Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san – 10

「センパイって体、硬そーですよねぇ / やってやりますよ、センパイ！！」 (Senpaitte Karada, Kata Sou Desu yo nee! / Yatte Yarimasu yo, Senpai!!)
“You Seem Pretty Stiff, Senpai / I’ll Do It For You, Senpai!”

Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san’s 10th episode is angling for its late season nail-biter arc where Nagatoro has to help Paisen keep the art club within his slippery grasp or else have it shut down by its former president. But will Paisen be able to focus when he’s either beating himself up or gawking at Nagatoro’s body?

For that second point, it all came down to the segments chosen for this episode. It’s understandable that the part where Nagatoro ends up having a club help her re-imagine Paisen’s pervy cat cheerleader costume would stick in the episode since it is smack dab near the former president’s return.

But the first couple sections weren’t the most flattering for Paisen with how his mind automatically jumps towards thinking Nagatoro sent him lewd selfies or locking onto Nagatoro’s butt as he’s running behind her. I guess it’s hard to divorce the perviness from the show considering how much of the appeal is watching Paisen be put upon as girls bully him with their bodies.

At the same time, you could barely tell that this Paisen was the same dude who started crying every time Nagatoro led him on as a joke. Because it’ll take a Herculean effort for Paisen to have faith in himself, his character development is mostly realized through his newfound ability to share his pervy desires with Nagatoro and her friends.

To this episode’s credit, it did hone in on one of the jokes in Nagatoro-san that never fails to land with outsiders catching the duo acting ridiculous. Yoshi assuming Paisen and Nagatoro are trying to do a fusion dance was hilarious because of the awkward pause, but it’s made funnier knowing that Yoshi wanted in on it. Another great moment was seeing Nagatoro’s friends gazing in from a crack in the clubroom’s door to see Nagatoro fighting Paisen in the cat suit. I don’t think I’ve given Yamashita Daiki enough credit for voicing Paisen, but he’s been doing amazing throughout the series with how easily he can raise his vocal pitch to the highest octave possible for comedic effect.

It is kinda silly for them to try to trot out the former Art Club president as an adversary, especially since SHE’s the one who decided to shirk her responsibilities and dump them on Paisen’s lap. If the Art Club is going the way of the dodo, is it Paisen’s responsibility to try to gather more members when he only wanted to use the club to do his own drawing?

And the former president being a stickler about the club under Paisen’s control only means that she’s being picky about things she has no power over. “I hEaRd ThErE wErE sLoPpPy ThOtS rUiNiNg MYYYYYYYYYYYY cLuBrOoM!” Naw, you do what you do best and hit the road. This is my club now. If I want to invite popular girls to step on me while I draw them in catsuits, it’s within my authority as the club’s interim president to do as I see fit. It isn’t any worse than any of the tasteless things Andy Warhol has done, and his pieces are revered by troglodytes like you. So scoot, before I resign and hand the club over to Nagatoro. Then your head’s REALLY gonna spin.

Or at least, that’s what you’d hope Paisen would come out and say instead of having Nagatoro fight his battles as he simpers. Rome wasn’t built in a day, I know, but you can only hope by the next episode that Paisen will have more of a fully realized goal for himself to surpass the former president and make the most of the control he has over the club.