Sparks of Tomorrow Episode 5 Review: Love Tester Gag Buries Central Romance
The review argues the episode is failing to execute its own premise, spending its runtime on a love-tester gag while the central Kate-Suzu relationship is left unacknowledged.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
Episode 5 of Sparks of Tomorrow opens with a college student spying on teenagers, then follows him as he uses an electrical love tester invented by Kihachi to learn whether Suzu Harashima returns his feelings. Suzu rejects the public confession. The review criticizes the episode for spending its runtime on that subplot and on nobleman Yosuke Mizoe while the Kate-Suzu romance goes unacknowledged, and calls the science-fantasy conceit a growing problem.
Episode 5 opens with a college student spying on teenagers, then follows that man as he uses an electrical love tester invented by Kihachi to learn whether Suzu Harashima returns his feelings. Suzu rejects the public confession.
The review's main complaint is structural. The episode spends its time on the love-tester subplot and on Yosuke Mizoe, a nobleman who resents his aristocratic duties, while the relationship the opening credits set up between Kate and Suzu goes unacknowledged. Kate and Suzu share snacks on a bridge at sunset, but nothing is said about the romance.
DeRuyter also rejects the science-fantasy framing, arguing that the spread of electrical power is interesting enough without devices like a love tester that forces people to reveal their feelings. He calls the show a slog to watch week after week.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Anime News Network Sparks of Tomorrow Episode 5