Oh the feels came swinging this week when Wakana’s grandpa got startled and fell (all because he saw the Lovely Legs Stockings fall out of Wakana’s bag, poor guy). Unfortunately he hurt himself so he had to be taken to the hospital and it was decided he would be staying with his daughter until he gets better.
And boy, Wakana really stretched himself then amidst managing the shop, studying for mid-terms that was just around the corner and believing he had to finish the outfit in two weeks time. With everything that had gone down, Wakana felt like he just didn’t have enough time to pull it off and eventually had a meltdown because he was ashamed at himself for being unable to carry out the jobs properly. Worst of all, he hadn’t touched his brushes for practicing his craft since he started, where as his grandpa who had gotten hurt made sure he brought over his brushes so that he doesn’t break his daily routine of practice. But it was his grandpa’s wisdom of how it’s because when one wants to make someone happy, they have the motivation to keep going, even when things get hard that pulled him out of his despair. The resolve to see Marin’s smile once he finishes the outfit was what pulled him out of that grief of feeling like a failure and gave him the drive to finish the job.
But because Wakana doesn’t want to let people down and wants to be useful in some way, he ends up turning down or forgetting altogether that there are people around him who are willing to help him out. In fact, had he accepted Marin’s offer to help him out with cooking and stuff when she heard about his grandpa’s situation, he could have been spared the grief of misunderstanding the outfit’s deadline in the first place. But in hindsight, although it really took a lot out of him, it serves as a good lesson to communicate better with others about any uncertainty, or perhaps to just say “no” next time if he has too much on his plate.
Meanwhile, Marin had no idea this was happening because she had thought the reason why he would be rushing out after school was to visit his grandpa. At one point she did actually go over to his place with some food to check up on him, but because Wakana had briefly passed out from exhaustion and all the lights were out, so she thought he wasn’t home. It wasn’t until he actually finished the costume Marin realized what had happened and felt horrible for unknowingly putting Wakana in this situation where he thought he had only two weeks to finish the outfit. She felt especially guilty about it because she knows how much he had pushed himself to finish it the best he can, and even though there are still things that needs to be done, it is still better than Marin could have ever imagined.
And this is what I really like about Marin’s character. She’s humble, knows how to be grateful and she understands just how unrealistic it would be to expect anyone to finish an outfit in such a short period of time. That’s why she felt so awful about not knowing about his efforts at all, especially since she didn’t want to ever put him through that.
But regardless of the miscommunication, at the end of the day, Marin being starstruck by the outfit and making her happy was the only thing that mattered to Wakana at that point. He was the one to suggest for her to try it on and they will dress her up with the make-up and everything, and it was such a wholesome moment to see them putting it together. I laughed really hard when Marin actually thought he had a girlfriend because he had fake-eyelashes in stock. Turns out he actually uses them for the Hina Dolls he makes.
They also had a very sweet moment when Wakana was talking about how one can be identified for their craftsmanship of the Hina Dolls just by the little details such as how they draw their eyebrows. He was embarrassed about it, but Marin didn’t hesitate to say that he’ll definitely be able to do it one day and earned the sweetest smile from the guy. Marin was taken aback by it because it was the first time she really got to see him smile from the heart, and it was such a precious moment because LOOK AT THIS SMILE. LOOK HOW FREAKING PRECIOUS IT IS. The whole moment between was so soft just made me feel all fuzzy inside.
And finally, we got the grand reveal of the Shizuku cosplay put properly together, and man it was splendid. They really pulled it off, and Marin is over the moon about it. I really loved how enthusiastic the both were, mainly because not only does Wakana have some appreciate his work, but Marin also has someone to share her excitement with. Had she done this all on her own, it would have been a bit lonely. So it makes me happy to see the two of them share this moment together.
