Remembering the be grateful for anything you get mantra for this anime, we have a lot of reasons for gratitude right now.  Two episodes in three days almost seems like an embarrassment of riches, but I’ll sure take it.  They offer a really nice contrast, too, as Haruo pivots neatly between the two girls in his life quite distinctly.  It’s not just that they’re different as people, but their influence on the tone and flow of narrative is completely different.  It certainly helps to keep things fresh.

Any discussion of animanga’s greatest third wheels, I think, would have to include Hidaka Koharu.  It seems quite unfair to call her that, because Hidaka is anything but a secondary character.  Life would be a lot easier if this series could be seen as a tricycle (or a dune buggy, maybe) but we all know it doesn’t work that way.  She really is a treasure, though – all of the episodes focused on Hidaka have a wonderful vitality and energy.  Even the color palette seems brighter than in the Oono-themed episodes (maybe that’s just imagination, or their personal coloring, or maybe there really is something to it).

As we saw at the end of last week’s (well, Friday’s) episode, Haruo failed to get into Jouran.  He notes that maybe it was a blessing, as he’s struggling to keep up even at his second-choice school (which Miyao-nyan also attends).  But there’s no question his failure after having totally applied himself has hit Haruo hard (welcome to the 4-H club).  He’s working part-time (a hairnet job, on a bento assembly line) and slavishly attacking his Sega Saturn, but his trips to the arcade have all but dried up.  Haruo cites money problems, but the true reason is obvious enough.

Enter Hidaka – as she always seems to, at these moments in Haruo’s life.  She’s the ultimate rebound girl in a sense – when things with Oono break down, Hidaka eagerly claims whatever stake she can.  When her curiosity (she goes to an all-girls high school) finally drives her to visit, Haruo’s mom immediately invites her inside in the hope that she and her son will “play outside”.  Eventually the talk turns to Hidaka’s Playstation, and the superb set of “patrician” games she has at home.  But when she tenders an invitation to Haruo to come over and play, he declines out of loyalty to his Saturn (as dumb as this sounds, I definitely knew people who took the whole Sega-Nintendo thing that seriously). Poor Hidaka can’t get Haruo’s heart to stray, even when it comes to consoles.

Haruo is definitely not being intentionally cruel to Hidaka, but damn, some of this can be hard to watch.  I can’t help but be struck by the fact that Haruo tells Miyao that he to “prepare” to talk with Oono when he sees her, while he seems totally and utterly at ease with Hidaka.  Because of course he is – in his mind, there’s nothing complicated about his relationship with her.  He doesn’t know her as well as he thinks he does (that will change later in the episode, though not in the way Hidaka would want), but it doesn’t matter because he thinks he knows everything he needs to know.

What happens when Haruo becomes aware of his decline in arcade skills is a fascinating turn.  Hidaka has been improving while Haruo has gotten rusty – whether subconsciously or not I don’t know, but on some level she was preparing for this moment.  She’s mimicking the girl who has a firm grip on Haruo’s heart, on the grounds that maybe it’s trumping Haruo at games (thought he does win one round with a hilarious dirty – literally – trick) that ultimately turns his head.  She does embrace the moment a bit too enthusiastically, and things take rather a sadistic turn as a result, but the result is that Haruo resolves to start again from grommet level and get his revenge.  In a way, this is Hidaka’s first real win – she’s definitely forced herself into Haruo’s consciousness (and his dreams).