Inu x Boku SS – 03

 “This time, it is my turn to ask you. Will you be my secret Secret Service agent?”

And it’s finally time for Inu x Bishies once again! I’m still feeling the CNY holiday mood even though school has already resumed. Actually there’s going to be a birthday celebration later on in my house for my grandfather, which means my really big extended family is coming to chat and eat and socialize. Meanwhile I’m just enjoying my time with our beloved sparkling bishie and adorable tsundere~

This week, we get another glimpse into Ririchiyo’s childhood. Ever since her family found out that the blood mixed with that of supernatural creatures ran thickest in her, they raised her as a lucky charm – isolated and carefully molded. She never even had the chance to just be her parent’s daughter, unlike her sister, who is deeply loved by them. Ririchiyo gets a harsh slap on the face when she lets it slip that she is jealous of her. Sadly, she then realizes that the only one her father cares about is her sister, not her.

How do you even bear to slap such an adorable child who just simply wants to be loved? ;_;

Aaand on to happier times, it’s the beginning of a new school term for Ririchiyo! She’s being enrolled as the top student of the cohort in a super-elite high school, which holds a welcome ceremony and a social get-together for the first-years. This means a speech as the first-year students’ representative, awesome uniform and elaborate dresses! Prestigious school is prestigious indeed.

In school, Ririchiyo really hopes to be pleasant to her fellow classmates at least, but only a few minutes into school, and she ends up lashing out at two boys who were blatantly mocking her. While walking dejectedly to class, it turns out that Karuta-chan also happens to be in the same class as her – Ririchiyo is saved!

Karuta-chan says hello in her own adorable way

After school, Ririchiyo decides to walk back home …and to her shock, finds Soushi kissing a woman at the gate. Soushi later explains that he only agreed to it as the girl promised to give up on him if he kissed her. But this only seems to anger Ririchiyo further as she is disgusted that even someone as loyal and caring as him can do such a thing to someone with no feeling behind it, even going to the extent of calling him “filthy”. In a fit of anger, she eventually ends their contract on the spot.

Back in the confines of her room, she remembers how when she was younger, everyone around her was just like that – pacifying her with their fake smiles and no real emotion. Feeling scared, her distrust for others had surfaced, causing her to treat Soushi the way she did.

…all I really want to do now is cuddle you, Ririchiyo.

The next morning, Nobara specially heads to Ririchiyo’s room to help her prepare for the welcoming party, only to find her looking sickly and pale, certainly from over-thinking about the things she said to Soushi the previous night. Heading on to the party, Ririchiyo has an encounter with the principal and ends up being tsun and cold even towards him. She reproaches herself for being unable to be around people, and is ashamed of saying such hurtful things to Soushi the night before before she even had the chance to appreciate and thank him.

And that’s why when two ill-mannered schoolmates start to badmouth her about her once again, she is unable to retort their hurtful comments any longer, and her façade crumbles. Soushi then comes to the rescue as her knight in shining armor, splashing a glass of water onto the two bastards. He demands them to take back all the things that they said about Ririchiyo, and defends her, bringing up all her good qualities in a lovingly gentle manner. Ririchiyo, touched by his actions, stands up for Soushi when they demand him to go onto his knees and apologize, taking responsibility and emptying a glass of water onto herself.

She then wastes no time and immediately heads off to her representative speech, unfazed by the soaked state that she is in. Soushi chases after her and apologizes profusely, proclaiming that everything was his fault, but Ririchiyo address him as “Miketsukami-kun” for the first time and thanks him with the sweetest, most endearing smile.

After the speech, Ririchiyo asks for Soushi to be her secret service agent once again, and the two make a promise, that they will never be separated ever again.

“Cross your heart and hope to die?” “Stick a needle in my eye.” “…I’ll take the needle. So please don’t kill me.”

…now excuse me while I bawl my eyes out T____T I really, really loved this episode so much. I liked the previous two episodes mainly because of the humor, the adorable silliness and the bishies, but this episode really changed my view of the entire anime. Truthfully, I was pretty much indifferent to Ririchiyo previously, but now I see the importance of her role and the many, many likeable things about her. She’s not just your typical tsundere – she just wants to be able to interact with others, wants to have close, loving relationships with the people around her. As we got to learn about her really sad and ronery childhood, I finally understood the reasons for her distrust for others and her tsuntsun. I mean, who doesn’t want to be loved? Ririchiyo didn’t have that special someone who loved her for who she was, because she was always alone. When Soushi stood up for her and said those sweet things about her, she had finally found someone who would do just that – Soushi loved her unconditionally and cared about her genuinely, and that to her, was more than enough. The wall she had carefully built up over the years had come crumbling down, because finally, she had someone she could trust wholeheartedly. And that expression of hers, that endearingly overjoyed smile on her face was really heartwarming – it was an expression that she could finally show after that wall was down. This entire scene had me sobbing and whining because it was just that heartbreakingly touching, and my weakness for bittersweet love stories just made it all the better.

On the other hand, Soushi too, had shown another side of himself this week. The way he splashed those two bastards without any hesitation when he saw Ririchiyo being mocked unjustly was awesome (and really satisfying… bastards). It just goes to show that even though he is generally adorably nice to everyone in the Ayakashi Mansion, Soushi can get irritated and angered too, and when that happens he can turn deadly serious. Yes I already loved him since the first episode because of how cute he was, but character development is always essential in leaving a deep, memorable impression, isn’t it? 😀

That being said, I would really like to see more of the other side characters! Renshou has so much potential being a tattooed bishie *shot* but we’ve pretty much not seen him do anything other than sit there being hot and cool… xD Nobara was cool this episode, playing a rather motherly-figure to Ririchiyo and subtly giving her some encouragement to make up with Soushi… :3 Karuta-chan really needs more meaningful screen time. SHE’S SO ADORABLE (+ points for having Kana Hanazawa as a VA) but whyyy are all the scenes with her in it focusing on food?! Where is my character development LOL.

Yup, all in all I would call this episode a breakthrough for the anime – I think it gave the series much more depth to it, and I have officially grown to really like Ririchiyo! RIRICHIYO AND SOUSHI FOREVER /inner fangirl surfaces. I am really looking forward to next week’s episode now that Ririchiyo and Soushi have ~officially~ contracted. I expect more hilarity to ensue. XD

Preview: Ooh, looks like we’ll be meeting some new characters next week. Why do I have a bad feeling that this will mean something significant for Ririchiyo?