天下制覇

Finally.

Impressions:

An alright episode I guess, but pretty much everything interesting happened in the last few minutes. The first two thirds of the episode was mostly filler as we get bludgeoned repeatedly over the head with a 14,000 pound cluehammer that there’s something wrong with Himawari. Who knew? It’s not like Yuuko hasn’t been spouting off about being careful of the poor girl for the last 10 episodes, nor the evil energy that leeches onto everything she touches, nor even the fact that this manga arc was finished… what… two and a half years ago? No, this revelation came out of nowhere. Clearly.

I guess they had to stretch things out though. There are still two episodes left and not really anything left to do except explain Himawari’s dread plague and hatch her pet. It’s kind of a shame that I was really looking forward to this, but with how stretched out it’s been and how much they bludgeoned us with the foreshadowing, I didn’t enjoy it that much, but Watanuki’s time will be next episode I suppose. Hopefully that’ll be a bit better and a bit less painfully stretched out ad nauseum.

En route home from school, Watanuki regales Himawari with his culinary adventures. He invites her out later and she accepts. He only gets a brief daydream before she wants to invite Doumeki too. Watanuki worms out of it. As they part ways, she tells him to take care.

Watanuki’s finger pulses in pain as she leaves.

At the store… nothing’s happening. Watanuki finally brings out a true Japanese meal. There’s even alcohol for Yuuko, but as he pours it, he flinches in pain and drops the cup. He apologizes, and goes to clean it up, but cuts his finger on the broken glass.

Yuuko asks him if there’s been anything recently about it. Watanuki says no… but then remembers when he made the promise with Himawari… and tells Yuuko about it. She’s unsurprised and wanders about other things along those lines. The other times that Watanuki’s finger suddenly hurt and caused problems all flash through his mind. He starts to say it’s just a coincidence, but stops.

At night, Watanuki goes to the shrine. He meets Doumeki… no… it’s Haruka. They make small talk about Doumeki and that girl from the TV, but nothing interesting in the slightest. "How’s my boy doing, blah blah blah." Watanuki has something to ask him… about Himawari.

Haruka enjoys a smoke after Watanuki tells him about her.

Watanuki really has fun and enjoys being with her, but… Haruka also points out Watanuki’s stricken pinky. Watanuki thinks that it’d be too sad to live without Himawari. He again tries to say that it’s a coincidence… but there are no coincedences, only the inevitable. Even if it’s just a little, Watanuki wants to be with her.

Haruka wonders aloud about things. Mostly a rehash that there are no coincidences and that everything happens for a reason. As long as you understand that and the consequences of your actions, then it’s fine.

Watanuki wakes up and ambushes the store lolis, who dance around him. He asks where Yuuko’s gotten of to, but she’s got other things to do and left the message for Watanuki to just go off to school. The girls pick on him a bit with Yuuko masks before running off to play with Mokona. Watanuki thinks that he’ll just talk to Yuuko later.

On his way to school, he grumbles about crazy Yuuko. Kohane’s waiting for him on the way.

She wanted to thank him for the other day. He invites her to eat the cream puffs he brought with them. She’s got places to be though, so can’t. He gives her some of them anyway and the two part. Before she leaves, she stops and looks back, warning him about his pinky.

At school, Doumeki asks Watanuki about the dream that he had about Haruka. Apparently he saw part of it. Watanuki asks about Haruka, but Doumeki doesn’t have anything of use. Watanuki wonders what Haruka was talking about then. Haruka sure is mysterious!

Well, who cares, he’s got plans with Himawari. Doumeki gives him a look. Watanuki then tries to goad a reaction out of Doumeki by telling him that he gave his creampuff to Kohane. Doumeki’s got club activities so doesn’t care and just walks away.

He keeps ranting crazily about Doumeki in the school. Someone pats him on the back and he feels the dark energy. He turns around in surprise to see Himawari. Watanuki’s vaguely stunned as he thinks about all the warnings that he’s received and stares at her in horror. Himawari asks if he’s okay. He shakes it off as nothing. She tells him not to push himself too hard and the two walk together.

Watanuki tells her about meeting Kohane and how he gave her a cream puff. The energy forms tendrils from his back. Watanuki leans against a window, but it gives way and he falls out. Himawari looks down at the blood and carnage and screams.

A boy cries. Watanuki’s hurt and can’t move. Everything hurts so much. It’s no use. He calls out to his parents in the darkness. Lights rain down towards him. A bloody harm reaches out from the darkness. They’re his parents. They pick him up and lift him into the light. His glasses fall off and shatter.

The shards rain down all around him. He’s set down on his feet as his parents’ arms caress his head. They start to withdraw back into the darkness, leaving him alone. He cries out for them to not go and tries to chase them, but another arm reaches out and grabs him. It’s Haruka. He made it in time. He wasn’t sure that he’d be able to reach into the dream, but he did.

All around them, the darkness resonates. Haruka tells him that it’s time to wake up. The ripples become smoke.

Incense burns next a lamp. Watanuki opens his eyes. He’s heavily bandaged. Yuuko tells him that he had an accident at the school. She holds a butterfly that flaps its wings, changing from yellow to black as she tells him that Doumeki brought him here from school on the verge of death. He wouldn’t have made it back with just that. Watanuki thinks about Haruka. But you know… there’s another.

Himawari’s standing in the doorway. She comes in as Yuuko leaves. Watanuki apologizes for making her worry, but tells her that he’s fine.

She plainly says that he’s wrong. He looks at her and sees the darkness swirling around her. She asks him what it is, but he says it’s nothing and smiles. He thinks about what Haruka told him yet again. He apologizes, saying that he didn’t know, didn’t want to know. All he knew was that it really made his heart beat to be around Himawari, no matter what the danger.

Himawari already knows that there’s something. He says that he didn’t want to lie to her anymore though.

She happily smiles for him, saying that he finally noticed then.

Preview:

Himawari’s past, and the wish that saved Watanuki’s life.