「麦藁色をかぶった少年」 (Mugiwara-iro wo Kabutta Shounen)
“The Straw-Colored Boy”

A new character might be exactly what this series needs. When I first heard about the premise of a show about guys doing things that only guys can do, I never thought that the guys would be so mellow that their jokes didn’t even get me fired up. However, once Tachibana Chizuru (Irino Miyu) appeared, things started to feel like they were getting better.

Unlike a lot of shows that just throw in characters at a whim to change the group dynamic, it’s nice to know that Chizuru actually has a reason to hang out with our very boring group. In a rather touching spin on the normal “two friends separated in the past”, I thoroughly enjoyed watching both Chizuru and Yuki get some well needed character development.

In Chizuru’s case, it’s not too difficult to understand where his drive to jog Yuki’s memory about their friendship comes from. Not only is it difficult to be a transfer student at a new school, but as we’ve seen with another bullies clearly demonstrated, there might be a ton of crap that Chizuru puts up with that isn’t shown on screen.

For Yuki, I was a little surprised how out of character he was when the memories of when he hung out with Chizuru came flooding back to him. Something about watching him try to apologize while trying to keep up the tough guy act was quite enlightening. Not only did it prove that he isn’t a heartless jerk but watching him work outside of his comfort zone was pretty entertaining.

With the bright and perky Chizuru rounding out our previously dull and boring group, I’m excited to see how much better things fare from here on out.

 

Preview

14 Comments

  1. “A new character might be exactly what this series needs”

    Indeed!

    He really brought life into this show! I laughed so much then he thought Shun was a girl (ah~ he better cut his hair soon!)

    And the flashback was cute.

    Thank you for blogging this. I hope to see you next week as well.

    Corn
  2. Now I’ve been told this is not a shounen-ai but they sure are treading a very fine line. It looks like it swing that way any second. I’m cool with yaoi, you know, watch it if you must but please be clear about your genre. Geez. The stability of 5 guys’ sexuality is questionable at best. My main qualm is the fact that they keep touching each other for uncomfortable periods of time like that sand castle bit. Did they REALLY have to hold each others hands under the sand castle, smile and make the “V” sign?

    Still despite my rant, I’m still following this weekly and am enjoying it. Perhaps in a masochistic fashion. I don’t quite know where it’s heading. But it does feels like I’m watching a mutant offspring of K-On! and Honey and Clover (surprisingly) all over again. In my nightmare.

    SirMuffin
  3. And we told all the haters to wait for Chizuru, haha!
    No, I really am happy to see the positive response to him. He’s what sets up the whole dynamic of the group and propels it forward, but the first two episodes were necessary to set up the story. Guess this is why there’s the three episode test!
    Scene when they were younger was adorable. The language barrier and mood was executed wonderfully.

    staticology

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