After escaping the Matrix, HAM receives some prize money for achieving the high score on the weird, AR golf game. The girls decide to use the money to go to a “‘slightly expensive'” golf course (key word being slightly because fundamentally, it doesn’t look that much different from the past courses). The biggest perk is that the girls can hire a caddie to help carry their gear and provide some pointers. By coincidence, their caddie for the day is Megumi, an old friend of Haruka’s and a former student of the latter’s father.
With the introduction of Megumi, one would think that Sorairo Utility is finally elaborating on Haruka’s past. It really hasn’t given us any crumbs after hinting a teeny bit back in Episode 2. You do get a little bit more in Episode 8. It is confirmed in dialogue that Haruka used to play competitively in tournaments, before stopping at some point before the start of the show’s story. Haruka chooses to follow the beat of her own dream throughout the gold course, which Megumi notes as a “more mature” form of playing golf than how Haruka played in the past. It’s implied that Haruka’s previous style heavily prioritized achieving the best score and Haruka has since come to view that as reckless.
Unfortunately, this episode doesn’t elaborate any further than that. Barely any flashbacks occur during this episode so while we now know something changed in Haruka, the show doesn’t explain how or why that happened. There are also only two scenes where Haruka and Megumi talk about the former’s change in playstyle. Much of this episode is instead dedicated to the usual CGDCT fluff. It’s frankly a big missed opportunity, especially when you consider that there are only four episodes left after this one. For what it’s worth, there’s still a solid resolution to this part of the episode. Megumi assures Haruka that there’s nothing wrong with how she plays golf now. What it’s important however is whether or not Haruka is still having fun, something which Haruka takes into consideration by the end of the golf course.
I do still enjoy the fluff as per usual. You of course have Minami screwing up as usual though as a nice sign of progress, it’s getting more balanced out with her successes (oh my goodness, the Penguin Slider really does work!). A unique gag in this episode is Minami having trouble with the nearby wildlife such as a single deer and a murder of crows. Seeing Minami run away from a bunch of animals is something that I didn’t realize I wanted to see.
There’s an interesting subplot where Megumi encourages Ayaka to consider becoming a caddie in the future. I’m inclined to agree with Megumi’s assessment. Ayaka’s knowledgeable on golf and she’s very considerate and patient whenever she’s helping others such as Minami. Come to think about it, she basically did serve as a caddie of sorts last episode, monitoring the AR game and providing Haruka and Minami some pointers. Seeing as Ayaka already streams about golf as a side gig, she may as well look into a more common job relating to the sport. I’d really like to see more of this in the remaining episodes. I think it could be a cool direction to take with Ayaka’s character. That said, it is very funny how Ayaka develops second thoughts, simply because she’s afraid of frogs.
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