What do you mean more than half a season is gone already!? Damn...Well, let's talk about Episode 4 for a bit, shall we?
====
Let me say this one thing first and foremost, so I can move on while keeping it as a premise.
I found Episode 4 to be the weakest of the season so far. It would be easy to attribute that to the change in direction, but honestly, I thought the transition felt pretty smooth and not as abrupt as I feared it might be. I’m not exactly sure where it felt lacking compared to previous episodes, but it did. It felt less intense, less rich somehow. It just didn’t leave me with as much as the earlier ones did.
As for the highlights, the reveal of what actually happened that last night at the Hawaiians was definitely one of them. I had seen several fans speculate that it might have been just a massage, but I had rationalized the visuals to myself as a way to keep things tame and in line with the tone of the show; especially since they had just pushed the envelope with the kiss scene right before that. But no, it looked like a massage because...it was a massage. 🤭
Before diving into that specifically, I think my dramatic overthinking from last week about Hiroko’s inner struggle still holds up, at least partially, even though she stopped herself. They even brought it up in the space about the episode yesterday; that Hiroko is afraid of her sexual desires, of surrendering to them. She got scared after getting carried away with the kiss, about letting "sexual Hiroko" take over. Somehow she managed to pull herself back, and the rest is massage history. Now that I think about it, this episode gave us little to no insight into Hiroko’s emotional state. We didn’t get any deeper understanding of her thoughts or feelings at all. Maybe that's part of why I found it weak.
Was it really necessary, Hiroko, to even stop giving your lovely girlfriend her "see you later" kisses!? Was it? IT WAS NOT! HOW DARE YOU!?
What I did like is how they tied it in with Ayaka pretty much hanging on Risa’s every word. She took her friend’s perspective so much to heart that her entire image of what sex is supposed to be was shaped by what Risa told her!!! (was it Episode 1?) And somehow, massage fit perfectly into that narrative. It was honestly kind of funny. But (big but), as much as Ayaka is younger than Hiroko, she’s not a child. And no matter how innocent and pure she may be, there’s no way she wouldn’t notice the total lack of involvement of certain parts of her body (the, well...sexual ones lol) in what was supposed to be, well...sex.
Now, to be fair, if we wanted to, we could imagine that the massage ended up being pleasurable for Ayaka in that way, because massages can be, especially for some people. But clearly, that wasn’t the intention behind it. So... yeah.
Another stretch of the imagination is Ayaka seeming to have absolutely no idea about how sex is supposed to look or feel. How realistic is that, considering her age? I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s a little hard to believe. In yesterday’s space (where they talked about sex a lot, by the way; and with Yuka and Mio, aka Kyouko and Risa, as guests lol), they made the point that sex can look different from couple to couple, especially in lesbian relationships. And I agree with that. I actually think not having a rigid, universally accepted "template" can actually be quite positive and liberating. Even without getting into the question of a "finish line" (I remember writing about that in a CMN drama/novel post), indeed not everyone likes and finds pleasure in the same things, and the same woman might prefer different things based on the partner she's with, and our bodies might work similarly, but they definitely don't all work the exact same way, but that's sort of besides the point in what happened between Ayaka and Hiroko. Could an act involving a massage count as sex? I think so. But Hiroko had no sexual intent in giving Ayaka that massage. And Ayaka’s naive belief doesn’t magically make what happened into sex.
The other highlight of the episode was, for me at least, KyonRisa being RisaKyon!
Premise premise premise, because yes. And I shall even be a bit harsh in my premise...because yes.
I am not a fan of dividing women in lesbian couples as top and bottoms (tachi and neko if we use the Japanese terms). The harsh part of it is that I think it's, well...not natural (not sure if natural is the right word but it's the one that came to mind spontaneously; sometimes there just isn't a perfect word to describe something) to attribute a fixed role to people in regards to their intimacy. I'm big on reciprocity. On mutuality. The idea of always "just giving" or always "just receiving" doesn't sit right with me.
Honestly, the urgency some people seem to have to label someone a top or bottom has always had (for me) the scent of heteronormative indoctrination, which we’ve all been exposed to in some way (to me, it sounds like another way to say "who's the man and who's the woman" in the relationship, because roles being divided in such a fashion is exactly what that extremely silly expression refers to...). That said, I do think it’s completely natural, and even obvious, that someone would lean more toward one dynamic than the other, depending on their personality and/or on the relationship they have with a specific person.
And I knew!! I KNEW IT, that Risa would be the more top-leaning one in her relationship with Kyouko! So happy that it has become official! It sounds absolutely perfect! Now we only need the spin-of. Okay, Mommy Sal Jian?
What else? Oh, right! Even though I'm not a fan of that show (unlike Kamiura and the other producer of AyaHiro, Oosugi), I loved the The L World reference Jun made, when she talked about The Planet in Los Angeles! I also thought of The L World when Kyouko mentioned everyone being everyone else's ex girlfriend in the lesbian circle! Remember Alice's chart!?
However...even if Jun ended up saying something vaguely useful, I still cannot stand her.
When she told Ayaka that she was willing to help if she was dissatisfied... major ick!!!
I could never like someone like that.
Lastly...silly me that I thought we'd find out something about Sayuringo's character. Like hell we did!
But I found the callback to EP1's scene between Ayaka and Hiroko pretty funny!
I found Episode 4 to be the weakest of the season so far. It would be easy to attribute that to the change in direction, but honestly, I thought the transition felt pretty smooth and not as abrupt as I feared it might be. I’m not exactly sure where it felt lacking compared to previous episodes, but it did. It felt less intense, less rich somehow. It just didn’t leave me with as much as the earlier ones did.
As for the highlights, the reveal of what actually happened that last night at the Hawaiians was definitely one of them. I had seen several fans speculate that it might have been just a massage, but I had rationalized the visuals to myself as a way to keep things tame and in line with the tone of the show; especially since they had just pushed the envelope with the kiss scene right before that. But no, it looked like a massage because...it was a massage. 🤭
Before diving into that specifically, I think my dramatic overthinking from last week about Hiroko’s inner struggle still holds up, at least partially, even though she stopped herself. They even brought it up in the space about the episode yesterday; that Hiroko is afraid of her sexual desires, of surrendering to them. She got scared after getting carried away with the kiss, about letting "sexual Hiroko" take over. Somehow she managed to pull herself back, and the rest is massage history. Now that I think about it, this episode gave us little to no insight into Hiroko’s emotional state. We didn’t get any deeper understanding of her thoughts or feelings at all. Maybe that's part of why I found it weak.
Was it really necessary, Hiroko, to even stop giving your lovely girlfriend her "see you later" kisses!? Was it? IT WAS NOT! HOW DARE YOU!?
What I did like is how they tied it in with Ayaka pretty much hanging on Risa’s every word. She took her friend’s perspective so much to heart that her entire image of what sex is supposed to be was shaped by what Risa told her!!! (was it Episode 1?) And somehow, massage fit perfectly into that narrative. It was honestly kind of funny. But (big but), as much as Ayaka is younger than Hiroko, she’s not a child. And no matter how innocent and pure she may be, there’s no way she wouldn’t notice the total lack of involvement of certain parts of her body (the, well...sexual ones lol) in what was supposed to be, well...sex.
Now, to be fair, if we wanted to, we could imagine that the massage ended up being pleasurable for Ayaka in that way, because massages can be, especially for some people. But clearly, that wasn’t the intention behind it. So... yeah.
Another stretch of the imagination is Ayaka seeming to have absolutely no idea about how sex is supposed to look or feel. How realistic is that, considering her age? I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s a little hard to believe. In yesterday’s space (where they talked about sex a lot, by the way; and with Yuka and Mio, aka Kyouko and Risa, as guests lol), they made the point that sex can look different from couple to couple, especially in lesbian relationships. And I agree with that. I actually think not having a rigid, universally accepted "template" can actually be quite positive and liberating. Even without getting into the question of a "finish line" (I remember writing about that in a CMN drama/novel post), indeed not everyone likes and finds pleasure in the same things, and the same woman might prefer different things based on the partner she's with, and our bodies might work similarly, but they definitely don't all work the exact same way, but that's sort of besides the point in what happened between Ayaka and Hiroko. Could an act involving a massage count as sex? I think so. But Hiroko had no sexual intent in giving Ayaka that massage. And Ayaka’s naive belief doesn’t magically make what happened into sex.
The other highlight of the episode was, for me at least, KyonRisa being RisaKyon!
Premise premise premise, because yes. And I shall even be a bit harsh in my premise...because yes.
I am not a fan of dividing women in lesbian couples as top and bottoms (tachi and neko if we use the Japanese terms). The harsh part of it is that I think it's, well...not natural (not sure if natural is the right word but it's the one that came to mind spontaneously; sometimes there just isn't a perfect word to describe something) to attribute a fixed role to people in regards to their intimacy. I'm big on reciprocity. On mutuality. The idea of always "just giving" or always "just receiving" doesn't sit right with me.
Honestly, the urgency some people seem to have to label someone a top or bottom has always had (for me) the scent of heteronormative indoctrination, which we’ve all been exposed to in some way (to me, it sounds like another way to say "who's the man and who's the woman" in the relationship, because roles being divided in such a fashion is exactly what that extremely silly expression refers to...). That said, I do think it’s completely natural, and even obvious, that someone would lean more toward one dynamic than the other, depending on their personality and/or on the relationship they have with a specific person.
And I knew!! I KNEW IT, that Risa would be the more top-leaning one in her relationship with Kyouko! So happy that it has become official! It sounds absolutely perfect! Now we only need the spin-of. Okay, Mommy Sal Jian?
What else? Oh, right! Even though I'm not a fan of that show (unlike Kamiura and the other producer of AyaHiro, Oosugi), I loved the The L World reference Jun made, when she talked about The Planet in Los Angeles! I also thought of The L World when Kyouko mentioned everyone being everyone else's ex girlfriend in the lesbian circle! Remember Alice's chart!?
However...even if Jun ended up saying something vaguely useful, I still cannot stand her.
When she told Ayaka that she was willing to help if she was dissatisfied... major ick!!!
I could never like someone like that.
Lastly...silly me that I thought we'd find out something about Sayuringo's character. Like hell we did!
But I found the callback to EP1's scene between Ayaka and Hiroko pretty funny!
Now, let's check out the preview for the next episode!!
[Eng Subs] AyaHiro 2 Episode 5 Preview 🐇🦌
— SapphicLoner (アリ) (@thesapphicloner) July 19, 2025
You just want to be with each other forever, you say?
THEN TALK TO EACH OTHER!! 😭😤
What are Keiko and Tsumugi doing there?! 😱
#あやひろ2 pic.twitter.com/iS8Yyqj1Ax
I seriously can't wait to find out what happened between Hiroko and Sayuringo's character.
Part of me doesn’t want it to be the same thing that happened with Ayaka, or even what happened in Chaser Game W 2, but at the same time I can’t really see the show tackling actual cheating, especially this far into the season. Do you?
It looks like we’ll get flashbacks from before they started living together and from just after they did, and I hope revisiting those memories gives our ladies the push they need to finally confront each other!!!
At one point in the preview, it seems like Hiroko gets home and finds that Ayaka is gone and only left a note. (Is that the same note Ayaka is holding in the final scene, or something else?) I think that might lead into the scene from the trailer where Hiroko goes after her. If that’s the case, it might be the final part of this episode, leading right into the last one. What do you think?
This also makes me wonder, when do Tsumugi and Keiko show up? It has to be after whatever happens with Hiroko and Sayuringo, obviously, and before Ayaka leaves. Hiroko's clothes are the same from when she goes after Ayaka (and when she finds the note), so... This is something I'm really look forward to seeing unfold! Keiko, help that idiotic sister of yours!!!
Can you believe AyaHiro 2 is almost over already? It feels like it just started...
Part of me doesn’t want it to be the same thing that happened with Ayaka, or even what happened in Chaser Game W 2, but at the same time I can’t really see the show tackling actual cheating, especially this far into the season. Do you?
It looks like we’ll get flashbacks from before they started living together and from just after they did, and I hope revisiting those memories gives our ladies the push they need to finally confront each other!!!
At one point in the preview, it seems like Hiroko gets home and finds that Ayaka is gone and only left a note. (Is that the same note Ayaka is holding in the final scene, or something else?) I think that might lead into the scene from the trailer where Hiroko goes after her. If that’s the case, it might be the final part of this episode, leading right into the last one. What do you think?
This also makes me wonder, when do Tsumugi and Keiko show up? It has to be after whatever happens with Hiroko and Sayuringo, obviously, and before Ayaka leaves. Hiroko's clothes are the same from when she goes after Ayaka (and when she finds the note), so... This is something I'm really look forward to seeing unfold! Keiko, help that idiotic sister of yours!!!
Can you believe AyaHiro 2 is almost over already? It feels like it just started...
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