Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove it

Episode 10

Continuing on from last week's beach escapades, this episode sees the lab members attending--and presenting at--a scientific conference. However, unlike the previous episode, this one does far more to mix up the status quo by showing how our heroes respond to stress, stage fright, and adversarial pressure.

At the conference, seven students--including Kanade and Inukai--present not only in front of other students but other college professors as well. However, it's not exactly a standard college presentation. At any time, the professors can interrupt with questions designed to point out flaws in the students' research. It is then the students' job to defend their research by answering these questions. And when the first student--whose project is so complicated even Himuro is having trouble following it--is completely torn to shreds by the professors, Kanade loses faith in her own research.

However, up first is Inukai. And while mere weeks ago he wasn't even able to pick a topic, he is now more than ready to defend it. Faced with questions made to undermine the very value of his topic, Inukai has no problem charging aggressively ahead.

This is where we see his growth as a scientist. He truly believes that what he is researching is not only interesting to him but has a greater value as well. Of course, he goes a bit too far, even cussing out the professor who is trying to poke holes in his research, but his passion for the topic is clear.

Unfortunately, seeing even Inukai rise to the occasion doesn't fill Kanade with confidence. She's on the edge of breaking down--or simply giving up and not presenting. This makes sense. Kanade is the straight man--the normal person in the group. She's no doubt hardworking but she lacks the genius talent that Idabara, Yukimura, and Himuro possess. Likewise, she doesn't have their self-confidence.

While not exactly the king of emotions, even Yukimura can see she is freaking out, so he hugs her. Now, let's be clear, he is doing this because the scientific research papers he has read tell him this should calm her down. But that doesn't mean that he didn't just sexually harass his junior.

Kanade, expectedly, panics before lecturing Yukimura on what he just did--though she does understand Yukimura's logic. And even though the hug didn't calm her, it did end up breaking her out of her stupor, allowing her to focus on her presentation and knock it out of the park.

Of course, the hug also has a massive detrimental side effect thanks to an offhand decision made in the previous episode. When boarding the plane to Okinawa, Yukimura and Himuro decided to cut off all public displays of affection. Himuro regretted it almost immediately but chose to let it stand. It's been driving her crazy.

Since then she hasn't been able to touch Yukimura once. Even during the experiment in the previous episode, they were never able to make contact. Then, when he comes to the girl's hotel room to help Kanade to prep her presentation, he doesn't make a single move on Himuro.

The sudden and complete lack of physical touch--especially when she had been able to be all over him since the experiments began--is expectedly tough on her. She is becoming more and angry but is able to hold it in because she knows that as soon as the conference is done, things will naturally go back to normal.

And then she sees Yukimura hugging Kanade--giving another girl what she has been denied. She has enough composure to let Kanade deliver her presentation, but I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that, as the next episode preview says, it's about the two of them having their first fight.

Rating:

Things I Loved:

• Idabara cracking up in the audience watching Inukai's presentation.

• Inukai apologizing to the teacher he cussed out after the presentations are over.

• Seeing how the events of the series so far have affected Inukai and Kanade's research.

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.