Well, I think we have our answer to the “four seasons” question I posed after Episode 6. As Princess Usagi pointed out the Kanji in Tsubasa’s last name Shiki stand for “four” and “seasons”. And he said here that he liked spring the best. I think that pretty much establishes that rather than there being a “spring girl”, in fact the boy represents spring in the quadrangle. To the extent that we even have one, that is (which isn’t much of an extent in the romantic sense at least).
I grew up in a town that definitely has four seasons, Chicago (and don’t get me started on the Japanese “we’re the only country that has four seasons” delusion). And while Chicago winters are not as long, dark, and snowy as Kitami, I do kind of understand what Minami said about spring. In my memory it feels like it lasted for about a week right in-between freezing your plums off and sweating like a pig. For a kid who loves spring like Tsubasa, that can be a tough thing. It’s April and there’s still snow on the ground, and while Tokyo is in full bloom (it actually happens in late March as often as not now, thanks to climate change) in Kitami sakura won’t be dropping (by) until May.
I don’t quite understand why plum and peach blossoms, which come a month earlier than cherry everywhere else, don’t just show up in April in Hokkaido, but never mind. I suspect we’re going to get some sort of hanami episode next week, but for now the focus is on the start of the school year. And if there were any question Fuyuki-san (a winter girl) were back in the catbird seat, it’s quickly dispelled here. She waits for Tsubasa and walks him to school, and bemoans that she didn’t get to spend more time with him over the summer, a theme she keeps up all day. He’ll later accuse her of teasing, but she denies that and says she’s been dead serious all day.
Matsuo promptly nominates Tsubasa to be class president, which tracks, really. “He’s smart, he’ll be a team player”, all that – but Matsuo ties it together with “he’s from Tokyo”. As soon as Tsubasa is locked in (nobody in their right mind wants that gig), Minami immediately nominates herself to be veep. Just before Sayuri is about to do so, in fact – which symbolizes the dynamic of this series pretty well. And class business time is flirty time, with the two of them being the last two in the classroom (which she likes and he doesn’t).
One really does have to feel for Sayuri in all this. Rena is at least in with a puncher’s chance but Sayuri has been friendzoned hard. She’s Tsubasa’s pal, his gaming instructor, but of the three principals she’s the one he just doesn’t see as a girl, really. At some point you’d think this is going to break her a bit, trying to be positive all the time and protect her friendships with both of them (which she genuinely does value), all the while cursing her fortune at being so close to the boy she likes “that way” and not being able even to tell him.
There’s no such halter on Minami, though. And it seems very much as if she’s about to do just that, asking Tsubasa-kun to keep a day open for her on Golden Week (having a week off just after starting the school year will always be weird to me). She says has something she wants to tell him, we have two episodes left, and even with the manga ongoing I get the feeling her plan at least (we’ll see if she follows through) is to make her romantic intentions clear.
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