夏のあらし！春夏冬中 Episode 09 Review
Summer Storm! Open for Business Ep. 09
Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chuu – 09

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Hajime and Jun are carrying groceries up the steep hill and Jun is exhausted. After finally returning to Hakobune, they find Master is attempting to get someone to go back into the past with some expired and expensive oysters to go with her beer. Yayoi has some cabbage for pickling and has an idea. She and Hajime go back to the past three days and upon returning, she reveals that the pickling container is in the attic. Sure enough, they are there and perfectly pickled since no one noticed them. Kanako and Murata also take a trip to the past for an eggplant and that works too. Arashi’s decision to go with Hajime to the past to instant-dry the laundry doesn’t work out so well.

As the laundry dries, Hajime and Jun have lunch on the back engawa where Hajime excitedly tells Jun about his date with Arashi to a Parasite Museum. Jun thinks of her conversation with Arashi about Arashi being gone when summer is over. Jun considers how Arashi has never been in love and asks Hajime if he truly loves Arashi. Further, Jun wonders if Hajime has ever asked Arashi out on a proper date. Hajime scoffs at this as he feels his and Arashi’s connection is beyond such trivial things.

In the restaurant, Takeshi and Murata are playing shogi in Hakobune when Takeshi asks Arashi out to see a movie. Jun wonders if this is OK but Hajime isn’t worried. As Takeshi and Arashi have a date, Arashi having a lot of fun, Jun decides to tell Hajime the truth about Arashi’s limited time. As such, Hajime is waiting for Arashi when she gets home that evening and since she’s late, her punishment is a date with him. He takes her to the woods to look at some beetles. He asks her if what Jun told him is true and she confirms it. He confesses his love for her and says he’ll return next summer, but she say’s they won’t meet again and that even if he did return, he wouldn’t recognize her. With her apparent rejection of his feelings, Hajime flees upset.

The following day, Jun is curious to see how things are between Hajime and Arashi. Both act like nothing is wrong but things feel forced. Hajime tries to assure Jun that nothing is wrong but when Master wants them to go on an errand into the past with some clams, Hajime and Arashi find their connection is broken. With that, Arashi announces that she can no longer fly.

Thoughts/Review:

This episode took a more serious turn than I had expected, which is not a bad thing after the previous horrid episode (though we still had to put up with one stupid “I forgot what was ordered” joke). If everyone returns every summer, then it would seem that Master should remember them, assuming she’s still the owner of Hakobune (Ark). If I felt so inclined, I might watch episode 2 of the first series and just see how Arashi and Kaja came back together. While I could understand Hajime eventually having other things make his time with Arashi seem less important, I can’t imagine him forgetting her should he return the following summer (or not recognizing her).

Oh well.

It looks like things will continue to be somewhat more serious as Arashi and Hajime no longer can go on time trips. I expect Hajime to come to terms with Arashi’s eventual departure and I’d love for the series to end with him discovering Jun’s secret and eventually ending up with her.

One thing I did notice about this episode is that Yayoi, Arashi, and even Kaja were more ghost-like than they have been. I say this because there was some floating going on and since they’d not been doing that, suddenly having them float stood out.

The food time-trips, while not funny, where at least a bit amusing and entertaining. While Master’s plans to have spoiled food sent back to the past to magically become fresh again would never work, the idea of sending foods back to be picked so that they are seemingly ready in an instant made me smile.

So, thankfully a much more interesting episode than last time out. Hopefully, we’ll have some more.