So, my secondary rant after the whole Niina/Izumi conflict. With Momoko, I admit at first she seemed to be pretty static as in she had that fear of sex that her friend Kazusa had, but not as bad. To be honest, when I was getting into the show, I almost forgot that she was in the show because of how the focus was placed onto Kazusa’s feelings for Izumi; Rika getting together with Shun; and Hitoha trying to get the teacher to sleep with her. Momoko seemingly was the least developed as with Niina, until the later episodes gave her more of a purpose.
From what we had of a potential arc for Momoko started around the time she met Satoshi through happenstance. Let’s get this out of the way: I hated him. He was snobby, egotistical, and he couldn’t pick up on the fact that he was disturbing Momoko. During that time, Momoko started to question her sexuality when she saw that she was more drawn to Niina’s gorgeous features (especially the bath episode where she had inner monologues about Niina’s body, which kind of squicked me out), Eventually, it dawns on her that she had feelings for Niina, and she does eventually blow up on Satoshi when he introduced his friends to her. While I feel that if that were me in that situation, I’d go about it a different way, I nevertheless applaud Momoko for standing up for herself. So with that being said, and the eighth episode with two confessions one after the other, maybe this would mean that it came time for Momoko to confess to Niina, and possibly get together with her, right?
Wrong.
Niina instead reflects on her first love and heartbreak from helping Izumi confess to Kazusa. So, because of that, she was going to decide to have another. Momoko overhears this and is naturally concerned about the sinister undertones of it. Episode 9, she confronts Niina and asks her if she was really contemplating on taking Izumi from Kazusa and when Niina bluntly says that she didn’t know yet, Momoko decides to confess to her then and there to stop her from going down that path. But as you’d imagine, Niina rejects her, stating that she didn’t see it as right to have ess-ee-cks with a friend.
For starters, I will be the first to say that I did feel sorry for Momoko. To build up the courage and then confess to the person you love only to be rejected is sad, but you’d have to get back up and work to find someone who reciprocates your feelings. Momoko not taking the rejection well is an understatement. She refuses to accept the reality of the situation and instead tries to continue with the notion that Niina was in the wrong about her feelings for Izumi and that she’d try to help her out of this. This to me is one of the most selfish moments in the anime so far. Instead of just accepting that Niina only saw her as a friend, she’d rather try to push a lie as far as it could go regardless of whether Niina would be hurt by this. It goes beyond the point of sympathy for me. All I see is an entitled girl who is enraged that she isn’t getting her way and prioritizes her own feelings over her friend’s.
