Recap: Yuuki narrowly avoids comedy misunderstandings by hiding in his rival’s room. While one member of the quantum-harem gets friendzoned, Satsuki tries to get closer in order to learn more about her estranged sister.

Taking a break from politics completely, this episode was all about the Shinonome siblings. While I know nothing of how events actually transpire in the original VN, the further we get into this season, the more I feel that the developers of this show are going towards Satsuki as the main romantic interest. This episode is just full of tension and Yuuki doesn’t seem particularly unwilling to her advances. It would put an interesting twist on romantic subplots, seeing as they are direct competitors and any philandering would be rife for drama once the elections really start picking up.

However, on the childhood friend side, looks like Chisato can’t catch a break. Granted, I always found her kinda annoying but Yuuki just shuts her down this episode without a second thought. Morishita once again has a random appearance without any development, which has really started to irk me. Morishita, as one of the main girls, is the only one that has not had an episode focus on her or her problems. While her antics are still really cute I’m finding it harder and harder to take this character seriously when we literally know nothing about her.

Thankfully, Chocolate has finally decided to properly pace itself, and the drama that came this week did not feel jarring or unwarranted. This is the kind of drama you can only see from the writing of a visual novel, it was definitely the most gripping sequence yet. By the end of it, I am glad that the problem was actually resolved, and not left hanging. However, this isn’t the problem I want to see resolution to. I want to know why in an earlier episode, we see Yuuki curling into Hazuki’s bosom like a child in need of his mother. The scene was one of those aforementioned jarring dramatic numbers that just never saw conclusion and is still incredibly bothering me.

Back to this episode’s drama, I was a little confused as to the flow of reasoning by Hazuki. I’m not going to bore you with the technical reasons, but Hazuki and her mother having Rh- blood types doesn’t predicate maternity by a long shot. Satsuki touches upon this briefly but seeing as it’s true, it makes me wonder why they even decided to include that in the first place. It’s completely irrelevant, the fact that her adoptive mother literally didn’t have a womb to carry her was a much bigger tip-off. Chalk this up to me bio nerding a little, I guess.

Small problems aside, I really enjoyed this week’s episode. The drama was hard-hitting but not unwarranted, and I really like the chemistry going on between Yuuki and Satsuki. With the next episode preview we see what appears to be a return to political antics, which I can wholeheartedly get behind.