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「一人目の仲間が女の子だとしばらくデート気分で冒険できる」 (Hitorime no Nakama ga On’na no Ko da to Shibaraku Deeto Kibun de Bouken Dekiru)
“When a Girl’s Your First Friend, Life Feels Like a Date for a While”
From learning to action to, well, other things in between, Jaku-Chara certainly is wasting little time in getting to the good stuff. Three episodes in and it’s finally onto the fun of relationships, though whether it’s going to be as smooth sailing for Fumiya as before is firmly up in the air.
While my concerns about Jaku-Chara sacrificing entertainment for the sake of education remain strong, this episode (for me) gets closer to the ideal compromise between the two aspects. Fumiya’s repeated attempts at striking small talk with Yuzu were the best example, highlighting the often immense difficulty of just coming up with suitable conversation openers when you’re not socially inclined without having to explicitly dissect and explain every step. All Aoi has to do, like she did this week, is simply give Fumiya a few pointers, point him in the right direction, and tactfully kick his ass when required; the guy as artfully shown will easily take care of the rest.
The real meat and potatoes this week though lay in the relationship building, and oh boy is the drama coming on fast. Just take Aoi’s weekly Yuzu talk training, that wasn’t just to force Fumiya out of his comfort zone, it was to also gauge what Fuuka would do after seeing Fumiya repeatedly approach Yuzu out of the blue. Guaranteed Aoi knows Fuuka harbours some degree of interest in Fumiya, and there’s often no better way of catalyzing development than with some jealousy. There’s no certainty Fumiya and Fuuka will wind up together—Fumiya’s holdup on being sincere is going to be a major roadblock—but all these types of relationships really need is a bit of mutual crushing and desire will take care of the rest.
At least until you factor a potential competitor into the equation of course, but we’ll just have to wait and see what comes of Yuzu’s pointed outburst. After all, Fumiya has to leave the Aoi nest at some point, and this surprise might just be the first real test of his wings.
Random Tidbits
Oh how the shopping scene hit me in the feels – and probably some others too. I know I’m not the only one who also sometimes practices conversational enquiries and potential responses in advance!
I seriously did not enjoy Aoi telling Fumiya that it’s okay to be insincere. I know I have limitedo social skills, but I thought that advice made Aoi seem a little sociopathic. I feel that that wasn’t something I was meant to take away as something I should learn. Dressing up better and learning to show more expression seem to be good ideas though.
The fact she’s seeing this as a game is pretty sociopathic. What’s interesting is that the guy is always making good points and being the normal person there, yet the anime keeps pushing him to the side of sociopathy. Really, WTF?
In the real world, Aoi would just be: “So you wanna be sociable? Okay, let’s hang out with my friends from time to time, they are cool”.
And I think you could have a story with the guy slowly becoming more sociable from there without being all weird like this anime is being.
I can kind of see her reasoning given that she’s approaching the potential relationship from one of training and levelling up, but yeah, for any sort of honest relationship it’s a strange and disingenuous take. I’d wager this aspect will factor in later though considering we’ll get Aoi’s backstory eventually and it’s bound to explain a lot of things regarding her.
In other words this is just a charmer’s guide for boys.
Two timing needs to be insincere. This show is masking two-timing as socializing.
I have to admit, their points are valid in getting girls in cliques.
I’m amaze how Aoi prepared things for him then she tells him to date someone.
I don’t know anymore.
I still feel cringe watching this anime.
Your existence in cringe made pointless flesh.
Need more Mimimi scene.
One thing Aoi is right that sometimes it takes third party taking interest in your crush to stir girl – or boy – into action… We have seen in Horimiya as well this week that tingle of jealousy is sometimes first sign of awakening love interest.
I will not judge on her methods choice, but I am impressed by Tomozaki 1..having own opinion 2.having moral attitude about approaching girls. After seeing endless series of spineless main characters this is breath of fresh air.
Also, I almost expected her to compare mannequin clothing to “armor set”.
Yuzu showing sudden interest in AtaFami is interesting. There is something going on that is not entirely clear yet….
It really is a refreshing take, and also one that’s surprisingly not as cynical as say Oregairu – it’s playing it’s premise true and keeping things optimistic. I’m still skeptical considering we haven’t seen how the series handles the inevitable drama just yet, but there’s plenty of positive signs so far.
Aaa armor set… Skyrim days….
You look at it with pride after beating many beasts with it.