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Last episode, Shikimori didn’t only continue to seduce Izumi but his parents as well. What a catch!

My Thoughts

I was kind of right, but instead of the generic beach, we’re going to the river because Izumi apparently bursts into flames in direct sunlight. I’ve noticed this whole scene has looked really nice. I don’t know how exactly. It feels like the colors are brighter, but they captured that summer sunlight in a way that’s really pretty.

The girls want swimsuits, but Shikimori decides not to get one since Izumi’s not swimming, but, like the mastermind he is, Izumi uses manipulation to get her to go buy one. And by manipulation, I mean he admires the abs on a poster of a girl in a swimsuit, which then gets misconstrued because anime. The point is that Shikimori hates losing.

We see that more in a flashback to how she met Nekozaki. Basically, the same thing. They were playing basketball, and they were both really good. Neko just admired Shikimori, but in reality, Shikimori was just trying to look cool in front of Izumi, which is half of her entire character. Of course, she’s more, but that’s a big part.

After some more teasing on Izumi’s part, showing, again, how healthy and not one-sided their relationship is, it’s time to talk about one of the more controversial moments of the anime. So far, as a manga reader, I can tell you that this has been a pretty damn faithful adaptation. Yes, the order of events has changed, but they’ve all made sense and have been done differently for good reason.

This next scene changed quite a bit. So Izumi is worried about his tests, and Shikimori gives him a late-night call. This does happen in the manga, but instead of the conversation ending abruptly as it does in the manga, the anime puts another scene in their phone call.  In both the manga and anime, the two talk about the night sky and wanting to go see constellations together. The difference is that it isn’t during a phone call in the manga.

This scene takes place in a planetarium with the two lying down next to each other, looking up at the starry roof in what is probably the most intimate moment of the early volumes. They opted to get rid of that for the anime and instead put it in the phone call, maybe to pad that out.

People are reasonably upset by this. It takes out one of the cutest, most intimate scenes. Of course, that’s bad, right? Well, I’m not sure. You have to admit that it does seem odd for such an intimate scene only four episodes in, and the way they did this sounded much more natural. I really don’t think they cut the scene out. I think they’re just going to alter it and put it near the end. That’s my opinion, at least.

If you don’t believe the adaptation should change the source at all, then sure, this is pretty bad, especially when it’s been so faithful to this point, but some things are necessary for the adaptation to work, and I think this is still acceptable. I trust the direction they’re going with this adaptation, and I don’t think they’d let us down on it. I really don’t. Anyway, I’ll see you for the hopefully less controversial next episode that a lot of people will still hate for some reason.

Thank you very much for reading

I don’t know what to say here. I’m kind of tired.