Episode 7: Together to the Sea

TOGETHER TO THE SEA

EPISODE 7 OF THE ANIME

( Manga Cross-reference---Loosely follows the events of Chapter 9 of the manga, " A Trip to the Beach " and part of Chapter 11, " Princess of Curry " )

Previously
After their First Kiss together, Hazumu and Yasuna have been spending a lot of time together. This does not go unnoticed by Tomari, who seems to back away from Hazumu socially. Tomari is now in an emotionally conflicted state, and needs to 'take a break' to spend time alone while she sorts things out. She hangs out at the river's edge by herself, sitting on top of an abandoned 55 gallon drum. Hazumu finally notices that something is amiss with Tomari, and one evening, goes to the river's edge to hash things out. Hazumu and Tomari end up renewing their friendship.

Episode Overview
Yasuna invites everyone to a beach party one hot summer's day. This she does so that she can continue to spend time with Hazumu, but now in a group setting. She even invites Tomari ! Asuta is astounded that all the girls are wearing bikini swimsuits, even geeky Ayuki ! But now Asuta is emotionally conflicted, as he has never been able to reconcile his male/male friendship with female Hazumu. Hazumu herself get 'hit upon' by a couple of beach bums. Yasuna and Tomari sit by themselves on a beach blanket, but say nary a word between them. Sora gets to investigate many human emotions that are being displayed by the friends at the beach today, whereas Jan Puu is here just having fun. In the afternoon, everyone is invited to prepare and enjoy a beach cookout ! However, Yasuna makes the curry so spicy and hot that she is the only one who can eat it and enjoy it ! On the train for the trip home in the evening, Hazumu falls asleep on Yasuna's shoulder. How romantic !

This Episode's Story
One early morning, on a particularly hot summer day, Yasuna phones all of the friends with the suggestion that they all spend the day at the beach. What a wonderful idea ! However, Tomari, eating a popcicle while on her bed, is puzzled as to why she was invited, given the on-again, off-again animosity between Yasuna and herself.

Hazumu heads out immediately, Dad overhears, and quickly dresses for the occasion in beach shorts and a aloha shirt. Mom flings a life preserver at him, and hauls in her 'catch of the day' back inside the house ! On the bullet train to the shore, Asusa has misgivings about going, given that his 'best bud' Hazumu is now a girl, and he will likely get to see her wearing a girl's swimsuit for the first time. Encouraged by Hazumu to just have fun, the group of friends suddenly see the ocean from the train's window. Excitement builds !

Sure enough, all of the female friends are wearing bikini swimsuits, much to the feigned annoyance of Asuta. But surprise, surprise ! Jan Puu and Sora are also at the beach today, plus Namiko the teacher ! To cover the fact that Jan Puu is an A.I. being, she is introduced as a distant 'relative' of Hazumu (remember, the two look almost the same !). Sora is asked why he is wearing an 1890's style men's swimsuit ? (*) Embarrassed, his remedy is to rip it off, showing underneath a men's thong bikini swimsuit in it's place !

The day of fun in the sun gets off to a good start, with everyone having a good time. Everyone except Asuta, who gets buried in the sand, and later gets hit in the face with a beachball. Still, he is enthralled to be here, especially repeatedly seeing Hazumu in her green, flowered, French cut bikini. To distract himself from such an excitable dilemma, Asuta excuses himself, and goes to get drinks from the beach concession stand.

As he is returning with an armload of water bottles, he notices that Hazumu is being 'hit upon' by two male surfer dudes. Entering the scene, Asuta is brushed off by the dudes, as they invite Hazumu to their boat for some 'fun and games'. When one of them takes Hazumu's hand, Asuta smacks their hand away. And just as quick, Hazumu moves in close and grabs Asuta's arm, pressing it between her soft boobs, as Asuta declares that she is his 'girlfriend' !!! With incredulous looks, the two dudes break off and leave, as Hazumu profusely thanks Asuta for his good deed.

Now walking together, Hazumu offers appreciation to Asuta, as he apologizes for calling Hazumu his girlfriend. Hazumu says that she doesn't mind, but this throws Asuta into a cloudy mental quandary, as he is, and has been for quite some time, conflicted about his relationship with male---now female---Hazumu. As they walk, both carrying the drinks, Hazumu gives Asuta mixed messages about their current relationship, throwing him into even more confusion. Sora observes the little drama from afar. Sora now turns his attention to Yasuna and Tomari, together alone on the beach blanket under the sun shade. After a very long silence, Tomari asks Yasuna why Tomari was even invited today ? Yasuna says nothing, and remains silent.

In the afternoon, Asuta is at the beach's picnic shelter, trying to get the grill fire started. But he is shockingly distracted by seeing Hazumu wearing a cute apron over her bikini. But real 'star who steals the show' is Sora, wearing a frilly, heart shaped apron over what appears to be commando style ! The hapless Namiko, surprisingly wearing a cute bikini swimsuit herself, has decided to catch something in the sea for the grill. So with a fishnet in hand, tries to throw it, only to wrap herself in the net and plunge into the sea. With all the girls now sporting aprons, they divide up the work of preparing the vegetables and other goodies. Tomari drops the curry powder in the sand, so Yasuna and herself go to the beach store for more. Asuta can't keep his eyes off of Hazumu, and has a lengthily mental discussion with himself over the pro and cons of keeping a man-to-man shipping with female Hazumu ( kind of a contradiction ?), or to persue a girlfriend/boyfriend shipping with her. Hazumu is cutting up vegetables, but Asuta asks her to follow him to a secluded place to talk privately.

While returning from the beach store, Yasuna takes the chance to confide with Tomari. Yasuna acknowledges that she knows almost nothing social or personal about Hazumu, both before the transition, and now after. And that's why Yasuna arranged for today's trip to the beach, to get to know Hazumu better, doing so in a group environment. Tomari, not knowing what to say, only recalls in her mind the almost-kiss she had with Hazumu while standing in the river the other night.

Asuta leads Hazumu to an empty part of the beach, but unknown to them, their paths crossed that of Tomari and Yasuna. Asuta wants to know if his relationship with Hazumu has changed; it has not, since in so many ways, Asuta is still something of a jerk, socially speaking. But Asuta has some good qualities, too, so with that, Hazumu still wishes to be standard everyday friends. This, once again, gives Asuta only mixed messages as to where he stands with female Hazumu. And with that, Tomari comes upon the scene and breaks up the drama play going on ! Asuta then stumbles into the sea, next to Namiko still wrapped up in the fishnet.

Finally, the food is done and ready to eat ! Everyone has a share of the rice and curry that Yasuna had prepared. But the curry is so hot and spicy that it is too flamin' hot to eat ! Only Yasuna and Sora could eat it, and they liked it at that !

During the trip back home on the train, Hazumu becomes so, so sleepy, and gently rests her head on Yasuna's shoulder. How romantic ! After a little bit, with Hazumu asleep, Yasuna is quietly but nonchalantly told by Tomari that she likes Hazumu, too !

Episode Lookback and Commentary
(*) A fun, unique private speculation about the fact that Sora wore an old fashioned men's fully covered striped swim suit might be this---When Sora was preparing for his journey to Earth, and 'packing his bags', including his swimsuit, he could have looked toward planet Earth to see what the current fashion was for men's swimwear. But Sora's planet was about 130 light years from Earth, so if he took a look in the current time, it would show that the people on Earth would be living currently in the 1890's, due to the fact that it took light from Earth that long to reach his planet. And looking that far into outer space would be the same as looking back in time.

Manga Fan's Commentary on This Episode

Skye M / 3 years ago

[This episode] ...hahaha wow... nice