English Dub Review: Tsukigakirei “The Setting Sun”

Our new sun.

Spoilers Below

After last week’s text conversation cliffhanger, Kotaro actually picks up the phone and CALLS Akane after learning she might be moving. An actual phone conversation is this show’s biggest development yet. He spends the rest of his time in a daze, flashing in and out of his drum-dancing classes and the library.

Akane is actually applying to her far away private school like she’s definitely going to be moving. Maybe that was established off-screen. She and Kotaro sadly stare at a train and talk about her leaving. Akane apologizes, but Kotaro says they will be fine, even far apart. I think that’s going to be hard for middle schoolers, but I’m happy to let them try. Kotaro says maybe he’ll even apply, too.

Later, Kotaro is performing at the festival. Akane and the rest of the former track team show up for their final outing. She looks so delighted to see him in the parade, even though he’s wearing a wolf costume that totally covers him up. Everyone agrees he looked really cool. Afterwards, his bookstore friend encourages him to write some light novels. This light novel advice seems so bizarre to me. A middle schooler probably isn’t good enough to write any kind of novels yet.

As it gets dark, Hira takes some time to sadly stare at Akane and tell her he’s sad she’s leaving. They stare at each other, too. Maybe Hira thinks she’s just really into that. Kotaro watches from afar as Akane apologizes but explains she’s in a relationship. This isn’t shocking, but still nice to see! Everyone knows that Akane loves Kotaro, still not sure what Hira was thinking.

Well, here’s what he was thinking: Hira thinks he knows Akane better than anyone and has loved her harder than anyone, and demands to know why she picked Kotaro. This conversation right here seems like a pretty good reason! They leave the conversation exactly in the same place as where they started.

Akane runs off to see Kotaro after telling everyone she left early. But Kotaro is upset because she and Hora were talking to each other alone. Ugh, she did the right thing, it’s not like all the times Kotaro messed up and Akane forgave him. They’re cute together, but Akane’s way better than him.

He finally tells her he’s annoyed because of another guy. Akane explains what happened and he’s still upset. I’m not sure what he was looking for here, either. Then he kind of leaves her stranded and alone at the festival.

So after a long line of being disappointed by Kotaro, Akane continues to be disappointed by Kotaro. She was nothing but good to you, man.

He can’t bring himself to text her that night, and neither can she. The next day at school, Kotaro squeezes his worry potato and regrets his life’s choices. In the library, Akane realizes he had been looking at a yearbook for her possible future high school. He says he’s applying. And she forgives him. They cry and kiss and blush, and it’s cute, okay? I can’t make up my mind if she should leave him for being so ridiculous or stay with him forever.

I expected more lasting damage out of an episode called “The Setting Sun”. It’s still about 50/50 on whether these two will be together at the end of the season. They’re beat the odds so many times, I can’t imagine it not happening forever. It seems like anything is possible in a middle school romance.