English Dub Review: Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines “Asagumo Chihaya Is Led Astray”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kazuhkiko and Anna are tasked by Chihaya with spying on Mitsuki, who may be cheating on her with Lemon.

OUR TAKE

Well, last week kinda put a bow on Kazuhiko and Anna’s relationship dynamic, at least for the foreseeable future, so it makes sense that focus would naturally shift to the next stage for Lemon. Both she and Anna had to deal with seeing their childhood crushes end up moving on to other girls, which was understandably pretty soul crushing, though the way Anna is handling it doesn’t necessarily have to be the way that Lemon does. It’s good to show these characters with this rather specific parallel are actually going about handling their feelings about a specific thing in different ways. Or at least, that’s what I’m guessing is going on here, as Chihaya, the girl Mitsuki went for instead of Lemon, assumes that they’re cheating on her when for all we know, they’re probably doing something as a surprise for her. That said, the only reason I believe that is because generally situations like this that set up an initial understanding of an ambiguous situation typically end up using that ambiguity as a misdirect for something that goes in a totally different direction. Also, considering this is a fun high school anime with a mostly light hearted tone, I just kind of doubt they’re going to have one of the main characters we’re meant to root for turn out to be willing to commit infidelity.

Still, I guess anything’s possible and Lemon and Mitsuki COULD be two timing Chihaya. We haven’t really gotten to know Chihaya in the same way so I don’t really have any attachment to her, but it would still be pretty bad if she were getting cheated on because…well, infidelity is bad! I suppose it would also show that this story is willing to let one of its main characters be kind of awful, and having protagonists who are kinda shitty people isn’t necessarily bad for the writing, as paradoxical as that sounds. But again, I really doubt it. These are just kids trying to get through high school and grappling with feelings of desire and disappointment, more of the latter in this case, so it’s probably way more likely that Lemon is just trying to come to terms with the fact that the person she likes is with someone else similar to how Chika is. Really, Anna is the only holdout trying to hang onto those feelings for her crush, but we all move on at our own pace and she’s said she’s going to at some point. Anyway, the big reveal for this plot next time!