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Impressions:

Like with Innocent Venus, I didn’t watch these two episodes earlier because of all the new shows, but now that I am sort of free, I can do these. Even though the money is probably going mostly to Pumpkin Scissors now, resulting in a continuing mediocre quality, I like the story more than enough to continue this show. I’ve said before that the summer shows were all crap, though I think this is the exception. I really liked how they did the whole suspenseful lead up to the big jump. By that time I was extremely mixed up as I wanted them to jump (not sure why, guess the suspense got to me) but of course it’s obvious at least Satou won’t jump as that would mean the end of the show. Also, not only did the animators portray the suspense well, the also showed how hard it is to really die. If you ask me, I wouldn’t care if I was dead or not, as you can’t regret what you didn’t or did do after you die (well, that’s how I think anyway, and I don’t believe in afterlife). However, for me, it’s the act of ‘dying’ that’s scary, not ‘death’ itself. That’s probably what everyone was feeling when they were about to jump (before they began to realise that they didn’t really want to die). Though, I must say the part where Satou slipped was anticipated like as soon as the group got on the cliff. It was so obvious that I laughed when that happened.

I’ve said before that Misaki is probably suffering something similar to Satou, and these two episodes sort of prove it. Not to mention the part where Misaki said Satou was a failure as a human (which was the most HILARIOUS thing I’ve heard all day), she said that Satou was lower than even herself, who she thinks is garbage. This means she probably has a lot of problems too, and was looking for someone in the same boat as her to endure the ride together. While I don’t think what she said would’ve convinced anyone to reconsider their suicide, it did the job of informing us, the audience, of what was really going on in her mind, finally! I actually thought what she thought was extremely selfish, as she never said anything about Satou still having a personal reason to live. She clearly stated that she wanted him to live to satisfy her own desires, which is why I can understand why it made Satou want to die even more. Luckily, we had Yamazaki persuade him with a few words that I can’t even remember anymore. To say the truth, I really thought it would be Misaki to stop Satou, but oh well. There’re also the flashbacks of who seemed like her ex-boyfriend that Misaki had. It seems she was physically abused before, which is why she was so afraid of being hit. The first time she recoiled, I actually laughed, but when she did it again and again, I began to feel bad and sorry for her.

Even though the end of episode 14 was probably meant to be very clear-cut, I didn’t really get the phone call. The two possible things that could’ve been happening popped into my mind: the police or the ambulance. It could also have been the fire brigade because of the siren, but I thought Satou’s mother wouldn’t be talking the way she did if her house was burning down or something. So, that left me with two choices. Could it have been the ambulance? I though maybe she just found out she was going to die, or maybe purposely ate too many pills or something to kill herself, and wanted to tell her son that she was about to die before she did. But then, I though what if she pulled off some serious offence and was being chased by police? It could even be something else entirely. Anyway, I don’t even know if this will be revealed next episode, as it will clearly focus on Satou’s MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game, with variations) that he’s about to engage in. Sadly, I’m already dreading watching the next episode as it seems like we’ll take a look at Satou as he endorses himself in the game that his character that he controls will become him. It reminds me of that School Rumble ni Gakki filler…I hope it’s not too bad (and not too corny either). I’ll be surprised if anything serious happens while he’s playing too.

Plot Outline:

- (I can’t really remember where ep.13 ended and ep.14 started so I won’t indicate that in the summary)
- Satou and the others make a campfire and eat their last dinner
- Satou tries to escape but for some reason his mind is already submitting to the thought of suicide
- The group make their way up to the top of a cliff, where they plan on jumping into the depths below (even though they were jumping into water, the height would be enough to rip them to shreds, resulting in an instant death, and it’s probably worse than falling on the ground)
- As they are doing this, Yamazaki, Misaki and Kashiwa’s boyfriend frantically make their way to the shore of the island, rent a boat and start cruising to the site of the offline meeting
- Satou and the others link hands and step towards to edge to jump off together
- However, one guy backs down and convinces the other guys to stop as well
- Kashiwa though, still wants to jump and tries to drag Satou with her
- Just before she drops down, her boyfriend reaches her in the boat (on the water below) and asks her to marry her

- She immediately accepts and all thoughts of suicide are gone
- Because of this sudden agreement, Satou decides to jump
- Misaki tries to tell him to stop but ends up making it worse by saying he’s a failure as a human and such
- Satou tries to jump but everyone else holds him back
- Yamazaki then says something, which is enough to console Satou, but he slips and falls down anyway
- Luckily, he manages to grab the edge, allowing two of the guys with him to pull him up
- Back on the shore, Misaki tries to talk to Satou, but he turns around in rage, about to punch her
- This causes her to have an unwanted flashback and she recoils, raising her arms to defend herself
- Satou doesn’t hit her in the end, but is still mad
- When they get back to the coast, they go and relax in a hot spa and meet up with relatives before parting ways
- Yamazaki goes to the summer festival to try and sell the game but no one buys

- Satou returns home to find a letter from Misaki, saying that she will be waiting at the same place at the same time
- As he is trying to decide whether to go or not, Yamazaki barges in on him and starts drinking
- Satou ignores him and goes to see Misaki anyway
- Misaki tells him that he broke the agreement on the contract, but since she is partly responsible, she lets him off the hook
- Satou almost hits Misaki again, but once again she reacts badly
- However, she starts crying, but they are tears of happiness as she says to Satou ‘okairinasai’ (welcome home)
- Satou replies with a warm ‘tadaima’ (I’m home)
- At home, Satou gets a strange phone call from her mum (and it seems like she’s in some kind of trouble)

Preview:

Next episode - #15
Let’s take a look at Satou’s online game…

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