If I’m honest Ame to Kimi to is starting to lose me a little bit. With a show whose charms are so ephemeral it’s hard to put a reason on why it might stop working (or work less well), since you can’t easily quantify why it worked in the first place. The last couple of episodes have lacked a bit of authenticity – there’s been something a little too forced and self-aware about them. Clever shows are inevitably better than unclever (yes it is a word, look it up) ones, but if they become too smug about how clever they are, that becomes a problem.

I dunno, I just don’t care that much for the scenes with Fuji’s two besties. I liked the initial thread where it was about them accepting her antisocial nature, but their scenes together are very mannered. And Ella, it’s just straight-up moe pandering at this point. If writing aims high it might not hit the target, but aiming low guarantees a mediocre result and is about as low-hanging as anime fruit gets. We’re also getting less Kimi lately, which is a problem for reasons I think are pretty obvious. The only part of this I really liked was when Ella expressed her assumption that Fuji was a NEET because she’s always going on walks turning the day.

Things do pick up in the B-part with the introduction of two more old classmates, Hiura (Sakaguchi Shuuhei) and Hojo (Kambe Mitsuho). These two Fuji hasn’t seen since Coming-of-Age Day (age 20). There’s a weird dynamic here that works, as weirdness is a butter zone for Ame to Kimi to. Hiura spots Kimi (who Hojo mistakes for a raccoon) eating grass, immediately starts eating it himself, then declares that he’s taking Kimi home. Fuji intervenes, then reminds them who she is as they apparently didn’t recognize here.

I don’t know what exactly is going on between these two. Hiura is married but his wife is “studying in America” and apparently they only lived together for one month after marriage. Hojo has “looked after” him since elementary school, Fuji says, and the two of them seem very close indeed. Also of note is that Hiura-san is a director, and aware that Fuji-san is a writer, he invites her to do a screenplay for “an animation”. She initially refuses but I get the feeling this isn’t the last we’ve heard on the topic, especially since Fuji seems blocked with her novel.

Finally we have some extended Kimi at the end of the episode. He dives under a vending machine to retrieve the ¥100 coin Fuji dropped (initially on his head) and undergoes a makeover in the process. While two passing high school girls find it adorable, Kimi isn’t so enthusiastic. But it’s nothing a bath can’t fix, and soon he’s wrapped in a blanket and keeping Fuji-san company as she writes. It’s very notable, I think, just how much Fuji talks to him (it’s easier since he answers her, of course). This is not a person who finds talking to others easy, and while Kimi is obviously exceptional, there’s a certain profundity in that this is an invaluable service a pet (especially a cat) can provide to a person like that.