Well, it’s very apparent that this show is not going to end anytime soon. Or at least, this show is probably expecting another season for itself. The setup for the second to last episode of the season is made so that Oga and Kariu finally confessing to each other will be the climax. While this is cute and I look forward to seeing it, I know that there is no way the deadline narrative focusing on Kaizaki throughout the entire series is going to be wrapped up, and that’s a shame. It’s a shame because, well…because it’s a deadline narrative. The whole point of a deadline is that your supposed to hit it. Kaizaki’s youth has an expiration date, and because that’s revealed to us, it should be expected that we’re going to see that come to a close.

I guess I was just really hoping for a one season kind of show. ReLIFE has already felt borderline exhaustive at times, and I just feel (or wish) that brevity would be more becoming for this story. But I digress.

As for the contents of episode 12, it was really about romantic teasing more than anything else. It wasn’t really like any other episode of the series, because it wasn’t about Kaizaki and it didn’t involve him having to, in some sense, solve the conflicts of his peers. More or less, Kaizaki was just prying into Oga’s life and trying to learn if he had feelings for Kariu. Not even really a push in the right direction so much as a brief mention, but what Kaizaki did was get Oga thinking. Eventually he came to his own conclusion and decided to ask Kariu to the festival where he would declare his love for her, a love that he only realized quite recently. It’s a bit cheeky but it works in setting the stage for the finale.

Also, I’m glad An’s back, she had been missing for quite a while. She’ll probably have much more of a role to play in the second season, perhaps turning into an actual love interest? Right now however, she’s just kind of there as a tease, meant to be funny and cute without overstaying her welcome.

Anyway, this episode seemed to be much more about teasing and jokes than depth and plot, which was fine by me only because the comedy was pretty on point. A couple jokes I enjoyed were when An and Ryou explained that they drank at Kaizaki’s house because they could write the delivery charges and booze costs off as business expenses. Also the moment where An, Chizuru, and Ryou are given the labels “Young girl?”, “Uselessly dense”, and “Tag-along”. I guess I just appreciate the awareness the show has of its characters.

And with that, I only have one more episode to go until the final. I look forward to it, seeing as festival confession scenes are like, my favorite clichés ever. So thanks for reading, and sorry again for being so late to get this up.