The fourth episode of A Galaxy Next Door takes the relationship between Ichiro and Goshiki to the next level. Ichiro’s siblings, Fumio and Machi, play their part in unknowingly setting up the perfect situation for the relationship to leap further.
Spoilers Ahead
Episode 4: Weather Conditions With The Princess
In the previous episode, Goshiki revealed her innermost feeling: a feeling of love, which rose like a sudden tsunami in her heart. She expressed her love to Ichiro, making him so confused that he wasn’t able to concentrate on anything else.
The episode begins with Ichiro trying to make changes to his manga as per the requirements of his editor. It was a clear instruction from him to do away with sword fights and add a love story between characters. Ichiro, battling his inner desires and trying to sort out his own emotions, is too overwhelmed by Goshiki’s declaration of love to think of any coherent love story. On the other hand, Goshiki is cringing at all her previous brushes with Ichiro, where she said some things that she now feels too embarrassed to even remember. They meet in the hallway, and both Goshiki and Ichiro try to hide their obvious emotions so as not to make the other one feel more embarrassed.
Fumio and Machi barge in on Ichiro and remind him of his promise to take them to visit the zoo. They seem super excited about this outing with Ichiro. He is not too keen, but he does remember promising them a trip to the zoo. All three get ready, but as soon as they step out, their balloon of excitement deflates when they see the rain pouring down as if it were the end of the world. Before Ichiro could console them, both Fumio and Machi took their gloomy faces back to their rooms. Seeing them like this breaks Ichiro’s heart, but he doesn’t really have the intention to go out in the first place, as his mind is still focused on sorting out his turbulent emotional life.
Ichiro goes back to complete his manga before the deadline, and Goshiki enters the room, finding the unusually quiet Fumio and Machi trying to pass their time. She understands their plight, as she herself wanted to go to the library to borrow a manga for herself but couldn’t because of the rainy weather. She tries to cheer up their mood by playing Machi’s fortune cards. The cards fail to cheer up anyone, but they set a chain of events in motion that will certainly affect all of them.
Goshiki tries to pick out a card, but instead of pulling out a full card, she tears the card into two pieces, and she manages to get only half of it, ruining the card and hence the entire deck. The already gloomy Machi is depressed at the sight of the torn card. Ichiro handmade the deck of cards from Machi’s favorite fortune-teller’s manga. As Goshiki was the one responsible for ruining their day further, she resolved to make it up to them by going to buy a fresh copy of Machi’s favorite fortune-teller manga. Ichiro agrees to draw another deck. The weather hasn’t changed a bit since this morning. Seeing this downpour, Ichiro actually wanted to stop Goshiki from getting out of the house, but he wasn’t sorted enough just yet to show this much care. It could lead to further embarrassment, couldn’t it?
The ways of the heart are indeed mysterious, as Ichiro is unable to sit still and concentrate on his work. Almost as if under the command of a bizarre urge, he goes out in the storm in search of Goshiki and relaxes only when he spots her returning from the library. Goshiki had managed to borrow Machi’s book but had forgotten to borrow the one she wanted. Distraction on both ends, eh? Ichiro and Goshiki safely return, and he draws the cards again as promised while Goshiki dresses Machi up as her favorite fortune teller, cheering up their mood.
The inevitable night arrives, and Fumio and Machi go to sleep, leaving the confused duo alone with their unmanageable emotions. Ichiro isn’t able to conceal his feelings much longer. He begins blurting out the responsibilities on his shoulders, and he won’t be a good partner to anybody. Goshiki doesn’t understand this outburst, but as Ichiro continues his rant, he continues to grow weaker and weaker. He trembles with the onset of an intense fever, but in the end, he surrenders to the growing feelings of love for Goshiki and shouts the three magical words, surprising both Goshiki and himself.
Episode 4: Ending: Why Does Ichiro Begin Showing Signs Of A Fever?
Ichiro had bottled up his feelings so far down in his psyche that even he didn’t know whether he loved Goshiki or not. Conscious of his overwhelming responsibility of raising Fumio and Machi and paying for their education, he begins babbling them out like a parrot. He grows weaker by the second as the magical pact invokes itself because Goshiki starts feeling emotionally distant from Ichiro. As she is not in full control of her own emotions, she isn’t able to nullify the pact, even though she can clearly sense the rant is just Ichiro’s defense mechanism against not accepting intimate companionship. Things begin returning to normal only when Ichiro tells Goshiki he has indeed fallen in love with her.
Episode 4: Review
The episode was very intense in dealing with repressed emotions. The slow pace reaching a crescendo was indeed a satisfying climax. Ichiro and Goshiki cross the hurdle of dealing with their feelings and facing each other honestly. Their pact is sure to affect Machi and Fumio. The hint of Chihiro, Ichiro’s neighbor, showing up indicates the possibility of a triangular love story. The next episodes will shed more light on this angle. All in all, it was a good episode, reminding one of one’s first love, although the magical angle complicates the romance without a doubt!