Romance at last?

Summary:
Sui appears in front of Hikari early in the morning to give her a “job”.Complaining that his brother is looking very bored and irritated these few days,he gives Hikari an invitation to a birthday party.Kei shows up to ask Hikari to return the invitation but she refuses.Kei submits to her demands to go to the party.In that case,Hikari is to be Kei’s partner to the birthday party he is attending.Hikari again takes this as a challenge and proceeds to make her own dress since she is penniless.Kei rejects the dress for obvious quality reasons.He then arranges for Hikari to get her measurements taken and be fitted into a more appropriate dress.However,during the fitting session Hikari reveals to us that she is very ticklish around the love handles and such.She causes a ruckus and a young man around Kei’s age steps in to help.He looks pretty tough as he is able to withstand Hikari’s devastating kicks.Kei is temporary bedazzled by Hikari in her evening gown but feels that things will get worse from here on.Meanwhile,Akira sent a few SA members to the party to keep an eye on Hikari.At the party,Hikari again meets the stranger who restrained her while her measurements were taken.He refers to himself as the guest of honor and Hikari realizes that he is Yahiro,the birthday boy.He proceed to ask if she is Kei’s girlfriend.Hikari denies it vehemently but Yahiro is a tough nut to convince.He then demonstrates to her why he says it is so that Kei is in love with her.He attempts to kiss her only for Kei to arrived in the nick of time.Hikari is dazed but punces Kei away after she realizes how close they were.She freaks out and runs off into Yahiro’s room to calm down.Yahiro finds her and says that she is better off smiling and wearing pretty dresses all the time instead of trying to be Kei’s rival.Later,Yahiro declares that they were going to play a game,first one to catch a target he designates before the target reaches the roof wins.The target is Hikari.To prove Yahiro wrong Hikari fights hard to reach the roof.Halfway there Kei finds her and tries to convince Hikari to give up and go home.He has already arranged a car.But in doing so Hikari would only be proving Yahiro right.Hence, she refuses.Finally Hikari reaches the goal with Yahiro waiting.He ask what prize she desires.Hiraki responds,”to be recognized as Kei’s rival”.He agrees and Kei escorts Hikari home.It seems Akira,Yahiro and Kei were childhood friends but got distant over the years.Kei however is more interested in what Yahiro said to Hikari on the balcony but she refuses to tell out of embarrassment.

Thoughts:
Finally, an episode where its at least in the same ballpark as a typical shoujo anime.For once I agree that it wasn’t a failure and it was the “best” so far.But that word is pretty relative, and in comparison to the competition, its still stuck somewhere in the distant horizon relative to where the front runners are.Nevertheless,it garnered 5 smirks and a grin.That’s pretty good.Soul Eater 6 got, countless smirks,at least 10 grins and 15 lols.(Just a rough estimate =D)But alot can change in a few episodes,so hopefully they pick up the pace.Introducing Yahiro,Hikari finally realizing Kei might be interested and some stuff about Kei’s past were all smart moves.So,I stand corrected when I doubted Randomc’s divine that this episode was “special” for once.