After an entire episode of pain, we were all spoiled with lots of heart-warming scenes between Miyo and Kiyoka! AHHH SO FLUFFYYYYYYYY!!! This was such a wholesome episode, and I just loved seeing these two being able to just interact in peace and be freaking adorable around each other. Kiyoka’s cute little stares that makes Miyo all flustered, or Kiyoka being a worry-wort and sticking around close by to make sure Miyo’s doing okay with her lessons, and himself getting flustered when his sister teases him about it!
Interestingly we were also able to learn that it was Kiyoka’s father who had sent Miyo as a potential candidate to be Kiyoka’s bride (as he was responsible for bombarding him with applications in the first place). Of course this worried Miyo that he might’ve thought it would be Kaya, but Kiyoka just responded with how he’d turn him into charcoal if he were to protest against their marriage. Goes to show that Kiyoka has no intention of letting his family have any final say in this. He chose Miyo, and that is that.
While we’re on the subject of charcoal and families, both the Saimori and Tatsuishi households have respectively lost a combination of wealth and power. As I expected, none of this was made public and of course no one was officially criminalized for their actions, however everyone was respectively punished in different ways, though some arguably better than others. Some may feel like Shinchi and Kanako were effectively given a slap on the wrist, but the real consequences of their actions was losing everything. Their estate was completely burned down, they have to move into their “less than extravagant” villa and their “princess” Kaya is now being sent off to work as a servant under a strict household where won’t be tolerating her spoiled brat behaviour, that’s for sure. Similarly to Kaya, Mamoru been knocked down from his pedestal as he has been removed as the Tatsuishi family head. Now the eldest son Kazushi (who helped Koji out) has become the new head and agreed to the conditions to serve under the Kudo’s family command. This is the most fitting punishment because this is exactly what Tatsuishi (and the Emperor) were trying to avoid in the first place.
But if there was one thing I could change, it would be the extended Kaya scene between her and Koji that took place right in the middle of Miyo and Kiyoka exploring the remains of the Saimori estate. I feel like that plug was entirely unnecessary and served as a very abrupt interruption to Miyo making her way to the remains of her mother’s tree. I’m not entirely sure if they did that for the sake of ‘filling in the gaps’ so that they could cleanly end the episode where it did (and boy was it a fantastic way to do it). I also wondered if it was done in attempts to help sell the merchandise of Kaya and Koji, because Kaya and Koji are the two other characters who got merchandise in this series— which I will say was arguably a very questionable decision considering how much viewers absolutely loathe Kaya, I don’t think anyone wants any goods involving her whatsoever. I think people would have preferred to have Yurie and Hazuki, or heck even Godo merchandise over those two. That said, Miyo and Kiyoka have PLENTY of adorable merchandise, and I hope to get my hands on some of them, but I digress.
Apart from the fluff interactions and resolution of the first arc, I loved the way they built up to it at the end of the episode, highlighting the great disturbance that is coming their way.
Since Miyo’s arrival to Kiyoka’s place, we’ve seen her be subjected to horrible nightmares. At first I had thought it was because of her trauma, but once Kiyoka had observed remnants of one’s gift at work, it soon became clear she was being targeted– by who, we weren’t entirely sure, but now we and Kiyoka know for certain that it’s most likely the Usuba’s clans doing– especially since we have seen one express that they intend to retrieve Miyo.
