Grow Up Show: Himawari no Circus Ep.05 - Akane and Aoi! Ouka worries too much!

Episode 5 of Grow Up Show: Himawari no Circus, as we predicted last week, focuses on the two smaller members of the troupe, Yura Akane and Yura Aoi, explaining why such small children are inside the troupe without parents and why they are so hostile to external people like Mizuka.

The two are orphans who were going to be separated to go to different families, but they decided to stay together and found refuge at the troupe, where they started learning how to do circus. Remember, this series is set in the 1950s, and things were a lot more chaotic back then and much less protective of children.

If, for a moment, we forget that they are siblings, this picture of Akane and Aoi emanates some yuri energy doesn't it?

I like how Ouka has completely transformed into a comedy character that tries to chase for Mizuka at every occasion. She's absolutely the most adorable of the girls of the cast.

The spark that caused the episode's drama was Aoi seeking Mizuka's advice and help to improve her circus skills and spending a lot of time with her. This creates jealousy in Akane, who thinks that Aoi is moving away from her, unconsciously fearing she might become alone again. This makes her run away into the forest while everyone else searches for her.

Of course, at the same time, to escape Ouka's affection, Mizuka decides to spy on a circus troupe in the vicinity. During this, she finds Akane in a cave together with an elephant, and they start to talk, clarifying that Aoi was just trying to get better to be up to par with Akane. You know, it's the classic misunderstanding that would be solved if people simply talked more, but it's still good in its simplicity.

Akane seems to have grown less antagonistic toward Mizuka, so we may expect some training sessions with her too soon. I feel it's disastrous that they took the elephant in, though; I understand the feeling, but if you can barely feed your troupe, adding an animal with such a huge food requirement feels like overkill...

Speaking of Ouka, I absolutely love how her affection/interest in Mizuka is being played for comedy in every episode. Mizuka plays hard to get, which will only make it sweeter when she actually accepts Ouka as a partner. I know, I know, they're just friends right now, but let me have my yuri vision please!

I know this is in the mid-50s, but do you really leave the kids like this? Poor Aoi and Akane, thankfully they found their new home.

Mizuka has apples! So many apples! Ignore the source from where they come from, that's not relevant for our discussion now!

With this, we covered most of the pairs in the main cast except maybe for Maria and Rin, the "adults" in the room, if we can consider Maria an adult because she's extremely small. So it's a 50/50 chance between an episode focusing on them or going back to the main couple, Ouka and Mizuka, next week. Either way, I'm here to stay and can't wait for more.