Ano Natsu de Matteru Episode 10--Confessions

Since Ichika and Kaito stole the show last week, it's only fair to let the other characters have their time in the spotlight.




With Kaito and Ichika's problems pretty much resolved in terms of their relationship, the emotional center of the episode focused on the other love triangle between Mio, Tetsurou, and Kanna. I was really proud of Mio here, since her comments were the catalyst for Tetsurou to be honest to Kanna, and in turn for Kanna to be honest with Kaito. In fact, Mio's actions make her (in my opinion) the most emotionally mature of the group. She just wants the guy she likes to be happy, even if it's not with her. I think that Testurou realized that intent and finally saw the difference between it and what he was doing--essentially hoping for a rebound. There's nothing wrong with that, but why not just be honest if you have the chance? I also couldn't help but smile when Mio showed up after Tetsurou got rejected by Kanna. I really, really want them to be a couple, but as long as they're there for each other, I'm good with that too. It's really hard to root for couples in this series, since you know that someone is going to get hurt regardless of the outcome, so I'm glad that after last week's romantic spin, this week focused on honesty. Whatever happens from this point on, at least they know where they stand.




That idea over to Kanna as well, and while I think that Kaito never would've seen her that way even if Ichika hadn't shown up, I'm glad that she decided to be honest as well. Her moping in this episode got on my nerves a little bit. It's a completely natural reaction, but seeing the other characters deal with similar emotions without having to confine themselves to their house for a couple of days made my opinion of Kanna drop a bit. She redeemed herself by confessing to Kaitor properly, though. I've seen some complaints that Kaito's rejection was too emotionless and inconsiderate, but Kanna did not confess to Kaito expecting him to immediately drop Ichika for her. The idea was to be honest and clear the air between them. She already knew what his answer would be; it was an indirect way of saying, "That's okay, I just wanted you to know anyway." And now that everyone has managed to get their feelings off their chest, we have a new random plot device to deal with Ichika's sister. I look forward to learning more about the aliens and how they deal with inter-planetary romance.

Images from Crunchyroll.com.