English Dub Review: Adachi and Shimamura “Friends and Love, Love and Cherry Blossoms”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Shimamura reflects on her eventual graduation. She thinks about walking down the spring path, looking at the cherry blossoms, ambivalent about the future.

In the present, Adachi vows to spend her free time looking at Shimamura, hoping she doesn’t change. After Nagafuji mentions she stayed the night at Hino’s, Adachi asks to spend the night at Shimamura’s.

Shimamura asks why, and Adachi says she thinks it’s a chance for them to get closer. While still unsure, Shimamura relents, and officially invites Adachi over for the weekend.

After obsessively packing and arriving at her friend’s at 7am, Adachi’s plan seems to be in motion. But her attempts to sleep in the same room are stymied by Shimamura’s younger sister. Adachi heads off to work the next day, and spends most of her shift day dreaming.

When she returns, Shimamura is out shopping. Shimamura’s mom uses the opportunity to grill Adachi about her daughter’s study habits, or lack thereof. Adachi says Shimamura’s the leader when they hang out.

Shimamura returns, with a gift for her friend: matching sakura hair pins. Adachi attempts to tell her she loves her in response, but ends up yelling “I LOVE IT!” instead. The two spend the night in the same room, as Yashiro keeps Shimamura’s younger sister entertained with tales of her alien specie’s longevity. Specifically, she mentions outliving most of the lifeforms she encounters.

After spending the night cuddling and waking up in each other’s arms, Adachi and Shimamura head to school together. Shimamura again reflects on the future cherry blossoms.

For the meantime, she vows to appreciate the bloom right in front of her: Sakura Adachi.

Our take:

While the premise is a bit unusual (even here inviting yourself over to someone’s house is pretty rude), this episode is a stellar end to the season. Literally, since one of the most tender moments gets an extra sparkly space treatment as a visual effect.

Shimamura’s reflections on the future provide an excellent framing device for her conclusion about her feelings towards Adachi at the moment. And of course, the pun? Or at least reference to Adachi’s first name being Sakura is a gorgeous touch.

There’s also quite a bit of relatable humor this episode, despite the Yashiro appearance. Larissa Gallagher (aka Bluebird Azurite from Steven Universe) delivers such an on-point performance as a prying parent that it reminded me of a recent conversation with one of my own middle school friends about who was the bad influence on whom (I still contend it was me, lol.)

Michelle Marie’s performance as Shimamura’s younger sister is a far cry from her Yashahime roles as Gyokuto and Baby Hisui, but she nails the balance between youth and jealousy without sounding cheesy or cloying.

Overall, this episode seems to leave things in a good place. It’s hard to see the progress of the relationship, and Tarumi is arguably still in play, but Shimamura’s gift to Adachi means a lot of the more obviously pining of the two. I’m hoping they continue to get closer next season, and that Adachi can finally reveal her feelings.

Of course, that’s far more likely to happen at the very end of the series, so it’s more slow burn slice of life moments until then.