Kimi ni Todoke Ep. 3: After School

Sawako’s fledgling efforts at making friends begin to pay off, while Kazehaya attempts to get closer to her. It is an uphill battle, but he has a secret weapon in reserve. Everything seems to be going well in this beautiful episode…

I am not a lover (or even a liker) of chick flicks, but I find myself utterly smitten with this lovely story. Slow moving and heartfelt, there is  purity to it that has sadly gone missing from our modern world. It does not hurt that I went through most of school being the outsider and turned from an extrovert to an introvert for a good chunk of years. I can remember that slow coming out of the shell even decades later.

Oddly enough, it was in 8th grade that a teacher told me to stop scowling all the time, which I had no clue that I was doing. As far as I knew, I was being neutral and lost in idle thoughts. So when Sawako attempts to say good morning to Ayane and Chizuru, I had to laugh at her expression. At least in her case it was because she was scrunching her face up to avoid tears of happiness, pure soul that she is. Her new friends are amused by this once they hear the explanation, too.

But when Kazehaya enters the class room and greets her, Sawako cannot keep from blushing. Now sitting next to the object of his crush, the boy asks her for help naming the dog rescued in the previous episode. As she is about to speak, another voice booms out with “Pedro Martinez!” The P.E. and current substitute teacher Pin has arrived to butt in.

Pin is truly an awesome character right from the moment he shows up. Boisterous, mercurial, and immature, he steals every scene he appears in. Having heard the rumor that Sadako curses anyone who looks her in the eye, the macho teacher decides to start a staring contest with our heroine. The results from that are funny enough, but what follows with Kazehaya is even more amusing.

One thing about having friends is getting used to conversations. Ayane and Chizuru use break time to catch Sawako up on Kazehaya’s past in middle school. It turns out he was mister popular there too and many girls followed him to this high school (you pay to go to a decent or better high school in Japan). While this goes on, she notices a couple of girls from another class talking to him in the doorway. One of them looks suspiciously familiar…

When the need for two students to assist in school paperwork rises, ever conscientious Sawako volunteers and Kazehaya follows suite to the surprise of their classmates. Pin notices the atmosphere between the two and decides to sabotage things by blackmailing the boy. Alone in the classroom, Sawako is surprised when two girls show up to help. Frightened by her, things are awkward at first, but soon Tomo and Ekko begin to see her true personality. It is a small, but important breakthrough.

Catching up to the shy girl on a stairway, Kazehaya voices his admiration for how helpful she is in a beautifully rendered scene. Eavesdropping on this is the light haired girl seen earlier. She seems to be popping up quite a bit despite being in another class. A stalker, perhaps?

Eventually we get to see Sawako’s first experience dealing with a passed note in class. Yes, even though this is high school, it is an unexpected challenge that she frets over before trying to pass the note to Ryu. This leads to a hilarious situation and then a touching moment as the unassuming girl tries her best to understand what is happening.

A chance encounter in the hallway gives us our first close up look at the mysterious girl shadowing the main characters. Surprised looks on both faces would have been the highlight of the scene, if it were not for Sawako’s stunned observation about how the girl looked like a fairytale princess ( or French bisque doll in the original). It is a thought that lingers on the mind for some reason.

Wait, isn’t the title of the episode After School? Waiting for the third act to show those events might seem anticlimactic, but they are anything but. A rendezvous with Kazehaya awaits Sawako and so does the next day at school. An unexpected triumph brings joy and something more ominous begins to rear its very ugly head in the cliffhanger ending.

Thoughts

There is a lot that goes on in this episode, even if the main story line is slow to progress and that becomes the pattern for the rest of the series. Watching Sawako slowly bloom is immensely gratifying and must be something like what a parent feels watching their child grow. She is a character you can unreservedly root for, which is something rare these days. It may be a formulaic show, but the execution and depth of characterization are simply superb.

Karuho Shiina’s original manga always struck me as having a truly cinematic feel in regards to how scenes are blocked and the animators have wisely kept many of the same “camera angles” while improving in other places.  One area where they surpass the original is having color to play with, especially with the gorgeous backgrounds. It really needs to be seen on Blu-ray to appreciate just what a pretty show this is. The 1080p video even blows away the 720p fan subs I originally watched by a fair margin.

Three episodes are the minimum to judge an anime series. With this episode, the quality was maintained in every area and I could tell it would be a special series. Little did I know that it would get even better.

BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!

 

 

 

 

It never fails using a little sibling or pet to lure in a girl. Kazehaya’s use of the abandoned pup, Maru, aka Pedro, works like a charm, even if the puppy does not like Sawako. I had to laugh at her trick to win the pup’s approval, even if it did not work. That lovely shot of them walking together was a nice payoff to the scene.

Speaking of payoffs… Oh that glorious moment when Sawako smiled after tutoring the class and the shocked expressions when they saw it. Kazehaya hiding his mouth when he is emotional was a nice touch and it indicated his jealousy. It was interesting that this nice guy has issues with sharing her with the rest of the class and actually said so later.

That final scene was a dramatic shift in mood. Overhearing the rumors about them set off Chizuru in a fashion that can only reinforce the ones about her. The feeling of incipient violence was very well conveyed, as was the shock on the faces of the two when they were told who started the rumor.