Shiroi Suna no Aquatope | E16 and E17: Understanding one another.

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Episodes sixteen and seventeen were the first two episodes where you didn’t really feel any sort of tension between characters. And you know what? That is something I really like believe it or not. I don’t know why this was the case for so long but for me, the tension between the characters in Shiroi Suna no Aquatope always made things really awkward for me to watch.

Episode sixteen was an episode where we also got to learn a little bit of Chiyu. For the longest time, she was something I didn’t like because of her attitude towards Kukuru, like why be so mean to someone you do not know. But then you learn that she’s a single mother, who constantly got replaced at her previous jobs because Chiyu had to take care of her boy above all else. In that regard, I did kind of feel for Chiyu because when you’re a single parent, doing everything by yourself. It’s hard to balance work and being a mother. Chiyu prioritized her child (as she should) but as a result of that, she kept getting replaced whenever she wasn’t able to make it in for work and that fear of not being able to provide for her child is what caused Chiyu to be very defensive. Especially towards people who are more than willing to do everything by themselves, which was the case for Kukuru at the Gama Gama.

It’s nice knowing that after learning that Chiyu was an only mother who was someone who always did things on her own. Kukuru then made the effort to better understand her, even if the two are still at odds with one another. The relationship between Kukuru and Chiyu definitely doesn’t feel as tense or uptight anymore because you can tell that they’re making a conscious effort to understand and appreciate one another.

Episode seventeen to me was a very genuine episode. It was probably the one episode that embodied a slice of life. There we had all these different characters getting together in one place, to appreciate and to better understand one another while also having fun. Episode seventeen was the episode where we saw a happy Kukuru, Fuuka, Chiyu and it’s also where we saw a Kuuya who didn’t seem as timid around people of the opposite gender. Even though he was drunk for most of the time, seeing a somewhat comfortable Kuuya was actually a nice change and it shows we going in the right direction.

Overall episodes sixteen and seventeen were great episodes because we finally see our characters making an effort to better understand each other and to be more appreciative of one another. Episode seventeen in particular was my favourite because like I’ve already mentioned, it is an episode where we see all these characters, not in a work environment. It was an episode where everyone was genuinely having a good time and that was fun to watch.