Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko - Ep. 3

In the open, Youto tells us in a voice over how he is developing - in spite of himself - feelings for Azusa. Not romantic feelings, but concern. It bugs him a little, since he'd rather just be concerning himself with lusting after girls in swimsuits, and seeing their bras through their slightly transparent summer blouses. But he is realizing she is a real person, not just an objective in getting his facade back. And thus, she's always on his mind now.

Towards dealing with this, he goes to visit her at her apartment. After the debacle in the arcade, she has shut herself in her room, and her borrowed facade is turned up to Eleven. Through the door she insists that she intentionally let them trick her as a way of shedding herself of their unwanted friendship. Unsuccessful at getting through to her, he ends up chatting with her mom. It's not terribly productive, but he learns that Tukiko has also visited, and when he talks to her, he learns that she was similarly rebuffed.

They sit at the one cedar in front of the cat and have a bit of a chat (There's a cute bit of business where she denies him access to the bag of meat buns. There's a very definite limit she has when it comes to sharing her snacks). She gives him some advice about talking to Azusa, although he has some trouble wrestling with what it is he really wants to say - even with his compulsive honesty.

The next day, he tracks down the bullies, and they swear, they weren't really bullying Azusa, but they did tease her a lot out of affection, perhaps too much sometimes. The breaking point though was when they told her the wrong destination for the school trip, sending her to Hokkaido instead of Okinawa, immediately after which she transferred schools. They intended to catch her and correct her at the airport so they could all go on the trip together, but she made her own way as far as Sapporo so they totally missed her. They're sorry, but Youto berates them for fools for not saying anything to Azusa.


Next stop, Azusa's apartment again, where mom unlocks her bedroom door and allows Youta to remove her bodily from the premises. She's summoned them a cab and he takes her to the cat statue. During the trip, they have a bit of a heart to heart, where he shows he's actually figured her out, and persuades her to go through with the ritual. Although because of that honesty problem he's got, he confesses to her that he's totally not into her at all, at least not that way. After the prayer, the choker she's wearing disappears, and Youta gets back the belt that disappeared from around the body pillow he had tried to sacrifice. He does manage to convince her that he does at least want to be friends with her. It's not a total cure for her social anxiety, but he can lie to encourage her now.

After the break, we get what at first I thought was a dream, but turned out to be a flashback. Tsukiko is standing on a sort of concrete igloo thing in a playground, wearing an oni mask. Youto pokes through the hedge and they chat. She's wearing the mask because her emotions play across her face too easily. She wants to be a kindergarten teacher, but while her open emotions make it easier to bond with the children, she feels she can't be taken seriously as a teacher. The Oni mask though, has alienated her from the kids. He suggests that perhaps she should try a different mask. And later on, she tries a really cute kitty mask, which goes over well. They apparently had several conversations on that playground, but he never saw her without a mask, and they never exchanged names. But recalling these visits in her flashback, Tsukiko realizes it was Youto she'd been talking with back then.


Azusa catches up with Youto in the breezeway between the school buildings and stammers out a request that perhaps they hang out or go on a date or something, and Youto agrees. Tsukiko, standing behind the doorframe, overhears, but of course, we can't see how she feels about this on her face.

Shortly afterward, Youto comes into a classroom where Tsukiko is working on a picture story presentation for the kids. She comments on how she saw how he and Azusa seem to have made up. (She also wants to make up with Azusa, but in spite of the turtle plush with a note attached to it that she had staged at the cat statue for Azusa to find, nothing has come of it so far). Youto thanks her for her help, and she suggests that if he wants to thank her, he should go on a date with her. She's a very conflicted girl, hating his being a perv, but apparently still liking him even though she can't express it. She reads him her story, but while the illustrations are great (she did them herself and he compliments her talent) the delivery was totally flat.

Through the window, they see the track team running and Tsukushi "motivating" them with a kendo sword. He asks about her relationship with her older sister, and she tells him that Tsukushi hates her. This revelation shocks him (although he should already know what a cast iron bitch she is from his time on the track team).

(Ack!  Just realized that screenshots are capturing the subtitles.  It didn't do that before. Gotta figure out a fix for the future.)

Posted by: Mauser at 03:21 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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