The episode opens with Nishimura laying on her bed, looking at the summer vacation agenda she made with Takada. We hear in her thoughts that she hasn’t seen Takada since they visited her mother’s grave in the previous episode, and that she misses seeing him. Later, as she’s walking along, she finds that her steps have taken her, without thinking about it, right to Takada’s home. He happens to be outside, and the meeting is awkward. Takada says he can’t play today, because he already made plans with Hino. Nishimura reaches out and grabs Takada by the hands, saying they need to talk.

Takada finally expresses to Nishimura the guilt he’s been feeling about calling her the Grim Reaper after learning that Nishimura’s mother died and that her family felt that Nishimura was a replacement for her mother. Once Nishimura understands why Takada has been avoiding her, she takes a minute to think about how she feels being called the Grim Reaper. She realizes that she hates it when their classmates use it to tease her for her appearance, but that she doesn’t mind when Takada calls her that. She tells Takada that she’s not bothered by him calling her the Grim Reaper, and this allows them to start repairing their friendship.

Just then, Hino shows up with cotton candy and points out that there’s a festival taking place around the corner. Going to a festival was on Takada and Nishimura’s summer vacation agenda, so they decide to go. We get a montage sequence of them spending time at the festival, and poor Hino looked like he was third-wheel for the most part. But during the montage, one of the scenes that’s shown in a little more detail is a vendor selling toy rings.

Later, we see Nishimura and Takada walking together, and Takada becomes upset when he discovers something is missing from his backpack. It turns out he bought one of the toy rings at the festival and planned to give it to Nishimura. Just then, the main girl who bullies Nishimura approaches, holding a ring and asking if that’s what Takada was looking for. After he says it is and that he planned to give it to Nishimura, the girl says she won’t give it back and will keep it because she found it. She sneers that the ring wouldn’t look good on Nishimura, and Takada turns it around to make it sound like Nishimura deserves a real ring instead of a toy one, because a toy one is beneath her. The girl gets frustrated and says that’s not what she meant, but Takada keeps going with his train of thought. It was nice to see him doing this with another character instead of with Kitagawa. In fact, it should be pointed out that Kitagawa and his buddies never show up in this entire episode.

Takada then takes another toy ring out of his pocket, because it turns out he bought two of them while at the festival, and he thinks that this one is more appropriate for her, anyway. Although, he does make the comment that because he’s a kid, all he can give her is a toy ring. Awww… that was so sweet and innocent. At the end of this segment, we see Nishimura back at home. She thinks to herself that it doesn’t matter if it’s a toy ring, she’ll always cherish it as a special object… and blushes immediately after having this thought.

The last bit of the episode sees Takada wanting to enter a photography contest, where the coolest photo will win first place. I was kind of amused when this scene first started, because we see a sign for the park they’re at, which was labeled as, “That There Park.” Takada begins taking pictures with Nishimura as his model, but he thinks she looks so adorable that the pictures look more cute than cool. Nishimura suggests asking Hino for help, and the rest of this story shows the three of them running around and taking pictures. We get to see them at “That There Shopping Center” and at “That There Pharmacy,” in addition to “That There Park.” One of my kids joked that they must live in That There, Japan.

After the ending credits, there’s a post-credits scene of Takada laying around the house, feeling bored. He suddenly thinks about Nishimura and wonders why he keeps thinking of her lately. Takada’s sister walks in and asks why he’s got such a goofy grin on his face. She correctly guesses that he’s thinking of Nishimura, and the two siblings have a conversation that leads to the amusing final scene of the episode.

This was a really good episode of My Clueless First Friend. I’m glad to see that the awkwardness between Takada and Nishimura was wrapped up during the first half of the episode, and that this tension wasn’t dragged out any longer than that. For a series like My Clueless First Friend, tension and drama can be part of it, although it can’t be so heavy that it drags this light-hearted series down.

There was also a lot of hand holding in this episode between Nishimura and Takada, although it always happened for innocent purposes. However, especially by the end, the episode seems to be strongly hinting that Takada has a crush on Nishimura but that he doesn’t realize it yet. Nishimura blushes a lot when she’s around Takada, but it’s a little harder to tell if what she’s feeling is a crush, or if she’s simply overwhelmed by finally having a friend in her life.

My Clueless First Friend continues to be a sweet and wholesome series, and it’s one I’ve come to look forward to watching every weekend.

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