New character! New character! Oddly though, it doesn't appear to be the one in the closing for the first half of the season...

Summary:
At lunch, Yamato tells Yasu about how he messed up with Honoka. Yasu tells him that he should keep trying, but Yamato is unsure. Miki comes over to join in the conversation, but when Yasu tries to get her to encourage him to get Honoka to have sex, Miki beats him with a tray and tries to pull Yamato away from the conversation. At practice, Yamato is forced to do extra training reps, and Honoka has to leave early. She worries that he doesn't have an umbrella (it's raining), but he says not to worry. Suzuka also notices. After practice, Miki wants Suzuka to go with her to go eat, but Suzuka keeps making reasons why she can't go. Yamato arrives and notices they are still there. He notices the rain and starts to call Miho, but Suzuka gives him her umbrella, saying she was going with Miki anyways. Miki watches Yamato leave, then asks Suzuka if she likes Yamato, saying she thought that Suzuka was making delays to go with him. Suzuka denies this (although not vehementely) and goes with Miki to eat. The next day after practice, Miki and Suzuka go to do karaoke to the tune of Nana Shirakawa's newest songs. Honoka and Yamato go to have a drink before going home. Yamato notices Nana's commercial on TV, but when Honoka asks him if he likes Nana (the pop idol), he denies it. In the restaurant, Honoka is obviously nervous, and when Yamato asks her why she is, she mentions she invited a friend to join them. The friend arrives, and its Nana Shirakawa, the pop idol! As the people in the restaurant notice, Nana suggests they go somewhere else. They end up in a karaoke bar, where Nana explains how they met and became friends, and offers Yamato advice as Honoka's boyfriend - to take things slow. Honoka gets embarressed and runs out to the bathroom. Of course, Suzuka and Miki walk by and notice Yamato singing karaoke to this girl, and Suzuka runs in to defend Honoka's honor and berate Yamato. Miki notices that the girl is Nana, and while the confusion is occuring, Honoka returns, wondering what is goig on. Nana invites everyone to stay, and Miki runs off to tell the bar they'll be together. Suzuka tries to scootch over next to Yamato, ostensibly to make room for Miki, but Honoka and Nana notice, and Honoka tells Yamato he can move over near her. Nana is the first singer for the new group, singing one of her new songs. Suzuka is next, and while she is picking her song, she teases Yamato, asking him if he can sing anything besides baseball team songs. He gets mad, goes to pick a song, and accidently picks the same one as Suzuka. Miki suggests they sing it together, and Yamato starts to agree, but notices Honoka's startled reaction, and tells Suzuka that he picked the wrong song and that she should sing by herself. On the way home, Nana, Yamato, and Honoka stop by Honoka's place, dropping her off. As they leave, Nana talks to Yamato about being the "perfect boyfriend", then calls him silly, saying that he needs to be just Honoka's boyfriend. She berates him, saying he probably doesn't know much about Honoka, not even her birthday, and Yamato sheepishly realizes that he doesn't. Nana tells him to just be a good boyfriend and love Honoka for who she is. As she leaves, she tells Yamato the date of Honoka's birthday and tells him that since its coming up soon, he'll need to get her something.

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This is a fairly good episode. It answers some of my concerns from the last episode: we see that Suzuka is rethinking about what she wants with Yamato, we see that Yamato doesn't know all that much about Honoka (and that SOMEONE notices it), and we see Honoka as more than a cardboard cutout meant to be some sort of Suzuka rival. Nana allows us to explore Honoka as a person, and allows for some integral Yamato-Honoka character development.

I'm not sure why Nana had to be a pop idol instead of just a friend, but it wasn't a problem in the episode.

Suzuka's reactions are starting to be more and more obvious to Miki, and that will hopefully allow us to see Suzuka as a better person as well.

Nana's assessment of Yamato was spot on: he doesn't know all that much about Honoka, and he seems more concerned with just the idea of being a boyfriend rather than really seeing if he loves Honoka. Up until now, the relationship has been an extended crush - now we'll see where it goes. Yamato can make or break the relationship with the birthday present, so we can see how that goes. Up until now, Honoka has been doing things for Yamato, it's time to see if he is willing or even knows how to reciprocate.

Of course, based on the preview, I'm betting he screws it up.