#icchan

There are a lot of noticeable changes from the manga. First off, the anime adds the scene of Nakamura having a nightmare about his insecurities featuring Icchan which then transitions him to being woken up by Otogiri on the bus. The manga had this scene in the classroom before the trip. The anime also omits Nakamura getting motion sickness. I think the biggest change throughout the field trip scene is Takeuchi trying to get closer to his new girlfriend Hamaoka as the girls appear more often in the episode than they did in the manga. In the manga, there is a scene where Takeuchi was asking Hirose to come with him so that they can ride the ferry with girls. The anime changed it so that Takeuchi is asking Hirose to come with him so that they can get a discount if they add in one more person to their group. If you didn’t know or are an anime-only viewer, Takeuchi and Hamaoka get together AFTER the field trip, in volume 2, so this was an interesting change from the manga.

Speaking of which, while Takeuchi did make Nakamura be in charge of pictures in their group, I do like to think that the events from the previous episode has Takeuchi have animosity towards Nakamura as it does feel like it. Anyways, he never specified what or who to take pictures of, hence why Nakamura held all the rights to take pics of only Hirose.

Anyways, I can tell someone in the studio has a thing for Otogiri as his smoking scene is animated with such sensuality that oozes adult maturity. It’s a detail that only those who like him animate. I normally don’t like smokers, but Otogiri is seriously attractive and the animators definitely make you want to understand why Hirose has an innocent crush and admiration for him that only plagues Nakamura with insecurities.

I do feel like the anime amped up the “Don’t go” scene. The ambiance was beautiful from the sparkling water to the sunset. It’s a type of beauty that manga can’t really replicate unless in your imagination. Maybe it’s just me, but the whole scene of Nakamura grabbing onto to Hirose’s arm reminded me a lot of the ending scene from the movie The Girl Who Leapt Through Time as the setting felt a bit similar. I also really liked how the aquarium scene was colored in the anime because they used a more indigo gradient rather than the usual bright or light blue/greens. I feel like more aquarium scenes in anime should use indigo…

Icchan, Nakamura’s pet octopus, is voiced by Yutaka Aoyama who voiced Reggie Star in Jujutsu Kaisen and the narrator in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. I wonder who he’s voiced by in the dub… Dub voice actors are hard to look up unless their VA makes a post…

I do wonder why some people in the Spanish-speaking community think this anime is going to go on hiatus or is getting temporarily halted halfway through broadcast. Heck, I saw someone post that there wasn’t going to be an episode this week due to Golden Week. People, stop spreading baseless  misinformation! There won’t be a break or a delay unless they announce it beforehand! Let me know your thoughts on this episode!