Rikei ga Koi, Episode 10: Science Tried Giving Presentations

Kosuke and Kotonoha present their research in front of scary professors. Ayame’s pent up desires make her frustrated.

Proof 10: “Science-types Fell in Love, So They Tried Giving Presentations.”

Hmm.

Last time in Rikei ga Koi, Ayame told Shinya not to cuddle with her in public on the plane ride, and then the oxytocin snuggling experiment failed because Shinya passed out from too much excitement over the maximized surface contact positions. Ayame is hard up for snuggles and she’s not getting any. Instead of assuming she’s feeling withdrawal symptoms or attributing her growing distraction to the aphorism “Love makes the heart grow fonder,” she jumped to the psychological concept of reactance. Unfortunately, she’s wrong.

Reactance works when someone else tells you not to do something, and then you feel like doing that thing more. This is how reverse psychology works. The response is to an external stimulus. In the previous Rikei ga Koi episode, Ayame is the one who told Shinya not to do something, taking a saliva sample in public, which locked her into not cuddling in public too. Reactance doesn’t apply here because she told someone else not to do something, then regretted it.

Ayame is falling into the common anime trap of following someone else’s pace. She could have just snuggled with Shinya and told him to stuff it if he objected to the lack of data collection protocols. Hot girls in anime can get away with a lot, so she should take advantage of her privilege. Worse for Ayame is that she saw Shinya give his first snuggling session of the Okinawa trip to Kotonoha. He hugged her to calm the younger student down, but Ayame’s emotional self feels betrayed. The conflict of her emotions and her reason is part of her character development, so it’s nice to see Rikei ga Koi finally show these opposing forces crash head-on. That big dose of jealousy will make that wreck spectacular too. I want to see how these science-types fight with each other!

Heh.

It was a hot day at the beach, but now it’s time for a hotter night in Rikei ga Koi! Ayame in nothing but a bathrobe is nice. Ho. It’s time for after-hours snuggling! And no, it’s not. It’s time to polish Kotonoha’s presentation before the big symposium. I must applaud the comedic bait and switch, but man, that made me salty. This is a resort hotel, so please give us the spa scene next episode. Please?

Look. Okinawa has regular office buildings and junk. Ayame thinks her frustration at not being able to cuddle Shinya is “reactance,” the psychological response to wanting to do something more after being commanded not to do it. Except, she told Shinya not to collect saliva on the plane, which meant no cuddling, and they missed their chances, so she’s regretting her first mistake on the plane. Regret is not reactance.

Eh? The mousy dude who is friends with the flashy guy in the last Rikei ga Koi episode is an information science student? He’s obviously the sacrificial lamb, to show us how bad it’s going to be for the Ikeda Lab guys. It looks like he’s trying to justify all his time playing an MMORPG without admitting he still plays World of Warcraft. Vanilla. Nice. Kosuke brought Aika-chan to the auditorium too.

Here we go. The Monsters of Science of Rikei ga Koi act like Yakuza bosses. They have scars, bokken (wooden swords), and killing intent auras. These gut-punch questions are what Ikeda meant by the Science Monsters drawing blood. What everyone says here should be taken literally. Science-types love it when you say you don’t know and love it even more if you argue back and forth with something someone else knows. This is how they have “fun.”

Kosuke is first. Let’s see how far hot-blooded galge appreciation goes. Hahaha! The first slide is Aika-chan with the busty friend! That got everyone’s attention. Very nice topic. It’s like the opposite of the Traveling Salesman Problem. Kosuke has something interesting for gamers and writers of complete walkthroughs.

There’s still a generational divide, since you can see the students all get where Kosuke is coming from, but the Science Monsters are all concerned with efficiency engineering problems. Kosuke is the future! That was a good Rikei ga Koi scene. I think “Baldy” had a reaction of respect for Kosuke too.

Oh, I’m getting nervous too. Kotonoha is next up and no matter how much practice she’s had, she’s still a girl trying to argue with older men in Japanese society. The Science-types Shinya and Ayame have given her excellent preparation for what they might throw at her. Get it, girl!

Kotonoha references Babe Ruth’s homerun record with her booty shorts in the eye catch.

Nice cliffhanger for Rikei ga Koi, huh? It’s left for Shinya to treat Kotonoha like a 12-year-old girl and hug her. All this proves is that Shinya read every paper he could on oxytocin levels. Eep! Ayame walked in at the worst moment! She heard all the explanations from behind the whiteboards, but that’s not going to be good enough. There will be repercussions later, but let’s see Kotonoha shine in front of the Science Monsters first.

Yes. A white lab coat for computer geeks who don’t mess with chemicals is indeed ornamental armor. It works against Science Monster attacks! I’m slightly concerned that Kosuke’s Aika-chan figurine disappeared, but then I remember that completing all 12 episodes of Rikei ga Koi before broadcast doesn’t guard against animation quality dips.

Hey, this is a good wrinkle on the Traveling Salesman Problem, all based on waiting in line from Shinya and Ayame’s date at the amusement park. Smack those Science Monsters around, Kotonoha-chan! Whatever Shinya did in practice is much worse than what these old guys are doing. Besides, they’re only asking the same two questions. “What other prior research was there?” and “What use is this topic to society?” Oh! They were even harder on her than mousy dude and Kosuke, but not nearly as hard as Shinya was. Get it! Very satisfying. Ikeda confirms his own Science Monster status by proxy.

Kosuke wears Crocs… He’s apologizing, but “Baldy” liked the give and take. Ikeda scores more points. It’s funny how all the Science Monsters are just like Ikeda with being scary on the outside, and then they talk so cutely to younger students.

There it is! Scary cliffhanger between Science-type lovers. The next Rikei ga Koi episode is about having a fight. I can’t even imagine how ridiculous this will be.