English Dub Review: The Dreaming Boy Is a Realist “Should We Open It? Should We Open It? Should We Look Inside?”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Wataru falls ill and collapses in the classroom. Aika harbors feelings that cannot be expressed in words.

Our Take:
Wataru has become sick, but it’s not the love kind. It’s an actual sickness that pushes Wataru and Aika’s feelings even further. What’s worse for Wataru is that it came at the worst possible time, as the students are in the final weeks of school before summer vacation. Of course, the episode shows that the last days of school are the least of their problems, as Wataru’s cold caught the attention of everyone at school. Of course, that includes Aika, who’s worried that she caused his sickness to worsen after Wataru saved her from a truck on a rainy day.
Most of the episode is spent on Wataru’s sickness, with Aika, Kei, Shinomiya, and even Kaede checking on him periodically. Well, it was actually Aika and Kei who visited Wataru the most, especially at his place when he was absent from school. The rest of the episode then has Wataru encountering Claudine and her petty girls, who take an interest in Aika’s test scores. It turns out that Claudine wants Aika to help her compete for the position of student council president. However, Wataru believes that Aika might get in her way because of her cuteness, much to Aika’s embarrassment and Claudine’s jealousy.
Since we’re close to summer vacation, it’s hard to say what direction they’ll go for the student council president scenario. Plus, Wataru got himself a new job at the bookstore at the end of the episode. Whatever it is, I’m hoping it’ll be one of the things that’ll make the show more interesting than it is now. I did get a good chuckle from seeing Claudine freak out when she saw Wataru in this episode, which is enough to consider its dry plot watchable.