Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shoumei shitemita. – Episode 9
RikeKoi
Finally! We get the classic training camp / beach episode. Annddd things ended up pretty much as expected. The gang gets some free time for themselves to do whatever they please – to relax and find something enjoyable on the beach to do! Of course, that looks very different for this cast of characters than other's we've seen before. But at the end of the day, feelings come out as everyone tries to get closer to one another.
From the get-go Yukimura and Himuro are ready to continue their experiments, but general embarrassment about doing such things in public ultimately end up being a road block for the two. It's kind of funny seeing how both of them react to the situation, because they are both doing this in the name of science, but Himuro gets caught up in the emotions and the perceptions of other people who she's less willing to do certain experiments in certain places. Personally, this part has always kind of bugged me about the anime because she continually flip-flops between the cool, stoic, science type character to just generally any normal blushing love-sick anime girl. Don't get me wrong – I enjoy both of these character types, but it just feels so weird to see her go back and forth so often, where I'm not even sure where she wants to be! Yukimura on the other hand is very consistent. He has one thing on his mind and that's collecting the data. Is he a jerk in making sure he gets that data? Absolutely! But he knows what he's after and will do whatever he can to get it. As a result, it makes him seem a lot more aggressive recently and ultimately ends up in him getting beat up. But I mean… he could learn to take a hint sometimes.
But don't worry, the two of them finally get some alone time to get some data on close contact. AND TRAGICALLY THEY ARE BOTH TOO EMBARRASSED TO ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING. So, we can count that as another experiment that didn't go through, but hey, they got a lot of saliva samples. Of course, when the rest of the gang shows up to talk science we got a lot of very good positions for Yukimura and Himuro. Too bad Himuro is anything but flat-chested so they really can't get the most contact. Oh well, guess Kosuke will have to do and Ibarada and Yamamoto win.
But let's get to the best part about a beach episode: the bathing suits. Okay, really I just want to say Himuro is definitely best girl material and that , but also that I absolutely died when they talked about Yukimura's beach body. I was half expecting them to make a twilight reference because they just kept talking about how much he was sparkling, but nah, he's just pale. Rip.
But how is our childhood friends to lovers couple doing? Well, we got another charming scene of Ibarada and Kosuke when they were younger, where Kosuke vowed to protect her no matter what. I… personally find younger (but I guess older as well) to be a bit obnoxious… so while what he says is charming and cute he's just… so loud. Plus when every flashback end up with "lol he pissed his pants" the charm just goes away. But nevermind that because him coming to Ibrarada's rescue was great. I loved seeing him stand up for her even though she wasn't actually in any danger. Plus! He punched the absolute life out of the guy! But what really made the whole moment was Ibarada's reaction. Generally, she would be the type to just laugh it off and be like "lol you're such an idiot", but to see her do such a flustered laugh was honestly really nice. I hope the two of them will be happy together :').
As far as everyone else, I really like the way the portrayed Yamamoto in this episode. In the past episode she definitely seemed like a villain type character who was here to break everything up. Nah, so far it just seems like she's here for the chaos, and her own research. Kind of in the same way Ibarada is here to mess with everyone. I mean, Ibarada even said that she knew Yamamoto very well and could handle her, but everyone else needed to be careful. Plus, she was really just in the background of this episode, here for that good, juicy romance. The most "chaos" she caused was 1) helping pay for a more expensive hotel 2) BL fantasies with Ibarada. So, overall, I think she can stay.
Also, I wanna just take a moment to say how much I like Ikeda as a character and educator. Generally, he's pretty supportive of his lab, but isn't afraid to give them a little tough love. Also, just him being incredibly muscular will continue to entertain me as the episodes go on. When they were trying to split the watermelon I was expecting him to just smash it to pieces, but it was so much better watching him slice it FROM A DISTANCE. Plus, knowing that he's so physically strong to take down other academic rivals, just makes his ridiculous strength that much more entertaining.
And so that concludes our beach episode. I always feel kind of bummed when a beach episode ends because it means we're back to the mundane life of the anime (I mean, not that that's a bad thing, but beach episodes just always shake things up – ya know?). But, our crew will still be in Okinawa so this training camp isn't over yet! We'll see what happens in the next week when they present for their incredibly strong colleagues and rivals.
I live up to my username, but I hope we can be friends!