Stardust Telepath Episode 8: Rocket Prep 2

The girls were gearing up for the model rocket tournament/duel with Kei’s team. Let’s find out what happened before then.

After yet another wonderful cameo by Hona we joined the girls in a pickle. Launching the rocket wasn’t much of an issue but the challenge came in keeping the “eggstronaut” inside safe when the rocket came back down. If the passenger broke or had even a crack on it when the rocket opened it’s a DQ. Matataki took the failures out on poor innocent eggs and Sensei had them put the egg yolks to good use.

I hinted at this to some special people on Twitter. The next scene did something to me…

Matataki was so focused on the rocket since her declaration last episode she hadn’t slept well in days. Haruno took advantage and put on this little sweetness on her. Alas Matataki couldn’t handle its full power so she cut it in half.

UmiYu had their own things to take care so it’s just HaruTaki. Remembering the hothead’s sweet tooth Haruno knew exactly how to get her on board.

Seeing how good Haruno was at cooking and how much she enjoyed it Matataki prematurely judged her as being a stereotypical girly girl. Haruno didn’t ignore it but didn’t deny her claims either. There are tomboys who like all that stuff too you know.

I don’t know how it ended this way (rhetorical comment) but I knew Matataki would lose when she challenged Haruno to jan-ken-pon, as in the winner had to whip the batter.

And now for the moment…Oh this moment. Haruno saw Matataki really liked winning, just like the tournament. That wasn’t the main reason Matataki pushed herself. It’s because she’s the only one who could make everyone’s dreams of building a real rocket come true. If she couldn’t even get a victory in this model tournament then she’d feel useless to the group. Ironic since she prematurely thought the gang were only interested in her engineer brain. Now she says that if her engineer brain can’t deliver the desired results she doesn’t belong by their side. Haruno was stopped midway but my heart told me she’s about to ask “If we don’t win the tournament…will you leave us?”. She cut her off at the not win part.

Haruno: I don’t think winning always means beating someone in a contest. For a long time you didn’t want to talk to me but look at us now. That’s a huge win in my book.

Matataki: Heh. So you’re more about the process than the outcome? You just don’t want to think about the outcome of the contest. I may hate losing but you hate winning, don’t you?

Haruno: I don’t hate anything. I cherish every single life experience.

Matataki: What the? I don’t get it! If you don’t hate anything…that means you don’t love anything either!

Haruno: That’s…

There’s a huge chance I’m completely wrong here…I may be wrong about what she’s about to say before Matataki interrupted her too…but the very real possibility that Haruno wanted to say (or think) “There is something…someone I genuinely love…You.” got my heart burning like very few people would believe. Why do Yuri side-couples I like always do this to me?

We’re only halfway through the episode by the way.

This joke made me happy and sad. Usually the setup is like this: Umika suggests making the pocket in the rocket for the eggstronaut smaller, Matataki says that’s a dumb idea but immediately thinks the same thing herself and be surprised by how brilliant an idea it is. Here it happened in reverse. Matataki thought of a nerdy solution to the pocket idea and here came Umika with a simplified explanation of the same thing and Matataki’s like “that’s dumb”. Poor dear.

After a montage of everyone doing their best to follow Matataki’s instructions and Umika trying in vain to convince her to brainstorm over it as a team Matataki reached a boiling point. With the tournament almost here the stress was getting of them not being finished got to her and she lashed out at everyone, especially Umika. Again we knew it wouldn’t last long but seeing Umika cry is never fun.

Because I’m me I thought of this scene as Umika thinking Yu came to comfort her but Umika telling herself she had to become a good leader using her own strength. Meanwhile Yu just wanted to give her #18 because she loved her.

To quote Miss AJ: “NO! Bad Umi-Kaichou!”

Anyway Matataki found Umika’s notebook under the scattered notes and realized Umika was as serious about the competition as she was. That’s when Umika willed herself to tell her teamwork was the best way. Matataki refusing to show weakness because the tsun was still the dominant side finally accepted it.

Not much to say about the rest of the episode. Everyone was pumped to start the tournament and it all starts next time.

Excellent stuff as always.