There’s no question about it, Jijou wo Shiranai Tenkousei ga Guigui Kuru is just one of those series that works better as an anime.  I enjoy the manga tremendously, but the material seems to rise to another level when it’s brought to life like this.  As much as I was looking forward to seeing it adapted, this may be the show that’s most exceeded my expectations this season.  And in a sea of great anime romances, this one is the dark horse beyond a shadow of a doubt.

This series has been full of incredibly cute moments between the leads, but this ep pretty much takes the (Christmas) cake.  We start off with more Kasahara detente, as Akane catches her trying to coax a plastic bag to come play with her.  Turns out that Kasahara the swift is a huge cat fan, and she winds up inviting herself to the Nishimura house to catch up with Kuro.  She also picks a leaf out of Akane’s hair for good measure, leaving Taiyou vexed that she’s somehow gotten closer to Akane than he is.  He dubs this the “Swift-Reaper Alliance” – much to Kasahara’s annoyance – but Akane is thrilled when Kasahara refers to the pair of them as “just normal friends”.

Next, on the first of what are multiple dates (effectively), Taiyou displays his remarkable ability to boomerang a compliment.  Akane is determined to pay him back for all the nice things he says about her, so she notes how cool he is.  The response couldn’t be more Taiyou – “how, exactly?”- which forces Akane to go with “everything about you is cool”.  Daichi is meeting them, but he’s late for a very Daichi reason – he couldn’t handle long sleeves.  Later, at school, the bully bros spin this as a date (hey, they’re not wrong) until Taiyou tellls them  Dai-chan was there too.  However, he left for a date of his own – leaving Kitagawa and the others in awe of their advancement.

Next, Taiyou stumbles on Akane in a most embarrassing moment – singing to herself on the street, and a nonsense song at that.  I’ve actually been there myself and the feeling of acute embarrassment is rather uniquely cringey, though of course Taiyou immediately moves on to the idea that it’s a cursed song and insists that Akane sing it some more.  “Negi negi tamago” definitely sounds like some sort of Japanese folk song from the Edo Period or something though.  Taiyou’s disappointed face is so wretched that Akane can’t resist giving him another verse, as embarrassing as is it.  If that’s not love I don’t know what is.

This is all building (as these episodes usually do) to something though, and that’s the Christmas date.  Yukiko’s friend Kasumi-oneesan (Matsui Eriko) is over for a visit, and Yukiko tells Taiyou that Kasumi is set for a Christmas date with a bookworm sempai.  Well, Taiyou has one planned too – he’s going shopping with Nishimura-san to stock up for the kids’ Xmas party at the Takada house.  That includes “Chammer” (Chammer is what the manga calls it, the anime makes it sound more like “Chameri”, and I don’t know which is correct), which is a sort of sparkling cider kids pretend is champagne.  How grown up!  And that’s very much the theme going forward.

Well, the long and the short of it is the kids stumble upon Kasumi and her beau in the park, and just as Taiyou is about to call out to them they kiss.  This is one of Taiyou’s more innocent moments, where there’s no hint that he gets more than he’s letting on – he seems genuinely stunned by what they’ve witnessed.  This topic of kissing has come up between them before, but never quite with the immediacy it does here.  And Taiyou proves himself capable of just as fierce embarrassment as Akane, as he pumps the breaks pretty hard.  The gang at the party (Kasahara’s come too) have no idea what happened, but that something did is written plainly on Akane and Taiyou’s faces.  Is this one step too far, too soon on the stairway to adulthood?