This episode was made up of several vignettes, as well as a post-credits scene. Even though the title of the episode is "10 Years Later, the Same as Today," this is only touched on during a short vignette when the kids are given an assignment to draw a picture of themselves 10 years in the future. Takada draws a picture of himself and Nishimura together, and when Nishimura asks why she's in the picture, Takada responds that he always wants to be with her.
But prior to this, we see Takada talking with Kitagawa and his cronies (aka the Scorpion Gang), talking about how his chest tightens whenever he's around Nishimura and he can't stop thinking about her. Kitagawa tells him that's part of the Grim Reaper's curse, and Takada is so happy. Umi overhears and she knows what Takada is feeling is love. We also see Hino reacting, but all his reactions consist of is looking confused and having a question mark hanging over his head. In other words, he's even more clueless about what's going on than Takada is. Later, Umi talks with Nishimura, who says her chest tightens when she's around Takada. Poor Umi knows that they like each other, but she can't say anything, much to her frustration.
The major vignette in this episode sees the Scorpion Gang bringing Takada to their secret base (a classroom that's not being used at the school due to Japan's declining birth rate). They have a rivalry with the Lizard Gang, a group of boys in another fifth grade classroom, and the Scorpion Gang has set up a pet feeder with a timer to set off a roach bomb in the locker of the Lizard Gang's leader. However, they messed up and went into the wrong classroom... and the bomb ended up in Nishimura's locker. They ask Takada to help them get the bomb from Nishimura's locker, and he agrees. Well, let's just say that Takada isn't subtle and mentions the bomb, even though he was asked not to. This causes a panic in their classroom, and Nishimura says she gave the bomb to their teacher. It becomes a race against time to get the bomb from the teacher, but things don't go the way the Scorpion Gang hoped. To be honest, I thought this vignette was the weakest of them, and it was a little disappointing that this one got the bulk of the screen time.
There's also a vignette of Takada smelling something different about Nishimura. She mentions that she recently started using a different shampoo, which was a sample of a fancy shampoo given to her dad by someone he knows. Takada tells her to keep using it, but Nishimura says the girls would make fun of her and tell her not to do things that attract boys. Takada tells her that she's got her own charm, anyway, and doesn't need any special shampoo or anything like that to attract attention.
The last vignette before the credits sees Takada getting a text message from Nishimura. The girls in class tell him that if he gets a message from Nishimura, he has to tell 20 other people to avoid a curse. He's happy to get the message and doesn't mind the curse, but is frustrated that he doesn't have contact information for 20 people. Takada's sister ultimately tells him that she should tell everyone he knows in person about it. So, the next day, Takada goes to school and tells everybody he sees that he got a message from Nishimura and how happy it makes him. One of the best bits of this vignette is Kasahara asking Nishimura for her contact info, because it's going around school that getting a message from Nishimura makes people happy.
After the credits, there's a post-credits scene where Nishimura is heading to school and is accompanied by her father, who is heading to work. Takada comes up to them, and it becomes clear that referring to Nishimura as "Nishimura-san" is confusing, since that could reference either Nishimura or her father. In order to avoid confusion, Takada calls Nishimura by "Akane-chan." Knowing how honorifics work in Japan, this is a big step for Takada to take. Of course, this causes Nishimura to blush yet again during this episode. She blushes a lot in this episode, and I lost track of how often she does it. However, after a slight hesitation, Nishimura refers to Takada as "Taiyou-kun." We hear in her father's thoughts that she doesn't have a reason to refer to Takada by his first name. However, he doesn't freak out about this in front of the kids. Instead, he emphasizes that they need to get going, or they'll be late for school, and the three of them head on their way.
My Clueless First Friend doesn't have a real ending, but to be honest, I was expecting that. Considering that the series relied a lot on vignettes and not as much on overarching stories, having a non-ending for the series makes sense.
When all is said and done, I enjoyed My Clueless First Friend. It's a sweet series that's a nice change of pace from the more dramatic anime that I normally watch. I especially appreciated that this was a series I could watch on Sundays, because it was a calming way to end my weekend. But it's hard to believe that it's over, though, and I'm going to miss it.
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