Everyone goes to London to try and bring Kei back.

Impressions:

I thought this episode was wonderful. I’m very pleased with the ending. I was afraid they would do something at the end of the episode that would completely undo any romance that they developed, and even though they left off on a non romantic note, it didn’t undo the romance focus they had just before it, it was great. I thought they tied things up perfectly.

On a smaller note I’m glad they brought back Yahiro and Sakura for this episode, as they were pretty important. It was interesting to see that the relationship between Megumi and Yahiro isn’t completely over. I’m glad because without that relationship. There was no one for either Megumi or Yahiro.

Final Words:

This series has been interesting. It started off being absolutely nothing like I expected it to be. When I got the synopsis of the show and from the general ramblings of other people it seed that this would be somewhat of a shoujo show. I figured there would be a lot of focus on romance. While there did end up being some, tit was hardly the series high point. The show focused more on random challenges and comedy about how Hikari keeps loosing to Kei. Ultimately it was disappointing that they didn’t make as big of use out of the romance as they could have, but in the end they did focus on to, and the show isn’t horrible if you don’t expect it to be something else.

One of the high points of this show was the story between Akira, Tadashi, and Yahiro. I was blown away with how interesting this story was, especially considering the series main characters seemed to be Hikari and Kei; Yahiro seemed to be this evil guy but then it turns out that he decided to be hated by the one he loved in order to protect her, then we find out about this history between Tadashi and Akira and we see them realize their feelings and the most miraculous thing about it is that it actually leads somewhere. They don’t just stumble around and end up no where, they actually start going out. It was one of the best parts of this series.

The members of the S.A. find out that the class has been closed, and Hikari sees the ramifications.

Impressions:

I thought this episode was pretty good. I’m surprised with how much they’ve stepped things up in this series so quickly when previously it has been mostly fluff and nothing that happened ever really mattered in the long run much. They’ve done an excellent job of shifting over to some conflicts that really matter overall and to the characters. I really care about the characters being able to stay together. Although ultimately I may want more of the show in other aspects, it’s done a great job in that one.

I’m not sure how things will end up being resolved exactly. Even in the end, Kei didn’t necessarily seem to want to go back on his decision. Even though he realized how much Hikari cared, ultimately he was still doing thing for her benefit so it’s not like he immediately wanted off the plane. Still, with a series like this I can’t imagine an ending that is anything other then a happy one where everyone is back together. However I’m also expecting the romance to not really ultimately get where I want it to be. Even though they have made considerable progress, it will still likely be turned into a kind of joke at the end of the last episode.

Kei takes Hikari on a date to try and help her figure out if she has feelings for him or not.

Impressions:

I thought this episode was good until the very end. I was so excited about the end of this episode. The majority of the episode leading up to the end wasn’t really anything special, but then Hikari finally realizes she loves Kei and is about to say it. Then she’s interrupted, but I’m even fine with that. Hen she went away, although she didn’t say she loved Kei out loud, she finally realized it herself. But then BOOM everything gets pretty much ruined when she thinks loving him means loosing. I just desperately hope that in the final episode it’s not taken back. They can take it back until then, but at the end I hope they don’t, however I feel they will unfortunately.

It seems that there will be only two more episodes left. I’m sure it will involve Kei going back to London or not, as I’m sure that’s why the S.A. was closed, because of Aoi’s influence and using that as something to push Kei to finally go along with him. I don’t think he’ll go, even thought he romance seems to undo itself all the time, its still there and parting from Hikari would be something Kei isn’t willing to do, however Aoi and Kei’s grandfather see stubborn enough that something else will have to be done, but I have no idea what.

A representative of Kei’s grandfather comes to Japan to see whether or not Hakusen Academy is fit for Kei.

Impressions:

This episode was great. It was one of the best episodes of the series. I had my doubts about it going in, as even though it’s focusing on Kei had Hikari, since they haven’t really had much serious development yet I thought they might not be able to pull it off here, but despite that this episode had great moments in it. I thought the serious look at the rivalry between the two of them was great. It has previously just been a joke that they are rivals and Kei beats Hikari at everything, however examining it on the level they did here brought some seriousness to it which was really interesting to see.

The other big part of this episode aside from the in depth look at their rivalry, was the romance. It wasn’t really the focus, but near the end it definitely came though. When Aoi had Hikari pinned it definitely felt like she was crying and in distress for more then just the thought of her not being good enough to be his rival. Then of course at the end there was the big thing with Kei saying Hikari probably loves him. Although he said it so calmly like it was no big deal, and she erupted saying that’s not it in a comical fashion I am SOOO glad they showed her at the end there thinking to herself. It didn’t completely undo any romance development the episode had. I really think she’s realizing herself that she loves Kei but just didn’t want to look bad in front of Kei when he said it. It seems like the next episode will continue to focus on Kei and Hikari, hopefully more on the romance aspect of things.

Sakura continues to pursue Jun even though he knows of his condition yet Jun runs away.

Impressions:

This episode was A LOT better then I thought it was going to be. I was disappointed with the previous Jun episode because it took a situation which could have become something serious and interesting and made it into some extremely bizarre comedy situation. While they still had that in this episode to some degree, as the condition that Jun still turned into a different Jun was still there, the episode was at least a lot more focused on some serious aspects of everything. There was actually very little comedy surrounding Jun’s transformation in this at all. Instead, it was the base of Jun running away from the girl he loved because he didn’t’ want to burden her. That’s a lot more of a serious thing that lead to some interesting drama then using that situation as a joke.

It seems like the next episode things will FINALLY get serious. If it has something involving Kei then it’s likely to then involve Hikari. I’m really hoping they don’t let this last chance go to waste. There has been pretty much zero Hikari and Kei relationship development. Even when they had amazing opportunities, like when Kei was sick from overworking and Hikari was there, they still somehow, bafflingly managed to make that opportunity amount to nothing. Now them taking this last arc involving Kei’s grandfather I guess, which seems to look the same age as Kei almost, won’t make up for the entire series of slow progression, but if they have at least something it will help the show.

Megumi goes out on a date with Yahiro in order to try and cheer him up about Akira dating Tadashi.

Impressions:

This episode was pretty good. I still have to stress how much I love Yahiro’s character. Although some people seem to have had some problems with the choices he’s made, I love his personality. Being the bad guy thing for the good of someone else is so interesting I find. I mean, it’s better for someone to hate you then to be embarrassed or hated themselves. In this situation, being the bad guy saying he forcefully took Megumi out would help Megumi because she obviously didn’t want to be seen with him as she would either be embarrassed or what not.

The next episode seems like it’ll feature some Kei and Hikari focus, as well as a bit of Jun and Sakura. I thought they were pretty much done with the whole Jun and Sakura thing, but it seems like they’ll have a bit of serious focus. I thought it would kind of end with the rather comical bit they had before, but it should be interesting to see. I was hoping for a bit of a serious story involving Jun before so perhaps we’ll get it here. It also seems to have Kei and Hikari in it, but I’ve pretty much lost all hope of that going anywhere just because of how long it’s taking for anything to happen.

Akira gets mad at Tadashi for being oblivious of her feelings towards him.

Impressions:

I loved this episode. As I said before the story revolving around Akira’s past and then her romance situation is the most interesting part of this series so far. Really nothing has become of the Kei and Hikari pairing, as it’s been the same thing throughout the series of showing Kei doing things because he likes her yet Hikari being oblivious. This episode really pounded away at the Akira part, which was great. Although I wish the two of them would have kissed at the end there, the way it turned out was fine. I don’t even really mind the fact it showed Akira hitting Tadashi at the end there, since that’s kind of her thing. They still made huge leaps and bounds of development with the other scenes of her saying she loves him and revealing he said the same a long time ago.

It seems like the next episode will feature a Megumi and Yahiro pairing, which is certainly surprising. I wouldn’t have really guessed that the two of them may end up ever being tied together, and Megumi is one of the least important or stand out characters. However I was curious as to what would become of Yahiro. Since its kind of decided that Tadashi and Akira end up together, that leaves Yahiro by himself It he were to end up with Jun or at least one of them having feelings for the other, it would take care of two charactersnot really being paired, when a lot of the existing characters are paired already.

The S.A. gets invited to Sakura’s school festival.

Impressions:

This episode was great. This show has kind of jumped back into being a lot better then it previously was. Before it suffered a lot from fluff episodes and having the progress made be erased at the end. While that’s still the case more or less for Kei and Hikari, this show has been very interesting regarding Akira. Hell, its almost as if she’s the main character, honestly it’s the most interesting part of this series and I could see this series being good, if slightly shorter, without any focus on Hikari and Kei at all. First they had the history of Akira and Yahiro, and Yahiro actually not being mean, and now we have her dealing with her feelings for Tadase and having to go the marriage interview, while at the same time I don’t know who to cheer for, Tadase or Yahiro. At first it seemed Yahrio was bad but he became a great person when it was revealed he would rather be hated by the person he likes then have that person be hurt by others. I feel sorry for him seeing him not be with her, but at the same time I want Tadase to win as he too has a history with her and she seems to like him. I’m really interested in this series mainly just for that story.

The Hikari and Kei bit is almost not even being touched on at all, but as I said if they keep an interesting focus on Akira, I don’t mind. The “date” they went on never lead anywhere, and they haven’t once actually talked about their feelings seriously. I’ve effectively given up on them and instead am basing this show’s quality on the Akira bit.

Sakura starts to pursue Jun relentlessly even though Ryuu and Megumi try to intervene.

Impressions:

I don’t know what to say about this episode. It was….odd. From the preview I guessed tat this episode would be mostly comedy but with a serious revelation on some tragic event in Jun’s past, giving him some character development. While that’s kind of true….I didn’t expect it to be…this. Unlike some other tragic past revelations, this one seemed to be comedy. Although there’s comedy in the series, the back-stories to everyone are usually serious. But here with Jun we have him turning into another personality because he was hypnotized by TV when he was young. I mean, come on. It was pretty funny and entertaining to watch, just no where near what I expected.

I don’t really know what to expect from the rest of this series. It seems to be all over the place. They have episodes with absolutely nothing happening in them, containing just fluff, then they have episodes that have drastic amounts of character and plot development only to take 90 percent of what they just built up and make it meaningless. The show cold really have some interesting moments dealing with Hikari realizing her own feelings or realizing Kei’s and a whole big thing about them being rivals and what it may mean for romantic feelings, yet they don’t, which is the frustrating thing. I don’t have a lot of hope for this series even though there is the potential. I just hope it stays entertaining to watch for the fluff aspect of it.

Kei and Hikari go out on their date Sunday, even though Kei had a scheduled marriage interview.

Impressions:

This episode was alright, but it kind of falsely got my hopes up. This episode had such great moments in it that could have meant amazing plot and character development with the relationships and romance, but in the end it kind of all went to waste. Sakura appearing and coming between Hikari and Kei had some real promise, and it was just about to perhaps give Hikari some revelation on her own feelings or Kei’s, but even that moments became interrupted for nothing really. At least some of the past incidents haven’t been completely forgotten, so they may be able to build on the one they kind of abandoned here, but it would have just made the series and episode so much better if they would have kept up the pace with the serious focus on their feelings.

It seems like they’re going to keep focusing on Sakura for a bit, or at least continue to feature her in the upcoming episode. However, its pretty much determined that she won’t have any more to do with Kei. I’m not sure though if her inclusion in this series is going to have any amount of depth to it, like a tragic back-story for her, as right now her personality is kind of lending itself to comedy. Her inquiry to Hikari had some serious implications, but she freaked out upon seeing Jun before that could go anywhere. It may be possible to get a little back-story on Jun since Sakura is paying so much attention to him, though we already got a bit of their story when they showed Ryuu in his episode.