First Impressions / Ore wo Suki na no wa Omae Dake ka yo

「俺に襲い掛かる負のスパイラル」 (Ore ni osoi kakaru make no supairaru)
“I’m Attacked by an Impossible Spiral”

Is Joro a misunderstood altruist? Is Joro an opportunistic scumbag? Or is he a Machiavellian operator? I don’t suppose many people would ask such questions. But I think it’s important to address the crux of these ideas, because I’ve seen a lot of heavy handed judgments towards him that lack nuance. Although he’s definitely twisted and two-faced, his motives and feelings are certainly far more complex than the straightforward plan he’s laid out in his mind. On the surface, we can see that Joro plans to hook up with whichever girl Sun-chan rejects. This in itself is distasteful and inexcusable. But as far as I can tell, it’s getting more complicated than that.

Joro is slowly becoming disillusioned and disgusted with both Cosmos and Himawari. They are demanding, expect him to manipulate his best friend, and throw a tantrum when they don’t get their way. That said, Joro is still doing his best to assist Cosmos and Himawari in their pursuit of Sun-chan. Despite his complaints and scheming, he genuinely cares about them and assists them as best as he can, and seemed cut up when they chose not to believe his side of the story. And while it was outright scummy requesting Pansy to date Sun-chan, it didn’t seem malicious, so much as a poorly thought out action done in the spur of the moment, following Sun-chan confession that he liked her. I’m not saying he’s perfect. But who is? Yes, he’s trying to get into the pants of Cosmos or Himawari. Yes, he called Pansy ugly and tried to force her into dating Sun-chan. If you’ve ever had feelings for someone that weren’t reciprocated, your responses would vary from helping them behind the scenes to actively spiting their efforts. Yet in spite of his anger and misgivings, he’s genuinely giving up time to properly help people out, even if he does stand to personally gain. He gives the best advice he can think of and tries to set up situations where Cosmos and Himawari can build the foundation of a potential relationship with Sun-chan. He also tries to help Sun-chan and Pansy connect, to fulfill his best friend’s romantic aspirations. From a Kantian viewpoint, I’d say Joro’s actions in and of themselves are justified and moral. What went wrong is that he discovered really late on that Sun-chan had feelings for Pansy. Cosmos and Himawari are unwilling to hear his side of the story. Joro’s been helping them for so long, and it’s not like he can suddenly tell them that the situation has changed. He needs to think of a way to break it as gently as possible. But they don’t even give him the chance. They find out that he knows, don’t give him the chance to explain he’d pretty much only known about it for one day, before proceeding to cut him out of their lives. I personally don’t see the outcome as being his fault, so much as being a stroke of terrible luck.

But then, that begs the question. What exactly is Pansy’s stake in this situation? Her meeting with Sun-chan at the same baseball event really signifies that her manipulation runs deeper than we could have imagined. And I refuse to believe that the traumatic bench outside the gym was a coincidence. Seeing how she shipped it into the library, I definitely think she set up Sun-chan’s confession to Joro. Which makes me wonder, did she know that Sun-chan had feelings for her? In which case she must have known that Joro’s venture was doomed from the start. And now, it looks like she’s created the ultimate setup, trapping Joro in the very encounter he wanted to avoid – meeting every person wrapped up in this mess face on. What next? I’m equal parts morbidly fascinated and terrified to see how everything plays out. Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. As always, thanks for reading my post and see you next week to find out whether Joro can survive this predicament.

15 Comments

  1. Definitely a worthy successor to O Maidens In Your Savage Season. Whereas the previous show turned into a trainwreck, this one starts as one from the get-go and surfs on it masterfully so far.

    I’m hooked!

    tsirrus
    Reply

  2. https://randomc.net/image/Ore%20wo%20Suki%20na%20no%20wa%20Omae%20Dake%20ka%20yo/Ore%20wo%20Suki%20na%20no%20wa%20Omae%20Dake%20ka%20yo%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2010.jpg
    Where have I seen those lips before?

    https://randomc.net/image/Boku%20wa%20Tomodachi%20ga%20Sukunai/Boku%20wa%20Tomodachi%20ga%20Sukunai%20NEXT%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2002.jpg
    Oh…

    Now I see, same LN illustrator (Buriki).
    Man, now I wish they would give us a final Haganai season. 🙁

    boingman
    Reply

  3. I’m a bit mad that they made the OP and ED so extremely spoilerish. In the manga, the reveal of Pansy’s True Form took a little bit longer. I hope they don’t mess it up, it’s one of the true highlights.

    Anyway, the show is hurrying along reeeeal fast. Next episode should have several big showdowns.

    Mentar
    Reply

    1. If it’s only about what she looks like without glasses, I feel like that’s pretty much a non spoiler. The typical long haired japanese beauty look that was to be expected.

      boingman
      Reply

      1. I agree. What I didn’t expect is that she looks like she’s the most stacked out of the three girls. So when Joro says he wants to flirt with a beautiful girl with a big heart and bigger breats, Pansy’s response makes much more sense.

        ruicarlov
        Reply

      2. Read the manga in an attempt to get ahead of the anime, and…

        Show Spoiler ▼

        If the anime takes a similar direction to the manga, the next couple of episodes will be a bit cringe-inducing to watch. (*Resisting urge to spoil any further than that.*)

        Incognito
        Reply

  4. I suspect that Sun-chan is being underestimated. If you look at his reactions with Joro it does seem that he is aware that Joro has a crush on Himawari and Cosmos. For example when Joro has the movie date plan he tries to hook Joro up with Himawari. So that means that Sun-chan knows he can’t lay a finger on Cosmos or Himawari as he’d be betraying Joro and is trying to act as his wingman. So best plan is to tell them he’s in love with Pansy, get them to help him get together to give them a taste of their own medicine and praise Joro to give them a new target to love. What could go wrong…

    Misc
    Reply

  7. I was hooked by the first episode. Ok it can still trainwrack. But! I really like the characters. He is the typical nice guy too shy to stand up to his own needs and others take easily advantage of him. He rationalises this by imagining himself to be a Machiavellian asshole, but in the end he do exactly like others expect from him. His plan is to date the girl his best friend rejects, I mean how low ones self-esteem can sink?

    Pansy tries to blackmail the guy she likes into liking her. How this can go wrong?

    The level of entitlement of Himawari and Cosmos shoots through the roof.

    I agree with Miscs take on Sun.

    If the author can keep up this witty irony and gives the characters some good development this can be excellent. But the risk to trainwrack is very high.

    Enan84
    Reply

    1. ゴゴゴゴゴ Menacing ゴゴゴゴゴ

      Also, Episode 3 is out, and…
      Show Spoiler ▼

      Needless to say, “3-episode rule”: Passed (with flying colors).

      Incognito
      Reply

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