Kurumi finally received some screen time, and naturally every mind is focused on her. However, some watch but do not see.
Later, Kurumi finds out that Kazehaya is on the committee, and her friends suggest that she also join the committee. Well, Kurumi says it’s not like that with her and Kazehaya but she’s not opposed to being on the committee, so they agree to nominate her.
This is not what actually happened! In reality, Kurumi brought the topic up, so one of her dupes naturally suggested her to be on the committee. Then, she directed the conversation by mentioning that she's not against "volunteering", and very directly prodded others into nominating her ("jaa, rikouha nante, dekinai mou..." + puppy eyes).
[Kurumi] seemed geniunely humble about him not having an interest in her when talking to her friends. The only scene put her true intentions in a somewhat questionable light was when she noticed Kazehaya watching Sawako practice kicking a rock instead of paying attention to her, but even then she didn’t give any signs of being conniving.
See above. Also, all is fair in love and war. Although, I have to admit, I was shocked when Kei deleted those 99 messages.
Hung:But like a young Anakin Skywalker in the Phantom Menace [], Kurumi is hard to read. Right now the story is positioning her character to be able to go both ways. Either she could genuinely be quite shy, sweet, and generally too self-conscious to ever confess to her good friend Kazehaya and just going along with her friends plans innocently, or she could actually be quite the schemer underneath. Honestly, it would make this a much better series, if she actually wasn’t much of a schemer and was actually truly sweet.
It's sort of amazing that even Hung has doubts about this. Good anime can play up an enigma, for example Milch (von Striessman) in Nodame was never explained one way or the other. This story, however, is just not going there. Even Yano knows of Kurumi, for crying out loud (see her remark as early as 03 when Kurumi calls Shouta to the door and gives him something).
I guess that the biggest danger for this show is the love triangles. When you see love triangles in a series in which it’s pretty obvious that the creators have no intentions to break up the main couple, they’re just boring! This episode established that the blond girl is yet another one of those girls who has a crush on Kazehaya, so I really don’t hope that this is going to continue on throughout the series. It reminds me of Itazura na Kiss: the creators just kept throwing in love triangles to supposedly “test” the strength of the relationship between the lead couple. Unfortunately, all that did was make the entire series incredibly shallow.
At least her understands what's going on. Too bad he does not understand shoujo. Shallow, my posterior!
He's right about one thing though: this is a show with the railroad plot, like Toradora. In the real life, Kurumi would've still had a chance to win, if she were decisive enough, by putting out first. However, judging by her careful moves in the previous episodes, she might not be the type. And in any case, we don't even need to think about it in case of the anime.
Fortunately, I'm not invested in Kurumi's case. I find her less sympathetic than Ami, who had a bigger life than just pants-chasing. So, whatever.
... Kazehaya eventually comes to the rescue as she looks to find a way to practice after school so as not to let the side down. Mind you, Sawako spends so much of this episode just starting at Kazehaya and spacing out, I'm not sure any such practice will actually be particularly helpful, but never mind.
Heh.