氷の城壁

Interesting that Miki: isn't fine with haunted houses but is fine with action rides Koyun: is fine with haunted houses but isn't fine with action rides Minato: isn't fine with both haunted houses and action rides Yota: is fine with both haunted houses and action rides This series never fails at slipping in a twist at the end of the episode. The whole time we get a wholesome vibe and then Atagawa shows up just at the end with the ED starting in the background like boss music.

That whole amusement park date got me smiling like an idiot. Was just so nice to see them all out having fun. Some of the chibi bits for that part felt a lot more animated than usual too. Then hit with some great setup for the next arc towards the end. I didn't even realize they were second years now and we'd be getting a bunch of new characters all at once. Also love seeing Tsukiko in the same class as the rest of them.

I love how Tsukiko was instantly adopted by Miki into the group after calling her cool. Feels like she's going to be the Honda of this series, getting a front row seat to witness all the juicy relationship drama that's about to go down. Speaking of Honda, Minato did a pretty good impression of her this ep. And that was quite the intimidating introduction from Akine, she looked like she was out for blood. Feels like its going to be a fakeout though, with how eager she was to meet Koyuki and the way she held her hand. Maybe like an enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of thing?

I love how Tsukiko was instantly adopted by Miki into the friend group after calling her cool. Feels like she's going to be the Honda of this series, getting a front row seat to witness all the juicy romance drama that's about to go down. Speaking of Honda, Minato did a pretty good impression of her this ep. Turns out you can make that face not only for your favorite ship but when you're basking in the cuteness of the girl you want to be shipped with! And that was quite the intimidating introduction from Akine. Feels like its going to be a fakeout though with how eager she was to meet Koyuki and the way she held her hand. Maybe like an enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of thing? Akine: "Let's become friends because my big sister is such a B----"

sure but the timeline between shows is weird; i mean the cameos of koyuki, miki, and tsukiko in polaropps show that miki still has her short orange hair, but tsukiko and miki officially met when miki shifted to a blonde color. i presumed that their cameos weren't canon. but if she had blonde hair in her cameo, the timeline between the two shows would start to make more sense--we could deduce that suzuki and gang's cameo was before tani and suzuki got together and koyuki and gang's was a bit later after today's episode

i'm pretty certain that miki's hair is used as a symbol that she no longer needs to hide who she is—her orange hair being her fake persona and her blonde being her real one—so sure it's possible that she could be revisiting old styles but i don't think she's changing it back, for the sake of storytelling. with that, i agree with the fact that their cameos were probably just for fun and non-canon, as i've mentioned previously.

Minato being the first guy Koyun think is cute, Koyun being touchy & friendly with miki's brother & old rival/enemy sister reveal. Compared to a childhood friend in Yuki who she views as a little brother, versus Yota who she sees as a dad/someone to aspire to, Minato is probably the first guy she's had a positive opinion of and found herself liking and feeling comfortable with compared to all her interactions with the opposite sex in middle school. Especially Igarashi. Though I feel like Akine is going to be like Minato in the sense that Koyun is going to project her feelings about her older sister onto her and expect that she does the same thing like she initially thought Minato was just going to turn out to be Igarashi 2.0.

I love how the series is all about challenging your prejudice and perceptions of people and it puts the viewer in the same position. I also thought it was pretty obvious but I think some viewers don't necessarily think of narrative structure+intent and want to be first to claim "I knew that character was up to no good! X should end up with this Y!" without realising how they're sorting characters/people in black and white ways. This isn't that kind of surface level character writing. I think this is a good story for people to actually understand the nuance in human interactions, since the author does a good job of illustrating the characters' internal thought processes/motivations.

I thought she did an amazing job in PO and couldn't imagine how this could be better, but really shows how a slight genre shift can pave a bit more way for the writing to flourish. I think Koyun and Minato help feed my love for angst a lot better so it ended up being my preferred series. 😂 I don't see this being a series they leave half finished if there is any respect for the story. Hoping it gets adapted sooner than waiting a year or two though! I'm wishing so much success for Asakawa sensei. I'm a bit surprised I never heard of either series until their animes. I crave more emotionally intelligent writing like this.😩

I think many of us were fooled by Koyun's biased perspective on Igarashi, but it actually baffled me that people just ate up Koyun's internal thoughts about Minato in the beginning. It's like they had never seen a main character be wrong, flawed or at fault before. Minato had a savior complex and Koyun was way too dismissive and judgemental, which made the situation worse for both of them. To me (and I assume most people) it was very obvious that both were "at fault", even if it wasn't that big of a deal.