I honestly thought this would be a beach episode.

|The First Sleep Over|

It looks like these next couple of episode will put the spotlight on the Souda triplets. The group takes a detour from their trip to Student Council to stop by the Souda household and pay a visit for the night. It looks like Izumiko and even Miyuki have become very close friends with the triplets after the whole deal with Ichijou and all that sorcery junk in the previous episodes. I really thought that with the group heading off campus for camp, we’d get a typical beach episode or see them do summer-type activities like play with fireworks and have a test of courage. Given the nature of this show, I should’ve known better than even little detours like this play into the bigger plot at hand.

There are once again a lot of plot revelations in this episode that, quite frankly, can be a bit tough to swallow all at once. It turns out the student council, lead by current president Jean Honoka Kisaragi, are a neutral party in the ongoing “battle” between Ichijou and Mayura’s group. It turns out that they are in fact “the judges” mentioned in the previous episode by Murakami, a fact that is a closely guarded secret within the school. There are hints dropped that Mayura wants to grab more power by being in the student council, which makes me feel a bit uneasy about her now. Even with her usual smile, I can’t help but feel like she has ulterior motives.

We also get to learn a bit more about the departed Souda brother Masumi, who keeps popping up from time to time. It must be odd being able to interact with the spirit of your dead sibling. Although he looks to be the same age as Mayura and Manatsu are now, he still has a bit of the mentality of a six-year old. His powers are nothing to scoff at either, after seeing his abilities against Ichijou previously. Still, it must be painfully lonely to only be seen by his siblings and not the rest of his family, especially his mother. He has at least found a new friend in Izumiko, who is the first person beside his siblings to be able to see and interact with him of her own free will.

Thankfully, the episode breaks from its overly serious nature every now and then with some humorous moments. There is one particular funny moment when Izumiko gets drunk off of the fruit juice. Is that normal to spike the juice at family barbeques? I thought that only happened at high school proms so that all the girls could get drunk and start twerking. There’s also some more ship teasing from Mayura, who seems to have the idea that Izumiko and Miyuki should be a couple. Now where would she possibly get a ridiculous idea like that?

With this episode, we only dive deeper into the overall plot behind RDG. We now know for sure that there are at least three factions fighting for power behind the scenes at the school: you’re either with Ichijou, Mayura, or neutral like the student council. It looks like Izumiko’s entrance into the school has caused a ripple within that struggle, and Mayura sees that having her join her side would be extremely beneficial. It’s a surprising mix of political upheaval and supernatural elements that I’m curious to see play out as we cross over the halfway point.

Lingering thoughts:

• Drunk Izumiko is pretty cute actually. And has a much more outgoing personality.