Recap
Kiyoi VOs his past over a neat animation like Hira did in episode one. He was a lonely latchkey kid who relied on the television for company while his single mother worked. Even after she remarried and his siblings were born, he was left on his own and found solace in TV. 

He wanted to be an idol because he saw people screaming and reaching for them. Present-day Kiyoi struggles to say “I love you” convincingly for a play.

Back to VO/flashback time, Kiyoi’s first impression of Hira was not great, but the way he stared at Kiyoi excited him and made him curious. Hira didn’t seem to want to use Kiyoi the way Shirota’s gang did. And Hira stuck around and even attacked Shirota after he failed the contest, overwhelming Kiyoi with his ferocity. 

On graduation day he’d hoped Hira would confess, rushed into the kiss when he didn’t, and then was panicked and embarrassed. He expected to hear from Hira but never did, and when he tried to call, Hira had changed his number.

Kiyoi heard from the older Koyama that his younger brother had a boyfriend, confirmed in a picture as Hira. Kiyoi then told older Koyama to invite them to the play. When he saw Hira’s look, he was excited again. Hira’s look confirmed his devotion to Kiyoi, so he was stunned when Hira chose Koyama over him. But then, Hira showed up again and came to the afterparty.

Kiyoi tells the guy next to him, Iruma, that Hira was a creepy stalker in High School. Iruma offers to let Kiyoi practice saying “I love you” to him. But Kiyoi wants Hira. 

Kiyoi sees a plastic duck floating in the water and thinks about how he thought Hira was for him but wasn’t. At practice, he finally nails the “I love you” scene.

But he’s angry, he hates Hira and wants to see him again. He gives in, calling Hira about rehearsal space.

Back at Hira’s, Koyama discovers the pictures of Kiyoi. He’s recovered from his cold but is desperate to keep Hira. He grabs Hira and tells him he loves him. Hira rejects him, but Koyama goes for a hug. Right then, Kiyoi shows up. He turns around and leaves. 

Koyama wants to know why he likes someone like Kiyoi. Hira can’t explain, which Koyama actually does understand. He leaves, saying “Sayonara”. 

Hira looks at a picture and wishes things would go back to how they were, but knows they can’t.

Thoughts
Another episode where I think they did the best they could with the time they had. 

We finally got Kiyoi’s POV, and I liked that they brought back the animation as a way of condensing down his backstory. 

They have to rely heavily on VO, but we get the important parts of Kiyoi’s side of the story. Just how mesmerized he was by Hira’s eyes, and how in them he found the adoration that he wanted (something I really missed in season two). Then, how confused he was after Hira vanished on him only to show up again with a boyfriend while still staring at Kiyoi with the same intensity as always. I think Kiyoi’s feelings about everything are well covered.

I’m not sure I care for his struggle to say “I love you”, which isn’t in this part of the first book but I think it might be an attempt to use some stuff from the second book. The main problem is that they have so little time, and I think it could have been better spent.

In the first book, Hira’s POV and Kiyoi’s are roughly equal. Here in the drama we spent the first 4 eps with Hira, leaving only two for Kiyoi. On top of that, the Koyama break-up was moved into this section, taking more time away from the Kiyoi. The way the Koyoma break-up plays out in the book is different too. Kiyoi wasn’t any part of it. Here they’ve combined two scenes into one and it sort of works, but nothing can save the fact that they don’t have enough time to explore Kiyoi.

Where I think the story gets hurt the most by removing so much of the Kiyoi part of the book is in the next, final episode. My thoughts there will probably be very long.

Another note: Sayonara is not the standard goodbye in Japanese, it has an air of finality about it. So when Koyama says “sayonara” he means goodbye for real. Which, doesn’t really make sense considering everything. It does have some relevance to the book, but not because Koyama says it. This is another thing I may get into with the next episode.