The gang gets to experience summer this week!

(Spoilers in this review) 

In my opinion, this episode was split into halves and both parts were about cherishing the present. You know, carpe diem and all that. O Captain, my Captain ;_;

The first part takes place in a beach. Unfortunately, Lucoa continues to sexually harrass Shouta, who understandably gets flustered. Meanwhile, Kanna eats a live crab whole. Someone’s gotta feed this young girl some better food!

They all get to experience the typical activities associated with Japanese beaches: watermelon splitting, swimming races, and eating overpriced beach food. What caught my attention, however, was a brief exchange between Kobayashi and Tohru.

Kobayashi absentmindedly mentions that she used to come to the beach with her family. At the word, “family,” Tohru remembers what seems to be a dragon mouth claiming that humans should all be killed. Later on, Tohru confirms that her parents are very much anti-human and would not tolerate Kobayashi (so the voice and the mouth possibly belong to Tohru’s father). Such an aggressive and violent stance is considered to be “normal” for dragons.

Meanwhile, Kobayashi gives a quick summary of her own upbringing, which is quite typical. She attended college, she found a job, she moved out, etc. Kobayashi’s family life is considered to be “normal” for humans, which causes Tohru to wonder if it’s normal for humans to accept dragons.

After Tohru tells Kobayashi that her parents would probably kill her on the spot, Kobayashi muses that this is the difference between “understanding words” and “understanding each other.” She comprehends the meaning of Tohru’s words, but Kobayashi is amazed at how the two of them were raised in different worlds with different values. However, Kobayashi mentally admits that she still wants to cherish the time she has with Tohru.

What does this mean? Well, Kobayashi is confirming that she does enjoy Tohru’s presence despite the mixed signals she sends to the dragon maid. But it also confirms that Kobayashi is trying to understand Tohru (and the other dragons, to a lesser extent).

A lot of the previous episodes dealt with the theme of understanding others, which can be seen in how Tohru is constantly observing (and dismissing) humans. A segment in episode three has Tohru trying to tell their neighbors to keep it down (while trying to understand their mindsets and behaviors). Tohru observes Kanna at school in episode four, trying to see exactly why Kanna is interested in going to school. Tohru is motivated to learn how to perform “ESP” because (in Kobayashi’s opinion) Tohru desperately wants to understand humans.  All in all, it is refreshing to see that Kobayashi is not as aloof as she appears and is trying to understand Tohru.

Then there’s a short segment of Kobayashi, Kanna, and Tohru enjoying some fireworks. Tohru demonstrates once again that dragons are superior to humans when it comes to explosions!

The second half of the episode has Kobayashi and Tohru going to Comiket to help Takiya (Kanna was left at home because Comiket has some explicit stuff) run his stall. Tohru is consistently baffled at how so many people are moving in unsion and are seemingly driven by some unseen phemonona.

Meanwhile, Kanna eats bugs for her summer assignment and Faf-kun struggles to sell his book of curses.

After a sahuagin,a witch, and a goblin run away from Tohru, she asks permission to pop out her wings and tail (and Kobayashi allows her). This causes a lot of photographers to want to take Tohru’s picture. After a while, she asks a photographer she bumped into earlier about Comiket’s “power.” He responds that there’s just something magical that only exists right now and people want to cherish these fleeting and transient moments. Thinking back to her time spent with Kobayashi, Tohru replies that she understands that sort of feeling very well.

In the end, Faf-kun didn’t do a good job selling copies of his Curse Anthology. Press “1” if you feel bad for Faf-kun.

Right before the ending, we get to see Kanna observing Kobayashi for her free studies because she’s interested in Kobayashi. So precious.

Thoughts on this episode:

• Since Shouta’s dad is Kobayashi’s manager, Kobayashi was told to look after Shouta, which is why he accompanied the girls to the beach. I eagerly await for Shouta to call Kobayashi auntie.
• The woman who drags Lucoa away from the beach (she was dressed too lewdly) is the same as the woman who drags Lucoa away from Comiket, it seems. Someone needs to tell Lucoa she needs to dress more modestly since this is a reoccuring problem.
• The (terrified) reactions the sahuagin, the witch, and the goblin had towards Tohru (a dragon) seems to imply that Kobayashi (and Takiya and Shouta and Riko) are more open-minded than other individuals. It’s also the first time that we have seen on-screen fear of dragons, no? Then again, the dragons were more dangerous in the other world, so I guess the trio had a legitimate reason to be afraid.
• The preview for the next episode has Takiya telling Kobayashi that some people have been getting turned on by Kobayashi’s eyes. Wow! Also, the last dragon is finally being introduced!
• Yeah…most of my thoughts on this episode are mixed up with the summary section. Sorry about that.