Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove it

Episode 7

Like many of the preceding episodes, this one is really two stories in one. The first centers around the lab's mid-year drinking party. Between Himuro and Yukimura's love of prime numbers and Kanade's lamentations on the party being far from her imagined ideal, we actually learn a fair amount about our cast—by getting them smashed.

Yukimura is straight edge and simply doesn't drink—because it makes you dumber and who would want that? Ibarada is perfectly able to hold her liquor and never loses control as she sips on her wine. Professor Ikeda just passes out at the table a few minutes in. But it's the other three that are really interesting.

Himuro can hold her liquor well to a point—then she becomes a sloppy, emotional mess. Her usual scientific thought goes right out the window as she throws herself all over Yukimura and becomes petulant when he doesn't reciprocate in kind. Ibarada is quick to point out that, if this is Himuro without any inhibitions, then there is no doubt she is in love. Of course, Yukimura rejects this claim.

Inukai, on the other hand, completely ditches his “cool guy, soccer player facade” and reverts back to when he was a kid—terrified that his best friend, Ibarada, would abandon him. Yet, these are likely his true fears. In a year she will graduate and they'll be apart for the first time in their lives. And while this is the perfect time for Ibarada to tease him, she instead reassures him that they'll be together forever. It's a cute little moment.

But then we get to Kanade—i.e., the violent drunk. Kanade has always seemed to be the most normal and put together person of the group. However, this seems to be far from the truth. In high school, Kanade was a member of the Judo team. However, at some point, she reflexively threw someone who came up behind her and was criticized as a “gorilla girl”—a “meathead” basically. It ruined her chances at high school love.

Since then she has worked hard to appear normal and not stand out. But given her lack of a boyfriend—and the fact she spends her days in a lab obsessed with romance—it's not surprising that she feels frustrated and more than a bit lonely.

But what's doubly interesting is Yukimura's reaction to her breakdown. All he says is one word: “ridiculous.” However, it's not her feelings that he finds ridiculous but the idea that she would change herself to fit the common definition of “normal.” After all, doing so has clearly not made her happy.

The second half of the episode gives us three classic fairy tales popular in Japan but with a “scientific” twist. We have Cinderella with DNA testing, Princess Kaguya with Saturn V rockets, and The Grateful Swan with advanced textile manufacturing. And of course the lab mates fill the roles of the characters in the story with Yukimura and Himuro tending to be the pair in love.

These are plain hilarious. It's basically just Yukimura and Himuro ruining tales of love and magic in an attempt to make them more grounded in reality. Honestly, these vignettes are a great change of pace from the status quo even if they do nothing to further the overall story or the development of our protagonists.

All in all, it makes for a pretty decent episode.

Rating:

Little Things I Loved:

• In the fairytale sections, Himuro still wears the earrings that Yukimura gave her.

• While Kanade may claim to be “normal,” she's able to play the prime number game when Inukai is unable to.

• Nearly the moment she gets drunk Himuro demands the “kiss of the highest theoretical value” from the previous episode. I'm not surprised it's still on her mind.

• Apparently, when Ibarada gets a few drinks in her she stops trying to mess with people—or perhaps she just wants to stay mostly sober so she can tease everyone the next day.

• Cinderella's pumpkin coach wasn't magic; it was a controlled nuclear reaction. (I'm honestly shocked Cinderella/Himuro even went to the ball instead of just staying home and studying the coach before it went away at midnight.)

Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.