The inevitable Megumi drama comes at us, and it took a different turn than I thought it would. I was pretty worried when Megumi mentioned the rumors, the one that caught my attention was the girls messing around with boys in Kabukicho. The only one that knew they were there was Megumi, and it just raised my suspicions more when she tried to keep Mari from going to Antarctica in order to alleviate the rumors that were spreading around. It just got more and more telling that Megumi was the one that started the rumors, but I didn’t want to think about it. Until she actually admitted to it, and more, in the end. I can’t believe that I didn’t put two and two together about the other stuff, like Mari’s mom finding out through a neighbor about Antarctica when it was Megumi who told the neighbor, amongst other things. The girls have been really careful to keep Antarctica a secret, with Megu being the only person to know about everything. The reason for this anger and jealousy was because she was dependent on Mari, not the other way around Mari thought. Without having someone to dote on and be exasperated with, she would be nothing. Realizing this, at the end she wanted to break up their friendship so she could take her next step. It was a little petty of her to start the rumors, but it’s at least understandable.
The scene itself in the end was a little too dramatic but for the most part I thought it was handled well. I’m not too big a fan of the whole confession being handled at the very end when Mari was about to leave, it should have happened the night before when they were both walking home. It could have happened then, they both could have gone to Mari’s house to take in the feast her family made, and yay happiness. I would have liked to have seen more of Megumi and proper explanations from her. Because the confession was at the very end, I kind of thought it was a little rushed, particularly the “Breakup rejected” when Mari ran off and left Megumi there. Sure, they’re best friends and they’ll always be best friends, but I feel Megu was left in a limbo because she’s still facing the same problem, being dependent on Mari. Maybe while Mari is gone she can take little steps on her own, and they can still communicate as much as they can. Either way, it was sweet.
There were still fun and cute moments with the girls, like Shirase being nervous in front of the camera, and Shirase wanting to beat up the bullies, and Shirase going insane at karaoke…most of these being Shirase. In the beginning, I kind of wish she had given the whole school a fat “I TOLD YOU SO!” about the Antarctica announcement since everyone had been giving her shit. It would have been awesome if she did!
The “screw you” switched on!
But finally we’re on our way to Antarctica! It’s so exciting, but from the post credits scene, I’ve found out that the lion statue there is a statue in Singapore. Their plane is going to have to make a stop there before heading to Australia, so we might get an episode there, or a little peek. Either way, I wouldn’t mind because at least we’ll be in a different country!
I like that they lightly focused on Ryuichi for a moment when it came to school. He was a little depressed during their outing in the school because he probably felt a little lonely. So far we’ve only seen Ryuichi with the kids in the daycare, he doesn’t have time to hang out with his peers. Like I said in the beginning, Ryuichi gained a huge amount of responsibility. He’s barely in high school now but he still has a toddler sibling to look after, and I know he wouldn’t feel right if he just left Kotaro alone in the daycare. Especially when we know how attached to each other they are, as we see in the second half. Also, he has a deal with the chairwoman to look after the daycare in exchange for living in the school. And looking after the kids can last until it turns dark outside because the mothers are the teachers at the school, so that leaves little to no free time for Ryuichi. It’s sad, because Ryuichi’s being forced to grow up against his will. But with Kamitani now being part of the club, he has a friend his own age with him. Again I say it would be great if Inomata would join!!!
The second half is a lot more simple but so very cute. One morning Ryuichi wakes up with a bad fever (Saikawa’s joke was hilarious) and the chairwoman drags Kotaro out of the room so he wouldn’t catch his brother’s cold. He sulks but the chairwoman brings him around the place to help Ryuichi get better. They go to the kitchen where the chairwoman makes a rice porridge, and she asks Kotaro to assist in making a hot lemonade and asks him to squeeze a lemon. And holy SHIT it was so DAMN CUTE. This poor baby could barely squeeze it and when he did it was just a little drop but he was so proud of himself, then he squeezed a good amount of juice but then spilled it, but he just squeezed some more. It was even more cute and hilarious when the chairwoman forgot she had one of those lemon juicer things and it would have made things a lot easier. The whole scene was even more cute seeing Kotaro with a small bandana on his baby head AHHHHHH.
