Kyoani tears strike again! Goddamn KyoAni tears….Man. Deko tears are just the worst, though.
Anyways, on to the episode. This week focused strongly on our new heroine, the devil girl Sophia. I believe the most striking thing I learned about her is that she wears her scarf even when she is swimming. What a water proof-ass scarf. Or a soggy one.
To anybody who’s been watching this show, it’s bloody obvious that Sophia is harboring a childhood crush on Togashi, who to her always will and always has been Dark Flame Master. She had, at least prior to this episode, maturely accepted that Rikka was the victor of love in this battle…until now. Despite her constant repression of her own feelings, she’s unable to quell the way she feels about Togashi. Togashi, thick as is par for the course for a main character, still hasn’t figured that out yet.
Rikka’s sister has done what Togashi cannot and deciphered the three’s relationship with one another at a glance, and warned Nibutani and the others to keep an eye on them. Nibutani, deko, and our very own nap goddess do just that and find out she, big surprise, DOES love him after all. She gives them a vague answer like “I’m going to keep being me!” which I’m not really sure whether that means she’s going to relent or keep going. The episode soon reveals it’s the latter.
Rikka’s elder sister returns to Italy and the status quo is maintained once again…until Sophia gets stuck in the rain with Togashi. Fighting her feelings, she essentially asks Togashi how far he’s gone with Rikka. He’s done such scandalous stuff like hold her hand and say that he “loves her”, which hurts Sophia to hear. She accepts it and he wanders off to find out where Rikka’s gone to. Proud that she endured all of it without crying, she rejoices briefly until Togashi returns with an umbrella. His spontaneous act of kindness causes her to lose her composure, sob, and run off. Poor thing.
This is the first time we’ve gotten a “To be continued” at the end of an episode so we can be sure this is going to be juicy!