The Case of Ritsu Onodera No.2.5

“The Case of Ritsu Onodera No.2.5” (小野寺律の場合 No.2.5, Onodera Ritsu no Baai No.2.5) is the first of many half-chapters in The Case of Ritsu Onodera and the third overall chapter of the Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi manga series. This is contrary to the usual full-length chapters only being released via magazine serialization, and a pattern that continues in every subsequent volume of the manga.
== Release Information ==
“The Case of Ritsu Onodera No.2.5” was first released in Volume 1 of the Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi manga as early as June 27th, 2008 according to Kadokawa’s website listing of it. https://www.kadokawa.co.jp/product/200801000634/
== Short Summary ==
"The Case of Ritsu Onodera No.2.5" begins during Ritsu Onodera and Masamune Takano's (then named Masamune Saga) high-school days, when Ritsu first fell in love with him. After Ritsu confesses to him in the library, Saga says they'll go out together and invites him back to his place where they end up having sex. The chapter ends in the present day with Takano yelling at Ritsu to wake up because he's fallen asleep at work. Takano points out that Ritsu looked really happy so he must have been dreaming about something nice, but Ritsu defensively insists it was a terrible dream and gets back to work.
== Long Summary ==
“The Case of Ritsu Onodera No.2.5” opens up with the exact moment, over a decade ago from the present day’s story, during which Ritsu Onodera fell in love with Masamune Saga. It all started the moment that Ritsu had been trying to reach for a book that was a bit too high up for him and Saga happened to be passing by and grabbed it for him. According to Ritsu’s narration, just like that in that moment, he had fallen in love.
At first he tried to shake off his feelings, thinking about how he didn’t even know Saga’s name yet, how he was a man, how he was probably just confused. But by the time three years had passed by without those feelings dissipating, it was obvious that they weren’t just going to disappear. They continued attending the same school, from their middle school years into high school, so Ritsu was able to continue watching Saga from afar throughout their school days.
One day, three years after Ritsu had first fallen in love, they happened to reach for the same book, and Ritsu blurted out Saga’s name. Saga asks him just how he knows his name, because they had never actually had a conversation before. But instead of answering Saga’s question, Ritsu blurts out a love confession. Right away, he tries to take it back, but Saga asks him if he wants to go out together. Ritsu tries to shut that down, but Saga extends the same offer.
In the next scene, the two of them are walking together to Saga’s house. When they get there, the only one waiting for them is Saga’s kitten, Sorata. Saga sends Ritsu up to his bedroom, and upon seeing the bed, Ritsu can’t help but want to jump onto it and smell Saga’s pillow. He’s so excited over this that he thinks to himself that in that moment he could die happy.
Saga enters the room with two cups of oolong tea for the two of them and puts on a DVD. After turning on the TV, he begins asking Ritsu about how he could be in love with him when he doesn’t really know anything about him. Ritsu insists that he knows some stuff, recounting the story of how Saga came to have Sorata as his pet. He had happened to see the day that Saga had picked Sorata up on the side of the road. He had been in a box and it had been raining, with other people walking by. Saga was the only one that took it. Embarrassed, Saga compares the whole scenario of Ritsu happening to see him doing that to a shoujo manga, but goes onto ask if Ritsu is a stalker. Ritsu replies saying that he can’t help it- he’s in love.
Saga leans in to kiss Ritsu, and Ritsu pushes him away at first. Saga explains that he thought that Ritsu wanted to do this sort of thing with him, because why else would he have been smelling his pillow a few minutes ago? Ritsu is embarrassed to have been caught, but Saga says that he has no reason to apologize for it. He starts unbuttoning Ritsu’s clothes, and they kiss some more, and begin touching each other. Eventually, Saga asks if they can have sex, and they do.
As the scene plays out, the dialogue slowly fades out, and eventually it comes to light that this had all been a dream, during which Ritsu had been replaying his high school memories. He wakes up on the floor of the Emerald department to Takano yelling at him. It turns out that it was actually Hell Week and that Ritsu had fainted. Takano comments on how it had looked like Ritsu was having a good dream, and Ritsu shoots back that it had been an absolute nightmare. The chapter closes out with Ritsu screaming in frustration.
==Adaptations==
=== Drama CD ===
The Drama CD adaptation of “The Case of Ritsu Onodera No.2.5” is part of the appendix that was included with Ciel’s March 2009 issue. The CD was released January 30th, 2009, with the contents of the chapter being included on Track 1 of the disc. The remaining track included the voice actors speaking about their roles.
=== Anime ===
The anime adaptation of this chapter takes place during the first half of the first OVA of the series, also at times referred to as Episode 0 of the anime. It was released only a short amount of time before the TV Anime started, on March 22nd, 2011. Originally, it was included as a bonus for buying the limited edition of Volume 5 of the manga, but it would later be bundled in with later DVD releases of the anime as a whole.
== Character Introductions ==
* Sorata
== Trivia ==
* This telling of the earliest days of Ritsu and Saga’s relationship is later shown to be missing quite a bit of information when The Case of Masamune Takano No.1 as well as other later flashbacks are revealed. Since Ritsu constantly emphasizes that he tried to forget about his relationship with Saga at the time throughout the series, it seems that readers were also subjected to his fragmented memories of their time together. This becomes even clearer as in later instances of Ritsu remembering their high school days, things begin to become more clear.
* In a similar vein to the above trivia, Saga’s full face is never shown for the entire duration of the dream sequence. This lines up with the idea that Ritsu had mostly forgotten about their time together, including what Saga’s full face had looked like.
==Navigation==
== References ==
Category:The Case of Ritsu Onodera
Category:Manga Chapters
Category:Volume 1