realizes that he loves Mao, in a special way. Otherwise, things are pretty much settled between these pairings.

I still think Kai deserves someone better though =/ He remains to be the guy I admire most in this series, especially after what he did in this episode. He is sensitive and sharp enough to know that Mao is confused with her feelings, and needs a little cheering up. He sacrificed a day of work, and gave time for Mao. The best expression of love is time, after all.

Kazuki x Eriko

Since when did Kazuki get used to Eriko’s “coffee”? o_O

Ignoring the rather abrupt dere-dere development of our ice princess, we can also say that things are going well for Kazuki and Eriko, who even exchanged phone numbers with each other so they can continue on with their experiment even during the summer break. Kazuki is happy as a lark of course, but I still don’t see much of the chemistry between these two, compared to Kouichi x Yuumi, Mao x Kai, Mao x Kouichi or Kazuki x Asuka even, albeit being one-sided.

Asuka

I guess this was shown for the sake of Asuka fans (like me), who sees the unlikelihood of this happening (with Kazuki) throughout the series =/

Asuka blushed almost the whole time in this episode, which was really cute Blushing Asuka = moe~ It pains me see her heart crushed by the possibility that her love is doomed. But of course Asuka is born to be a fighter, and still continues to tread on this battle for love as all hope is not yet lost (or so I also hope, despite how impossible that may seem at this point). Nevertheless, I shall remain an Asuka fan and will continue cheer her on, and accept the things which I cannot change when she gets to have the short end of the stick.

Misc Thoughts

They certainly made up for the crappy animation in the last episode, that it suddenly became all fluid and… beautiful, for the lack of a better word. I loved the subtle portrayal of the characters’ emotions, especially how the characters talk with their eyes. We have many focus shots of the characters’ eyes (Mao), hands (Asuka, Kouichi x Yuumi), lips (Kazuki, Asuka. Yuumi’s doesn’t count.), and face (Mao looking intently at Kai, and the various expressions of Asuka~), allowing us to see the intensity of the emotions at play.

A few weeks back, I thought about how an H&C-like “inner thoughts monologue” of the characters would do wonders for this series. I’m happy to see that we’re starting to see more of this effect in the show, like the case of Mao and Asuka. I used to think that we need this monologue for Kai, but I don’t think it’s necessary anymore, given that we already see him opening up It’s a must for Eriko however, especially with the abrupt character development we’ve seen of her .__.

P.S. I looked at my Newtype magazine today for the KimiKiss spoilers, and I sort of went “JUST AS PLANNED” with regards to Mao’s martyrdom. She decides to help out Kouichi x Yuumi after finding out that they’re officially going out together, though I’m not sure if she also learns about the news of Yuumi moving to another place.

I’ll be providing more spoilers for the next three episodes in a separate post, for those curious to see the direction this anime will be having. yush~ signing off~