Episode 05 – “Goodbye, My Home”

When we last left our hero Youto, he was contemplating on what to do about the curious disappearance of his house. Luckily (or maybe unfortunately), his parents and the rest of his neighbors are touring Guam at the moment and won’t be back to help him. Seriously though, what Japanese tourists want to go to Guam of all places? Though I guess the stereotype is for Japanese tourists to pop up everywhere.

This sudden turn of events allows for the romcom stable of staying over at a love interest’s house! We know that Youto’s not that lucky though. He doesn’t get the destined bath barge-in scene, but I guess the result of him rushing out with his hanging elephant is kind of the same, just more traumatizing for Tsukishi. I’m not sure if I like her change in character all that much. I’m mean she’s funny this way, but I guess I’m just not a big fan of the type of characters that always go crazy when they’re around a certain person. It’s a pattern that I notice in a lot series that I watch. Oh well, at least Azusa and Tsukiko are really good characters to make up for it.

We get some resolution between Azusa and her old friends. It’s nice to see and hear more Aya Suzaki, too! Hearing her play a valley girl type character when I’m so used to her as Tamako is just really funny. While the two girls are confused as to why Azusa asks them to go to Okinawa with them, it became a good opportunity for the three of them to make up. Due to misunderstandings, they might not have really been friends in the first place, but that’s all water under the bridge now.

Towards the end, we get a curious answer as to the whereabouts of Youto’s house. He stumbles upon a shed and, lo and behold, there’s all his stuff just scattered around. To make things weirder, there’s also a massive version of the cat statue. What wish triggered an offering that big, and why did it appear in Tsukiko’s house? And is that the same cat statue as from the hill or are there two of them?

B.W.