After Subaru tells Rintaro to stop seeing Kaoruko, he must deal with his closest friends finding out that he might be intimately involved with a Kikyo girl.
Video Review
What Stands Out About This Episode?
Major Character Growth and Future Plot Foreshadowing
Imagine always neglecting what you are truly feeling inside as you cope with life in an exclusionary way—meaning, no friends because you’re scared of people’s perception of you and perpetuating that social divide by making decisions based on that negative stigma. This is to put it simply, the general theme of The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity.
Rintaro is now faced with juggling the social implications of his friends knowing that he is friends with a girl from the rich girl snobby school and from Subaru’s request for him to stop seeing Kaoruko because it will negatively impact her school prestige, due to the senseis themselves HATING CHIDORI more than the girls do. What this episode revealed is the continuous prejudice breaking fear that Rintaro holds. He knows that maintaining a friendship with Kaoruko will only lead to hardships for her and that he might lose his friends because he is friends with an entire school that thinks of them as trash.
Shohei, Saku and Ayato have revealed in small bits that they can act civilly amongst themselves and with Kikyo with Shohei highlighted that he can apologize to Kaoruko in the previous episode for the high school “gate” incident. This episode continues to show the empathy and compassion they actually have for Rintaro. Like Saku revealed, behind his cold and standoffish exterior it’s not the fact that Rintaro is talking with a Kikyo girl, it’s the fact that he’s not comfortable and trust them enough to talk about it. As Ayato and Shohei explain, they know the real Rintaro just as Kaoruko does in the fact that he is always looking out for them. The fact that he was open enough to tell them he doesn’t want to talk about the Kaoruko “study guide” incident is actually Rintaro being genuine with them, when usually he’s not that open.
This entire interaction between Shohei, Saku and Ayato proceeds to build a foundation of a strong bond of family & friendship that will continue to shatter the conventional “social wisdom” placed upon them like the adults at Kikyo Private Academy. In which, this naturally takes us to future major plots like how the girls at Kikyo & the teachers themselves will end up taking issue with a top student like Kaoruko being involved with “dumb” Chidori boy.
The Romantic Aspect
Each episode generally provides a new insight into the Kaoruko and Rintaro dynamic. The previous episode was the wholesome one-on-one time of up close almost face-to-face swap of body heat, instead this episode provides an awkward hand-to-hand celebration for both of them passing their midterms. In episode 2, Rintaro faced Kaoruko to reveal why he was wrong to play into Kikyo and Chidori preconceptions. This time, he doesn’t quite know how to deal with his friends knowing about Kaoruko and how he wants to continue seeing her. Sensing this internal struggle, Kaoruko does her best to try to uplift him with the thoughts of tummy yummies. Although they are not technically in a relationship, we can already see the emotional support they continue to try to provide to each other in their own wholesomely sweet and unique way.
As Shohei, Saku and Ayato try to find a way to give Rintaro the ability to open up to them, Subaru is on her own path to do the same for Kaoruko. Knowing that she just tried to block her and Rintaro’s relationship from forming, she feels the guilt and wants to address it to her “hero.” Subaru’s relationship with Kaoruko continues to break the mold beyond the social divide like how Rintaro’s friends do for him, so we’ll see all of this come together in the next episode.
Miscellaneous
- This episode covers manga chapters 8, 9 and part of 13
OTAKU SINH 