Chapter 47 [summary] 

[Comment&Summary] Ao Haru Ride CH. 47 — Detailed summary and quick thoughts.

Kou calls out to Futaba, but she’s fast asleep over her notes. How did she fall asleep so quickly? He keeps looking at her, and thinks about how her sleeping face, too, is very cute. He just likes her so much.

BUT NO. Sorry, that was just Futaba’s voiceover. Kou tells her to stop playing around (as in, stop pretending to be asleep) and get back to work already. Futaba pouts and tells him he’s not cute at all, and remarks in an inner monologue that Kou is now tutoring her, even though it used to be the opposite way around until not too long ago. She remembers the night of Kou’s accident… Kou was so cute back then, telling her to stay with him. She understands that their relationship can’t stay on a high-note

all the time, but she can’t help wishing for Kou to fall even more in love with her, for him to get so absorbed into her so much that he looks silly. She wonders if it’s just her thinking these things… She calls out to Kou, but he tells her to wait a moment (he’s solving a problem). It’s not like Kou is cold towards her, but she can’t help wanting more. Kou finishes the problem and asks her what it was she wanted earlier, and Futaba says it doesn’t matter anymore. Kou pets her head and asks her again what’s wrong,

and Futaba is on cloud nine—she gets so happy just by having him stroke her head. When did she become such a simple minded creature?

Suddenly, Kominato calls, and before Kou can even say anything he invites himself into Futaba’s and Kou’s study session. Just as Kominato arrives, so does Tanaka-sensei. They all exchange new years greetings and step inside. Tanaka-sensei thanks Kominato for coming to the hospital the other day to see Kou.

Kominato awkwardly looks away and hurries Futaba and Kou towards Kou’s room. Whilst they head there, he wonders whether Tanaka-sensei meant what he said that day at the hospital… That day at the hospital, Kominato arrives and asks Tanaka-sensei what room Kou is in and is about to head there, but Tanaka-sensei tells him Kou is with Futaba right now.

Kminato hypes up when he hears this and smiles from ear to ear. He decides not to interrupt them and just leave. Tanaka-sensei offers to drive him home, but Kominato refuses (he calls him ‘Tanaka’ and not ‘Tanaka-sensei’, I guess indicating he sees him as a love rival more than as a teacher)… just as he leaves, Tanaka-sensei asks if he hasn’t made any progress at all (speaking about Murao). Kominato turns around in shock, and just as the door to the hospital closes Tanaka-sensei warns him with a smile that there’s not much time left till graduation, and when that happens, they won’t be student and teacher any more: so he better watch out, because he won\'t be holding back like he is now.

Back to present events, Kou and Futaba eat the chocolates Kominato has brought over as a souvenir from his trip to France. As Futaba watches Kou devour the chocolates in delight, she thinks about how this Valentines she’ll be able to give him some.

And then Kominato comes out and says he’s decided to finally confess to Murao. Futaba is quite surprised. Kominato says he actually wanted to do this after he showed Murao more of his cool side, but nothing’s going to ever start if he keeps this up. Futaba is super excited about this, but Kou passively asks when he’s going to do it. Kominato, all hyped up about this too, says

he actually wants to do it right now, but he doesn’t want to do it any way, he wants it to be special and memorable. Kou suggests he does it on White Day, but Kominato says he doesn’t think Mura’s gonna give him any chocolates on Valentines Day, so doing it on White Day wouldn’t have any meaning (White Day is a Japanese-only festivity where the guys that got chocolates on Valentines day give something back to the girls that gave them chocolates).

Futaba takes a look at the chocolate in her hand, and then suggests Kominato to give Murao ‘reverse chocolate’ (In Japan it’s girls that give guys chocolate on Valentine\'s). She says that not many girls get reverse chocolates, so it should be memorable enough!

But then Kou comes along and dumps a bucket of cold water on their hype by saying that

Saturday and they don’t have school. Kominato then asks Futaba and Kou to go on a double date with him and Murao: they can pretend they have exactly 4 tickets to go to the cinema and invite her. The discussion goes on to how stupid that excuse is when Tanaka-sensei comes into the room and invites Futaba and Kominato to stay over for dinner (they\'re having nabe, yaaaay~).

Kou goes down to help out, and when left alone with Kominato, Futaba discusses what she was thinking about wanting Kou to fall deeper in love with her with him. She knows it’s ridiculous—even she thinks she’s being annoying. But Kominato tells her not to worry.

She has Kou wrapped around her little finger already. He’s about to tell her about the note book (how he has her name written in it, I suppose) when Kou storms back in and glares at Kominato, telling them dinner is ready.

They all go down and as they eat, Kominato calls the cat, which he has nicknamed ‘Kuro’ (sort of like \'Blacky\'. It\'s a very comon cat name in Japan). Futaba joins in and calls him ‘Chibisuke’ (sort of like ‘little guy’), and Kominato asks her if that’s his actually name. Futaba says Kou won’t tell her what it’s called, so she just nicknamed him that. Just then Kou’s father walks in and asks if “Yoshioka-kun has been given something delicious to eat yet” and naturally Futaba answers with a yes. But Kou’s dad looks at her puzzled as he picks the cat up,

and says he was talking to the cat… which is called Yoshioka-kun. Everybody blushes at the embarrassing situation and laughs, but Kou just says that the cat has a big appetite so when he thought of naming it that was the only name he could think of.

Kominato whispers to Futaba, who is enjoying this new development, and tells her that, just as he told her, she doesn’t have to worry about Kou not being into her enough.

Kominato soon leaves, telling them he’s counting on the two of them on Valentine’s day. Futaba is about to head off too, but Kou says he’ll walk her home. Futaba blushes and smiles, and Kou asks her why she’s in such a good mood. She tells him she’s just happy to see he really likes her, and Kou, slightly pissed off, asks if she didn’t think he was. She says that’s not it—she knows how Kou feels, and she notices he’s being kind to her. But how to put it…

Kou blushes and averts his eyes. He asks her if her hands are could, and she says she’s wearing warm gloves, so they aren’t. And then he just goes ahead and holds her hand.

Looking forwards, he says he doesn’t mind her being greedy.

He wants her to tell her these things more often. Futaba looks up at him, and he leans down to kiss her, saying she looked terribly cute just now, and calls her ‘Futaba’ (not Yoshioka, like he always has. Let us remember calling people by their first names in Japan indicates a close relationship, especially if you don\'t add an honorific). This catches Futaba by surprise, and it takes her a moment to answer.

They look at each other awkwardly as Kou says that it’d be weird if he called her the same as his cat, so he tried calling her by her first name… but it’s unexpectedly embarrassing. Futaba answers that she sort of wants to see an embarrassed Kou, so she’s happy with this. The chapter ends with with Futaba’s inner monologue saying she wants to be with Kou forever.

By the looks of this chapter, it seems we\'ll be heading straight into a valentine\'s day arc mainly centred around Kominato and Murao.

Recent chapters had sirens ringing inside my head with a

"WARNING! imminent ending just around the corner!!" alert, but this one suggests all the contrary. I honestly even considered the possibility that this month\'s chapter could be the last, especially because the film just came out here in Japan

today. I thought that they wanted to end the manga before the film came out, because the film would spoil the ending. Who knows? I\'ll be watching the film this Thursday and reporting how that goes.

Last month\'s chapter turned out to be a great big punch in the face in many ways, partially because we finally saw the manga\'s canon pair start dating, and partially because the chapter was so crammed with things it felt rushed. Whatever the reason behind that rushed feeling behind recent chapters, we already know the manga will soon be ending—the question is when. I feel that drawing out the story too much would do the manga more harm than good, but damn am I glad that we\'ll be seeing a resolution to Kominato\'s and Murao\'s relationship. I\'m just crossing my fingers and hoping that the all the problems between Kou and Futaba are over, because it\'d irritate me no end if, after the buckets and buckets of drama they\'ve already poured into the story just by themeselves, they suddenly went ahead and added more. I\'d rather not turn this into a teenage angst festival once again—I\'ve had enough of that. I enjoyed it. I sobbed over it. Now don\'t you go ruining it for me.

Moving on to commenting the contents of this chapter, what\'s the deal with Tanaka-sensei? He puzzles me no end. I find myself wondering the same things as Kominato: what on earth is going through his head? Is he teasing Kominato in order to get his engine started like a good teacher would do, or is he really into Murao? I can\'t help but feel that, if he really is into Murao, then all this Kominato teasing is coming from a sense of guilt for falling for a girl way younger than him. But then again, I just don\'t get the feeling he sees Murao that way.

There are a few loose ends left to tie up before the story ends, and I\'ll be looking forwards to seeing them all come to proper conclusions. I\'m also excited as #@£%& to watch the film this Thursday!! It\'s been some time since I watched the live action of a manga I read/I\'m reading (I believe the last one was Kanojo wa Uso wo Aishisugiteru). Hopefully the adaptation will be worth the ridiculously high cinema ticket prices here in Japan, especially because I went to watch The Last Naruto The Movie yesterday and will be watching the first of the two Shingeki no Kyoujin films tomorrow…

MY POOR WALLET IS SUFFERING THE CONSEQUENCES OF SO MANY FILMS COMING OUT IN DECEMBER.

My name\'s Laura and this is KiraKira, the Treasure Box where I dump my writings about the stuff I like the most. I post reviews of animes, mangas, visual novels, light novels (etc etc) that I watch and read, and will occasionally post translations of my favourite works. I\'m currently studying abroad in Tokyo, Japan, and will also be posting things about my daily life here.

[Comment&Summary] Ao Haru Ride CH. 47 — Detailed s...

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