For Makio, even though she still keeps in contact with her friends and Kasamachi, she finds solace in solitude. Her actions show that sometimes, loneliness can be formed even if you have a social life, but that doesn’t mean you feel isolated or outcasted. She does get anxious whenever she meets someone new like Asa’s friend Emiri, but she does her best not to show it on her face. Though, I do feel as if her loneliness comes from her resentment towards her sister. All she has are bitter memories towards Minori, one of them being Minori mocking Makio for writing a novel. It could be anxiety in a way…

It was also nice seeing Makio and Asa interact with people. It was cute seeing Asa meet Kasamachi for the first time and developing an instant fondness for him. She definitely is keen on the idea of Makio and Kasamachi getting back together if they want to. It was also nice to see Asa making new friends on the first day of school. She isn’t limited to being friends with only Emiri, even though she knew her the longest. I do wonder which one of the friends will be more prominent later on.

I also like how Makio and Asa interact towards the end where Makio tell Asa that they’re two different people so that how they interact and behave will always be different and that isn’t a bad thing. I’m glad that Asa’s getting better at communicating with her aunt. She doesn’t like eating alone and instead of keeping it to herself, she says it to her face, and Makio promises that she’ll eat with her from now on.

Emiri’s mother Michiko is voiced by Mie Sonozaki who is voicing Maki from Digimon Beatbreak. Kotoko is voiced by Hisako Kanemoto, who voiced Sailor Mercury in Sailor Moon Crystal. Motsu is voiced by Sanae Kobayashi who voiced Tighnari from Genshin Impact and Asuka Tenjoin from Yugioh GX. Asa’s school friends are all voiced by relatively new voice actors, so I don’t really know much about them.

Speaking of Kotoko and Motsu, I’d like to see more of them later on since they have history with Makio! I just like how human this story is. I enjoy is a lot. Let me know your thoughts on this episode!