Kids on the Slope Episode 5 Review

I believe Kids on the Slope has really caught its rhythm with this episode. We have a carryover from the last episode with Kaoru kissing Ritsuko and both of them dealing with the blossoming love and teenage emotions. It’s always fun to deal with that and their representation of their emotions shows that, while they’re still inexperienced and don’t really know what to do when it comes to love, they’re really good friends that can get past the little things (or big things depending on your point of view).

But the substance of what’s going on is that Kaoru travels to Tokyo (with Sentaro in tow, against Kaoru’s wishes) to meet his long lost mother after his father—who is often absent on military duty—gives Kaoru the address, which his father got from their old maid (a little convoluted, I know). This is a big character moment for Kaoru as he both gets to meet his mother for the first time since adolescence and he is helped by his mother to get over his broken heart.

To further complicate things, and prove that Sentaro is pretty dense when it comes to love matters, Ritsuko is talking to Kaoru through those cup-and-string phones, telling him that she likes someone else. The whole situation is set up through Sentaro’s little sister, who is having a similar problem in the wiles of love, and talks to Kaoru about it through her “game” (kids those days were sneaky). I loved the moment itself because it was very cute and displays both Ritsuko’s and Kaoru’s childishness when it comes to matters of the heart through the cup-and-string phones that we probably played with when we were kids.

This is actually one of the strongest episodes of this series and it was very light on the actual jazz. I’m looking forward to where the relationships between Jun and Yurika and Kaoru, Ritsuko, and Sentaro go from here. It’s clear that, while Kaoru and Sentaro both have similar love interests, it won’t conflict with their friendship, which has grown deep.