Area no Kishi - Episode 4

キラ☆キラ? o__o"

With the heart transplant giving Kakeru his brother's personality, I'm glad that there was at least an attempt to explain this unrealistic phenomenon. Although the justification for this strange happening was a bit farfetched, from the point of view of someone who is not experienced in medical practices, I can't say for sure that it is invalid. Aside from that questionable issue, I felt this episode worked well as a wrap-up for the "Suguru arc" (I refer to it as that since it seems like Kakeru has finally stopped dwelling on the past and his brother's death).

The first half of the episode still consisted of Kakeru going through the depression stage. And when he found out from Nana (who turns out to be the alien, not surprisingly) about the whole heart transplant ordeal, he basically ran home and broke down. Even though he was told that Suguru wouldn't have lived anyways, I understand why Kakeru would still blame himself for his brother's death. Despite being overshadowed by his brother's exceptional talent, Kakeru still looked up to and respected his nii-chan. The thought of someone as amazing as his brother dying in order to save someone as useless as him must have really hit Kakeru hard. Fortunately, despite him making the unethical decision of reading his deceased brother's diary, Kakeru discovers that Suguru had a wonderful dream - a dream that consisted of the two Aizawa brothers standing triumphant over the soccer world as King and Knight of the Area. Because of this, he manages to escape the depression stage and moves forward with optimism.

With soccer back in his life, Kakeru is finally back on track. It's relieving to see him regain his composure since I have to admit that his constant crying and pessimistic outlook was slightly annoying; it didn't even do him any good, either. The next arc in the story should be focusing on the start of his and Nana's high school life. With Suguru out of the picture, the Kakeru x Nana pairing is now very possible, barring the appearance of a random bishōnen that manages to infatuate Nana (although I doubt this will happen since she doesn't seem to be the type of girl that's easily swayed by others). But for now, the focus will most likely be on Araki, one of Suguru's teammates on the U-15 team and a (former?) superstar. It'll be interesting to see how Kakeru copes with finding out that Araki has "put on some extra weight" and is not the player he used to be, judging by the preview.