Sasameki Koto 02

Summary:

While buying lip balm at a conbini, Ushio is enraptured by a magazine cover featuring a certain Miss Yamasakai. She proceeds to fangirl about the covergirl to Sumika and Hiyori; the latter remarks that she's a reader model while the latter is upset at first but resignedly indulges Ushio's pleading look and antics. Sumika proceeds to display her coolness as Class Chairman, basketball dunker, academic test top scorer, family dojo karate black belt - which culminates in a reputation, among guys, for being scary, violent and uncute. All the while Ushio is gushing about how Ms Reader Model is so cute i.e. small, soft, frilly. A frustrated Sumika heads out, late at night, to the bookstore to see the magazine for herself and who should turn up but Ms Reader Model herself, literally under Sumika's nose. Who then promptly runs away after being bumped into by the loomingly tall Sumika who, in turn, is dumbfounded by how cute Reader Model is.

The next day in school Sumika continues to be cool - getting a book from a high library shelf for Azusa, tutoring her two of her female classmates, volleyball smash - Ushio praises her coolness but Sumika wishes she were cuter so Ushio would fall for her. During the Committee meeting, girly boy Akemiya Masaki tells Sumika he thinks she is cute, gets dragged out of the room and pinned to the wall; he doesn't get annihilated when he repeats his compliment but his chance to confess float-walks away.s Sumika dresses up in the outfit Ushio picked yesterday and, armed with a bouquet of roses, goes over to Ushio's but they end up going to the conbini. Things seem to be going well - Ushio says Sumika looks cute and had noticed her troubled countenance in the afternoon. Walking arm in arm, Ushio recalled a childhood incident where Sumika was cool, praises her height and fine face but delivers the downer - she's not Ushio's type.

Crushed, Sumika walks away just in time for Ushio to see the girl of her magazine dreams coming out of the destination conbini. Ushio falls down while trying to approach her and Sumika swiftly gives chase - shouting about Ushio's one-way loves, that she won't do and how she'll do anything to help Ushio find love - and catches up with Reader Model's wig. It's Masaki! He's loved her at first sight from junior high, noticed that she loves Ushio and started to crossdress to attract her attention but got caught by his little sister, sent in the photo to the magazine as a joke. But it got accepted and he was trying to buy up all the copies in the neighbourhood. Sumika rejects him but knows he still likes her like the way she knows she isn't Ushio's type but can't stop liking her. When Masaki gets home, we see lots of girly clothes and makeup in his room, his frilly underclothes and his relief that Sumika was not disgusted by his crossdressing.

Reaction:

By the law of Gratuitous Anime Coincidences, I just *knew* that Sumika and Ushio would run into Reader Model at the conbini but I was really surprised by the twist - for the lengths that Masaki has gone for love, he gets the Mako-chan Medal. It's just tough luck for him that his yuri trap has ensnared the love interest of his love interest. And he clearly hasn't thought things through - how was he planning to introduce his crossdressed self to Sumika? And what if he did manage to gain some initial interest from Sumika, then what? Sex change operation? But it's funny how, after the initial impetus, his crossdressing has taken a life of its own. And the LOL is heaped on by how he's being abetted by his younger sister.

What Others Are Saying

• divine's sympathetic look at how "a lot of us have been in Sumika’s shoes before" makes me think that, for all the disdain and dismissiveness out there by some of the yuri genre, it's a really good chance for male viewers to enjoy some romance in our anime - when was the last time I saw a series that was focused on (heterosexual) romance first and foremost [I exclude most harem series as they seem to be more about conquest/harem hijinks than romance] - Aoi Yori Aoshi? Most of the time, love stories have to be wrapped up in action (FMAB), the supernatural (Bakemonogatari), mecha (Asura Cryin') to get a foot-in for a male target audience (kind of Masaki's crossdressing in reverse) but now yuri seems to be an acceptable vehicle too.
• hashihime loved all aspects of this second episode and also singles out Shimizu Ayaka's voice-acting as Masaki. Indeed. When I heard Masaki speak during the Committee Meeting scene, I found myself thinking: "Girly Boy." That should have been warning enough that it was a trap.

Related posts:

1. Sasameki Koto 07
2. Sasameki Koto 06
3. Sasameki Koto 04