Aharen-san wa Hakarenai is pretty phenomenal at what it does, and it’s one of those shows I’m seriously going to miss when it’s gone.  It’s the sort of anime that’s perfect as part of a routine – so easy to lose yourself in and totally rewarding emotionally.  Anime is actually pretty great at crafting this sort of story (which means manga is even better, since anime ignores many of the best examples).  And they usually end up being outsold by lesser incarnations which lack the authenticity and emotional perceptiveness that makes them special in the first place.

Snow and Japanese artistic culture have a funny relationship.  To watch anime specifically you’d think snowstorms were an everyday occurrence, but in the biggest Japanese cities other than Sapporo, measurable snow is extremely rare.  When you think about it it’s natural that the Japanese with their mono no aware fixation would be obsessed with snow, because in these cities nothing smacks of impermanence more than snow.  It generally melts as soon as it hits the ground, and even on those rare occasions when it sticks it’s almost always melted within a day.

Aharen’s igloo cafe was a full-on fantasy sequence but that’s nothing new for Aharen-san wa Hakarenai.  All I know is that if any real cafe had a morning set like that (much less a server that cute) I’d be there every day.  Remaking it as a Godzilla cafe was quite the nice touch, too.  The comic setups here have a way of flowing into each other almost Monty Python-style, and the runoff from this one is Aharen having stiff shoulders from all that snow sculpting.  And what a runoff it is.

That scene in the nurse’s office (another animanga trope explored by this series – and the nurse is never there) was a fascinating one.  It was oddly sensual and innocent at the same time – in that sense it reminded me of the body tattoo sequence with Riki and Kud in Little Busters.  We’re seen these two get “physical” in a jokey way before, but even though this too was played for laughs, it felt different.  There was undeniably something more in the air – Reina certainly felt it, though as always it was harder to tell with Raidou (poker really should be his game – he has a critical part of it down pat).

If there was any doubt, Ishikawa and Hana Sato are certainly players here too.  His calculated use of her first name, the osananajimi reference, the blushing…  Yeah, they’re clearly focusing on Raidou and Reina as a way of deflecting the romantic tension between themselves.  The theme of the subtle change between the two leads continues here (and through the final sketch, too) as Sato and Ishikawa debate what they’re looking at.  Afterwards, we time-skip to the weekend and it’s definitely a date, though it’s the other supporting couple, Akkun and Futaba, who bear witness this time.

The headline here is certainly that Raidou’s imaginings, like a broken clock (that’s a reference from the pre-digital age, Kids), have one of their occasional moments of prescience.  That Reina was actually up late preparing for the Beyblade blade spinner tournament was hilarious, but there was no doubt what this day was – even if Raidou persists in seeming oblivious to it.  The kiddos can definitely see it – Futaba blurts it out and Akkun instinctively raises his hackles at being outflanked.  The funniest moment of the whole ep for me was the two boys losing in the first round of the spinner tourney, because it proves how this series is great at making the expected hilarious.  It was obvious where the setup was going but it was that anticipation that made the payoff so perfect.

The osechi bit was the perfect way to end – there was never any question of what Reina’s real pretext for that shopping trip was (is her family rich, BTW?).  The only dark cloud hanging over Aharen-san heading into the final episode is Oshiro, to be honest.  The series has dodged most of the stalker trope bullets with admirable dexterity but she remains the weakest element by a good margin.  I don’t expect the show to blow the finale by any means, but I don’t want Oshiro dominating it when there are so many better and more important aspects of Aharen-san wa Hakarenai that should be in focus.