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Episode 6: Welcome to the Classroom

Impressions:

Things are getting much more interesting now as the plot progresses. The primary idea that this show was meant to revolve around – Satou’s hikkikomori problem – has kinda been forgotten for a while, but now things are finally getting back on track. The character design was better than the last few episodes, as well as the overall quality (Satou doesn’t have as many wrinkles now!) It is interesting how the creation of the galge has some influence over what happens to Satou regarding his hikkikomori problem. This episode, there was not much of a connection between the two, but I can see how Satou might use the game to build his confidence and eventually be freed from being a hikkikomori. Of course, I hope Kashiwa gets involved with his recovery as well.

Summary:

Satou is having trouble writing the scenario for the galge, as it is too hard for him to come up with such embarrassing lines. Even though he is following the general guidelines of galge scenes, he still cannot think of a something good to write. Then he looks at the time and realises he’s late for his session with Misaki. He hurries over to the park, where she is sitting at a picnic table. Misaki reminds him that she had told him to come after dinner, so Satou says he has only just eaten dinner, even though it’s already nine o’clock PM. Misaki tells him to not be late tomorrow, unless he wants a one million yen fine.

Misaki starts her lecture about conversational techniques. She describes how Satou becomes nervous when he talks to people, which makes him stutter. This in turn makes him even more nervous and as his mental state becomes unstable enough, he breaks down. Misaki aso addresses the question of why he becomes nervous. It is because of his lack of self-confidence. The way to increase this is to look down on the person he is talking to. She explains that he mustn’t tell people what he’s thinking about them, otherwise they will become angry. She goes into slightly too much detail and explains that she is able to speak fluently using this technique, then gives an example, that if she were to tell Satou that she thought of him as trash, pathetic and a failure as a human. Now, if you were to put these two things together, you’d get the idea that Misaki thinks of Satou as trash, pathetic and a failure as a human, but does not tell him this and simply keeps this to herself so that she can become confident in herself and be able to talk fluently, right? Well, when Satou points this out, Misaki denies this with a very straight face (she’s so unreadable!)

Anyway, Satou changes the topic and asks about the Freud interpretation of his dream about the serpent, apple and gun etc. Following passage from episode 5:

…she suggests doing a psycho-analysis test designed by a man called Dr. Freud. Basically what Satou has to do is to describe to Misaki his dreams last night, which will be interpreted in the book. What Misaki doesn’t know is that Satou is quite familiar with Freud’s work and comes up with a fake dream that he knows will be interpreted as something rather embarrassing to say. Misaki goes red and puts the book away…

However, Misaki interprets this as Satou being a virgin, which is not the answer Satou had been expecting. He immediately denies this and says he has done it once before with a certain senpai in high school… She ignores this and tells Satou that even Yamazaki, his neighbour, has a girlfriend called Nanako. She had discovered this when she and her aunt had visited Satou for the first time. While they were there, they had talked to Yamazaki as well, who had raved on and on about his girlfriend even though they didn’t ask. Satou doesn’t believe this and decides to interrogate him when he gets home. However, he is reluctant as he thinks about the possible answers.

Possible answer 1: Yamazaki has no girlfriend as he is only interested in anime characters and figurines/dolls (namely Pururin).

Possible answer 2: Yamazaki indeed has a girlfriend, and because of this, is in his room destroying all his anime, manga, games, figurines and such.

Possible answer 3: Yamazaki keeps his personal business to himself.

There is also the possibility that Yamazaki woud lie. When Satou tries to get into his apartment, the door suddenly opens and Yamazaki steps out. He says he is going to the convenience store and asks Satou if he wants to go along. Satou says no as he needs to work on the game scenario. Satou cannot bring himself to ask him and so Yamazaki leaves for the store.

The next day, Satou decides to stalk Yamazaki to find out whether he really has a girlfriend or not, despite the fact that he is a hikkikomori who cannot stand being outside in populous places. He follows him to his school in the city, but loses him in the building. When he is trying to decide which floor to go, he is approached by a teacher, who asks him if he’s a trial course student. Satou replies yes and, answering the next question, says that he wishes to do the game scenario course. It just so happens that the teacher is a game writing and invites Satou to attend his lecture. After the teacher finishes talking, it is time for the class to complete a short exercise of writing a game scenario. The paper that Satou is meant to write on reminds him of when he was in high school. He is also reminded of the time when he began to suffer from hikkikomori, which led to his eventual expulsion. When his mind has returned to reality, Satou starts writing.

His game is a visual novel about a man who livs in the highlands, accompanied by the mountain’s spirit. The teacher had been reading this over Satou’s shoulder and starts laughing at the idea. Hearing him burst into laughter, Satou quickly covers up his work. The teacher tells him that he was only laughing because he admired his originality, but Satou believes he was mocking and looking down on him. This eventually leads to Satou breaking down again and running out of the room (I’m surprised he was able to last this long in public). He stops in the middle of a stairwell to catch his breath and calm down. When he starts thinking about how he is going to get home, a door at the bottom of the stairwell opens, from which Satou hears Yamazaki’s voice. He follows him into the recreational room, where he eavesdrops on Yamazaki’s conversation with Nanako. When she leaves with her friends, Satou overhears her say that Yamazaki is only a friend, and not her boyfriend. Satou shows himself when the girls leave and tells Yamazaki that saw everything.

Back at their apartment, Yamazaki explains that he had started going out with Nanako two weeks ago. Satou refrains from telling him that Nanako doesn’t actually think of him as a boyfriend.

That night, during Satou third meeting with Misaki, he tells her about how he stalked Yamazaki and discovered that Nanako isn’t his girlfriend. Misaki says that she suspected it was something like this, and comments on how he’s made some progress as he was willing to go to a place with heaps of people. For a moment, Satou considers the fact that Misaki had planned this all along and pictures her as an angel. She is walking on the walls of a miniature castle in the playground, but when she loses her balance and falls, Satou immediately rejects the possibility.

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