Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san – 09

「センパイはムッツリだし！！ / キモキモセンパイがまともにデート出来るわけ無いっしょ！！」 (Senpai wa Muttsuri Dashi!! / Kimokimo Senpai ga Matomo ni Deeto Dekiru Wakenaissho!!)
“Senpai’s Such a Closet Perv!! / There’s No Way Creepy Senpai Could Go on a Proper Date!!”

The ninth episode of Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san gives us a little more time with Sakura as she begins to involve herself more with her friends as they tease Paisen. With the theme geared around what Paisen’s intentions might be, it’s funny to see how Nagatoro’s other friends go out of their way to get under her skin.

With the latter case, it mostly comes through on behalf of Gamou. She’d happily instigate a larger fight with Nagatoro if it means having her confront any feelings she might have for Paisen. Whether it be arguing that Paisen is actually a herbivore or cheering on his faux date with Sakura to get Nagatoro fuming, it’s interesting to see just how much of a friendly rivalry the two have together. The funniest moment of the episode for me was when Yoshi was able to interact with the electric spark effect that came between Nagatoro and Gamou as they were fighting over how chaste Paisen really is.

But the main attraction of this episode was having Sakura become better acquainted with Paisen as the girls hang out with him. Her milder personality was a fresh breath of air as she aims to kill with kindness as opposed to the more blunt, abrasive approach that the other girls embrace. For example, she gleefully causes a rift between a nerd group by flirting with each of the guys, causing in-fighting to destroy the group from the inside out, all for the crime of being too noisy in the cafeteria.

Her time to shine comes prominently when she ends up guilting Paisen into going on a pretend date with her to fight off a stalker. It’s absolutely used to get under Nagatoro’s skin, but it was funny to see how much her personality changed on the flip of a dime to try to charm Paisen into feeling sympathetic for her. Thinking back on it, it wasn’t too eventful of an episode. There was a cute moment where Nagatoro tricked Paisen into thinking he’d get his ears pierced right when he got his hopes up about it. But it looks like they’ll be giving each other more attention in the next episode based on the preview.