Muvluv: The Synopsis Project
Extra mode – Part 3
For a bit about this project, take a look at The Synopsis Project .

The second major event that occurs in Extra is the lacrosse event. There is a sports festival coming up, and Yuuko comes in wondering what Marimo’s class is going to compete in. In her typical manipulative fashion, she mentions that since the captain of the women’s lacrosse team is in the class, at the very least they should be aiming at a victory in some category. In the end Sakaki gets sucked into agreeing to compete in lacrosse, against Yuuko’s class. At this point. Marimo chimes in, sounding totally flattened, begging the class to try their hardest to win. It seems that each festival, there is some kind of bet between Marimo and Yuuko, and if Marimo loses, she winds up being dragged off into various cosplay events around the country while being forced to wear all sorts of outfits. It just so happens that Marimo has never won before.

In the grand scheme of Meiya’s and Sumika’s story, the lacrosse event doesn’t hold exceptional importance, it is much more central to Sakaki’s story. However, during the course of training together, two things worth metioning occur. The first is that Sumika and Meiya spend more and more time with each other and become friends in a real sense. The second is, during the course of practice, Takeru comes across a stray cat in the schoolyard. Eventually, the gang takes pity on it and takes it home, but in a few hours, Yuuko drives up, all frantic about something, and calls the cat by a classmate’s name, one that had gone missing that day. When Takeru chases after her asking what’s going on, she flies into this huge compilcated explanatino about parallel dimensions where the missing student was really a cat, instead of a human, and such, then zooms off in her car.

Either way, for the lacrosse competition, Takeru is the one that is supposed to help Sakaki form and manage the team, which all the other girls have volunteered for. The only problem is that even with all the volunteers, they’re one short, and if they wanted to win, they’d need Ayamine, who is also a skilled athlete, but has a mutually antagonistic relationship with Sakaki. There’s never a time when the two are not arguing.

Over the few days that they have to train for the game, Takeru winds up being the one that has to pull the team together when they start coming apart at the seams. Takeru often has a very cavalier attitude, but we do see that at times he does care enough about things to get angry. In the end, after a few twists and turns and a more serious tone than the usual high-comedy of the game, Marimo finally wins out over Yuuko and gets to spend some time in peace.

After the game, things return to normal, almost. Sumika’s parents bumped into Tsukuyomi during a shopping trip, and said they were jealous of Takeru’s parents and they had wanted to go on a trip to Australia to see koala bears. Upon hearing this, Tsukuyomi immediately offered to send them down to Australia until the new year, in hopes that Sumika would go along on the trip, thus giving Meiya a great chance. Things don’t work out that way however, and Sumika is left behind. Because of that, Tsukuyomi offers to take Sumika into her care as well, and so Sumika winds up taking meals and such in Takeru’s home. Over dinner we see that Meiya and Sumika getting along quite well.

Over the course of a day or two of this arrangement, some things have changed. For the first time, we see that Meiya is trying to imitate Sumika in trying to get closer to Takeru. At first, she let all the other girls get near Takeru without batting an eyelid, but now something has changed. Also, in school, the competition between the girls starts to heat up. It seems as though both girls have accepted the others as rivals and all out war is going to be waged. Things become more and more extravagant until eventually, Meiya decides that she wants to try to cook for Takeru as a surprise.

And after 3 straight days of explosions rocking the entire house practicing, Meiya decides that she’s ready to cook dinner for him. First order of business, Sumika needs to get out of the way, Tsukuyomi and the 3 maids plus Takahashi gas her and put her on a flight to a spa in Hawaii for a few days. For the entire night, Takeru waits playing video games with Tsukuyomi while ominous noises come from the kitchen. It takes all night, and the only thing that Meiya managed to create were a few lumpy rice balls. Bad ones at that – how she managed to get egg shells in them, no one knows. In any case, Takeru, in his usual mix of kindness and cool air, ate them anyway and told Meiya that she didn’t have to be like Sumika, but instead to be herself.

The day after, Takeru and Sumika asked by Tsukuyomi to go with her. They are then taken to a cruise ship, the largest one there is, and told that the entire ship has been reserved for them to have dinner on, as a way of thanks from Meiya for all the things that’s she’s learned by being with them. They are handed menus and asked that they can have anything that they wanted, and, Takeru being who he is, and unable to read the menu, to Sumika’s embarassment, decides to order two bowls of gyuu-don, a cheap and common food stand item. When they get back, both Meiya and Tsukuyomi have a very hard time not falling over in laughter. As Meiya remarks, “I should be like myself, and Kagami should be like herself, but Takeru being like himself is on a totally different level.”

In a few days, it’s Dec. 16 which means, it’s Takeru’s birthday! The entire gang comes to visit and throws a surprise party for him. It is also Meiya’s birthday, and you’ve previously learned that she never had a birthday party with friends before. Tsukuyomi has ordered a huge cake for Takeru, but in addition, an even larger cake was made for Meiya. Everyone gives Takeru and Meiya gifts and even Takeru gives Meiya a gift he went out and bought for her. Meiya is quite overcome with emotion and says that she will treasure your gift forever. In exchange, she hands him a ring, a ring given by the head of the Mitsurugi as a symbol of authority, though right now it nothing but a decoration since she is still the heir.

Finally, we come to the last major event of Extra, and, what’s a game without the hot spring event! Yuuko had some tickets to go to some hot springs, and since it’d be boring alone, decides pay for the gang to go with her and Marimo.

Many things happen at the springs, the first one being that we learn that Marimo earned the nickname of being a “mad dog” once she starts drinking, hospitalizing various people once during college. We also learn that Tsukuyomi, if angry at Meiya getting drunk, is loud and scary enough to shock the mad dog back into sobriety.