OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)Naoto and Ishihara are awkward with each other after last night’s misunderstanding, so Makina takes this chance to try and pounce and shoot her shot. She fails, but then Naoto brings the bags she forgot while shopping and she decides to continue her doomed quest to win his heart.OUR TAKEIn what seems like a small miracle this week, we have an episode with little to no Satsuki, which allows me to pretend that Naoto will be a sane human being and just focus on being good to Ishihara, despite knowing the narrative conventions of this genre and being fully aware that this fantasy will be shattered if this show gets enough episodes to do so. But until then, this episode brings us some regular and, dare I say it, almost relatable antics going on as Ishihara’s forwardness and Naoto’s unintended rejection lead to a small bit of a rift between them throughout the day, which sometimes happens between couples as they get a feel for each other emotionally in the early stages and their respective behaviors react with the others’ respective traumas or fears. In this case, Ishihara sends him a bunch of texts and calls that he ends up not seeing due to going to a movie with Makina, leading to more worry from her end that is eventually, thankfully, cleared up by the end when she overhears Naoto explain to Makina how much he genuinely cares for her (her being Ishihara), and so things are resolved and at peace for the moment.And since Ishihara decides to take a break from this episode for the most part (aside from a brief scene at the beginning where she is still quite clearly stepping over the line), the rest of this episode goes to Makina. Last week, it clicked for her that she actually has feelings for Naoto, despite the fact he already has a girlfriend, and is now trying the old tactic of “hey, I like this guy and I really want him to notice me, so what do YOU like so I can try that?”. And naturally Naoto is either too humble or too dense to connect the dots, though Suzu sees through this right away and bluntly tells Makina that this is never going to work. Again, I greatly question what the point of her inclusion here is or to what end we are meant to see her attempt this sisyphean task of trying to take the lead here when she is not even in the race. But sure, fine, whatever gives me more material to talk about as I wait for the remaining two episodes of this series to get dubbed and then promptly eject all memory of it from my brain the moment I am able to. This is just such a rote, by the numbers love triangle anime and devoting any critical thought to it genuinely feels like a waste of brain space, I am so serious. Just two to go, two to go.