Watching The Ramparts of Ice on the heels of You and I Are Polar Opposites has been an interesting experience. I think more of the Agasawa Koucha DNA was obvious this week. But the two series remain quite different. As different as shoujo and shounen, one might say. I appreciate that Agasawa always has intellectual depth in her writing. Her characters are complicated people rather than a collection of tropes. I’m still not finding this series as endearing as Seihantai – so far. Part of it may be that the adaptation has less wit and panache to it (which it does). But like its heroine, Koori no Jouheki is also just harder to get close to.

Minato – and to an extent Youta – step more into the limelight this week. The pre-open establishes how Minato sees himself, just as it did with Koyun (since everyone who matters is calling her that) in the premiere. Perhaps the next two weeks will see that with Miki and Youta. In his own mind at least Minato is in sports terms a “glue guy”. He’s the one in the group who helps everyone else get along socially. He “unlocks” the barriers people place around themselves and allows them to open up and join in. Is that how things really are or vanity? Perhaps a little bit of both, I suspect.

I think this is why – in addition to the obvious reason – Minato is perturbed to see Youta and Koyun walking together. If anyone ever needed unlocking it’s Koyun – and Youta seems to have already done it. But in Minato’s mind that’s his job. Youta has in the end saved Koyun from the contrived drama with the nampa bros, even if it was somewhat by accident. His presence – big, solid, supremely calm demeanor – makes her feel safe. She opens up around him, even smiles. They walk to the community center together, with the intent of using the study room (we know why he has to; her I’m not too sure about). She’s worried about filling five minutes of conversation space for the walk, but it proves easy in the end (they have Miki in common, too).

Youta is the most endearing character of the main four so far in my view. But if I may be so bold, it’s pretty obvious that to the extent Ramparts is a romance, that’s not one of the eventual pairings. It’s too easy and comfortable between he and Koyun for a shoujo manga. No, she and Minato have a relationship with more sharp edges to it, and that’s where we’re headed. Youta also has a history with Miki, as I said – same cram school in junior high – so it’s entirely likely that’s the other direction the romance side of the story heads in.

Minato, meanwhile, gets dumped by a girl who says he “never liked her”. It seems this is a pretty common thing with him, and he hardly appears traumatized by it. I don’t think Minato is a player per se – it’s just that he finds superficial relationships too easy to establish. He may be a jack of all trades, master of none in the relationship department. He can go a certain distance with tons of people, but struggles to get close with anybody. Koyun intrigues him because she resists the usual schtick he uses to bond with people. She’s a challenge – for now. Eventually, probably more.

One of Agasawa-sensei’s real strengths as a writer is her keen observational sense. Like this business with Koyun being nervous about going to Youta’s class (1-5) because their reputation is boisterousness. This is an absolute thing – classes have personalities just like individuals. My suspicion is that Japanese schools intentionally create similarly-inclined classes – the brainy kids class, the shy class, the rowdy class, the troublemakers. Another thing I loved was that bit with Miki, Koyun and the train seat. First they janken for it, then when a middle-aged guy appears, offer it to him. But he’s not old, and may be offended. So Miki panics and tells him they’re getting off at the next stop, forcing the girls to do so and make a mad dash for the next car. So, so real…

I think Koori no Jouheki’s floor is pretty high. Agasawa is just too good a writer for this to ever get boring, I suspect. Whether its ceiling is as high as the Seihantai level remains to be seen. Are any of these characters going to prove as interesting as Taira, or the romance angles as appealing? This show doesn’t have madcap humor to fall back on as a safety valve – it’s going about things by a more demanding route. I can see a bit of a tortoise and hare thing happening here, but you know, I suspect most of the time when the cameras aren’t on the hare probably wins…