Before the OP begins we are treated to an after school scene where Haruka is sleeping on her desk, much to Yuu’s surprise as it is normally the other way around. Yuu then decides to give Haruka a few kisses on her head, hand, arm and leg only to discover she was actually pretending the whole time. This brief moment ends with Haruka asking about all the kisses and Yuu replying “Because I couldn’t reach your mouth.” No sugar for me thanks, this is already sweet enough.
4-A: A Sour Plan?
Mitsuki is still strung up about what she saw in Yuu’s bedroom from Episode 3, whilst Yuu explained she merely tripped over and fell on Haruka her older sister doesn’t buy this cover up. Determined to find out more about what the two girls have been getting up to, she asks Ikeno and Iizuka (who she mistakes as Lemon-san, much to the enjoyment of Ikeno) to secretly observe her little sister and her “close friend” and create a report about any weird interactions between the two. Now you would think that they could write an entire novel about how close Yuu and Haruka are, but because they are so used to how the two girls behave they don’t even register what could be considered unusual, there’s even a scene where Ikeno states that she wouldn’t bat an eyelid if she saw Haruka kissing Yuu’s cheek.
The fun continues when Ikeno and Lemo- I mean Iizuka secretly follow Haruka into a convenient store and the only thing they find out is that she knows what type of ice-cream Yuu likes, again this comes as no surprise to them however it would send Mitsuki into an over extrapolation of thoughts. We do get a typical spying moment when Haruka is about to run into Ikeno and Iizuka and the two have to cover their faces, they do this by picking up some random magazines and pretending to read them, my first thought from watching this was “wouldn’t it be funny if they picked up some adult themed magazines by mistake,” turns out I was right.
Back to school now where we see Yuu sitting on Kotone’s lap (as you do) and Haruka trying to tempt her over with the ice-cream she just bought, instead of reporting on this Ikeno and Iizuka join in as sports commentators and end up writing down how easily Haruka trips over. The story ends as per usual with Haruka and Yuu sharing a special yuri moment and Mitsuki finding out nothing about the two, but don’t worry because she gets her chance to do the tailing over in the second half of this episode.
4-B: Could This Be a Test of Courage?
With so many events taking place in school, it’s nice to see a story where they aren’t hanging out in their uniforms. In this night-time setting Yuu and Haruka are meeting up with the rest of the girls for a fireworks night, however Kotone left two hours before everyone with what appeared to be a head of hair and Ikeno is nowhere to be found. No need to panic guys, I’m sure Ikeno is fine; she even left a note for them on the street floor…
Well it looks like they have a mystery on their hands and what better way to find both missing girls then to split into two and walk along the dark forest path. Maybe it’s just me but I was reminded of Scooby Doo when Shizuku suggested pairing up and it doesn’t help that it’s set in an almost spooky location too, but the girls do decide to split as they think this is actually a test of courage. By pulling out different pieces of paper that had the coloured tips concealed, Yuu is paired with Shizuku and Haruka is with Iizuka which came as nice surprise to me as I was interested in seeing how the two would react when they weren’t always with each other. Sadly they decide to partner swap so the yuri couple will be walking together, this was to be expected but I did feel sorry for poor little lemon; the light hearted humour towards her is funny but you could tell she was genuinely upset when Haruka wanted to swap, I hope she gets a sweet moment in future eps.
Anyway whilst Haruka and Yuu are walking down the forest path they begin to suspect they might not be alone, and right they are because Mitsuki is following every step they take thanks to the glow in the dark paint she applied to Yuu’s hair clips. This clever little tracking tip backfires however when we find out she applied the paint to her own hair pieces as well and when concealed in the shadows, she looks like a horrible glowing eyed monster called out Yuu’s name. The two girls run off in fear, Haruka gives a kiss to Yuu in order to calm her down and ends up getting her tongue bitten when Mitsuki emerges from the bushes. Once all three of them are together (and Yuu having to lie about what her older sister saw again), they walk towards the end of the path and find the fireworks display along with the rest of the girls.
This story overall was quite enjoyable; it was a shame they didn’t split up Haruka and Yuu since the events that followed up were exactly what Haruka was hoping for, well maybe not the part when Mitsuki walks in. There is a short scene where Ikeno and Iizuka give Mitsuki the evils and we even see Mitsuki smiling at the end when she sees Haruka with Yuu, stating that “Haruka-san really is a nice girl.”
With each new episode, Sakura Trick gets more intense with both the kisses and actions of the characters, there is always a new element added that progresses each story and adds more drama whilst still maintaining a sense of light heartedness. Mitsuki is starting to accept Haruka and I am looking forward to what happens when she finds out the truth. Now if only there were more stories focused around the other girls too… well one in particular, don’t worry lemon I’ll pair with you any time.
Sakura Trick is animated by Studio Deen and is currently being streamed by Crunchyroll. Don’t forget to check out our Anime Impressions page to see what shows the other Capsule Computers anime crew is watching this season.
Check out more Sakura Trick Impressions HERE.
