I’d like to apologise for the brevity of today’s post. This week my husband and I closed on our first home! Since then, all of our free time has been spent resisting the urge to strangle each other as we attempt to put together an entire home’s worth of flatpack furniture. So, yeah, my brain is completely fried! It also doesn’t help that this week’s episode was probably the weakest so far. It wasn’t bad, per se, it just failed to bring anything new to the table… We didn’t meet any new characters, we didn’t learn anything new about the ones who we’ve already met, and there were no new developments in the story. That being said, it did endear me to poor, sweet Hatori…
This week Shigure, Hatori, Yuki, Kyo, and Tohru visit (yet another) one of the Sohma’s holiday homes. Much to Yuki and Kyo’s horror, they are later joined by Ayame. Up until his entrance, Yuki and Kyo are kind of dour and distant. So much so that even spacey Tohru can’t help but notice. I mean, whatever’s bugging them must be bad if they can’t even bring themselves to argue with one another! I reckon that it’s the secrets that they’re both keeping, that Yuki and Tohru met once before when Yuki helped guide poor, lost Tohru home and that Kyo knows something about Kyoko’s death (though this one’s still just speculation on my part), that are gnawing away at them and making it hard for them to look into Tohru’s eyes. Though you’ve got to wonder why Yuki would want to keep the fact that he was the boy in the hat a secret, when it would only bring he and Tohru closer together were she to know…
This week continued to explore the theme of whether it is better to forget painful memories. Following Kana’s wedding, which Hatori couldn’t bring himself to attend, Shigure, Ayame, and Hatori reflect on their doomed relationship. A-ya argues that Hatori should have made some grand gesture and crashed her wedding. He declares that it’s not fair that Kana should be able to forget Hatori, move on, and live happily ever after, while Hatori is left miserable, alone, and with plenty of time on his hands to dwell on the traumatic memories of their time together. While crashing somebody else’s wedding would be totally in keeping with A-ya’s character (his selfishness is rivaled only by his flair for the dramatic), Hatori would never jeopardise Kana’s happiness. Though of the three musketeers I’m least attracted to Hatori, he’d make the best boyfriend by far! Yep, poor Ty has terrible taste in men! At any rate, A-ya’s wrong. Hatori isn’t miserable or alone. He’s slowly but surely healing from the trauma he experienced. Since meeting Tohru he looks visibly lighter. He’s also able to smile more freely and sleep more soundly. Not to mention that, while single, he’s not alone. He’s surrounded on all sides by people who love and care for him. In that sense, he’s actually very lucky!
On a lighter note, why do straight men think it’s hilarious to flirt with each other? Shigure and Ayame aren’t the only culprits I know, my husband’s also a prolific womaniser man-aniser(???). The way that he and his male colleagues carry on with one another is absolutely baffling!
And since I neglected to mention this last week, I really like the visuals for the new OP and ED (particularly the ED)! It feels very arts-and-craftsy, with its felt-looking zodiac animal models. They evoke a sense of innocence and simplicity, kind of like Tohru herself! I think it’ll take a while for the songs themselves to grow on me, since they didn’t immediately blow me away, but I did, eventually, warm to the first OP, so their chances are good.
Once again, I’m sorry for the short post today. I hope to be back on top form next week! If you noticed any cool details that I missed, I’d love to hear about them, so drop me a line. Failing that, I’d love to know who’s your favourite Furuba man-crush! Can you guess who mine is?
Watashi Wa Bucho!! 