It seemed that with only two episodes remaining, Youkai Apartment no Yuuga na Nichijou had run out of time to string out the Yamamoto-san plotline – which still leaves it as one of the most teased subplots I’ve seen in an anime for a very long time.  It would have been heartily disappointing if the series had come to an end and the whole Yamamoto thing had turned out to be a fake-out, but it looks as if it’s at least tangentially going to be at the center of the final arc.

The backdrop for that final arc (in both settings, school and Kotobuki-so) is the culture festival, where the English Conversation Club is putting on a play.  Yamamoto, ever the charmer, strides into the clubroom intent on resigning, but not before deriding the club’s efforts as “preschool” in caliber.  She crosses a line, though, by mocking Yuushi for “showing off his mom’s lunches”.  This sets Tashiro-san off, and I must confess it felt entirely satisfying when Tashiro literally slapped Yamamoto down and told her just what she thought of her.

Youkai Apato is big on showing both sides of the story, and I do have a certain sympathy for Yamamoto – she’s not exactly well-treated by her family, and she’s lonely.  But that sympathy only goes so far, and I’m only willing to bend over backward so far to excuse the kind of behavior she’s exhibited in the series.  I’m still not sure whether all of her negative emotions gave rise to the “terrible” negative aura Fool refers to, or the other way around – we have a bit of chicken and egg syndrome here.  But whichever it is, I’m perfectly OK with what Tashiro did – it was entirely justified in my opinion.

Then we have Aoki-sensei, who I have little patience for and never did.  The scene where she admonished the club members to accept Yamamoto and told her she “did nothing wrong”, only to be rebuked by the president with “We’re not kindergarteners” was interesting.  I’m not sure how we were supposed to take that, and I think that was by design.  And I quite like that about this series – it’s willing to be puzzling and difficult sometimes.  Maybe there’s something to be said for Aoki’s consistency, but look what it’s given rise to – feelings among her cult of followers that it’s OK to try and kill Chiaki0-sensei because he dared to oppose her.  Speaking of which – I get that Yuushi-kun wanted to stop that girl and hold her accountable, but wouldn’t you prioritize taking care of the (anemic) guy who’d just been stabbed?

Next week, it seems, the two worlds which have run on parallel tracks in this series will finally intersect – Yuushi’s public and home life will come together.  That ought to be interesting – one suspects that Yuushi is going to have to think on his feet and do a lot of explaining before this culture festival comes to an end.  I can honestly say I’m not sure how all that is going to play out, and that’s a nice feeling to have going into a final episode.