Can you tell I like the title screens yet? No? Well don’t worry about it. I’m sure you will pick up on it sooner or later.
In this episode of Celestial Method, Nonoka along with Yuzuki, Kotaru and Togawa Shione are out exploring the town on a school sponsored walk-about. I’m assuming its so the students get familiar with the town and each other. Personally I wish my various schools let me go out and explore instead of doing actual work… But lets get back to the anime! Personally, I think this was the most interesting episode so far. Shione has been in both of the previous episodes but this is the first one where we actually get some quality time with her.
While all five of the characters were friends, only Shione remembers that Nonoka is the same as the Nonoka back then. Shione seems to still care about Nonoka, but seems to think she is a liar and dislikes her. It’s complicated. While Nonoka doesn’t remember much about when she lived in the town, she does her best to befriend the very hostile Shione, who isn’t having any of it.
One of the reasons this was my favorite episode to date is because of how much you can be on both Nonoka’s and Shione’s side. Shione feels lost and abandoned by someone she once called her best friend. Nonoka disappeared seven years ago without saying anything to anyone leaving behind confusion and a massive saucer in the sky. It’s not like she wanted to, of course, but it doesn’t help matters that she completely doesn’t remember any of her friends.
Another thing I like is how it’s clear Shione purposely isolates herself from others. They show you this quite easily. While the other three are shown grouped together, Shione is often shown off screen and out of focus, but usually not seeming to care about the distance.
Despite how aloof and untouchable Shione is trying to be, Nonoka still wants to be her friend, going so far as to get lost looking for her when she gets separated from the group. Everyone teams up to look for Nonoka, including Shione and Yuzuki’s older twin brother Shouta. While lost, Nonoka remembers that she use to be friends with the other four and that it’s her fault that the saucer is in the sky. Instead of everyone being happy that Nonoka is back and finding out why she left in the first place, Yuzuki flys into a rage, blaming Nonoka for her hatred of the saucer and leaving her alone but not without delivering the second slap to her face for the episode.
When the episode wraps up, Nonoka is down and bewildered by Yuzuki’s response. It’s clear that she’s overreacting to the news, but we don’t know exactly why yet. Not to mention we have the ever adorable Noel in the background saying some pretty interesting stuff. She mentions with all 5 of them together that she can help Nonoka’s dreams come true. I can’t wait to see exactly how Nonoka handles Yuzuki but also exactly how Noel can grant wishes!
Celestial Method is available to watch on Crunchyroll with new episodes coming out on Sundays at 10:30AM EDT/7:30AM PDT. Non-premium users will be able to watch episodes for free one week after it first airs.
