Josh’s Anime Blog

Well, I guess out of all the major characters, the only one who really hasn’t had an episode focusing on them yet is Tonkatsu. However, he gets his turn in Episode 13. This episode also marks the halfway point of the series so it’s, er, all downhill from here (whether a pun was intended will be determined by the end of the series).

This episode starts as Suzu tries to create some cold tofu shaped like Tonkatsu for Tonkatsu’s birthday which is that day (but isn’t having much success having it actually form correctly). To keep Tonkatsu from finding out, Suzu has the chicken family who lives next to her essentially confine Tonkatsu for the day (basically they invite him over for tea, then won’t let him leave. When Ikuto hears it’s Tonkatsu’s birthday, he starts getting down. Ikuto goes off somewhere, leaving a notebook with a picture in it behind.

Suzu and Ayane, who has come over to continue her never ending quest to get back at Suzu, peek at the picture, which shows Ikuto and a slightly younger girl, both in their school uniforms, grabbing to Ikuto’s arm. Ayane immediately declares that the girl must be Ikuto’s former love from back home and that’s why he’s down. After hearing about this, Rin, Yukino, and Chikage all decide to try to take advantage of the depressed Ikuto to woo him over to them, with Ayane, Chikage, and Yukino dressing up in various ways and Rin making a big boxed lunch.

When they all run into Suzu’s house to look for Ikuto, they find a note from him saying that he’s gone to the sea. Suzu chases after him, fearing that he’s going to try to leave due to missing his friends and family back home.

Ikuto just starts rowing out to sea when able to grab the boat with some seaweed and drags him back (and then scolding and slapping him multiple times in the process). Confused, Ikuto just says he was trying to send out a message in a bottle. When the other girls show up and start trying to woo him to get him over his old lover, Ikuto tells them that the girl is his little sister, not an ex or anything.

After this is resolved, Chikage notices that something is boiling over a fire. Ikuto reveals that it’s nigari, which is supposed to help tofu form better, saying that he learned it from his grandfather who used to make tofu. Suzu is able to use this to make a properly-formed Tonkatsu-shaped tofu, which Tonkatsu happily chows down once he’s finally rescued from the chicken’s house to attend his birthday party.

Afterwards, Suzu calls for Sashimi, the killer whale, so that Suzu and Ikuto can ride out on it and throw the message in a bottle past the whirlpools. After it’s finished, Ikuto and Suzu get all mushy-acting in the first time that they seem to acknowledge each other’s shared feelings (though not verbally).

This episode was kind of like two episodes merged into one. First you had the plotline of Tonkatsu’s birthday which bookends, as well as triggers the second plotline: Ikuto remembering his sister’s birthday. I guess the two plot lines mixing together didn’t necessarily bother me, but this episode reminds us all that ultimately at it’s core this is a harem anime where pretty much all the girls on the island are after Ikuto.

I guess two major events ended up happening in this episode: we learn a little more about Ikuto, namely that he has a little sister. How much this fact will impact the rest of the story is unknown. It could either be irrelevant or maybe it will matter. We’ll find out, though I kind of wonder why this fact would be revealed, and in this way, if it isn’t going to come back in some fashion.

The second event was at the end where Ikuto and Suzu basically start getting mushy-mushy and neither react back like “omg I didn’t mean that.” I kind of take this as their first acknowledgment, even though it was nonverbal, of the feelings. I suppose it could still be misinterpreted. Ikuto may still think that he just feels great appreciation instead of love towards Suzu, but it’s clear that they both kind of realize that their relationship is definitely different from the relationship Ikuto has with any of the other girls.

We keep inching towards Ikuto and Suzu finally getting together, and this episode kind of took one of the biggest steps in that direction, I think, but given how these sort of series go, I have a feeling that we’re gonna have to sit through another 10 or so episodes before that actually happens.