| Title: | Ai Yori Aoshi |
| Episode: | 16: Beach |
| Synopsis | |
| Summer time is swimming time, so Tina is going to buy a nice swimsuit ("just in case") and all the girls accompany her. Tina is picking on Mayu [image1], and Taeko can find only one piece of her size. Back home, Taeko receives a letter from her grandma who invites her to the beach house she runs. So they all decide to join her on the trip.
Both Taeko's grandma and her younger cousin Chika seem rather playful as they name Kaoru Taeko's "boyfriend" or even her "husband", which doesn't make any of the girls too happy. When playing on the beach Tina and Mayu argue once again, and Taeko [image2] seems a bit lonely - but Kaoru asks her and Chika to play frisbee with him... Aoi is too shy to expose her skin in public and just watches from afar, although Miyabi asks her whether this is alright [image3]. When Miyabi has left to collect some of her beloved water melons, Chika brings ice cream for Aoi [image4] and tells her how Taeko cannot show her true feelings, and that one should fall in love with all she has - at least that's what she read in a magazine. Which makes Aoi wonder should she really use the swim suit she had bought secretly... At dinner, the girls are joking around; Kaoru is hungry, so Taeko gives him an extra-large portion of rice, and he defends her against being picked on by Tina. Aoi silently retreats to the onsen, noticed only by Miyabi - who follows her and provides interesting information [image5] about some seashore place in the neighbourhood that might be quite romantic at night... [image6] | |
| Comments | |
| (2004-03-02, Devil Doll:)
After that serious and touching previous episode we need some lighter stuff this time. And a light summer scenario introducing Chika is a funny way of doing that. Chika is innocently childish but by far less annoying than Mayu; when Chika tells Aoi about Taeko there is something to be learned for Aoi as well. Kaoru has been particularly nice to Taeko this time - just enough to make another girl start to like him even more. Of course this episode contains a lot of fan service, as most of the characters won't wear too many clothes. The interesting point here is how both Aoi and Kaoru are shy of exposing their skin - Aoi because of how she was raised, Kaoru because of the "Hanabishi leftovers" he is bearing. One part of the fun is the "watermelon fetish" of Miyabi that will be reused in forthcoming episodes. But the few words from Miyabi are always interesting, and Aoi cannot fool her about not having brought a swimsuit with her... Miyabi would never dare to directly tell Aoi what to do and she is aware that Aoi must not 'compete' for Kaoru in public, but she always finds a clever 'workaround': This is the second time Miyabi arranges a rendezvous for Aoi and Kaoru. Another concept that will be reused in this series is that the best chance for Aoi and Kaoru to be together alone is when everyone else is drunk at the end of a party. | |
