Recap: Yuuta’s friend Isshiki receives a love letter but has no idea how to handle the situation. While looking for Yuuta for advice, he accidentally discovers Nibutani’s true personality. Later on, he loses his “Cute Girl Poll” notes and they end up in Nibutani’s hands, putting his potential new love (and his life?) in danger.

Jel’s Thoughts: The idea of dedicating an entire episode to Yuuta’s generic friend character had me really worried in the early bits of this episode, but there were plenty of hilarious and sweet moments with the rest of the cast to make up for it. Plus Isshiki’s ritual (hair) suicide was the most appropriate, satisfying conclusion for his attempt to join the main cast.

That being said, I really hope we never have to see Isshiki again as that was about as much as I could tolerate of him. Yes it was great how he fell on his sword at the end, but that is really the only thing generic girl crazy friend characters are useful for. Kumin’s fascination with his bald head was kind of cute, but that’s more Kumin being adorable than anything. At least Isshiki’s increased screen time didn’t prevent Dekomori from continuing to torment Nibutani. Her hilariously brutal slide tackle was starting to border on straight up bullying, and yet as long as Nibutani tries to keep up her front I am totally loving it.

Our main duo of Yuuta and Rikka kind of slid into the background this week, but the moments they did share were pretty sweet and significant. The scene when they held hands undoubtedly had the shippers swooning, but it was actually a lovely and appropriately odd moment of bonding between the two. KyoAni really excels at little vignettes like that, using direction and atmosphere to say so much with hardly any actual words.

With Summer vacation looming I highly suspect next week will be the beach episode. This week’s episode left off with Yuuta having to decide whether he vacations with his family in Jakarta or takes up Touka’s mysterious request to travel with Rikka. Hmm I wonder which one he will choose…