This was a big episode for Toumei na Yoru ni Kakeru Kimi to, Me ni Mienai Koi wo Shita., but not for the reasons I expected. Last week left a big honking bad taste in my mouth, and the onus was on this ep to tackle it in the right way. But as it turned out it wasn’t Episode 6 that was recalled here, it was Episode 3. Nothing we saw this week was surprising – it was pretty much all foreshadowed in that episode, and I pointed it out at the time. The timing could have been a whole lot better though.
Obviously the events here render a couple of college students acting like assholes towards a friend pretty insignificant. But the thing is, from the perspective of a work of fiction they’re not. Brushing it aside like this implies that the writer doesn’t think it’s important, and if so, I think he’s wrong. I mean we had a whole week of Koharu ghosting the other three principals, and – for the two assholes at least – there was no reason not to believe it was due to their behavior. Yet there’s no evidence of an abject apology from other of them. And worse, Kakeru shows no signs of blaming them for what happened. Yuuko is obviously worried but BFD.
Be that as it may, though, the truth was a lot more sinister. To review, in Episode 3 Koharu showed signs of memory loss. She had a secret message written in braille on her bookmark that she declined to share. She asked Kakeru about a bucket list. And of course she’s obsessed with fireworks, with all their mono no aware implications. It was obvious to me at that point that this is where we were headed, and the chickens came home to roost here. It briefly occurred to me that this might be the reason why she wasn’t responding at the end of Episode 6, but I didn’t think the series would cop out on addressing the developments contained in that ep.
Well, it did. As the days drag by Kakeru gets more and more worried, and not just about being dumped. As it turns out he apparently had a longer conversation at that cafe in Episode 3 than we saw at the time, and in fact asked Koharu when she lost her sight. And she told him, in some detail. It’s not a pretty story, either. Again, the truth falls very much in the range of expectations I had based on the hints being dropped. I do, though, think it’s kind of cheap not to share that conversation with us until now. I also think it’s odd not to see any sign that Kakeru recalled it while Koharu was missing – it sure seems highly relevant. Not telling Yuuko or Ushio I can see, out of respect for Koharu’s privacy. But did it even enter his thoughts?
As for this episode itself, it was uneven but had its moments. Again, Irino Miyu is truly superb here – to be unrecognizable without overtly “putting on” a voice is a rare skill for a seiyuu (Aoi Yuuki and Ohsaka Ryouta have it too). His slipping into self-pity was pretty in-character for Kakeru. But find Koharu they do, eventually – thanks to Ushio randomly sighting her walking into a hospital. What happens now? Once again, we’re left with a lot riding on the next episode. The experience – and symptoms – Koharu described to Kakeru are certainly realistic. But this sort of thing is hard to weave into a story without being over the top.
