Yeah, I know it’s obvious that Friday (Japan time) is “density day”. But honestly I never really connected Otome Kaijuu Caraméliser and Super no Ura de Yani Suu Futari that way until this week. In this show’s defense, at least the two characters in question don’t literally look almost identical. You’d have to be in the right places at the right time to have figured Harugon out, but Minami-kun absolutely has. I don’t think he’s quite on the Sasaki-san level but it is starting to feel conspicuous.
Well actually, as I mentioned Kuroe gave away a pretty big hint about Big Purple’s identity last week. It remains to be seen if someone who isn’t Arata picked up on it (that’s definitely a maybe). But for seemingly everyone else Arata is the important one, not Harugon. He’s become even more of an it boy now, and outside school grounds too. It gets so bad he tells Kuroe that the two if them should dial it back for a bit, because he doesn’t want her to have to go through what he is. Intellectually Kuroe knows this is a good idea – just like she knows being intimate (emotionally) with him triggers her. But she’s a 16 year-old ball of hormones, so that doesn’t really matter. Is the whole kaijuu thing such a stretch?
I sympathize with Kuroe on the video call thing – sometimes you do forget you would just lounging around your room a minute earlier. She definitely doesn’t need to be in Minami’s physical presence to go Old Faithful – lovey-dovey talk on video will do it too. That forces Kuroe to do quite some contortions to try and keep her secret (one pose is particularly painful for Arata, though she never figures out why).
Arata comes up with what he’s convinced is a brilliant idea – meet someplace where he won’t stand out. A fireworks display does make sense on some level. Having been to a few Tokyo area ones, the crowds are truly terrifying. So is trying to put on a yukata, for Kuroe at least (seriously, yukata are pretty easy really). Her original plan is to sneak out but Rinko catches her in the act just as she’s about to bail on the yukata idea. She’s bummed that Kuroe was planning to sneak out but in the end helps her with her yukata and sends her on her way.
Rinko knowing what’s going on and letting Kuroe continue to see Arata is an interesting choice. Not that it’s especially easy for a parent to keep a teenage girl away from the boy she likes, but if any circumstances were ever extenuating you’d think it would be these. Arata even snags a festival mask to help with the gambit (and he wears a yukata too, pretty rare in romance manga) but he screws up in his choice of secret spots to watch the fireworks, leading to the pair of them getting separated.
OK, so now we know it’s not just estrus that can trigger Konoe’s Harugon-ification, it’s extreme emotional agony too. Yet again Harugon finds Arata in the crowd and scoops him up, and we see more control from Kuroe in this mode that in earlier events. The interesting question for me is, just what’s going down with Manatsu? Has she figured it out, even if Arata hasn’t? Or does she now see Arata as a love rival for Harugon’s affections, and intends to eliminate him? I doubt that one but she is kind of a nutter so I guess anything’s possible.
