Anna, you naughty girl…

There are so many watershed moments to come with BokuYaba.  So many this season, and far more next season, should we get one.  It’s hard to express this to new viewers, but pretty much every arc from here on out is monumental.  It’s all GOAT material, truly.  So to harp on how amazing any one episode is seems almost pointless.  They all have “I can’t wait to see that adapted!” moments (next week could break the internet, if it adapts what I expect).  That’s just how BokuYaba is.

Still, this one has much that makes it special.  Especially in that it’s another example of how subtle Norio-sensei is in her storytelling, and how you really have to pay attention to pick up everything she puts out there.  I mentioned a couple of weeks ago the way she uses fonts to cue the reader of the rare – but crucial – moments when the POV shifts to Anna.  That was something Akagi couldn’t really do in the anime, and thus some of the intent in that moment (at the end of Episode 6) was unclear.  This time it was something Akagi could adapt, and he did – though it seems as if hardly any new viewers picked up on it.

For starters, we have Anna’s “you’re dead” chart (“It wouldn’t hurt to memorize this”).  Which is more than a little ironic, given what happens later in the episode.  With Chi absent with the flu, Anna is forced to trade skinship with Moeko – who doesn’t know the ground rules – and Kyou is forced to apply his prime number strategy (not for the last time).  When Chi returns she and Anna trade barbs about their grades, and Anna reveals that Kyou has been helping her study.  Eventually the three of them are together in the library, and he offers Chi a bit of tutoring herself.

This is a lovely scene, and the main import for me is that it shows how Ichi is slowly becoming more socially adapted.  For starters, I think he’s a boy more comfortable talking to girls than other boys, once he gets past his fumbling awkwardness (which his growing intimacy with Yamada is causing to happen).  As well, Chi is a nice girl and Anna’s best friend.  She’s obviously picked up on where Anna is headed (Anna is subtle as a sledgehammer, to be fair) and she’s starting to accept that Ichi is a safe zone for Anna to be in.  That bit with Anna’s half-science, half-history notebook was pretty hilarious, too.

Then we have the parent-teacher conference, which is definitely one of those manga moments I had circled in the mental calendar.  We formally meet Ichikawa-mama (Nishimura Chinami) for the first time.  Also present is Yamada-mama (Minaguchi Yuko).  Broadly speaking the parents in BokuYaba are all great – not seeing much of the dads would be one of the many tragic casualties of no S2.  As you’d expect his mom is short and somewhat plain, while hers is tall (less than her daughter, though) and stunning.  She’s also rather stern (“Mind your legs!”), whereas Ichikawa-san is warm and friendly.  Anna is extremely interested when she finds out whose mom she is, and the two of them even trade candies (well, one is a lozenge –  Chekov’s lozenge).

Middle-schoolers – boys more than girls I think – being aghast at their moms being at school is clearly a phenomenon without borders.  Ichikawa-san says more than Kyou (who’s actually gotten praise about his class participation for the first time) would prefer (like about how much fun he’s having in school), but it’s actually he who says the most revealing and embarrassing thing  – “Yamada”, when his mom asks who the “stunning” girl in his class is.  Anna overhears this of course, and the impact is predictably devastating.

Another library rendezvous finds the aforementioned notebook exchange.  And the lozenge has its moment, revealing another zone to be marked off with police tape on Anna’s chart.  But then we have the undisputed main event, which starts with Kyou getting caught in the rain and running into Anna.  Norio doesn’t just leave what happens to the usual anime cold trope – a flu going around is the clear explanation – but Anna will still blame herself for Kyou getting sick.  His unhesitating decision to bring her bag to her without even running inside for his raincoat is another example of how Ichi’s in the moment instinct is always to be kind, not least where Anna is concerned.

More subtle clues to come, starting with Anna’s Instagram post showing her holding two nikuman.  Kyou is quite right to wonder if she’s implying something (which is a loaded topic for a public figure like she’s becoming).  Kyou does come down with the flu, though being home alone isn’t the worst thing for an introvert.  Anna’s arrival shakes all that up, and sends Kyou into a panic.  It can’t have been easy for him to invite her in for tea, but he does, in spite of his understandable anxiety (“do I stink?” et al).  She’s brought him his pudding by the way – except it turns out to have been hers, and for Anna to give up food like that…

This is where Norio really drops quite a bomb, though she’s absolutely a stealth bomber. The scene itself is wonderful  – Anna’s overwhelming affection for Kyou by now is unmistakable.  That hug after she finds him laid out in his room is instructive.  But if you’re paying close enough attention you’ll see something rather wild.  When Anna finds him in his room, Kyou is wearing his striped sweat pants.  When he wakes up later (with Kana watching over him, ROFL) he’s wearing blue pajama pants.  This is 100% no continuity error, as any regular Sakurai reader nows – there are no accidents.  It’s subtle and easy to miss in the manga, and Akagi makes it even more so in the anime.  But it happens.

Maybe this is just a bit of a sight gag on Norio’s part.  But I think it’s a little more than that.  Anna is more than a little eccentric (witness that last interaction with Ichi’s mom).  She seems to be a bit possessive.  Kyou has no memory of what happened, and that’s probably for the best.  And I imagine this is just one of those “curiosity killed the cat” moments where Anna couldn’t resist the opportunity – likely justifying it by telling herself that Kyou’s clothes were all sweaty or the like.  I don’t think she’ll have done anything beyond a bit of letting her imagination run wild, but I kind of think Norio is intentionally leaving just a bit of doubt in our minds…