Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro na – ep 02

Whoa. This episode is a stark contrast to episode 1. For ep 2 is dramatically bad! Both for the poor animation and horrible lack of humor. I could just go on. Anyway, this ep is mainly about the developments between Tatsuya and Feena.

The episode starts off with Mai being nervous about Feena being in the same school, and surprised that Tatsuya is so calm about it. Feena enters the living room dressed in her new uniform, which Tatsuya finds absolutely cute, though Feena thinks that the skirt is too short.

As they are about to leave, Feena insists that Mia is not supposed to follow them to school. Walking to school, she remembers what happens the night before, where Mia refused to sleep in the same room as Feena. Instead, Mia chooses to sleep in the messy and cramped attic instead. This behavior totally confuses Feena.

In class, everybody is awed by the princess, and there’s a tense atmosphere. But Midori starts the ball rolling, with Natsuki joining in after some promting from tatsuya. With the whole class intensely evesdropping, Natsuki accidentally reveals that Feena is doing homestay at Tatsuya’s house, and Tatsuya ends up being dragged outside for interrogation by the boys. Meanwhile, the girls question Feena about how the moon is like.

The day goes by, and Feena shows what an outstanding student she is, including defeating the vice-captain of the kendo club during physical education.

However, lunch time comes but they are unable to get any food. Tatsuya volunteers to go out of school to get some food, but then hears people talking about a very cute girl dressed in a maid uniform. In actual fact, Mia had come to school bringing food. Mai talks about how nice it would be make your own bento, but Tatsuya reveals that the last time Mai cooked, it was all burnt. “master carbon!”

Takano Takeshi then appears out of nowhere, and as a gift, gives Tatsuya a photo of Feena changing. Feena snatches it away blushing, and Takeshi ends up disappearing on the shoulders of his assistant.

After school, Tatsuya intends to bring Feena around, but Feena has to fulfill some official duties. Next day, Tatsuya sees his cousin and Feena dressed in official uniforms again. THe cousin explains that Feena has duties to fulfill, and won’t be able to go to school.

Tatsuya is noticebly upset, and waits up at night for Feena, when Takeshi appears. He asks Tatsuya what he can do, especially as a family member, seeing that Feena is now doing a homestay.

In the end, Tatsuya decides that all he can do is to greet Feena “welcome back” when she’s back. Tatsuya ends up pinching Feena’s nose again, but Feena obviously does not mind.

Thoughts

I thought the animation was bad. Many details were lacking, facial expressions were poorly drawn, and even the chibi scenes didn’t make up for it.

Story wise, it was a development, for you see that Tatsuya obviously feels for Feena. However… what happened to the humour element that I liked! I think it boils down to the fact that the rest of the characters simply got pushed back into the background. poorly done.

I’ll have to say I was disappointed. I do hope the next episode makes up for it.