Saekano Flat Episode 10 Continued: It’s all a set up!

Unless you have Katou Megumi’s first character single, listen to Utaha and Eriri having a yarn while interrupting Megumi’s promotional speech~

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Now, onto the topic.

It took a while for my head to click after watching the tenth episode a few more times. Well now it’s nearly all clear to me that there is indeed a good reason as to why the events shown in this episode definitely cannot happen earlier or later.

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Character

 

While Eriri’s case is pretty much settled (weakly at that – freaking Tsundere, I swear), this episode uncovered a little more about Utaha than I thought it originally did, from a single quote.

“…だって私の心和もお 決まっているんだもの…”

This phase gets lost in translation from Japanese to English – she says Kokoro (a more colloquial term for the heart which usually ties in with feelings) but if you try to put this through the Google translator, it’ll say Shin (from Shinzou which literally is a noun for the heart.)

Anyway, you get the point; her heart(‘s direction) is decided.

 

To have her heart make decisions, that’s actually quite the Utaha I expect her to be. The strongest point about second season of Saekano is the fact that it ties extremely close to the first season despite the latter being more harem, comedic and fan servicey – if you can’t get past that first season cringe then you’ll definitely not be getting the best out of Saekano Flat.

So to give evidence, let’s head back to the bonfire scene where Kasumigaoka Utaha admits her true trait to Katou Megumi.

 

She honestly described herself as an ‘inexperienced and anti-social writer who has no other choice but to draw inspiration from somewhere close’.
That inspiration is no other than Utaha herself, if that wasn’t obvious enough for you who’ve seen the fourth episode.

So back then, we know that Sayuka is indeed Kasumigaoka Utaha in fiction form. What we don’t know is how Utaha would literally become one with Sayuka’s ending in Metronome In Love (First season, Episode 4).

Her heart makes up the decision to choose dreams over love (for Tomoya).

 

(Much) more about Kasumigaoka Utaha can be found in her name and how it is also a perfect display of her personality, the reason why her editor Machida calls her ‘Shi-chan’ and ultimately her fate in the series. This is where you, once again, will need to head over and read up Kyra’s post, uncovering the lore behind such an extremely rare family name that is Kasumigaoka!
Do it for your love of the show and for the characters!

It’s indeed amazing that some people can stay friends after such drama. Therefore, I wish her the best of luck on her journey!

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Story

 

Writer/Illustrator Duo

It’s now clear to me as to why The Betrayal Arc events are not being placed in linear timeline wise, and without any use of the film’s flashback technique.

Much of the arc was used to further develop the other heroines since Katou Megumi is practically the sole focus of the show. The focus fact is even more true in the light novel since even less about Utaha and Eriri were shown in the seventh volume, leaving them in horrible terms with others minus Tomoya and ultimately, the readers.

Here in the anime we get to actually see how they are left on their own (or rather, they are the ones leaving) to overcome struggles in creator’s world past high school, especially for Utaha. It also becomes clear that the creator’s chivalry slowly dissolves as they become less formal to each other. This is absolutely the case in the tenth episode.

Left to figure out their own path, they obviously can’t go back to Tomoya and ask for guidance or to Akane because duh, she’s the one person you don’t want to ask for anything. The show is making use of the suspense bridge effect minus yuri, where both Utaha and Eriri eventually get pushed to the extreme corner with no time to act, putting on their facades – you know which ones they are, Eriri’s true Tsundere mood and Utaha’s Ice Queen mode. They end up being their real selves and at this point, there’s no denying that the two become friends. If you find yourself in this position with anyone in real life then I’m sure you’d have befriended them already.

With a common enemy, the duo set up the beginning of a massive journey to climb to the top by invalidating Akane’s insults. This can literally be a spin off series if Fumiaki-sensei wishes it to be.

 

Blessing Software

The thing about hints and unclear statements are that they make your imaginations go wild! But don’t forget that the dark side of imagination is legitimate. What is it though?

It’s the fact that dreams don’t always come true. That’s right – a million hints don’t mean it will happen. This is exactly why we don’t like cliffhangers!

So as opposed to the original event that I posted in the tenth episode of Looking Into, we have Megumi straight up asking Tomoya out on a date and left it at that.

• He can decline, giving his depressing reasons. He has the right to be depressed, that much is for certain.
• He can just end up like in the novel, bawling in front of Megumi as he promises to carry on with the circle despite its shortcomings.
• The date can take place in a completely different location unlike that of the eighth volume, creating what I called emotion stabilizing scene for Tomoya.

All of this is a rather perfect set up to make the overall story a little different to that of the light novel’s. At first this literally screamed bad future for me since so much about the setting up were telling me of no coming of the third season.

 

But then eleventh episode’s preview happened.

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Looking forward to the next episode

 

 

Tomoya pleads Megumi to cheer up so I guess that she definitely finds out about her best friend’s betrayal. It really looks like they are willing to end this on a positive note rather than having Megumi dealing with the Eriri’s betrayal on her own.
Last but not least, the date looks like a mix of original content plus the middle of eighth volume stuff. It’s going to be emotional and cute for Katou shippers.

Let’s not forget the fact that Hashima Izumi appears in the PV too. Michiru gets a mention by Tomoya as well so they are already doing a job of spoiling (lol).
That’s right – the second generation of Blessing Software guarantees Izumi on board as an artist! See how Iori’s smirk and subtle remarks to Tomoya are to be taken seriously?

Looks quite lovely to me, though I’d be really sad if the powers that be prevent the third season from happening. There are a few hints as to why it can happen, starting from the fact that all of the finale is merely a set up for the future and Tomoya getting cut off by Utaha before he finishes saying NEW GAME. Naturally he can’t, because that’d be a direct reference to New Game!! which airs in the next season.

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Taking into account of the fact that Saekano merchandise, especially the ones of Katou Megumi, is selling like hot cakes in Japan – the profit is insane right now, if the third season really happens then I’m just going to call it is because of the profit.

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And so that’s it folks. Please look forward to a bittersweet ending!

• Anime
• Wonder