This is the season of great on-screen couples, no question about it.  But Taiyou and Akane take a back seat to none of them.  These two are so incredibly precious together that it’s almost a physical ache watching them interact.  And then when you add Daichi to the mix – no third wheel, he, but a mutual bestie – and the charm level goes off the charts.  Kids being kids can be a tricky vehicle for anime – you have to get the balance just right in so many ways.  And being tremendously cute without being cutesy is an alchemy most series can’t master.  Fortunately, Jijou o Shiranai Tenkousei ga Guigui Kuru is not most series.

The miasma of last week’s events still hangs over Takada-kun as events kick off.  He’s avoiding his precious Nishimura-san, and you know if Taiyou is doing that he’s seriously off his game.  We see Akane being uncharacteristically assertive here, for the simple reason that she loves seeing her boy as much as he loves seeing her.  She accidentally (the subconscious is a powerful thing) walks by his house, and more or less insists that they talk it out (he’s on the way to meet Daichi at a haunted shrine).  The issue, obviously, is the whole shinigami thing.  He’s still convinced he wounded her deeply, despite her denials up in the mountains.

Funnily enough, Akane is totally OK with it – as long as it’s coming from him.  Why?  Because she knows in his case it comes from love – that and unmitigated boyish enthusiasm.  Not only is she happy when he calls her “Grim Reaper”, she thinks it’s a cool nickname.  In effect, what Taiyou’s done is purified it with his unstoppable positivity – now, even when little snots use it as an insult it has an aura of Taiyou happiness rays emanating from it.  This is the true power of the world’s greatest 10 year-old chad.  Taiyou may talk about absorbing Akane’s power, but in truth it’s more the other way around in their relationship.

Unfortunately Taiyou has stood up Daichi by spending the day with Akane.  Fortunately Daichi is cool with it, because Daichi is cool with everything (especially around the shoulders).  In fact they bump into each other and he takes them to the local natsuyasumi – one of the items on their summer vacation agenda (sigh – oh, Japan).  Daichi eats one of everything. and Taiyou buys a couple of magic rings – an orichalcum (an ancient metal whose actually chemistry is not known, but could be brass) and a “dark matter”.

Chad’s plan is to give Akane the former, but he loses it – and it’s found by Kasahara-san, who plays the “finders keepers” card.  Naturally he spins this against her as usual (that toy ring is good enough for you, but not a reaper like Nishimura-san).  Eventually he gives her the dark matter one, which is more reaper-like anyway, with a apology for being just a kid and unable to do better.  The ring has an outsized effect on Akane, unsurprisingly – I guess the two of them are engaged now.  Later Taiyou asks her if she’d consent to being tickled (no).  For once she gets it all wrong – he doesn’t want to be cursed by her smile, he just wants to know if she can laugh like most people.

“I may as well try and become the person who can make you smile the most.  I want you to smile lots and lots when you’re with me.”  I mean, what even is this kid?  What chance does she have against that?  Then we have Taiyou trying to photograph Akane for a photo contest.  She thinks he can do better but offers to help him do so, and Daichi joins up to complete the power trio.  Lots of photos are taken (they manage second place with one of them), Daichi’s all of tank tops, and Akane reflects on just how lucky she is that Taiyou landed in her dark life.

Of course, he’s lucky too – as Onee-chan reminds him when she finds him with a shit-eating grin on his face.  Akane’s an Angel, Yukiko assures him (when you’re right, you’re right).  And this causes Taiyou to marvel at Akane having such a dual skill, Angel and reaper.  It also gives him enormous new ammunition (as if he needed it) for the chad cannon, and he immediately fires a broadside across her bow the next time they meet up.  This is high-caliber too, the big guns – poor Akane never stood a chance.