Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun 2nd Stage – 04 – The Story That Is Our Classroom

In trying to find a way for Tama to open up to the class and reveal her charms, Tomozaki asks Mimimi for advice. He thinks a comedy routine that exploits Tama’s vulnerability could help. She correctly surmises he may be in the midst of a hero complex, and presses his nose in as punishment. When she calls him ugly and he says even the ugliest people can have beautiful hearts, Mimimi throws him off guard by saying “Yeah, I know,” while staring at him knowingly.

As Tama continues to ignore being harassed by Erika and her flunkies Mao and Mika, Tomozaki learns that Hinami went so far as to tell Yuzu not to hang around Shuuji for the time being, something he feels is the kind of ask that suggests a measure of desperation on Hinami’s part.

She wants this to end just as Tomozaki and Tama do. Tama shows Mizusawa how she’s been practicing speaking more cheerfully, and he’s both surprised and genuinely entertained when she and Tomozaki demonstrate their comedy routine utilizing her short stature.

That said, Tama isn’t quite ready to face the class proper. What she needs is another neutral party to interact with in a safe space where it’s okay to fail. For this, Tomozaki brings in a ringer: Kikuchi Fuuka. She’d largely been missing from this story but this week corrects that, and how!

Fuuka hears Tomozaki out and is open to helping out. She thinks what’s happening to Tama is unfair, but isn’t quick to dismiss Erika as a bad person. She diagnoses both Erika and and the class at large are letting this go on out of a weakness of some kind within themselves.

Erika is uneasy, picks on Tama to vent, and Tama holds firm. She believes Erika and the class are running away from something they don’t think they can fix, and are now, in a way, actually relying on Hanabi’s strength to bend but not break in the face of Erika’s venting.

You simply have to hand it to Fuuka: not only does she successfully and expertly analyze Erika, the class, and Tama, but give Tomozaki fresh insights that help the cause, before she even sets foot in Team Tomozaki headquarters for Tama to practice.

Unlike Takei, Fuuka keeps to herself and is unaccustomed to speaking with others, not just Tama. So it’s just as much practice for her as it is for Tama. As Mizusawa and Tomozaki watch, Fuuka begins by telling Tama she’s happy to help out because she thinks it’s wonderful when people work to change themselves to be who they want to be.

Tama wasn’t looking for a praisefest, but all Fuuka does is assess her situation, see how many nice people flocked to her aid, and reasonably concluded that those people truly care about her, and that she’s a wonderful person worth caring about and fighting for…and cute! None of this is untrue!

When the practice session is complete, Fuuka says it was very east to talk to Tama. Now it falls on Tama to start caring about her classmates. For this, Tomozaki describes how he once felt everything going on in class didn’t matter, and he wasn’t a part of it. That made his world look gray, but when he started opening up, the color started to seep in.

Fuuka goes further, describing Erika as a sore loser who hates people looking down on her, but is sensitive and caring to those she chooses as her friends. Erika feels Mao and Mika must lack confidence and cling to Erika to compensate. Even Yuzu tends to put others before her. Every character in “the story that is their classroom” has their own worries, growth, and faults. Keeping that in mind should help spark Tama’s interest in the others.

After this extremely productive meeting, Mimimi (and Hinami) encounter Tama with Tomozaki, Mizusawa, and now Fuuka, which is new. Mizusawa makes clear to Mimimi that Tomozaki and Fuuka are “pals”, and Mimimi gives a good stern look at Fuuka until declaring her adorable and welcoming her to “Nanami World.”

While she’s being all extra, Hinami is silently assessing the situation and makes up an excuse to leave and take Mimimi with her. One shared look later, Mimimi agrees and takes Tama with them, and Mizusawa makes up an excuse as well. Tomozaki and Fuuka are left alone together, and end up walking home for the first time, a joyful experience for both.

Whether it was Hinami’s intention to give them alone time, it’s nice to see the meeting with Tama bookended with just the two of them. Tomozaki enjoyed seeing Fuuka chatting with everyone, while she admits she had fun watching him interact with everyone, adding he keeps showing her things she’s never seen before. And just like that, I’m back on the Fuukazaki ship!

The next day, with help from Hinami and a couple of Mimimi’s friends, Tama tries out her comedy routine and it succeeds. Rather than just feeling sorry for Tama, the other girls are entertained and charmed by her cheerful antics. Erika, Mao and Mika never get an opening to harass her, knowing that if they tried it they’d do Erika more harm than Tama.

Tama goes out with Tomozaki, Mizusawa, and Takei for celebratory drinks, and Mizusawa is confident if Tama can keep this up, Erika will eventually cease the harassment. It looks like everything is coming up Tama and Team Tomozaki.

Right after Tama’s session with Fuuka, Mizusawa commented on how Tomozaki and Fuuka’s progress may be slow, it’s also “careful as hell,” unlike him. Well, the day’s success may have led to them getting a bit to comfortable, because Mika spots them together at the restaurant and immediately calls Erika.

Somehow I doubt she’ll take it well when she learns who Tama is hanging out with and who is scheming against her. Even worse, the fallout from this could cause Team Tomozaki’s whole plan to come crashing down, and possibly lead to Hinami telling Tomozaki “I told you so.”

Carole & Tuesday – 02 – Discovered by Fate

The narrator again refers to the “Miraculous 7 Minutes” before we return to the story of how Carole & Tuesday got there, starting with Tuesday’s first morning waking up somewhere other than her mansion. While Carole is out of there not long after 7, it takes much longer for Tuz to wake up, and when she does, immediately demonstrates her utter ineptness when it comes to cleaning.

Meanwhile, Angela finishes up a photo shoot at a studio where everyone applauds and gushes over her, something she’s obviously taken for granted all her life. When she arrives at Artience Lab, she doesn’t get that treatment she’s so used to. If anything, Tao (voiced most imperiously by Kamiya Hiroshi) treats her like a nuisance. But as long as he creates the perfect song for her, she doesn’t care.

If Tuesday is terrible at cleaning, Carole proves equally terrible at holding down jobs. Hired as a professional mourner at a funeral, she ends up laughing hysterically when a butterfly lands on the priest’s head, earning her her second pink slip in as many days. It’s clear if Carole can catch a break with her music, she’d be a better fit for that than either crying or serving burgers to misogynists.

That night, Carole remarks that if she goes to bed in the wrong state of mind she’ll have nightmares, so she and Tuesday exchange mentions of things that they like, and find they’re both big fans of both Cyndi and Crystal. Carole also learns Tuesday is a total rich girl, complete with a limitless black credit card—but Tuz can’t use it or her family will find her.

The next day, Carole and Tuesday are out on the town on a mission: use the real grand piano at the Martian Immigrant Memorial Hall’s main stage, where DJ ERTEGUN is already setting up a future show with one of his producers, Roddy.

On the way, Tuesday sees her mom on TV—turns out she’s the governor of Herschel state, and potentially running for president—but doesn’t let Carole in on that nugget of information.

Back at Artience, the rocky road continues as Angela is subjected to a mechanical chair of torture as she sings scales for Tao to analyze. When she hits the chair in anger, Tao seems to have more compassion for the machinery than her, whom he calls “a bigger piece of junk than expected” under his breath but over enough for her to hear.

When she asks if he’s really human an AI, he replies that he gets that a lot, then gives her a bone-chilling smile that proves her point all the more. This is a dude who has been surrounded by technology, he’s basically lost the basic skills that make us a social species. At the same time, he’s not wrong that 99% of music is AI-generated and most people can’t tell the difference, so Angela is at a distinct disadvantage trying to force her way into the industry.

C&T arrive at the music hall, and when they’re turned away by an assistant, they barge in anyway, take the stage, tune up, and play their first song, “Lonliest Girl,” with full lyrics and much grander acoustics. It’s a lush, soul-stirring sequence, reminding me of the performances in Your Lie in April. The animation is G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S. Like the OP, it gave me goosebumps.

More importantly, it pretty much destroy’s Tao’s assertion about “the warmth of humanity” being a lie. Roddy records the guerrilla performance on his phone, basically falling in love with the duo in the process. Moments after they finish, security starts to chase them around the hall, and Roddy captures that too! None of Tao’s fancy AIs can hope to replicate the anarchy or spontaneity of two young women eager to make a name for themselves.

Running off once more, C&T have no idea what just happened, but are simply enjoying the adrenaline rush of getting in, playing on the big stage, getting out, and getting away with it. Roddy uploads the footage of them, and the video quickly goes viral, making me wonder when Tuesday’s brother will see it (because there’s no way she’s going to stay hidden from them for long).

Even the drunken ex-music producer hears it. He’s so drunk, he initially yells at the woman at the bar to shut it off, and very nearly gets into a fight with her man. But when he stops and listens some more, he’s absolutely smitten, and apologizes for his behavior before running off and getting his old friend Roddy on the horn.

Through Roddy we learn this guy’s name is Gus, and he wants to know who those two girls were. Thankfully for him, Roddy has The Mad Internet Skillz, and in less than half a minute has not only found C&T’s Insta, but pinpointed their address as well, as the location data of their rooftop photo wasn’t hidden. Oops!

The next morning unfolds much like the previous one: Carole getting up and Tuesday…not. Carole punishes her laziness by placing guitar picks on her eyes, but before she can snap a funny photo Gus starts trying to knock her front door down, bellowing like a loon about the “gig being up” and ordering them to let him in.

Turns out this is yet more evidence that not everyone in this world knows how to properly express their intentions, as he ends up coming off as way more of a threat than a boon to the girls, who are scared out of their wits until he mentions he’s their new manager, and their fear instantly turns to bewilderment. And that’s how Carole & Tuesday were discovered! It happened pretty damn fast too, considering there’s twenty-two episodes remaining! This is going to be epic.