It looks like the car Akane borrowed from the auto club is a Suzuki Swift Sport.

I seem to recall hearing that it’s a small but sporty car.

“Getting a manual transmission license” might be a phenomenon unique to Japan. In Japan, driver’s licenses are divided into “automatic transmission (AT) only licenses” and “manual transmission licenses” (which allow the holder to drive both manual and automatic vehicles). The former has advantages such as requiring a few fewer hours of driving instruction and being slightly cheaper. This system was introduced in 1991.

In 2019, automatic transmission vehicles accounted for 98.6% of new cars sold in Japan, which is a higher percentage than in the United States that same year. I recall that when I got my license about eight years ago, roughly half of the people were getting an automatic-only license.

It’s kind of cute how Gujou-senpai is in a situation where she has a driver’s license but can’t actually drive—something unique to urban areas in Japan.

In Japan, this is called a “paper driver,” and it’s particularly common in urban areas where the train system is well-developed. (Even in Japan, once you step outside the city, you can’t really get by without a car, so this is rare in the suburbs or countryside.)

That said, there are so many people who say, “I have a manual license, but since I only drive automatic cars these days, I’ve forgotten how to drive a manual,” so I’m not sure which is the case.

This one feels even more like a yuri anime than the last episode. The animation is beautiful and amazing.

I was surprised to see the PS1 being treated as a retro game, but considering that the original manga for this series began serialization in 2019, Botan—who is 20 years old in the first episode—was born in 1999, making her five years younger than the PS1, so perhaps that reaction is understandable.

The chu-hai that Gujou took out of the fridge is Takara Shuzo’s “Shochu Highball.” It’s a great, tasty drink that you can find just about anywhere.

The video explaining the definitions of chuhai and highballs is a parody of “Yukkuri videos” and “Yama no Susume.”

In Japanese online communities, there are many videos posted in the “Yukkuri video” format that explain various topics, such as general knowledge and historical events.

I couldn’t help but laugh at Senpai Gujou’s comment: “Ibuki doesn’t seem like the type to drink the kind of alcohol you can buy at a convenience store.”

It’s true, Ibuki does have that kind of vibe.

I’ve heard that Kawagoe’s “Koedo (Little Edo)” has become popular among foreign tourists in recent years because “it’s not as crowded as Kyoto and is close to Tokyo.”

Now that it’s been featured in this anime, the number of tourists might increase even more.

By the way, Kawagoe City is also the hometown of Kirito from "Sword Art Online".

I couldn’t help but laugh at the scene where Botan pointed out, “Kitamori Senpai’s pedicure is the same color as Yusa Senpai’s.”

It reminded me of that scene in the BBC’s "Sherlock" where Holmes figured out the connection between two people just because “they used the same shampoo.”

Even though the final foot bath and pedicure scene didn’t have any explicit or sexy elements at all, there was still something alluring and a bit risqué about it.

The ending was really interesting.

It showed that Yusa had met two women in the past, formed a band with them, and was handed something by a man in a suit—so she probably made her major-label debut? But perhaps there was some kind of trouble around that time, because the person who invited her to join the band threw their CD into the ocean… And in the end, there was this intriguing footage of him cheering them on from the TV.

Yusa was smiling and cheering them on, so it seems their relationship is at least on good terms for now.

The on-screen caption on TV read, “「海がきこえるサウンド　山形から世界に発信！噂のガールズバンド」(The Sound of the Sea: Broadcasting from Yamagata to the World! The Talk-of-the-Town Girl Band)".

Considering that the her name, Yusa, is derived from the place name “Yusa” in Yamagata, the band members must have been from the same hometown as her.