Chiaki’s past is revealed!

Chiaki convinces everyone to go on a vacation, even workaholic Fumika, who insists on choosing the location; the southern islands.

And thus we begin our Shigofumi onsen “special” as the girls have fun talking about love and whatnot while Kaname bums around with Matoma.

Girls get all the fun

Male to Male Staff Bonding

Of course, no onsen trip is complete without an interrogation on your love life as Natsuka grills Kaname on his true feelings. In short, Natsuka likes Kaname, Kaname isn’t sure he likes Fumi-chan or Mika-chan and Mika-chan is in love with herself (well, Fumi-chan actually). We have a nice little love triangle going on here.

In the process, they bump into Shirakawa who, despite the sickle she carries around, is actually a nice girl. Turns out she is on a grave visit to the very same island everyone else is going. That explains the sickle I guess. Riiight…

We soon discover that Shirakawa is actually Kiyosumi Saizo’s granddaughter, who happens to be Chiaki’s lover before she died in a car accident. At the island, we see that under Chiaki’s bright and cheerful exterior, there is the sorrow and grief of one who has her life cut short, especially right after being confessed to. While glad that her lover has survived, she is nevertheless sad that he has moved on without her.

People are not always as happy as they seem…

A visit to the grave presents two startling discoveries.
One, turns out Shirakawa’s mother is actually adopted. In other words, Kiyosumi Saizo never married. His love for Chiaki ran so deep he went as far as to engrave Chiaki’s name along side his as his wife.

Two, turns out Fumika was being a workaholic after all as it was her job to deliver the gravestone to Chiaki. (Or as it was, Chiaki to the gravestone) Score one for Fumika for being able to make use of Chiaki’s suggestion to complete her assignment.

[Overall Impressions]

Looks like I made a big mistake. Last review, I assumed that Fumika’s mother would be making an appearance this episode based on the title and the short preview. Guess I was wrong. >_<

Quite a touching episode. Not buckets of tears touching but touching nonetheless.

I found it very interesting that anything that gets pasted with that stamp can be delivered as a Shigofumi.

I suppose one of the reasons dead people are chosen to deliver the Shigofumi is because they can emphatise with the sender. Both Chiaki and Fumika come from unfortunate circumstances and have words they couldn’t express. For Chiaki, it was her response to Saizo’s proposal. Fumika (or Mika-chan), however, would have alot more difficulty expressing her words to a comatose Fumi-chan.

It makes me wonder though. Did Chiaki send a Shigofumi to Saizo on her death? Or did she choose not do so because she had assumed he was also dead? Does being a postal worker mean you forfeit your right to send a letter of your own?

Next episode, [Encounter]. Since I made a big miss last ep, I shut up on this one. O_o

Score one for Chiaki too for sneaky eavesdropping. I lol’ed at the sound icon in Kanaka. I sure as hell want a staff like that too.

A sneaky Chiaki is fine