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<\/a>Boy, I gotta say \u2013 Trillion Game<\/em> is just really good. And it gets better and better on a pretty consistent trajectory, which is the main reason I don\u2019t feel worse than I do about not covering it for almost a cour. There\u2019s a terrific cast here, top to bottom. But making Gaku the de facto MC was the best decision Inagaki Riichirou made with this series. He\u2019s grown into a really exceptional anchor for everything that happens. He\u2019s the heart and soul of Trillion Game<\/em>, no question about it. He pulls off the extremely rare feat of being both the audience POV character and<\/em> the most interesting person in the cast.<\/p>\n<\/a>This is a backwards-facing episode in more ways than one, a relative rarity for TG<\/em>. First off, it\u2019s a trip to repay the early investors who stuck their neck out for Haru and Gaku when no one else would. Specifically, Mitsuzono Flowers and Maeyadama-san. This is not sentimentality \u2013 it\u2019s business. They took a risk, they earn the rewards (a lot of them<\/a>, especially Maeyadama). But it\u2019s undeniably sentimental, seeing their success reward those who believed in them. Especially Mitsuzono-san, pushed to the brink by Dragon Bank but able to reclaim her company and its building thanks to Haru and Gaku\u2019s success (and some shrewd decision-making on the way down).<\/p>\n<\/a>It\u2019s also very much a reflective episode for Gaku, who\u2019s invited to his high school reunion (and a sendoff for a retiring teacher). As you\u2019d expect the high school experience was not kind to Gaku. In fact the only positive memory he has is of Momose-san<\/a> (Inagaki Konomi<\/em><\/a>), a fellow introvert who played flute in the band and forever imprinted herself on Gaku\u2019s psyche with a random act of kindness<\/a>. She\u2019s the main reason he goes to the reunion, and it\u2019s predictably torturous for him until she shows up fashionably late.<\/p>\n<\/a>These things are generally awful, though the reasons they\u2019re awful evolve depending on the number on the invitation. For these whippersnappers it\u2019s all about bragging, posing, and looking to get laid \u2013 none of which interest Gaku much. One braggart noses him out of the way<\/a> when Momose shows up having undergone quite a transformation, now a rather glamorous figure. But the dude\u2019s rather pathetic pose of working for an advertising agency is blown to pieces when Gaku (at his prompting) says he founded the company that made \u201cPopping Land\u201d. And since the agency the guy works for is God Promotion, all that\u2019s left for him is to grovel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a>In a sense, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a right or wrong in what happens between Momose and Gaku. The heart of the matter is that he\u2019s heartbroken that she changed \u2013 but from her perspective, she surely feels for the better. She\u2019s more confident, proactive, and socially skilled. I don\u2019t think she\u2019s gold-digging with Gaku here \u2013 she probably always had a crush on him too, and like most people she went to her reunion hoping to hook up. But Gaku\u2019s \u201cSomewhere That\u2019s Green<\/a>\u201d fantasy around Momose was never going to happen. She grew up and yes, she changed.<\/p>\n<\/a>Gaku, arguably, hasn\u2019t changed much. And again arguably, in his case that\u2019s a good thing. He\u2019s still kind and idealistic and that\u2019s served him well. But he\u2019s also a guy well into his 20\u2019s who\u2019s (presumably) never gotten laid and passed up a golden chance with the girl he always adored, who was absolutely keen to be with him for the night. He chose his fantasy over what would have been quite a game-changing reality<\/a>. Again, not that he was wrong to do so \u2013 Gaku being Gaku is why he\u2019s so likeable as a character. But still \u2013 fantasy isn\u2019t reality, which is a lesson guys like Sakura and his fancy car are in the process of learning in their own way.<\/p>\n<\/a>Eventually Gaku wanders past the parking lot where it all began with Haru, and then to the izakaya where the gang from work are drinking. They\u2019re on the way out (it\u2019s pouring and Sakura left the top down), but pile in to head to the next stop. This includes Rinrin, and if we know anything about Rinrin it\u2019s that she\u2019s highly idealistic herself. And the look on her face<\/a> when Hebijima talks about why guys go to reunions is indeed a revealing one. There can\u2019t be many in the audience who haven\u2019t looked at Gaku and Rinrin and thought how logical it all seemed. But this is the first time the plot has seriously teased any possibilities in that direction.<\/p>\n