The beginning of Episode 21 starts with a slight backtrack to the end of Episode 20, when Manaka startles both Hikari and Miuna when she wakes up. Quite a bit of the episode sees Hikari, Chisaki, and Kaname taking Manaka around. Surprisingly, Manaka didn’t freak out about the changes around her, especially with how much she worried about the hibernation in the first half of the series. However, I’m wondering if she’s as happy as she’s appearing, or if she may be overdoing it in order to hide any fear that she might have.

There’s also some time spent on Chisaki and Tsumugu after they visit Tsumugu’s grandfather at the hospital. Chisaki finds out that Tsumugu will be heading back to the university around the end of the month, because the school wants the professor to hurry up and put together their findings. As they walk home, Tsumugu muses about wishing he could simply ask Uroko-sama about what’s going on with the sea. After finding out from Chisaki that Uroko-sama is a pervert, he suggests offering porn mags as a bribe. As they walk, we see Tsumugu step on a scale.

Early the next morning, Tsumugu rushes to Hikari’s house to see Manaka, because something unexpected has happened to him and he needs to talk to her about it.

The main focus of this episode was definitely on Manaka and her reactions to the world that she’s woken up in. Hikari also learns through talking with Manaka that she only has very vague memories of what happened to her during the Ofunehiki and about hearing a voice saying it needed something. She doesn’t know whose voice it was or what it needed. Later, when he presses her about what she wanted to tell him after the Ofunehiki and he asks if it had to do with Tsumugu, she has no idea what he’s talking about. So for now, at least, whatever it was Manaka had wanted to tell to Hikari after the Ofunehiki is still a mystery to both Hikari and the audience.

It was interesting watching the scenes with Chisaki and Tsumugu, because they almost act like a married couple. I know in large part that this is due to being in the same house for five years, but they do seem like they’d make a good couple. Chisaki, forget about Hikari – Tsumugu’s a keeper!

I should also mention that three of the shots in the opening have been changed to reflect the fact that Manaka is now back with the group. And the change in the final shot confirmed my suspicion as to whose hand it is that catches the umbrella that flew out of Miuna’s hand at the beginning.

It turns out in my previous writeup that I had misremembered how many episodes Nagi no Asukara has. After Episode 21, there’s still five episodes remaining, so hopefully we’ll start seeing some of the questions I mentioned in my writeup for Episode 20 getting answered rather quickly, as well as new questions that arise during Episode 21. I still can’t believe Nagi no Asukara is getting so close to its conclusion now, so I’m torn about seeing the episodes each week at this point. On the one hand, I want to see the next episode, because then I’ll find out how the story progresses. On the other hand, with each episode I see now, I’m one week closer to finishing the series. Nagi no Asukara has become such an important part of my Thursdays that I’m going to miss it when it’s finished.

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