「疑惑の真相…、なずな働く。」 (Giwaku no Shinsou…, Nazuna Hataraku.)
“The Truth Behind the Suspicion…, Nazuna Works.”

Aoi breaking out the cosplay, Souta regretting his recent cross-dressing incident, Yachiyo pretending that Jun is the new Kyouko in her absence, and Nazuna going undercover at Wagnaria to find out what the deal is with her brother and Mahiru. How is that not “win” on every level? To be quite honest, I completely forgot that Nazuna was even going to make an appearance this episode once the focus shifted to Mahiru’s newly discovered feelings for Souta. The whole Kotori cosplay at the very beginning threw me off as well, as I couldn’t help but take enjoyment from how utterly useless Aoi is around the restaurant. This includes how she later decided to be a customer and ask Souta to find someone to eat with her, causing the latter to drag her freeloading butt out of the dining area. One thing led to another and we had Aoi trying to cheer up Yachiyo with her Kyouko cosplay and failing miserably, leaving it up to Jun to act as the stand-in thanks to the manipulative Hiroomi.

Despite how well Jun hid his true feelings in that situation, it sure seemed like he was secretly enjoying all the attention he was getting from Yachiyo for a change. All that became obvious though when Yachiyo suggested they call each other by their first names so it’s more like her relationship with Kyouko, causing Jun to gag on his cigarette smoke like crazy. I probably should have felt sorry for Jun there, but I really couldn’t help but take enjoyment from the way that Yachiyo rips up him up from the inside time and time again without even meaning to. It’s like a dagger through the heart every time she speaks to him, whether it’s about Kyouko or himself. Considering that he probably enjoyed the attention regardless, I honestly didn’t feel too bad for him. Sure it sucked when Kyouko returned from her business trip to the branch office much earlier than expected, but it’s not often Jun gets the the same treatment that she does. If that wasn’t enough going on in a single episode, there was also Popura getting the Kotori goods from Hiroomi, much to Souta’s dismay. The best part of that turned out to be how Hiroomi set up Souta for the ultimate trap by saying he has cute pictures, only to find out that they were all of him.

So yeah, by that time I was more or less thinking “Nazuna who?” rather than “Nazuna when?” However, her appearance turned out to be the highlight of the episode, simply because her “paid off” request to do a work study at Wagnaria resulted in Mahiru admitting that she likes Souta. That was clearly some relief to her — learning that Mahiru isn’t just messing around with her brother after catching sight of them walking home together — but it also led her to believe that Souta’s a masochist. It was a rather subtle conclusion of hers upon witnessing Mahiru lay the beat down to Souta for no apparent reason, but I can only imagine the hilarious misunderstandings that result from it. The next episode title suggests that we’ll be seeing more of his sisters, so it’ll be fun seeing what they think of their cute little brother if Nazuna passes on her own misunderstanding.

On the bright side, it’s nice to see that Mahiru’s come to terms with her feelings for Souta, even though the latter will never think as such when he continues to get smacked around just for saying he’s determined to help cure her fear of men. From Mahiru’s perspective, the nail in the (love) coffin actually came when Souta said he’s fine with her the way she is, causing her to fall head over heels so much that she’ll never consider any other man ever again (…if that were even possible in the first place). Anyway, the whole masochist thing won’t be a misunderstanding anymore if we really do have a Souta x Mahiru pairing in the end. You seriously have to love taking punishment to stay with a girl like that.

 

Preview

43 Comments

  1. Very nice blog you have here ^^
    I am actually very surprise that Nazuna knows the weakness of Souta.Since She did not work in Wagnaria ,Nazuna shouldn’t have known it.Well maybe her brother tell him .
    I hope Takanashi will never solve Mahiru’s problem.I wonder Takanashi’s
    “Souta said he’s fine with her the way she is”
    I wonder does that means an indirect form of ” I love you “

    MorningGlory
  2. wow another great episode from this… great anime. nazuna’s appearance doesn’t look like the topic of the show even the title stated so, but the development of relations… are making this show more interesting…

    next episode, some recollection episode? hmm this could be interesting…

    seriously never get sick of the abundance of animation effects in this anime…

    Kaineng
  3. <3 this show.
    It's a pity I'm lagging behind a few episodes.
    Gotta rely on fansubbers and the one I'm following hasn't released any eps for a week or 2/3 now 🙁

    Morridin
  4. As much as I like SoutaxMahiru, they’ve already Level-up their [social link] to the max. Instead, I really want to see the whole JunxYachiyo thing go somewhere. It’s not entirely Yachiyo’s fault as Jun himself had wasted alot of good potential. Anyway, this episode had a bit of it, but it’s not enough! Hopefully the next episode would stir something up as it looks like they’ll be digging into their past.

    Chaos2Frozen
  5. Nazuna… the most dangerous sister of all….
    I feel like she goes to spy on Mahiru so that she can use her to make Souta her pet just like rest of the sisters…
    you can’t take the ambitions of an elementary kid lightheartedly… 🙂

    jrj
  6. How can you say no to this.
    Bring down the hammer and he’s your Inami Ganbate!

    I’ll to see Nazuna manipulating everyone like it’s suggested. Then the restaurant can make double income.

    Island Esper
  7. Poor Satou. Clearly Souma’s enjoying tormenting him with this. LOL

    By interpreting Nazuna’s question about whether her brother likes being tortured into whether her brother likes Mahiru, it shows that Mahiru certainly knows how to filter words and hearing stuff she herself would like to hear, even though she didn’t mean to, leading to a hilarious misunderstanding between both Nazuna and Mahiru.

    Even though it was only a voiceover eyecatch, hearing Popura voicing her dismay at Nazuna being a grade schooler, despite being taller than her, was gold as well. XD

    Aoi isn’t utterly useless. She could certainly make a good cosplaying mascot for Wagnaria. <3

    Kinny Riddle
  8. Woot, can’t wait til next week, since we’re probably gonna see what Jun looked like in the past(which should be interesting since Yachiyo said he was cute and looked like a delinquent).

    Lol, I thought that the best parts of this episodes came from Popura. Her buying “Kotori-chan’s” photos and her displeasure with Nazuna’s height were comedic gold =P. I also laughed at how “Is my brother a masochist?” changed to “Do you like my brother?” How you change from former to the latter is beyond me lol.

    Click
  9. Aoi’s ninjary is pretty funny. I kind of wonder where the hell she’s getting all the wigs, gotta say.

    Nazuna being possibly the evilest sister of the the four is kind of funny I’m finding. At least she actually tries to maek Souta happy, but still, she’s going to be dangerous. ANd likely dominate the junior high basketball team while she’s at it.

    And I kind of like how Poplar is so on Mahiru’s side in this stuff. Its kind of nice to see a break of the “first girl wins” thing and see the obvious first pairing kinda go different.

    And poor Jun. I wonder if Kyoko even realizes the sheer rage he was feeling when she came back besides just reading the killing aura:)

    And stuff.

    Blaque
    1. Like it or not though, Inami is getting the bulk of character development in the show, possible BECAUSE of her phobia. While everyone in the restaurant staff is odd in one way or another, hers is the only quirk that can be risky when carried over to the environment outside of Wagnaria.

    2. Total agree-ance.. But considering the story flow, Popura has little chance.
      I would like an episode focused on her though, since everyone has had an episode on them except her. And inami has had WAY too much attention. Yachiyo has had a bit of attention but at least she has a sweet sword.
      Well, episode 1 was a little focused on her.

      Feik
  10. Hm… am I the only one worried about the amount of plates/glasses/dishes that get broken because they were dropped? Last I heard, Managers get real angry if you break a dish.
    2 were broken in this one and I think 1 was on the last episode.

  11. Man, I feel more and more sorry for Takanashi as I watch this show. Am I the only one feeling sorry for him? His current reputation: Punching bag (Inami), cross-dresser (Inami), past-cross-dresser (dad), pervert for liking cute things (self-inflicted), and masochist (Nazuna’s misunderstanding).

    Anyway, I’m sad that this show is listed to be only 13 eps. Working!! is currently my favorite this season. I hope they animate a second season since it seems there’s plenty of material from the 4koma.

    Aoihoshikage
  12. I laughed so hard when Inami’s delusion of holding hands was literally shattered by her punching Souta. xD They animated that so good..! *starts laughing again*

    <3 Working!! (Motivates me to work the next day just like NHK did.)

    Shirt
    1. The one with the glasses, right? I’ve noticed her for a couple of episodes at least.
      I’m sure Wagnaria has other workers too and it seems too bad we don’t get to see those ones developped.

      Shinjiro
    2. The dark haired girl was mentioned in one of the earlier blog posts.
      She is a character from the Manga it seems, but just hasn’t been introduced officially in the anime.
      Im betting there wasn’t time in the schedule to fit her story, so they dropped her arc.

      Feik
  13. Finally caught on and wow, I’m pleasantly surprised and happy I gave this series another chance. To begin with, I got to admit I hated the girl-punches-guy ongoing skeet which seemed to go nowhere (or so I thought) until last episode. Turns out to be quite a fun show and can’t wait to watch some more.

    Shinjiro

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