OK, so we just watched episodes 38 and 39 of Marmalade Boy. I will warn you that I've seen most of the 76 episodes already (I missed seeing 36-44. Lucky me!), so I'm going to throw in a lot of spoilers (Hopefully the editors will censor anything they think is too revealing.).

While Miki seems to blow everything out of proportion, making you THINK all of the episodes are about her, they're really not. To me, these two and the one before are more about the little sub-plots going on in the background.

First on the list is the whole thing between Ginta and Arimi. In addition to providing another marketable item (the Jet Memo), it also provided a happy ending to two characters who probably needed it (if I remember how the first thirty or so episodes went). Look for some closure to this sub-plot sometime in the next couple of episodes.

Unfortunately, this leaves Tsutomu out. Here's a poor guy who spends the whole series up until now losing to Ginta and Yuu and making them look good (twice on the tennis court, once in Junk Jungle). The boy never gets a break. Unfortunately, despite his valiant final attempt (probably his best attempt of the series), he just can't win Arimi's affection. Just goes to show you that sometimes loving someone isn't enough. Don't worry. If this series didn't teach you this lesson this time, there'll be plenty of times for you to figure this out. Even Yuu has to learn this lesson the hard way.

Way back, when a friend of mine gave me a synopsis of what I had missed, she never mentioned that Ginta and Tsutomu get into an all-out brawl! Wasn't the look on Arimi's face priceless? I'm glad that the writers ended it in a draw instead of having Tsutomu lose again. One thing to the Purple-hair's credit: he knows when he's lost and is willing to admit it. Look for him to finally have something go his way in the near future.

Next subplot. Eventually, they're going to clean up the mess between Meiko, Miwa, Na-chan, and Ryoko-sensei. It's going to take a few episodes, but I will say this -- It's not going to be pretty. Also, speaking of things that aren't pretty, there are probably many fans wondering whether Suzu and Kei are going to get what they have coming to them. We shall see.

On that note, speaking of Suzu, remember how her father, a famous architect, wanted to talk to Yuu again? That's going to become pretty important later on -- not right away, but much later.

Well, that's it for now. Maybe later I'll write some more MB thoughts. We'll see what's in the cards -- OOPS! Wrong series. Wait. Was that a spoiler? Nah. See ya.