The entertainment world moves fast, and The Ramparts of Ice Season 2 ‒ Episode 19 is the latest development catching everyone's eye. From fans to industry insiders, the reaction has been immediate.

The Story So Far

This installment is all about establishing the fresh status quo between Minato, Koyuki, and Momoka's relationship dynamic. Now that Koyuki has gotten some degree of closure and more confidence in expressing her feelings after last week, the major question was whether or not she was going to do anything with those feelings.

I'm not really surprised that she decided not to pursue Minato in a romantic way since he's already with Momoka. I'm a little surprised that the show isn't building on that conversation from last week about how everyone noticed that Minato did have a thing for her except for her. Maybe it's a moot point since he's dating Momoka, and he expressed privately that he only sees Koyuki as a friend.

But one thing I will criticize The Ramparts of Ice for is the fact that it will sometimes bring up conversations or narrative points and then just never really develop them later on. I don't know if this is the result of content getting cut or an example of the series having weaker moments of writing. The main meat of this installment, though, is the fresh relationship between Minato and Momoka.

The run started going into Momoka's backstory regarding how she views relationships, and this installment builds on that. Momoka was always the target of other people's unwanted affection, and then she would get criticism or hate when she understandably didn't return those feelings. She was annoyed about people projecting all of these expectations onto her and then making it her responsibility to like them back.

Ironically, Momoka's past seems to be an inversion of Minato's where she was very comfortable not responding to people's affection for her, but she ended up getting punished for it and ended up straining relationships. I wonder how Minato would feel if he heard what she had gone through in the past. I think that would actually be something the two could bond over.

Speaking of Minato, I think this is the installment that fully grounds where he got his people pleaser mentality from. Minato grew up in a very loud, vitriolic filled household. He saw firsthand from a very young age how arguing and badmouthing each other could leave relationships falling apart, and probably feel some guilt over his brother leaving because he couldn't stand staying at that house anymore.

While there is a bit of a savior complex to Minato since he does see a lot of his social interactions as helping other people that are being badmouthed by others, he is also doing it for himself. He's trying to avoid witnessing a situation where somebody doesn't feel like they belong and needs to leave. The problem is that you can't “save” everyone and he could never separate that insecurity from the romantic relationships that he engaged in.

Basically, Minato was trying to solve every single social interaction the exact same way and while it did work a lot of the time, when it comes to situations that deal with his own personal feelings, this is where he falters. The problem …

As the story continues to develop, TeraMovies will keep you updated with every new detail. Until then, this remains one of the most closely watched entertainment stories of the week — and the conversation is only getting started.