Cheat code alert.

Being the sort of series it is, it’s inevitable that Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san would have had a Valentine’s Day chapter.  In fact it’s has several over the years, mainly short omake-type storylines.  But what we got here was mostly an anime invention, though it did incorporate some elements from those manga chapters.  That was also inevitable – the anime is all about creating season-ending drama, and the manga isn’t really wired that way.  It took a seed that was planted with another original plotline (the culture festival/play) and bloomed it here, in order to set up next week’s finale.

These original episodes are quite consistent, in fact (though I thought the art style was a bit unusual this week).  Consistently good, happily, but also consistent in terms of tone and structure.  They’re all about taking what’s implied in the manga and making it explicit in the anime.  Takagi herself is the most noticeable change, as she’s much more vulnerable in these cheat code episodes.  This one in fact was basically express-made to show her vulnerable side – Nishikata-kun gets a bunch of honmei chocolate in his shoe locker.  The idea is that he’s gotten a gaggle of 1st-year admirers after his role as the frog prince (though it was Shibasaki (ROFL) who was the actual target recipient for his portrayal of the dog.

As I’ve said, I think Nishi and Takagi-san are more or less in-character in these originals – they’re just amplified and simplified.  Nishi’s consternation over this incident goes beyond the obvious fear of embarrassment – he feels genuinely guilty over having received hommei choco from someone other than Takagi.  And she would absolutely be bummed by this – it’s just that in the manga she’d hide it a lot better.  The episode incorporate some of Yamamoto’s Valentine’s material with the “niboshi” – gag – he absolutely loves wordplay and puns, and the whole talking with numbers thing is a classic middle school time-waster.

The anime also tends to make use of the supporting cast somewhat more than the manga does, and so it is here.  The Yukari crew (their manga role is mostly segregated into their spinoff) gets an appearance here with the “Bonds” bit, but it’s really Hamaguchi and Houjou who see the biggest jump in focus.  Tsun-chan and Tsun-kun are a natural focus for a “serious” Valentine’s Day story.  Here, he sees her buying ingredients for homemade chocolate in the supermarket and is dismayed when she gives him a giri bar instead (and a cheap one, too).  The reason is the Occam’s Razor one – she burned her own creation – but the payoff off the two of them with their little smiles when it was resolved was pretty darn adorable.

Tsun-kun will be heard from again in an important way, but before then there’s still the matter of Nishikata and Takagi settling things.  He even comes up with a plan to throw a contest (as if that would ever be necessary) to give himself a reason to tell her about the chocolate.  This is as cheat code as Takagi-san gets – she’s too morose to even tease Nishikata-kun or try and win the eraser content (which gets kiboshed when he gets in trouble with the teacher anyway).  Eventually Takagi messages Nishikata to meet her at the shrine so she can come clean (he’s already there) and everything is out in the open.  That’s about as “relationship” as it comes.

It’s Hamaguchi who provides the pretext for the finale.  He declares that he’s finally going to officially confess to Houjou – which isn’t that much of a shocker – but he also challenges Nishi that he has to do the same.  It’ll be interesting to see how the anime finesses that – it’ll be wholly original or close to it.  It’ll also be interesting to see where it leaves matters, because if we get a really concrete resolution, that would imply that this might be the actual series finale.  The original manga is still ongoing (as is “Moto” of course), and there’s no obvious reason to think the adaptation would stop short, but I’ll definitely be reading the tea leaves next week.