Recap: The Neighbor’s Club begins filming their movie for the Cultural Festival. Kodaka begins to notice other people making strange comments about his relationship with Sena, including one of her jealous classmates.

Jel’s Thoughts: Full disclosure – I’ve known for some time that Kodaka and Sena were engaged thanks to some internet spoilery, but I suppose it still wouldn’t have been too much of a shock once you look at the clues. It’s really just there to shake things up a bit, taking the rug out from under Yozora’s attachment to the past and bringing Sena on equal ground as far as the Love Triangle goes. Given how exaggerated everyone’s personality flaws are, it is kind of a cleverly contrived way to force an answer to the question about whether the past or present is more important. If they weren’t so messed up it would be kind of a dumb and one dimensional trick, but considering the circumstances I think it works.

Before we got to all that we did have a new character thrown at us, and much like Kate I just don’t see why she is necessary. Especially this late in the game, do we really need someone else telling us that Sena is perfect and the girls are jealous of her? Aoi’s appearance certainly didn’t ruin the episode and she did nudge the plot a bit, but did we really need an entirely new named character for that?

Getting back to the Meat of the plot (pun not intended), I’ll be curious to see how other people feel about Yozora’s reaction to the engagement. I felt pretty bad for her, but as I’ve alluded to before I don’t think I’m a very objective judge. It is a rare instance that she’s painted as a sympathetic figure though, and I can’t imagine how the story can possibly carry on much further without some kind of repercussions. The girls aren’t even trying to hide their feelings at this point, so something has to happen soon right? Judging by the previews it seems Yozora’s plagiarism and general malaise could turn the movie production into hilarious directions, and seeing the cast actually donning the OP costumes is an unexpected twist. I would have never guessed it would be that literal. I’m all for some more humor, but here’s hoping we get some more plot in there as well.