Recap
Hira is gazing adoringly at his sleeping King Kiyoi and VO’ing how thankful he is for being given direction. Snuggled in bed together, Kiyoi sleep-calls him ‘gross’.

Koyama and Hira discuss what picture he’ll enter. Koyama thinks it’s too bad he can’t use Kiyoi’s picture because the photos feel like Hira and Kiyoi are in their own world. Hira VO’s that he and Kiyoi’s world can never be the same, even if he becomes a photographer.

Hira admires Kiyoi admiring Anna’s performance on TV and takes his picture. When Kiyoi asks he says he sent in a photo of the town for the contest.

We time-skip through winter.  Their half dozen alarms don’t go off and Hira panics and offers Kiyoi a bike ride to work. But Kiyoi isn’t working until later and his company will send a car.

Hira rides his bike and VO’s that he needs to upgrade from a bike to take care of Kiyoi. At Kiyoi’s shooting location, he learns the title of the upcoming movies comes from what Kiyoi’s fans say when they toast him, “Eternal”.

Hira learns he didn’t make it in the contest. He VO’s that even though he speaks poorly of himself, he had some pride in his photography. Koyama offers to help Hira reach out to Noguchi, one of the judges, but Hira rejects him.

Hira bikes home, feeling by failing the contest he’s lost Kiyoi and shouting “Eternal”.

Hira reluctantly admits the results to Kiyoi, who is nonplussed. He failed his first contest too and thinks Hira just needs to keep applying. He suggests the very prestigious Ihei Nomura competition and won’t listen to Hira’s doubts. Hira is moved by his attitude.

Blink and you’ll miss Hira’s job at the factory putting chestnuts on Mont Blanc pastries. At home, Kiyoi is annoyed that Hira took the night shift. Hira then panics when he gets a text that his cousin Naho is visiting right that second.

Naho is checking on Hira for his parents. When Hira mentions her husband she gets quiet and wants to talk about Kiyoi instead. Hira goes fanboy and not until Naho asks further does he call Kiyoi his friend.

Naho’s son asks Kiyoi if he and Hira are friends.

After the visit, Hira reassures Kiyoi that his parents will think they are just friends. Kiyoi looks almost reassured until Hira says it’s disrespectful to call him a friend. He makes it worse by saying his parents are unrelated to Kiyoi.

Kiyoi blows up. He wants Hira to understand why he’s upset and not just apologize but Hira is confused. He sees Kiyoi as a star in the sky, something he can’t touch and doesn’t want to understand. Kiyoi feels that Hira isn’t moving toward him. He storms out despite Hira trying to hold onto him.

Kiyoi sits outside and looks forlorn. Hira cries in bed with all his pictures of Kiyoi. He thinks god should just kill him. 

Thoughts
The plot here gets a big Japanese “は？/Ha?” (Huh?)  from me. I promised I wouldn’t just compare the books to the show because that’s not fair but let me take a moment to sigh with disappointment at seeing some of my favorite scenes taken apart, rearranged, and reassembled.

Sigh.

Most of those scenes are from the book but everything is all out of order. It feels like they went through the books and picked the popular scenes and then tried to string them together. In itself not a problem, but the character arcs feel like they are scrambled and lost to me.

I wrote about this last time, but drama Kiyoi’s goals and conflict are vague. He looks at tea olive leaves and worries that he and Hira won’t last. The fight in this episode happens in the book, but it’s part of a longer build-up. The way it is now it feels like Kiyoi exploded after Hira said one stupid thing. Considering how many stupid things Hira says, why now?

Even with Hira though, things feel weak. Instead of wanting to contribute to household expenses and pull his own weight, he gets the factory job making pastries so he can replace his bike with a car to drive Kiyoi around. It feels pretty flimsy and the factory scene itself was so short. Does it make sense to anyone who hasn’t read the book?

It also feels like they’ve tried to lighten Hira in the drama by making him more comedic, instead of showing his stronger moments and the intensity about him that Kiyoi loves.

In both the first and second books the first half is from Hira’s POV and a majority of the second half is from Kiyoi’s POV. They followed that with the first season but have abandoned it here. Probably because this is all to set up the movie. I guess they didn’t want the drama to all be Hira’s POV and the movie to be Kiyoi’s POV? 

So instead of a novel adapted into a drama, we get a novel adapted into a drama that also has to be the prequel to a movie. That makes me feel sorry for the writer. That would explain why we get Hira screaming the movie title on his bike, Anna and Shitara awkwardly introduced and Noguchi’s name dropped over and over again. 

But time spent with Hira and Kiyoi is not entirely wasted. I still love Hira’s twisted, allegorical way of seeing reality. What he said about Kiyoi being a star in the sky is lifted straight from the book and Kiyoi gets my sympathy for having to communicate with a partner who thinks that way. Kiyoi encouraging Hira, knowing who he is, and trying to work with him instead of changing him is sweet in his King Kiyoi way. Koyama isn’t wrong, they both inhabit this strange world they’ve made or are trying to make, together.

I’m still eager for next week’s episode, to see how they pull this all together and if they prove I’m being too critical. I’ll be here for the movie too. ETERNAL!