Loving Yamada at Lv999 – 07 – Bad At Girls

Yamada’s latest encounter with Akane has him remembering a time when an apparent childhood friend of his, was being bullied in their class, and she asked if he’d stay with her forever.  He flatly, curtly said he couldn’t promise her that, which looks like it broke the girl’s heart.

In the present, while getting away from the weirdness at Akane’s, a konbini clerk chats him up and asks for his name. He flatly, curtly says he’s in a hurry, which is true, but also…kinda mean? You can argue whether it’s professional for the clerk to do what she did.

But sometimes meeting someone means taking a chance and getting outside your comfort zone. This clerk did that, worked up the courage to talk to this regular customer of hers. But Yamada is simply uncomfortable with “This Kinda Stuff”.

When he returns to Akane’s (as he said he would), she and Runa have already eaten and are napping in the dark (naturally Akane left out some wrapped omurice for Yamada, topped with “Yamada” written in ketchup). He simply admires her as she sleeps so peacefully, then sees her tied up hair, feels bad, and undoes the clip.

Akane’s cascading hair, free at last, is one of the most gorgeous pieces of animation depicting a simple act of physics I’ve seen all season. The flowing, glowing strands of hair mesmerize Yamada, but the moment is rudely interrupted by repeated rings of the doorbell. It’s Akane’s Ex, He Who Shall Not Be Named.

While initially surprised Yamada answers the door, Yamada then confirms it’s “not like that.” The ex provides a back full of bento boxes from lunches Akane made, which he’s only now getting around to returning after dumping her.

He also came because when he saw the boxes, he suddenly felt a pang of guilt for discarding the person who so lovingly prepared the meals within them. So he really came to assuage that guilt; to feel better about himself. Yamada may be clueless about a lot of things, but not this.

Mr. Ex doesn’t get to have peace of mind, so Yamada sends him on his selfish way. Then Akane opens the door, Yamada tells her the boxes “came out of nowhere”, and after looking forelorn for a beat or two, starts to snicker at the transparent but seriously-recited white lie. She also thanks Yamada for “dealing” with Mr. Ex, who she no doubt did not want to see. Fuck that guy!

Once back in Akane’s place, Yamada realizes he still has her hair clip, and returns it. She worries it fell off while she slept, but he flatly, curtly tells her he removed it, because, for reasons he’s not quite sure of, he simply wanted to do it. Akane justifiably wonders what this is all about. Is Yamada coming around?

From the homemade lunches for her ex to the curry she made for Yamada, Akane is someone who works above and beyond to please others. You could say she does it because she believes doing good things for people means good things happen to you, or if you’re less cynical, she’s just really nice and generous, almost to a fault.

When Eita procured secondhand parts to fix her laptop, Akane decided she had to pay him back with cash, so she applies for a part-time job at a konbini. Hopefully she still takes the job so we haven’t seen the last of Ms. Lonely Hearts clerk. But again, no one asked her to do this, nor is she expected to. She’s just taking it on to ensure her debts are paid.

She talks to Momo on this on the phone, but Momo has to go; she’s in the middle of a group date. Another girl in the group notes that Akane hasen’t been on them of late. That’s because we’ve seen her get immersed in FOS. I love how Momo doesn’t judge her friend for going off and doing something else. And of course she knows Akane may have just found someone through gaming.

But the fact remains, Yamada has some serious baggage. It’s no surprise that he’s awkward around women; they rarely act normal around him, instead placing him on a pedestal and fawning over him from afar. Whatever insecurities he may carry, these outsiders have made up their mind about who he is, and don’t care about the truth.

One of the incidents that formed his reticence to interact with most women involves his friend in that flashback who he couldn’t promise to be with forever. My first thought upon seeing how Tsubaki acts towards Yamada (and how she put his phone on a towel so it wouldn’t rattle against the desk) suggests she’s that same girl.

If this is indeed the case, she and Yamada have remained in proximity ever since, but if they were once good childhood friends, there’s now a cold distance between them, far larger than the space between their desks. Even so, Tsubaki seems to express interest in Yamada finding FOS fun.

I’m looking forward to learning more about Tsubaki and how she and Yamada came to have such a complicated and by appearances presently bruised relationship. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t be like Miss Konbini Clerk and simply rely on appearances. Yamada wasn’t trying to be rude or mean, just truthful. The gap between perception and reality can be harmful.

As for Akane’s old laptop, it’s good as new…in fact, it may be more new than old now, and must be hooked up to a large toaster-sized external GPU to play FOS. She likes how much more pep the computer response times are, and thanks Yamada, who promptly acknowledges said thanks and leaves promptly without any small talk.

From there, Akane enters the Guild where Rurihime and Kamota are waiting. Kamota’s avatar, incidentally, is a teeny-tiny dust mote-sized puffball with ears and a tail. It’s as adorable as his Battle Mode is breathlessly terrifying, as Akane learns first hand when they go on a quest together.

Skip and Loafer – 06 – Every Now and Then

When Fumi reports that there’s a boy she likes, Mitsumi does a milk spit take. She then asks Fumi how she knows it’s love. Fumi gives all the usual answers: you find ways to be closer to him, but also worried about saying the right thing, to the point that sometimes you have to run away. Mitsumi feels left behind, and wonders if she’d recognize love if she experienced it.

That day, Sousuke is out sick. Mitsumi believes the timing is terrible, as the syllabus for the final exams will be distributed today. But when she texts him he tells her not to worry; he simply overslept. One of his friends from middle school says he’d often quietly skip when it didn’t bother anyone. Other girls in the class bring up all sorts of rumors about his playboy past.

Those rumors are churning through Mitsumi’s head that night, and she dreams of Sousuke arriving at school in a purple suit and bozozuku bike to ask her to hand in his notice of dropping out. The next day he’s not there for roll call, and Mitsumi seems genuinely low until he hears him come in late.

When they’re put to work stapling printouts after class, things are a little awkward. Sousuke asks if Mitsumi is mad at her. She’s not, but she’s concerned about him skipping school after hearing the things she heard. That gets Sousuke miffed, as he surely detests such rumors.

As such, when she says stuff like studying for final exams is important, he fires back “maybe for you,” which oddly echoes something she said to him when they first met. Mitsumi runs off blushing.

That night she finds it hard to study, as she ponders whether Sousuke held a grudge from way back on that first day. Sousuke stops by an actor friend’s house to ponder if he was holding a grudge, and asks his friend for advice. His friend is shocked, as this is the first time he’s sounded so serious about a girl before.

The next day, Mika instantly assesses Mitsumi’s situation: that she and Sousuke are having their first little tiff. That said, she doesn’t help her too much. Mitsumia and Sousuke are class officers together, she has ample opportunities to figure out the best way to make up. But she does tell Mitsumi if “she said what she wanted” at the time, there’s no reason to go back on it.

Mitsumi thinks on that, and determines that she didn’t say what she wanted to say. So after class she takes Sousuke aside. He tries to cut off a lengthy discussion by apologizing for coming off as harsh, which wasn’t his intention. She in turn, apologizes for getting on his case. She also explains the reason she did: the bottom line is that school is more fun when he’s around.

As she walks off, Sousuke moves without thinking and grabs hold of her wrist. And then he opens up about what’s going on at his home (it’s very “uninvolved” at the moment) and that he hated the idea of her believing stupid rumors about him. He tells her to ignore them, and she says she will, blushing as she does.

The palette of the scene brightens considerably as the clouds outside part and the mood improves, with Sousuke laughing about how he hasn’t “made up with someone so dramatically since grade school.” But that’s precisely the kind of pure earnestness you get when you’re friends with Mitsumi!

Mitsumi rebuts that it’s okay to do stuff like this “now and then”, and starts feeling things that seems similar to the things Fumi was describing about realizing she liked someone. When Sousuke gives her a sheepish smile and tells her she’s the first time he’s been “real friends” with a girl, her face gets even redder and she has to withdraw.

As she runs home at top speed, Mitsumi calls Fumi to declare that she believes you can feel “that way” about a friend too. But I’m not entirely convinced, and nor do I think Fumi will be, either.

If this is the episode where Mitsumi finally realizes she might like Sousuke as more than a friend, then it’s also the episode where she first denies it, in favor of maintaining their easy, breezy status quo.

However things turn out—and if they were to go in a romantic direction, I don’t necessarily see Sousuke being opposed—there’s one constant with these two: they are immensely fun to watch!

Loving Yamada at Lv999 – 06 – A Weird Dance

This week dives deeper into Runa’s whole deal. Because she was raised and doted upon like a princess by her parents and brother, she comes off as haughty and hard to approach at school, even if she’s looking for connections. She also dislikes unfamiliar things and people, which is why Akane joining their guild was such a shock.

That said, as someone a little more grown up than her middle school classmates, Runa has come to like hanging out with the older Akane, essentially regarding her as the big sister she never had. When she sees her classmates doing a funny dance they found online, she can’t join them, but she is comfortable dancing with Akane.

Momo isn’t quite sure about the appeal of hanging out with a “runaway” middle schooler, and when Runa tries to give her attitude, she swats her right down with a frightening aura that will brook no insolence. When Akane suggests a super-bored Momo watch her play FOS, Akane’s laptop suddenly shuts down and starts smoking.

When Eita informs Yamada of the situation, he allows Runa to take him to Akanes to take a look at the laptop (he offers no promises of successfully fixing it). Akane is delighted he’s come, but knows from Eita that he’s generally awkward around women, so she does her best not to come on too strong while still being a welcoming host and friend.

When Runa snaps a cute picture of Akane and Yamada together and sends it to her brother, Eita suggests Runa do something to help them close the distance. Unfortunately, all Runa has are the most cliched anime scenarios: lucky perv, toast-in-mouth collision, walking-in-on-the-bath.

When it’s clear no one is bathing and Akane eats the toast shoved in her mouth, Runa resorts to shoving Akane into Yamada a bit too hard. When Akane gets up to scold Runa, her hair flies everywhere—including into Yamada’s eye. Akane gets up really close to Yamada and pushes his hair back to inspect his eye.

In doing so, Akane is following her usual code of being helpful and caring, while forgetting not to do anything to make Yamada uncomfortable. He excuses himself to return to his house to get some tools, but both Akane and Runa thought it felt like he was escaping the situation.

Just like hanging out with Runa means dealing with her princess act and being able to see through her sourpuss, pursuing any kind of relationship with Yamada means always being cognizant that he just isn’t super comfortable around girls. At the same time, he clearly cares for Akane, but just doesn’t have the experience interacting with women who aren’t Runa.

If he and Akane are to progress as friends or something more, it will take time and caution—like hunting for the hundreds of VIT or INT shards needed to synthesize a single gem.

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! – 13 (Fin) – No Complaints

The twelfth episode was so good, thirteen was going to be all gravy…as long as it didn’t undo what twelve started. That’s the one fatal mistake it could make that would sour the entire season for me. At the same time, I didn’t want the epilogue to be too fluffy. This show was so good at really digging into its characters and making them think and act in believable and compelling ways.

The episode delivered on both of these conditions, and then some. Yes Tomo and Jun are on the same page regarding their feelings, but they don’t just ease straight into a GF/BF situation at the drop of a hat. This is a transitional period, with all its excitement for what’s to come, and a few speed bumps along the way.

Jun is so relaxed, she’s so nervous, and she and Jun are getting along so well, Tomo confides to Misuzu and Carol that she feels like she lost to Jun for harboring anxieties. when they know all too well he’s harboring them to but sometimes better at hiding them. She wants to throw him off balance to even the playing field. Misuzu suggests they see a romantic film.

Now that the confessions are out of the way, it’s great to really see Jun take to boyfriend mode with aplomb. He may be self-critical, but his direct honest manner is part of what made Tomo fall for him, and that’s on display as he praises her cute look, gives her “T” earrings for Christmas, and immediately dons the muffler she knitted for him.

Throughout the date, Tomo notices that Jun is incredibly focused. He softens when saying that he never really connected with romance movies before, and considers that falling for Tomo made them resonate more. When they’re about to part ways, Tomo has to make a move, and she does: inviting herself to Jun’s house.

What ensues is a wonderfully awkward and all-too-relatable scene of two people who like each other, but have never been in this type of situation, kinda freezing with nervousness and self-consciousness. Tomo again asks to sit next to Jun on his bed, but eventually snaps and tells him she came there for a sole purpose: to kiss him.

Jun admits he wants to to that stuff too, but her father told him he couldn’t go out with her until he defeated him. This is an entirely unfair bargain, as even Jun is no match for Tomo’s dad, a legit master and gigantic dude. Even her dad seems to know he kinda fucked up royally, but you can tell he did it out of love and not a desire to control her life.

But miserable as he is (Tomo confronts him and then tells him she hates him—perhaps a first in their relationship as father and daughter) he can’t take back what he said. A warrior’s word being their bond aside, Jun has heard the challenge and can’t ignore it.

While Tomo was being coy about her intentions to, in so many words, “spice things up” by trying to “beat” Jun to a kiss, Jun makes a rookie BF mistake by keeping something extremely important (her dad’s challenge) from her. Everyone (including her dad) erred, but she and Jun are well-developed enough that you totally understand why they erred.

In the midst of all this relationship turmoil, Misuzu and Carol are left out of the lurch, as Tomo doesn’t contact them for all of winter break. Again, this is rookie relationship behavior, getting so involved that your time with your friends dwindles or vanishes. It’s something Tomo can learn from, and in the meantime, both the girls and Kousuke are willing to hear her problems and offer possible solutions.

Misuzu suspects that Tomo isn’t content to watch the two most important men in her life slug it out while she waits passively. No, if Jun thinks he has to do this, he needs all the encouragement he can get, so she comes to the dojo in the middle of their fight.

This gives Jun a far bigger boost than Tomo realizes, because while he no longer regards her from a high pedestal, there’s still a good amount of that adoration for her, such that he believes he can’t stand still for a moment lest she get too far away from him.

His inferiority issues don’t magically disappear now that they both know each others’ feelings. Instead, he holds himself to an even higher standard. Jun, despite not being the sharpest tack on the board, realizes her dad is leaving openings on purpose to compel him to come in close to deliver a crushing blow, at great risk to himself.

Tomo’s dad knows Tomo will rush ahead. He wants to make sure Jun is someone who won’t just watch adoringly, but run beside her, and back her up in this rhetorical hero scenario. Jun doesn’t know if he can put his life on the line for a stranger, but for Tomo? He’ll walk through the gates of hell.

Jun wins the duel with Tomo’s dad by delivering what would have been a knockout punch if his opponent had been anyone else. But when her dad still won’t go down (even though his hand touched the ground), her mom finishes him off with a brutal smackdown. Jun is the winner, and Tomo leaps into his arms with abandon.

With that symbolic hurdle out of the way, Tomo and Jun are free to go out. When Jun interrupts Tomo to tell her he loves her and asks her to go out with him, she curses him for beating her to it. Her punishment is to take things a step further, so she gives him a big old smooch on the lips, in the perfect time and place.

Their kiss mirrors the poster of the movie they saw, and while they’re still far from ready for some of the later steps the movie couple took after the kissing, this is still a huge deal for these two. The floodgates of love are open, some initial stumbling blocks have been overcome, and they’re poised to begin a race that will continue for the rest of their lives together: the race to make each other’s hearts race faster.

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! – 12 – Having It All

Misuzu performs her role as Cinderella seriously, even if Carol fails to be a remotely evil Stepmother. As she dances with “Prince” Tomo, it’s just another confirmation to her that she really is the perfect prince. This is who Tomo is, and Misuzu is still beating herself up for getting Tomo to think making herself more girly would appeal to Jun.

No, Tomo simply being her natural self is best. When Jun asks her to soak in the festival with him, she goes with the flow, and whether it’s coffee and cake or going up against each other at soccer, she realizes she still has a blast with Jun. But if they go out, can it still be that way, or will she lose that which she already treasures so dearly?

When Jun unexpectedly asks Tomo to dance (thereby breaking the hearts of at least a dozen girls who wanted to dance with her), it’s awkward. Tomo says he should be careful doing things like asking her to dance, or others will get the wrong idea. when he says they wouldn’t have the wrong idea, she runs off suddenly in a panic.

From that point on, Tomo forgets that exchange ever happened, and overcompensates by acting unnaturally energetic, even for her. Jun considers whether it’s her way of rejecting him, but wisely seeks out the advice of Kousuke, who tells him whatever is up with Tomo, the best he can do is be direct and upfront with her about his feelings.

Jun is…less wise in taking Misuzu to a quiet corner to apologize to her for being in love with Tomo. The fact that Jun might’ve been hesitating because he was worried about her feelings all this time is laughable to her, and she makes clear that she was the one who threw their brief relationship in the trash. But this is Jun, who can see the good girl clear through Misuzu’s evil girl façade.

Jun then uses the oldest trick in the book—a letter of challenge—to lure Tomo up to the roof, where she has nowhere to run or hide from him as he tells her directly that he loves her, and not just as a friend. Further, he apologizes for not being able to respond when she confessed to him way back under the cherry trees.

Tomo slugs him in anger, but immediately feels bad about it, since she, someone running away form a confession, has no right to be mad at Jun doing the same thing. Like her, he was afraid (and also felt unworthy). When Tomo rejoins Misuzu and Carol, the former immediately assesses the situation. Carol suggests that now they both know they love each other, they should just go out.

But Tomo isn’t sure what that means. What makes it different? How are she and Jun supposed to be? It’s here where Misuzu finally gathers the courage to tell Tomo that all this is her fault, and that there was never any reason to try to become more girly. Tears start to fall from her eyes, surprising both Tomo and Carol (whose hand Misuzu grabbed when Carol was about to leave them alone). Misuzu offers Tomo her blessing and a fist bump.

Tomo tracks down Jun, and assures him she won’t run away anymore, so give her another chance. The two start to walk, and Tomo has Jun confirm over and over that yes, he does love her. Then Tomo asks if he’s sure he wants to go out if it means they won’t be best buds anymore. But that thought never occurred to Jun.

Jun says he believes it’s not only possible but only natural that they’d remain best buds even when they start going out. He illustrates his point by suddenly challenging Tomo to a race up some shrine steps. He still wants to compete with her. They can be childhood friends, best buds, rivals, and boyfriend and girlfriend.

Why not? Who’s going to tell either of them they can’t? Nobody! Even supposing such people existed, they’d get their asses kicked! All Tomo needed was to embrace the concept of having it all—and realize that when it comes to who you love, sometimes it’s okay to be selfish. Now that she has, she can face Jun and tell him (again) that she loves him too. Finally, they’re on the same page—no telepathy needed!

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! – 11 – Cinderella’s Curse

This week features a couple of school rom-com standbys: the part-time job and prepping for the class play. Tomo-chan takes these tropes and makes them their own with its beautifully written and performed characters I’ve come to love. Tomo needs cash to buy a birthday gift for Jun, so Misuzu and Carol join her. Tanabe offers the three jobs at his family’s ramen restaurant.

While Misuzu manages to avoid it, Carol and Tomo end up in maid outfits for the job. When Jun stops by for a bowl (he’s a regular), Tomo ends up his waitress, and she’s fully prepared for him to make fun of her outfit. But he doesn’t, because he’s long since realized Tomo is a total cutie and it’s a gift to all mankind to see her in a maid outfit. He ends up frequenting the restaurant every day she works there, and with her pay she gets him a FitBit to match her own.

The second half has Tomo channelling Ikari Gendou as she consults Misuzu on how to get Jun to see her as a girl, for the first time in a while. Misuzu suggests physical contact, which she tries to achieve by pushing Jun down some stairs and into Tomo’s waiting arms. Jun’s athleticism is such that he’s able to dodge Tomo (who has murderous intent), but ends up accidentally touching Carol’s boob. Carol’s reaction is perfectly Carol, and an ashamed Jun demands that Tomo punch the shit out of him to atone.

That failed prank shakes Misuzu to the core; she can’t believe she shoved Jun down the stairs; even if he is a brick shithouse, he could have gotten hurt. It’s all part and parcel of an enduring guilt over how she’s treated Tomo over the years, which she believes to have actually stifled Tomo’s progress with Jun rather than helped it. While lost in thought, Misuzu herself ends up falling down the steps…and into Tanabe’s arms. As thanks for saving her, Misuzu agrees to exchange contact info.

Misuzu confides in Carol that she may not want Tomo and Jun to get together; Carol is Carol and gives Misuzu a big hug, assuring her she’s not as bad as she thinks she is. But Misuzu is so afraid to face Tomo that she stays home sick for three days. Tomo has to hear it via Carol, and when she visits Misuzu, says it feels like she’s avoiding her. She wonders if Misuzu is simply overthinking, but after everything Misuzu believes she’s done to Tomo, she’s not feeling worthy of Tomo’s unconditional forgiveness.

Misuzu pays for her absence by having the class play role of Cinderella bestowed on her, thanks to a suggestion from Carol. Naturally, Tomo will play the Prince, and when she’s trying to act she’s terrible, but when she’s just herself she’s an irresistible lady-killer. Tomo is stunning in her princely garb and slicked-back hair, causing all the girls to swoon, while Misuzu has a similar effect in her blue Cinderella gown and up-do, but the glamorous glow-up belies her morose mood.

In the absolute funniest moment of the episode that had me howling, she leans against a brown surface and sighs, and the camera pulls out to reveal she’s leaning against Jun in his tree costume. While these two continue to be incredibly petty and prickly to each other, it’s also clear they understand each other quite a bit, because they remain very much alike in their inability to face Tomo head-on.

Misuzu can push him over and leave him unable to get up like an inverted turtle, but she can’t deny he hit the nail on the head. Jun can tell what’s upsetting Misuzu because it’s the same thing that upsets him. But I imagine Tomo and Jun will start dating at some point, so I hope that doesn’t mean Misuzu can’t be friends with Tomo anymore. Maybe the impending play will be an opportunity to suss things out properly.

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! – 10 – Turning Point

It’s the class marathon, and no one is happier or more fired up than Tomo and Jun. Jun in particular loves nothing more than to compete against Tomo, and the two end up far ahead of the pack, and even threaten to overtake their teacher…who is on a moped! When they reach the turning point for the girls, Tomo runs straight through it, because she’s not racing the girls—she’s racing Jun!

Alas, her intensive training the previous day (which left her lying face up naked in the bathroom) gave her a fever, and when she collapses, the race is over. With no phone and no one around, Jun finally gets to put the body he’s spent years building up to good use, carrying Tomo on his back to the finish line. Tomo wakes up with Carol snuggling with her and Misuzu freaked out that she’d actually get sick.

Both girls insist that Tomo make use of her rare “moment of weakness” to let Jun pamper her. She even gets him to carry her on his back again when she’s awake to enjoy it! They both note how they’ve grown in this moment of closeness.

He gets to say the words she once said to him: if you’re in trouble, of course I’ll be there. And, to his shock, she uses this opportunity to give him back his handheld video game. After all, he was the stronger man than she was…if only today!

Getting his video game back is a much bigger deal for Jun than Tomo probably realizes…so much so that the second half of the episode is a flashback to when Jun first learned Tomo was a girl when he saw her in a girl’s uniform when middle school started. The two were so close, rumors immediately spread that they were going out. Jun, who believed those rumors would cause trouble for Tomo, decided to start ignoring her.

A whole damn year passed without Jun having the guts to approach Tomo and apologize, and they devolved into mere acquaintances. Meanwhile, Misuzu was having a friendship crisis, unsure if she’d be able to stay close to Tomo when she was continuing to jock it up like their earlier years.

Misuzu and Jun’s individual crises brought them together into that brief weird fling. It’s nice to see Jun grappling with the sudden reality that Misuzu is his girlfriend (accompanied by shots of her looking cute) and even Misuzu admits it feels good (at least until the grueling exercise started). It was, after all, the first time either of them had dated anyone.

Misuzu’s hope was that Jun could “slow Tomo down”, but after their dates, she determined that he might have the opposite effect. It really brings her down, and when Tomo asks about her in class, Misuzu plainly declares that they may not be able to stay friends.

Tomo takes her aside to get her to clarify, then tells her athletic prowess has nothing to do with their friendship. Tomo tells Misuzu that their time together is far more precious to her than all her guy friends. This immediately brightens Misuzu’s day.

After dumping Misuzu (who is devastated by the fact he beat her to it), Jun finally speaks to Tomo, but as he walks behind her, can’t seem to find the words. Finally, Tomo opens the conversation with her fists, angrily and tearfully demanding to know why he’s been ignoring her for so long and only now deigned to talk to her. When he tells her the reason, he asks her why they should give a rat’s ass what anyone thinks if they want to “be together like they’ve always been”.

Jun admits he wants to be with her like always, so she tells him to be with her already…a-as friends, j-just friends, yeah? Jun wants to be together with Tomo forever. The both of them may have changed, and their relationship has changed with it.  In the present, Jun wants to find a way to still be with her forever. That he was able to make up and get back with her in middle school gives me hope he’ll manage to find a way in the final three episodes.

P.S. I almost forgot to mention that after nine episodes of the girls singing the cute ED, it’s the boys turn to sing this time, and it’s awesome! It’s also good timing, what with Kou x Carol being codified last week and Jun seeing Tomo as a romantic partner more than ever this week. As to whether Misuzu will ever agree to a date with whasisname…I won’t hold my breath but that would be sweet too. BFs for everyone!

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! – 05 – Gamer Boy

Carol invites her first two friends Tomo and Misuzu to her house—or should I say sprawling compound—and they meet her mother, who totally explains why the way she is. For one thing, she’s a hugger. For another, she’s actually sharper and more perceptive than she looks, as she sees right through Misuzu pretending to be a “bad girl” who is only friends with Carol “for the money.”

In preparation for a math exam, Misuzu deigns to serve as Tomo and Carol’s tutor in a study group, during which Tomo makes clear she wants to follow Misuzu to college since they’re best friend.. It’s here where Tomo and Misuzu learn that Carol is actually a damn math savant! She even ranks #1 over Misuzu’s #2! Tomo gets #70, which is an all-time best.

When Jun invites Tomo over to play a new video game he got, Tomo agrees without thinking about the ramifications of spending the night at Jun’s. She wants to tell him she can’t go, but Misuzu and Carol are united to their insistence that she can’t do that. Tomo only has to go next door to Jun’s, and they get through a curry dinner without any incident.

But during and after Tomo showers, things are quiet and a little awkward. Jun re-breaks the ice by suggesting they play video games, but after Tomo loses and teases Jun for being a “former gamer boy”, they roughhouse like they always did…and end up in a compromising position.

It’s clear in several moments that this is as weird and exciting for Jun as it is for Tomo, as he has to steel himself by slapping his cheeks and seems to take great joy getting smacked by Tomo’s controller. The two are adorable in their complete inability to stay up past 10 PM. As Tomo takes Jun’s bed and Jun takes the futon on the floor, they agree that they had fun.

When Jun asks if they’ll always be able to be “like this”, Tomo is poised to reaffirm her feelings for him, only for him to nod of before she can. She then notices his face and its details for the first time when he’s asleep and motionless. When she starts holding his nose for fun, he puts her in a lock in his sleep, so they’re essentially cuddling all night.

The next morning, Jun wakes up first, sees Tomo beside him, and does a backflip out of bed and straight into his desk, waking her. They say their goodbyes, and presumably reunite at the dojo later that day. The next day at school, they’re awkward, but still together, and not at all bothered by that fact. Misuzu and Carol watch the couple with great satisfaction.

With Tomo finally sort of noticing that Jun may be feeling the same things she’s feeling, only he’s doing a better job of hiding it, our athletic couple is gradually growing a little closer together. Jun’s sticking point seems to be a general worry that they might lose the good thing they have going now, but that is a common and not unreasonable worry.

The bottom line is, becoming a couple could well be a much better thing. It will take a leap of faith and a willingness to put themselves out there and risk getting hurt in order to evolve beyond platonic childhood chumminess.

More than a married couple, but not lovers. – 06 – Hearts Racing Together

One morning, Akari is acting like a caring, loving wife, the kind that is again propelling her and Jirou into the top of the practical rankings (which are a thing I find myself caring less and less about as the show goes on). The only thing that gives Jirou pause is the fact that Akari keeps calling him by his last name, even seemingly accentuating the “Yakuin”.

Jirou doesn’t know why, but it bothers him, and he even googles “why is a girlfriend suddenly calling you by your last name”. Seems like a step backwards, or some kind of message, right? Then Jirou and Sadaharu happen to witness Hamano Mei rejecting female kohai who just confessed her love for her.

Aside from it being a magnificently gay scene I was waiting for, Mei demonstrates that she’s very good at the gentle turn-down, and I have no reason to doubt she truly is happy that this girl fell for her, even if she can’t return the feelings. Mei also bears part of the burden for not “being mindful enough to notice” the girl’s feelings, then indulges her with a warm embrace and calls her by her first name.

Jirou wants to notice what’s causing Akari to use his last name, so that already shows he’s being mindful. He’s a good kid, thinking about how she feels! When he’s about to shower, Akari barges in with the rankings on her phone: they’re now in eighth place, and she hugs him while he’s shirtless, which is a first.

Later, she helps him dry his hair—which he washed with a shampoo she chose for both of them. When she hits the hair dryer, Jirou says her first name, then again. The third time he says it is when she switches it off, and she hears it, and calls him Jirou in turn. Now he gets it: she simply wanted him to call her Akari first. She says its for the benefit of their artificial marriage, but it’s clear him calling her Akari makes her blush every time.

While Jirou figured out this little mini-mystery of how he and Akari address one another, he’s still largely in the dark about Shiori’s true feelings. In that regard, his lack of mindfulness stems from her years-old friendzoning of him, which he felt at the time meant that was that and there were lines beyond childhood friendship she’d rather not cross.

But that was then, and Shiori regretted it then and has yet to resolve matters. In this, her best friend Mei most likely subordinated her own unrequited romantic feelings for Shiori in order to ensure she’s happy, by doing everything possible to bring her and Jirou together. She makes it clear if Shiori isn’t more aggressive in letting Jirou know her feelings, Akari (or some other girl) will beat her to the punch.

When Shiori gets hit in the head by an errant football, Mei sends her to the nurses office and promises to send Jirou there, where it’s clear she wants Shiori to do what she couldn’t do during their shared classroom duties. When Jirou hesitates, Mei verbally kicks him in the butt to get in there and see Shiori already.

But while Mei can’t understand why her Shiori loves a “coward” like Jirou, she’s missing the fact that Shiori’s been a coward too! Coward is probably too strong a term; more like stubborn in their shared belief that the other isn’t interested despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

When Jirou visits the nurse’s office to see Shiori, the two find themselves all alone in the dark. They exchange some awkward small talk, Jirou notices that Minami brought her a sandwich and sports drink before he did (though Mei gave him his). Shiori mentions how well Jirou and Akari are doing, he says they still fight a lot, and Shiori remarks how she’d like to see Jirou angry sometime. That is to say, she wants to know more about him beyond the childhood friend.

She also makes it clear when Jirou brings up making romantic progress that she and Minami have done no such thing, and that furthermore, even if it was with someone she liked, she’d worry about being too nervous and inexperienced. This must feel to Jirou like a comfortable mirror.

Shiori makes another blunder by saying she wants to “practice” kissing with Jirou, which suggests she’d rather kiss someone else “for real”, but Jirou, who had just gotten a talking-to from Mei to “go for it”, agrees and leans in to kiss Shiori.

At the very last second Shiori hesitates again, which happens before Akari’s gyaru-friend Sachi comes in to skip class, hears the bed creaking, and sees boy’s and girl’s shoes through the gap in the curtain. Sachi is scandalized and makes a quick exit, but her entrance caused Jirou to slip and fall … right onto Shiori and her lips.

Accident or not, the two have finally kissed, and it was so unexpected and so … so much for both of them they basically short-circuit in unison and agree to part ways for the time being. I feel so bad for both Mei and Akari, as these two are—and I can’t stress this enough—the fucking worst.

I mean everyone has their pace that they must follow (I think about Chuu2Koi handled this quite well). But you don’t have to jump each other’s bones; you can use their words and clear all this up! Say you like him! Say you like her! Boom! But they don’t.

All throughout this time, Akari has been trying to get ahold of Jirou, but he’s ignored her last four texts. Then Sachi shows up and tells her what went down in the nurse’s office, and right after hearing this Akari gets a text from Jirou saying he was in the nurse’s office. Naturally, her thoughts go straight to Shiori.

I continue to feel so bad for Akari. I’m sure Minami is a nice guy, but she doesn’t really know him. She does know Jirou a lot more, and is developing feelings for him that are quickly replacing the more shallow attraction nad idolization for Minami. Also, I doubt Minami is any more interested in her than he is Shiori.

And hey, what do you know, Akari is so preoccupied with Jirou that she doesn’t even notice Minami served her that drink! I am HERE for the Minami erasure. We’re in episode six. If we go another six without him so much as uttering a line, I’ll be perfectly content.

What we have here, then, is a love triangle. And with her assumption Jirou went and did something with Shiori in the nurse’s office, Akari is understandably lonely and depressed. It doesn’t help matters that her gyaru-friends stand her up at the café, though Minami gives her some free extra whipped cream and a note to cheer her up (though again, you get the impression he’d do this with anyone).

When she comes home late, Jirou is passed out on the couch. Akari sees the chocolates and deduces he waited for her. She doesn’t check her phone and see the text warning that the chocolates contained whiskey. She does unfold the couch (which of course becomes a bed), disrobe and curl up next to the dozing Jirou, asking him if this is what he did with Shiori, or did they take things even further.

What’s so heartbreaking is that Akari isn’t mad that Jirou might’ve slept with Shiori. After all, who wouldn’t want to have their first time be with someone so clearly important to them? Even more heartbreaking? Lines like “Did you go off and become an adult without me?” and “Don’t leave me behind,” and “I’ll cheer on in your love … but just for now, while I’m your wife, could you wait?” Just one dagger after the other.

Jirou regains consciousness from his inadvertent choco-bender very confused Akari is sleeping beside him in her underwear. When he asks what happened, Akari teases him for forgetting what happened … for forgetting what he did to her. She then asks “was last night your first time?” to which he answers yes, because he assumes she means the two of them.

When he proceeds to apologize if he didn’t perform to her standards and such, she admits she was lying, they didn’t do it. When Jirou is a bit too emphatic in his relief, since it means he’s still a virgin, Akari is miffed. I’m not sure he meant to imply he’s glad he didn’t lose it to her because he’d rather lose it to Shiori (I think he’s just glad he didn’t pop his cherry and not remember it)—but that’s how she interprets it.

It sucks that this is how the episode, and the first half of the season, wraps up: with another misunderstanding. But even if Jirou picks up on what Akari is mad and is able to smooth things over, the underlying triangle remains. While Shiori did stop them from kissing for real, they did lock lips, and once she and Jirou fully process that, that dance will continue. And this conflict will surely drive the second half.

Could Akari be clearer about how she’s acting toward Jirou is less about being a great pretend wife for the sake of getting Minami and more about legitimate feelings for him? Sure! Could Shiori, for the benefit of both Akari and the long-suffering Mei, please kindly shit or get off the pot? Perhaps! But Jirou can also keep being as mindful as he can be. As long as he’s wracking his brain, there’s potential for progress on all fronts. Whatever happens, I’m loving these characters, and this show.

More than a married couple, but not lovers. – 05 – Sharing fabric softener

Akari’s crush continues to be supplanted by feelings for the mock husband right in front of her, and throughout the episode she expresses this though lots of teasing and physical contact, starting with a loving wife’s hug before Jirou heads off for school duties. Little does he know that Shiori has arranged to swap duties with her sporty pianist wife Hamano Mei so she can get some quality time with Jirou.

Before the arrangement, Mei is trying to get Shiori to do what needs to be done to get the man she wants—which may yet involve a giant Acme-brand mallet with which to smack him over the head. Shiori says “Jirou doesn’t think of me that way” but Mei knows better; Shiori just needs to make her feelings plain and obvious before Akari snatches him up. Akari’s galfriends only tease her about the prospect of falling for Jirou, but they’re on the right track!

Despite my increasing affinity for Akari and Akari x Jirou, being a sucker for childhood friends I relished the opportunity for Shiori and Jirou to hang out together without interruptions from Akari, Minami, or Sadaharu (who sits this episode out; I don’t mind the guy but appreciated a break from him).

The results are predictable: having class duties together reminds them of when they had them in middle school, and the two settle into that warm, happy nostalgia and familiarity. But when it comes time to leave the safety of the past and try to grasp the future with a solicited kiss, Akari thinks he’s dreaming, while Shiori withdraws at the last moment and must beat the shit out of the erasers in frustration with herself.

Unfortunately, this leaves Jirou with the same impression as the start of the day: that while there are occasional signs here and there, Shiori doesn’t like him “that way”. That leaves him gloomy on the balcony an otherwise dazzlingly starry night, and Akari joins him with mugs of hot milk in a genuinely heartwarming gesture of trying to cheer him up.

That inherent kindness in Akari’s character is at odds with a deep resentment that he’s feeling so down over another girl, which of course reflects how he feels whenever she gets riled up about Minami. Akari decides to press the teasing by insisting he start calling her by her name, and is shocked when he does it immediately, while explaining why he had trouble before.

Akari gets much more than she bargained for here, and has to retreat before Jirou sees her beet-red face and ears. Gathering her patio door curtain around her, she curses these confusing feelings. To this point she’s been in love with the idea of Minami, but that idea is losing ground to the reality of Jirou.

When their teacher announces that practical couples’ scores will be combined and everaged together, Jirou is anxious, as he’s not sure the extent of Akari’s academic prowess. But rather than simply presume she’s a dunce, he asks her about it, and her tone and body language make it clear she’s far from confident about it.

He asks her to cancel her karaoke plans so they can study together, but she says it’s “not so easy” to break said plans because she was invited by other guys, as opposed to her galfriends. To this, Akari says “I’m asking for you too here,” and she relents, but believes he’s only being this “desperate” for Shiori’s sake. Meanwhile, Mei continues to prove that she may just be the most deserving of Shiori’s hand in marriage. If nothing else, she’s trying her best to make Shiori happy and successful in love.

Jirou finds that while Akari picks things up fast, she hates the fundamental idea of studying. Her frustration from the assumption he’s only doing this for him and Shiori leads her to up her teasing and flirting game considerably, cozying up to Jirou and saying he can “do whatever he wants”.

Jirou averts his gaze, and ends up seeing that Akari figured did a challenging math problem correctly. The rest of the study session progresses and their couple score continues to go up. When they’re done, Akari isn’t ready to eat dinner yet, and would rather get Jirou to admit she makes his heart race.

She does this by jumping into his lap, but she grows more frustrated when he tries to ignore her, so she turns around so they’re front-to-front, and tells him he can look at her if he wants. When he still won’t, she grabs him even tighter, and he ends up flipping them over so she’s on her back.

At this point the two are in dangerous territory, and Akari can hear his heart pounding now. It’s here where Jirou starts to let his hormones take over, caressing her cheek. Akari says he can’t once, then twice, but then takes hold of his shoulder to pull him nearer, and closes her eyes to prepare for a kiss …

I knew amorous congress was going to be interrupted by something, be it doorbell, phone, or Sadaharu. This time, it’s Jirou’s nose, which suddenly starts bleeding. Though Jirou thanks his nose profusely for stopping him from doing something he’d regret. Once the bleeding is stemmed by a tissue, the two fold laundry together—the hot-and-heaviness replaced by a picture of domestic bliss.

Akari laughs at Jirou for getting a bloody nose in such a situation, but Jirou in turn asks her what is up with her pestering him so heavily all night. She brings up how she’s frustrated by how desperately he’s trying to prevent Shiori from leaving him behind. He, in turn, tells her he’s not just doing it for him and Shiori, but her and Minami, and further tells her he’s sure she’d reach A-rank with anyone, not just him. He simply hoped that after she’d gained so many points for them, he’d try to contribute by helping with her studies.

Jirou doesn’t know just how happy it makes Akari to hear that, because as far as he’s concerned she doesn’t feel anything serious for him, and her amorous actions have only been to tease him. But Akari is feeling less grateful that he’s doing this for her and Minami when it’s currently the two of them together that makes her heart race for real. She thinks about a future where they switch partners, and their clothes no longer smell like the same fabric softener, and … it’s not necessarily something she wants.

Fuukoi continues to do tremendous character work in the midst of what will always be a silly and contrived premise, and its deft “couch time” animation and Akari’s facial expressions in general continue to impress. There’s still a lot of confusion and awkwardness from all parties, but Shiori is gradually fumbling her way closer to Jirou, while dangerous couch session Akari’s true feelings may be coming into better focus.

Jirou’s self-loathing-fueled obliviousness can’t hold out forever. If it isn’t already, his confidence in Shiori being his one and only will surely start taking the same dents as Akari’s in Minami being hers.

More than a married couple, but not lovers. – 04 – Shoulder to cry on

During P.E. class when Minami is playing basketball and generally looking like a higher form of life, both Akari and Jirou hear from their friend(s) that he and Shiori are considering staying with one another as a marriage practical couple despite making A-rank.

This news obviously puts a wrench in Akari and Jirou’s plan, leaving both feeling blue. Jirou, knowing how much Akari likes Minami, imagines he’s in a fantasy video game and Minami ends up beating the final boss and winning the hearts of both heroines.

When Jirou and Shiori cross paths, to Jirou’s credit he doesn’t pretend something isn’t bothering him, and Shiori’s known him long enough to know that something is. She says she’s not sure yet whether she and Minami are extending their time together, so Jirou starts to try to tell her he’ll work hard to attain A-rank so that they can be paired together.

Meanwhile, Akari gets cleanup duty for chatting during P.E., and ends up crossing paths with Minami. His sudden presence in the storage room startles her, and she bumps into a shelf, causing a box to start to fall. Minami rushes towards her and starts to fall, leaving them face-to-face.

Akari asks Minami what Jirou asked Shiori, and his answer is yes, he’ll stay by Shiori’s side “forever” if that’s what she wants. Throughout the whole exchange but unbeknownst to Minami, Akari’s heart is beating like a hummingbird, and when she hears what sounds like a rejection from his lips, she starts to cry. Then Minami puts his hand on her chin…

I say Jirou started to tell Shiori he wanted to pair with her, because he isn’t able to get the words out. I would have hoped Shiori would have gotten the gist but she apparently doesn’t when Jirou’s friend Kamo interrupts, having seen Akari and Minami in the storage room together.

But before Kamo can say anything, Minami and Akari exit the school, and Jirou senses a strange atmosphere. Minami and Shiori head home together chatting spiritedly about nothing in particular, while Akari acts awkward and distant towards Jirou and heads off on her own.

He later learns that Akari ditched class, and Kamo tells him he witnessed “kissing going on” between Minami and Akari. He shrugs it off as having nothing to do with him, but it’s clear that he has conflicting feelings about it, what with he and Akari getting along so well of late.

When he comes home, Akari is lying on the couch on her phone, looking morose. He sits down beside her, sarcastically apologizes for not being Minami, and she asks him upfront why he’d bring him up. That’s when, again, to his credit, Jirou doesn’t beat around the bush, but says what he heard: that she was kissing Minami after P.E.

Akari laughs it off, as in reality he was just checking her eye for dust; Kamo saw what he wanted to saw from the angle he had. Akari thinks it’s “hilarious” that Jirou thought a misunderstanding from “straight out of a manga” took place. But Jirou tells her he was ready to root for her, and it’s only fair to expect her to get some kind of return considering how hard she’s been working to get Minami to look her way.

At this, Akari’s mask of sarcasm drops, and bitter tears of frustration start to fall. Jirou is right in theory, but the reality is Minami doesn’t see her that way, and more and more seems to be content to be with Shiori, even beyond the marriage practical situation. When she realizes she’s crying in front of Jirou, she tells him to look away, and he does … kinda. He pulls her into an embrace so that his head is next to hers.

In this way, he’s technically “looking away”, but he’s also there for her, in a moment when she needs someone to be there. She needs to have a good cry without the pressure of having to hold it in to keep up appearances. At this point, Jirou knows who Watanabe Akari is more than anyone else at school, Minami included. And Akari, no doubt having that feeling of being safe and secure in Jirou’s arms, puts her arm around him and cries it out.

After this cathartic moment, Jirou feels self-conscious for overreaching, literally and figuratively, but he did the right thing, as evidenced by Akari’s mood after a cleansing shower. First, she borrows one of his t-shirts, resulting in the deceptively powerful boyfriend shirt scenario. Then she plops right down beside him, leans on him, and has some ice cream as she watches TV.

When he insists he’s no longer overwhelmed by situations like this, she puts her ear to his chest and calls him a liar, as his heart is racing. Of course, since she was worried Minami could hear her beating heart in the storage room, she can relate, which is why she’s so comfortable around Jirou now.

She also hastens to mention that she’s not so “easy” that she’d kiss Minami on a whim, and in any case, she says to him for the first time that her first kiss ever was with Jirou. Jirou sits there unresponsive as she shakes him and urges him to answer for that kiss, and as he does, he admits in his thoughts how happy he feels.

Perhaps for the first time, he’s not thinking about losing Shiori to Minami, or Akari preferring Minami to him. He and and Akari are simply sitting together on their couch, enjoying each other’s company; a cozy, caring family of two. It’s something I could honestly watch all day.

More than a married couple, but not lovers. – 03 – Starting over from zero

Akari knows Jirou is in love with Shiori, but wants to know specifically why he’s drawn to an earnest, family-oriented girl, and what he wants such a girl to do for him. He wisely says “lunch”, which sets Akari off on a homemade bento kick.

She proves to be a very good bento cook, and they gain lots of points as cook and taste-tester, but one little detail—a lack of sugar in the rolled omelet—reminds Jirou that she’s doing all of this for Minami, not him. That shouldn’t bother him, as he’s into Shiori…and yet.

Jirou also can’t help but feel a little…left out when Akari goes all out to look as cute as possible to deliver a bento to Minami at his part-time job. But then Akari asks him for another goodbye kiss as a reward for her hard work, and tells him she only wants his kiss, since it made her feel safe.

Before he can summon the guts to kiss her again, Shiori shows up with extra apple pies she made for Minami, citing his sweet tooth. When she sees Akari with Jirou and a box lunch for an apparent picnic, she leaves feeling lonely. Little does she know she caused Akari’s confidence to absolutely plummet.

She never delivers the bento, and sits on the couch with her head in her knees. Jirou tries to cheer her up, but the bottom line is, she though she could appeal to Minami with cooking, but was wrong about him not liking sweet things, and now doesn’t know what to do.

Jirou tells her she has “tons more good points”, but when put on the spot, the only things he lists are related to her looks, body, and sex appeal. When she asks if he’s ever though about her that way, he says no, but she knows he’s lying. Then she jumps on top of him.

The animation and Oonishi Saori’s voice acting do a lot of strong, heavy lifting here, as the scene strides the line between being amorous and a little forced. You can see in Akari’s face and hear in her voice that she’s just as unsure about this as Jirou is, and yet she’s trying to press forward.

Jirou pushes through his body’s urge to “graduate” from virginity and rejects Akari’s advances, saying it’s only something you do with someone you love. Leaving aside that this is false, this results in Akari getting off him and saying they should stop this whole fake marriage thing.

That’s just what they do, and at the next month-end eval, Shiori sees that they’ve fallen to 75th place while she and Minami are up to 8th. She knows something’s wrong; Jirou knows it too, and knows that he erred. When he felt Akari’s cold trembling hand, he knew that he was wrong about her: what they were doing on that couch was just as new to her as it was to him.

Shiori invites Jirou onto the school roof to talk to him about things, and really does yeoman’s work as his trusty childhood friend, albeit by subordinating her own feelings. She promises him that no matter how much he screwed up with Akari, he can make things right.

Shiori’s pep talk is just what Jirou needs to break the awkwardness stalemate and give him the courage to knock on his fake wife’s door. To his shock, she not only answers but invites him into her uber-girly room, where he proceeds to apologize, but also provides a lot of real, honest talk.

He admits the obvious, that he’s fantasized about her, but also that it wasn’t like he didn’t want to do it with her, only that he wanted to do it with more care than the spur-the-moment scenario they found themselves in when she was discouraged about cooking for Minami.

He doesn’t go so far as to “out” Akari as just as much a virgin as she is, but he almost doesn’t have to, as hearing him come out and say all these things makes her face red as a beet and has her retreating into her bedsheet. But Jirou also asserts that he doesn’t like it when things are awkward between them.

Pulling back the sheet from her head like a bride’s vail, he declares that he wants them to be a married couple again. When he realizes he left out “for the practical” and stumbles all over his words, it evokes a hearty laugh from Akari, who attempts to save face by mocking him for being so desperate.

But she also ends up telling him—in just as disarmed a way as he just said all those embarrassing but true things—that she “likes him quite a lot”, even calling him by his first name. She laughs it off, but later on her balcony she covers her mouth with her hands in shock over having “said it.”

She says it in a way that could mean she’s been meaning to say it for a while. In any case, they’re giving this marriage another go, but this time they both have a deeper understanding of the kind of people the two of them actually are. That new understanding definitely has the potential to make them more attracted to one another as partners.

Rent-a-Girlfriend – 19 – Thing of the Past

Kazuya wakes up with the mother of all hangovers, but also an odd fuzzy memory of Chizuru having taken care of him last night. He’s not sure if it’s just a fantasy, but what is real is that he was invited to a chat group that includes Chizuru’s private contact (not the Rental GF one he has and cannot use when not renting her).

He stops himself from adding her as a friend as it would send her a notification, but fantasy and reality once again collide in his booze-addled brain when he finds an energy drink in his fridge with a hand-written note from Chizuru (reading “Drunkard!”) that proves she was indeed there. We also cut to Chizuru also contemplating hitting the “add a friend” button for Kazuya.

To me, all this means that Kazuya and Chizuru want to and probably should start acting like the neighbors and good friends they so clearly are, only their personal hangups and the fact Kazuya is always renting her services keep things cloudy and complicated. This week also reminds us that Ruka is technically his actual girlfriend, and at work she checks in with him on whether he’s ready to make them “official.”

Kazuya is saved by a customer arriving at the otherwise-deserted parlor, but that customer turns out to be Mami, who heard from Kibe that he was working here and decided to stop by and mess with him (she says she’s kidding, but she isn’t). Her plans are utterly stymied by the presence of Ruka.

After Kazuya tries to sidestep Mami’s and Ruka’s curiosity towards one another, Mami is simply too friendly to Kazuya for Ruka to remain silent and professional. She grabs Kazuya and makes it clear that they’re dating, then embellishes things by claiming they’ve gone all the way, and basically condemns Mami as his ex for coming by his work at all.

Mami has her knowledge of Chizuru as a rental girlfriend loaded, and decides to use it, but it misfires, as Ruka is not only aware but seemingly okay with it? Mami retreats for now, if not defeated, utterly bewildered by what the heck is going on with her ex. Ruka ends up in tears over the ordeal, and Kazuya can only sit and wait for her to cry it out.

Note, Kazuya is not to be sympathized with here—all of this is his doing, and if he were honest to Ruka about not having feelings for her, they wouldn’t be in this unsustainable “half-relationship” that is so easily threatened by a passing ex. If anything, I sympathize with Mami, who on one occasion asks herself why she’s wasting her time even thinking about Kazuya and his palace of lies.

The answer the show implies is that as much as she doesn’t want to admit it, she’s not over the guy. I prefer the interpretation that she’s infected by the same brain worms as Chizuru and Ruka, which beyond all logic and reason render Kazuya a halfway tolerable presence. (Sumi, the best girl, is either immune or not infected due to how rarely she and Kazuya interact.)

Speaking of Chizuru, she returns at the end of the episode boarding the same train as Mami, and a deeply awkward train ride ensues, with Mami being not subtle at all about the concept of obtaining items while they’re as new as possible lest they fall out of fashion. On the surface, she’s talking about Chizuru’s bag, which Mami identifies as having been in Kazuya’s apartment that one night.

Because Mami cannot for whatever reason stop thinking about Kazuya, the gears in her brain continue to churn late into the night, as she attempts, like a private eye, to piece together Kazuya’s intricate galaxy of stupidity. While Ruka’s account is locked, Mami finds Kazuya’s grandma, and decides to follow her in hopes of gathering more intel.

From Yuuki Aoi’s half-bored, half-threatening, alway mocking sing-song lilt to the design of her disheveled hair and dead eyes, Mami is always portrayed as a potential chaos-spreading force, and the show seems more often than not to side with Kazuya and the others over her, as if she were reaping what she sowed by dumping Kazuya before fully realizing how she felt about him.

But I don’t see Mami as a villain. What Kazuya is doing is far more villainous. Mami may be looking to score points or exact some kind of vengeance, but she’s also trying to get at the truth of matters, and the truth is Kazuya’s relationships with Chizuru and Ruka are fundamentally flawed and require serious work.

Kazuya should have dumped Ruka, confessed to Chizuru and been rejected, get over it, then asked out Sumi, with whom he is the best version of himself, long ago. The excuse of not wanting to disappoint his grandma has long since ceased holding water. If he insists on maintaining the status quo, stringing Ruka along while he and Chizuru push and pull towards and away from one another, I welcome Mami’s efforts to break that status quo.