Another super cool episode!
I feel like we are finally getting so close to some answers we have been looking for for a long long time.
Poor Kana I can't see her like that... they really cooked with this episode.
I could not care less about Ruby plotting things, Aqua losing it, or Akane winning awards. Kana crying and apologizing like that is genuinely heartbreaking. Also, Memcho is sad too.... God damn it.

I swear. All the other stuff is interesting but Kana is the only character in this story that manages to stoke a fire in my heart. Poor girl :'(
Yeah, it has to stop right now. I miss her tsundere antics and her smile. The fact that she is always sad and depressed in every scene now makes me sick to my stomach with how they have been treating her.
I wonder if Akasaka ever looked back at this and questioned why he put her through all this suffering.... He or Mengo must've been die-hard Akane whorshippers or some shit smh
i do not mean to insult anyone here, but genuinely, why? how? kana is the only character i do not give a fuck for in the show. i don't hate her necessarily, usually it's something between being neutral and dislike, but she was SO bad in this ep...
ts was NOT about her, of course aqua shouldn't have hit her, but he did so unintentionally cause he was having a HUGE PANIC ATTACK. this was in no way about kana and her stupid ass just interpreted it as whatever was the most convenient. seriously, not everything is about her. she's so annoying T_T i knew she gonna do some stupid shit the moment she appeared in this episode...

I understand you! But i think thats exactly the point. We are looking from a perspective where we know what each person is going through. Kana, on the other hand, knows nothing about what Acqua feels or why he feels it. Its that phrase "you dont know someone elses pain". I think thats why, for me, it was an excellent episode, it was intense. Its not Kana fault :(
So, the big reveal is that instead the father being some guy in his twenties or thirties, who would have been in big trouble for knocking up a teenager, was also a teen? That changes the reasoning for covering up things with Ai.
Also, this means the teenager slept with a married woman. The lad got around.
Yet another male victim of SA being congratulated "for going around". What a joke.
@Rikkaus
It is a fictional story, don’t be so serious. Also, this character is confirmed to be the villain of the story. Until more is revealed, victim is a strong word. He probably slept with the married woman for some personal reason that would benefit him like blackmail, and probably has other such examples. Look what Ruby did with the director in the same episode. I can only assume, but this is the same character that had Ai killed for his reputation and given the reveal he was also a minor, it makes the reasoning more insidious it seems.
I've read through the manga and seeing the second and third seasons of the anime, all I can say is, wow, this production really give their all to this. Art, screenplay and voice acting is off the charts.
The best thing? It actually feels great to see what I already know with such a production. Hats off...
Poor Aqua, the shock of this discovery is a huge blow, anyone would collapse and go mad, but I'm not sure about him, he will be able to find the motivation to fight and avenge his mother again, but he must stop making Kana feel bad :(. And here he is, we finally see the infamous Hikaru Kamiki.
i'm now imagining scenarios of the twin duo working together to make insane plans.
Aqua... he should at least think about what to say and then explain to her what he told MEM. well, it's kind of late now... i at least hope he returned the umbrella in some way, maybe bringing it back to the agency. i guess we'll see.
Sorry, I'm gonna be a bit harsh here, but seeing Kana jump to the conclusion and making stuff about her when Aqua wasn't even "there" or even looking at her, thinking that means he must hate her feels kind of dumb. I would have felt more sorry for her if she hadn't said that out loud and just left in tears instead, bc that must hurt her either way.
Did she not see that he was having a wholeass mental breakdown that had nothing to do with her even being there? That's why she stopped and went there in the first place bc something was clearly wrong. Idk if that's poor writing to easily gain sympathy for her from the reader/watcher or what, but it felt a bit silly.
Anyway, I am definitely looking forward to them unveiling more about their dad and his history, because him being younger than Ai makes this quite a bit more interesting than I had first thought, regarding his motives for wanting her dead.
It was also interesting how he was the one narrating the whole sequence with Ruby and her rise to fame.
kana wouldn't have seen what we, the viewer, saw - that being aqua's breakdown. she likely just saw him on the bench, unresponsive, and she wanted to make sure he was ok. her response to him pushing her away makes sense.
"him being younger than ai makes this a bit more interesting" its literally a year difference lol. or she turned 16 before him in the same year. seems like two kids just having some fun without realising the consequences. it could be more sinister than that, but i doubt it.
Idk, you still see his facial expressions, even if everything he "sees" isn't visible to anyone else. I interpreted it as him still having a visible breakdown for others to see, but I guess that could be interpreted differently by other people.
You're missing the point of the last part, because it wasn't about there being an age gap, at least not that way around. Most of us would have assumed that it was someone way older than her in the business (I know he still looks young in the show in the previous reveals, but you know...animes approach to character's ages doesn't always make sense). Someone that wanted to get rid of her so she wouldn't ruin his reputation if he was in fact grooming her.
Edit: Also, don't forget that his half brother is even older than the twins, so that means that their dad wasn't even a teenager yet when he became a dad for the first time.
maybe i'm just making excuses here, but maybe it seemed like Aqua snapped at her from "whatever breakdown he was having" which is sooort of what happened but it wasn't personal at all, but Kana mistook it. or maybe since Kana thought he hated her, she was subconsciously looking for an excuse to stop liking him, to push him away. idk.
as for Hikaru, i'm wondering if his experience with Airi will come into play. Taiki is a few years older than the Hoshino siblings, which means Hikaru was 12 or something. sounds like a big fat case of grooming for Hikaru instead, and such things can lead to trauma.
i didn't even realise Hikaru was narrating T-T
Yeah, the whole grooming stuff, but reverse of what they set it up to be (showing how Aqua was investigating a lot of older men in the industry) is what makes it even more interesting, because you don't hear about that quite as much. I'm just really curious to hear about his motives and how messed up he really is.
I recognise Miyano Mamoru's voice instantly LMAO
To me the ending was a big let down. First we had Aqua, now we have Ruby -- hell even the producer guy -- sacrificing their lives to find shit out... Akane randomly sees a dude and pieces everything together. I mean, she sort of has a record of being like this, so it's not out of character or anything. It just is a big letdown storywise.
The episode was really cool, but honestly the Kana part felt forced and unnecessary to me. I used to love her, but she slowly went from a character to root for, to one to pity, pity, pity and then pity some more, when she ain't even involved in the serious part of the plot at all. Idgaf atp.
went from a character to root for, to one to pity, pity, pity and then pity some more
I mean that's her part here. She's Aqua's love interest, but Aqua didn't choose her cuz he wouldn't want the same outcome as Ai's case (since Kana is also an idol now). But they didn't talk out properly, so Kana thought he hated her since he's avoiding her everywhere. In the rain, we knew that he was having a mental breakdown, but Kana couldn't see that in the rain from the car or the side she was walking from. Aqua throwing her away was a sign of showing how Aqua's gonna separate himself away again in search of a revenge, and in the process, he's gonna hurt every special one of his, be it intentionally or unintentionally. (And I am hating this revenge tale... I just was loving the calm composite future-star Aqua... Things are gonna get really dirty now.)
Oh I understand all that, my point is, I'm not liking it. Aqua's having a very understandable mental breakdown, but by forcefully adding Kana into the mix, the viewer's attention is taken away from him, and instead focused around Kana and her misery. Kana had a hard upbringing, sure, but her current life? It's relatively peaceful, her biggest problem is that the guy she likes seemingly doesn't like her back, which is really hard for me to care about when there's murder-mystery going on and a psychopath on the loose.
Since the beginning of Aqua's revenge, we've been able to see how that pursuit of Aqua impacts his relationships, and how much he wanted to be free of that prison that was keeping him from living a normal life, such as starting to engage in a romance. What I get from "adding Kana into the mix" is just another layer to that pile of Aqua's frustration about not being free from his torment, so for me that's why it doesn't seem like Kana is taking the scene away from Aqua, but rather reaffirming his situation.
Intent aside, what the scene actually did is take attention away from Aqua, as most people somehow feel worse for Kana now than Aqua, when Aqua’s situation is objectively worse. Aqua’s inability to have romance or lead a normal life will likely be explored again with Akane next episode, but in her case she will actually know what’s going on and her feelings will be centered on Aqua’s tragedy rather than hers, which I feel is the better written approach.
Well, as I described it, I don't see the scene that way, and what I get about people who "feel worse for Kana now than for Aqua" are just fans of the character highlighting their frustration, it doesn't necessarily mean diminishing Aqua's importance and redirecting it to Arima. But yes, I would like that to be explored in the way you described regarding Akane.
The music right before the ending reminds me so much of Yami ni Furu Ame by Sheena Ringo.
Also can’t wait to see and hear Hikaru since Mamoru is his seiyuu :3
I love Mamoru and I’m kinda afraid Hikaru might become my favorite character, because after finishing the manga I can’t help but hate almost everyone there lol such a nonsense story. The only character I can accept is Ai but well, Aka killed her in the first ep (maybe that’s why I like her so much lmao)
This episode was SALTYYYYY! we finally see the father of Ai's children and Aqua finally realizing that his revenge isn't over! This episode has so much good setup and internal destruction. Kana misunderstanding, Ruby gaining more power, Aqua being brought back into his insanity. This episode was really good!
I'm completely shocked on how their father is pretty much look alike (duh), I knew their father's name from the manga bros (fuck you manga reader who spoils stuff, I literally had to act surprised) but I expected some old dudes, turns out he's even younger than Ai. Teen pregnancy huh.
Also sad Kana (she misunderstood tho), and I hope Aqua will explain about it later to clear up any misunderstanding
Bro was 15? Akane found him in like 10 minutes while Auqa was basically trying all his life. This was a freaking 10/10 episode. Poor Aqua can't even get a break and live normally like in the first-half of the ep he was what he was supposed to be (under normal circumstances) but in the second half after hearing about the truth the trauma came back to him. Also that Kana crying scene had me heartbroken like she didn't even do anything wrong bro why she suffering like this. MEM is also feeling a bit down but i think she can handle it. Ruby straight-up became a star and even hired the AD dude (which is great the guy can rest now.) And finally we got the reveal of their real father's name (Hikaru Kamiki) and a bit of background of him and Ai bro was 15 i thought he'd be like in his mid-to-late twenties. This episode sure felt like a horror-psychological movie or some shit i had goosebumps all over my body easily the best episode of this season so far this was Peak and nothing less.