For once I get to see both of them in the garden. And this
time it’s Ren’s turn to stare lovingly at Oto. Finally. I want Oto to relax and
let Ren do the chasing from now on. Haha. But, uh, that’s not the point of this episode;
Ren needs to be saved first.
Oto’s fingers reflexively shrink away from the ring and the
rejection is so plain obvious. Ibuki masks the pain and tells her he’ll give
her time to decide. As if dropping one bombshell wasn’t enough, Oto tells him
truthfully that she saw “Soda-san.” Oh Ibuki. It looks like Ibuki is pretending to have forgotten
about Ren. She tells him she wants to help Ren because he had saved her. She
asks him if he minds and Ibuki says he does. Ouuu. Then he says it was only a joke. Naw, the atmosphere definitely went
chilly there.
Oto meets up with Sabuki and indicates to him how much Ren
has changed by spiking horns with her fingers against the sides of her head. I was a little puzzled here and
then we cut to Ren and indeed he is spiking horns with that hairdo of his. LOL.
Sabiki explains to Oto what happened after the earthquake: Ren’s
grandfather had collapsed and was suffering from dementia; from a diligent man
who lived everyday fully, he became filled with only anger, hatred, and
loneliness at the last moments of his life. He cursed at Ren and Ren took it to
heart, thinking it was his fault his grandfather had suffered
Sabuki: “Dreams,
memories, a place to return to, everything that had supported him, he lost it
all”. I quote this because
it reminds me of what Oto’s mother mentioned about love. Don’t worry Ren, Oto
will find you a place to return to
Oto visits Ren and I thought it was a random visit, totally an Oto thing, but she came with a “reason” this time: to
give Ren the key to Shizue-san’s place. Grandma had entrusted Oto to take the
key to Ren, telling him he’s always welcome to her place. In trying to convince
him more, Oto adds that the flowers he planted are withering. I like how Oto answers chirpily
that there is something she needs from him today. It’s like she’s getting back
at him from last time when he kept asking her what she needed.
No matter what effort she puts into convincing him, he
refuses to return to Shizue-san’s place. Even Sasuke’s cute pictures won’t
work. At this point, Oto just wants Ren to talk to her and so she brings up
Sabiki-san, the guy that taught Usain Bolt how to run. This time Ren can’t
ignore her and explains it’s a blatant lie. I don’t know whether Oto was a genius to use that on
him to get him talking or she genuinely believed Sabiki-san. Then Oto
curses at Ren’s revelation of Sabiki’s lying habits. Alright, so she genuinely believed him… That
cursing, which is the first time we’ve ever heard her swear, shocks Ren. Then
she smiles like an angel. I
love this girl!
Now that he’s talking (and even smiled just a little bit!), Oto asks him seriously: “Won’t you go
back to being a mover? The suit doesn’t suit you.” She then takes the manga she
was flipping earlier and shows him a picture that was bookmarked inside: a
family portrait. If he was the old Ren, he would have cared but since he’s
trying so hard to suppress that caring Ren, he forces her out.
Before being forcefully escorted out, Oto tells him: “I think your grandfather loved you very much.” Ren
spits out she doesn’t know anything and throws out his grandfather’s pajamas,
the clothes he last wore when he died alone in the train station washroom. He
repeats what Sabiki has said: He died alone with hatred and resentfulness. Ren
leaves the karaoke room, leaving Oto alone with the pajamas in the trashcan. Just a little note: when Ren and
Haruta were recruiting victims to their company, one of the places they went to
was a public restroom but Ren couldn’t enter. He stood very uncomfortably outside
at the entrance. Oh, Ren :(
That evening, Konatsu tells Ren about the tuition she’ll
need for her designer school. It’s a hefty sum, which explains why Ren and
Haruta need this scammer job. Konatsu looks pretty normal until she
hallucinates about helicopter sounds. We get a little insight as to what
happened to her: she was left alone for days after Ren had refused to see her
on the day before the earthquake. Because of that, Ren takes responsibility of
Konatsu but Haruta argues the fault should be his. It was him that had convinced
Konatsu to visit Ren but Ren doesn’t seem to care.
Oto tells Kihoko about Ren but Kihoko stops herself from
asking more questions because she knows her boyfriend will be jealous. But
Kihoko’s curious why Oto is so “worried” about Ren. Kihoko, being the language
expert, tells her “Worry” is made up of two characters: “heart” and “accompany”;
using the heart to accompany. Dot dot dot… Kihoko is too trunk to make any more
connections from there.
Ibuki is finally on his dad’s good side but that might end
up being worse for him. His dad’s next assignment for him is to fire all the
employees from a company he’s acquired. So Ibuki has taken over his brother’s
job as a monster. When Ibuki stops by to see Oto at work, his brother comes
barging in. He pours the water from a flower vase on Ibuki’s head. From his
words, Oto probably has a vague impression on what Ibuki does now but Ibuki
tries to keep it cool and tells his brother he’ll introduce him to a new job.
We switch scene to another guy involved in corruption, Ren,
who’s driving his victims of unfair labour to work but there’s a traffic jam.
The source is an old man on a wheel chair who’s unable to get on the sidewalk.
Ren wanted to walk away but both his job duties and his heart tells him to
needs to help this old man or at least clear him away from the road. When the
old man apologizes and thanks Ren, Ren only shakes his head because he knows he
didn’t help with a pure intention.
Ren returns to his “home” but sees the boy from Episode 6
trying to throw a rock at his place. Ren wanted to return him the manga with
his photo in it but the boy runs away. When Ren catches up to him, he pushes
Ren down the stairs. Ren lies there inured while the boy is shaking in fear at
what he’s done but Ren tells him to leave with the manga and not to worry about
him. Ren is slowly coming
back!
When Oto returns home, Ibuki is already there at her place,
replacing her old vase with a new one. Her old vase, which was an emptied out
glass bottle of some orange drink, was beside the garbage bin, but Oto secretly
brings it back to the sink. Ibuki spots her but doesn’t expose her. When Ibuki
tells her he’ll make her life better after marriage (e.g. no work, big house,
etc.) but Oto refuses it. She loves her work and her apartment. This is her
room; it was the first place she bought with her own effort. Everything should
be at her disposal. Hearing this, Ibuki silently gets up and returns her
flowers to the original vase and throws the new one out. Poor Ibuki, his career and love life
are going down the drain. Before leaving this time, Ibuki confesses he’d
rather Oto meet Ren without telling him. That night, Oto splits the handful of flowers
in half: one half for the original vase and the other half for the new vase. Ugh. What does that mean!
The next day Oto pays Ren another visit and she’s surprised
to see his face all scratched up. Today, she also has a clear reason to see
him: she’s here to return the cleaned and ironed pajamas that she took home the
other day. She reveals she found a bunch of receipts in the pajamas and goes
ahead to read them.
As Oto reads the receipt, it’s slowly apparent that anger and
hatred weren’t the last things left in grandpa’s mind. He lived everyday fully
with something as simple as eating his favourite lunch and planting his favourite
seeds. I see Ren got his
sweet tooth from grandpa. And then Ren breaks down in tears.
 |
| Chin Up! |
With that push from Oto, Ren is set on going back to being
himself. You see, he needs to be like his grandfather and live everyday fully
too. The next day at work, he yells at a soon-to-be-victim to leave. It’s the
first time I’ve heard Ren yell. The almost-victim is very confused but leaves.
Then Ren resolutely tells Haruta he’s quitting the job. Smiling, Haruta joins
him on quitting. Yay! You
know I think I can really like Haruta.
Ren takes the bus and bumps into Oto. Okay this bus totally doesn’t run a
lot. She smiles when she notices the fertilizers he’s carrying because
that means he’s going to Shizue-san’s place.
At her place, Ren is extremely apologetic (that head
shaking) but she tells him not to blame himself for living on. She tells both him
and Oto that no one is really alone. The people they care about and those who
have passed away, live on within them. “We are all living together, so we must
live to the fullest.” Ren nods and bows gratefully to grandma’s encouraging
words. I like how when Shizue-san welcomes Ren back home, Sasuke goes to him
right on cue.
Ren tends to the garden with Oto’s help. Afterwards, she
offers him her candy. She lets the candy melt in her mouth while he crunches it
down. Oto giggles at that.
Eating that candy, it’s Ren’s turn to stare at Oto lovingly
while she stares and smiles at the beautiful flowers. This scene reminds me of Episode 1 where Oto gave Ren
the candy the second time, she stares at him lovingly. Since Oto likes downward
gazes, I wonder what kind of gazes Ren loves.
- - - Comments - - -
Can I look forward to their date anytime soon? Pleeeeeeeassseeeee!
I’ve been waiting for them to go on that Ferris wheel date for a while now! But
I get that the first time to be solved is that marriage thing with Ibuki. I
didn’t care much for Ibuki but this episode makes me pity him. Is there anyone
to save him? Ibuki should have just teamed up with his brother and ditch their
father.
This episode deals with the original and the new and the
going back to the original. For example, Ren. The new Ren trying to deny the original
Ren only with the original Ren conquering in the end. Will that be the same for
Oto’s love? Will she go back to Ren? However, that vase issue with Ibuki
worries me a little. I don’t’ like how she split half the flowers to the
original and to the new vase. One cannot split love like that. But I’d like to
assure myself that Oto never loved Ibuki, at least not in the same sense as her
love for Ren.
Since the second episode, Oto has always been the one
reaching out to Ren, I’m hoping these next episodes it’s Ren’s turn to pursue
her. That loving gaze at the end makes me want moaar~ Oto has already shown her
unending love for Ren by giving him a place to return to when Ren has lost
everything despite five years of not seeing each other. Ren needs to step up
his game.
I love how we get more reminders of Episode 1 from this
episode. When Oto brings back the pajamas and the receipts, it’s akin to Ren
bringing back her stolen purse and the letter. She even reads the receipts like
it was a letter. Oto’s letter from her mother tells her to live everyday fully
and Ren’s receipts from his grandfather relays the same message. And then there’s
grandma’s words. Although Oto and Ren are alone in this word, they’re not; Oto’s
mom and Ren’s grandfather live within them respectively. No one is really
lonely. Because of that, we must live each and every day not only for ourselves
but also for the people we care about.
Credits to Sanashi (for subbing) and Cubical Noses (for timing).
___________________________________________________
Related Posts:
Itsuka Kono Koi wo Omoidashite Kitto Naite Shimau Episode 8
Itsuka Kono Koi wo Omoidashite Kitto Naite Shimau Episode 8