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Summary:
Junichi is working on his homework while Sakura is reading an apparently hilarious manga. She offers to help, but he turns it down after remembering all the trouble everyone’s gone through for him these past two years. Sakura comments on how she liked the lazy Junichi, and then appears right in front of him, leaning in close enough for a kiss – of course she’s just kidding and backs off when Nemu appears. Over lunch, Nemu notices that Aisia is gone, and Junichi almost lets it slip that she’s out magic training. Sakura, who saw Aisia leaving early that morning, has a good idea of what she’s up to. That night, Aisia returns home and goes immediately to bed, even while she’s covered in dirt.
The next day, Aisia is trying to revive the tree again when Sakura tells her that it’s futile because she already killed it. Sakura goes on to explain that she needs to clear up some misunderstandings from what she said last time. First, she re-clarifies that however hard Aisia tries, she won’t bring back the tree. When Aisia brings up the fact that the tree granted her wish for Junichi and Nemu to reconcile, Sakura moves on to her second point: Junichi and Nemu would have done so even if they were left alone. She then lectures Aisia on how relying on magic for convenience is dangerous. Magic can help a person grant their wish, but the wish being granted is not because of the power of magic. Convinced for now, Aisia returns home with Sakura. That night, Aisia emerges from her room after thinking long and hard to hear Sakura happily preparing dinner with Junichi. When Sakura mentions how happy they are, Aisia can’t stand it anymore and calls it a lie. Aisia knows that Sakura really still likes Junichi, but can’t have him because of Nemu. The reason she speaks badly about magic now is because her wish wasn’t granted. Sakura shoots back saying that even though she still like Junichi, she also wishes for Nemu to be happy, and that she herself is happy enough right now. Aisia then asks Sakura why she came, accusing her of not having given up on Junichi and wanting to live like they were before. With Sakura stunned by her final words, Aisia runs out, vowing to prove that magic can bring everyone happiness.
This episode shows a bit of the changing roles that the characters are taking on. For a while, it looked like Sakura was going to be the experienced, “magic is dangerous” figure, but it seems that Aisia blows that image apart with her arguments. Aisia herself doesn’t really change, but she does grow much more resolute in wanting to use magic for happiness and she gains a lot of points for taking on Sakura and the “system” (ie. everyone should be happy if Junichi and Nemu are happy).
For the most part, I enjoyed this episode, even if I really don’t know where most of the the time went. There’s a ton of dialogue, but it feels like they could have covered everything in half the episode. Basically nothing major happens the first half as all of the important stuff comes in the second. It’s certainly taken them long enough to reach this point where everything boils over and Aisia finally does something. Well I guess she hasn’t even done anything yet. That’ll be next week (hopefully). Based on the way the preview changes (that really caught me off guard), I get the feeling that Aisia may succeed next episode and that maybe something big will happen to change the way people think and feel.
Closing Thought: Did they really have to spend 30 seconds on Aisia grunting and moaning? 😀
