First Impressions / Kanojo Okarishimasu

「友達と彼女」 (Tomodachi to Kanojo)
“Friends and Girlfriend”

Yes, that’s right, you’re not seeing things: Kanojo Okarishimasu wound up getting coverage. Not even sure what made me pull the trigger. Interest? Alcohol? Deep seated sense of masochistic self-loathing? All within the realm of possibility, however one thing is certainly known: this show will be taking romantic cliff diving to new extremes.

While Kanojo Okarishimasu has effectively laid out the tropes and stereotypes it will use until its dying breath, this episode was arguably the first where we got the full extent of Kazuya’s wimpish personality. Simp; cuck; oneitis; whatever term or phrase you want to stick him with it’s the sort of behaviour damn near everyone loathes, and frankly it’s not hard seeing why. As Kibe physically pointed out (you don’t see this often), Kazuya latches onto the first sliver of apparent female romantic interest and all but drops everything else in favour of it. Actually getting to the know the girl beyond a pretty face and small talk? Of course not, for this kid thinking and consideration are a fool’s errand; the only thing is grasping a hold of and consolidating the attention before it slips away. Mind you, the situation is coloured by Chizuru’s involvement, but there’s no denying the results: Kazuya found his balls only because he rationalized one surprise kiss from Mami as indication enough that nothing between them has really changed.

The ironic thing about Kazuya’s behaviour though is that there’s nothing especially forced or artificial regarding it. This sort of supplication, awkwardness, and outright naivety is something I’m sure a lot of us have gone through given the rules of the dating world are not as much learned as acquired through repeated failure. To just “get it” and actually find sustained romantic success takes experience, and it’s something Kazuya currently—and horribly—lacks in. This is what makes Mami’s actions all the more reprehensible because she’s effectively a master running circles around an initiate. While Mami’s reasons may be unknown right now, it’s pretty damn obvious Kazuya’s currently a play piece for her whose only purpose is getting her ahead. I firmly suspect this advancement is specifically in the realm of social status and social validation (note that response to Kibe calling her out), but there could easily be more to it, especially if she has her eyes set on a bigger target. If you never thought girls would use one guy to get with another, I’d recommend reconsidering those beliefs.

And as for Chizuru? Well, not much to be said on this front. Yet. As before the girl has kept her relationship with Kazuya solidly professional (even if some whispers of interest are present), but after going zero to partying with Corona-chan in the span of a few hours and taking a dive off a boat I imagine there’ll be some recalibration of feelings after Kazuya’s heroics are fully realized. No romance worth its salt is going to let one girl ahead that much that fast, especially when we have more female competition yet to make their appearance. Without a doubt though the aftermath of this little event will see two girls boasting stronger interest in our outmatched MC, and newfound reasons for both to start actually facing off against each other for his attention.

The only question is whether that attention will first involve Kazuya in the process stupidly spending even more of his rapidly dwindling bank account.

Random Tidbits

If she says it’s cute, rest assured it’s anything but.

While still early days, it’s hard not hating on Kazuya’s friends and thinking they see him as little more than the group punching bag. It’s incredibly rude to just up and invite yourselves to someone’s house, and try to push for it through peer pressure and coercion. It doesn’t reflect well on Kibe keeping quiet during that moment either.

 

Preview

16 Comments

    1. That was funny. When she walked through the frame while Kazuya was chatting with Mami, all I could think was, “Is she gonna walk the plank?” And then she did.

      On another note (or two), I don’t think Mami is after social advancement here as there isn’t any to be had from playing with Kazuya (unless he’s keeping a big secret). I think that there are two things driving her. First, she doesn’t like other women sniffing around what’s hers. She’s shown us over the past couple of episodes that she’s irked by Chizuru. Second, she’s operating on instinct: Something runs past a dog and it gives chase, something twitches near a cat and it pounces (or at least throws out a paw). When Kibe calls her out, she is sheepish in her response. She knows how her actions look to someone who isn’t a (deer in the headlights) loser. Really though, the first item alone would be enough to trigger a reaction from her. While she’s not exactly the same, Mami kind of reminds me of Kikyou Kushida from Youjitsu.

      On the matter of Kibe, I don’t think he ‘kept quiet’. He stood up almost instantly. Of course he had to let everyone else demonstrate how grubby they were so that he could stand out from the crowd, which he did. This show isn’t that complex. We would be confused otherwise. It would however reflect poorly on Kazuya, except we already know he’s a cretin (as he did the very same thing two episodes ago).

      Mockman
      Reply

      1. It’s why I’m hesitant to place a specific reason on Mami’s actions. Personally it screams consolidation to me (as in keeping her status within the group against the likes of Chizuru) but it’s hard to completely throw away some ulterior motive until proven otherwise. We’ll know soon enough though; hiding any sort of objective like advancement is not easy, especially after the likes of this episode.

        As for Kibe I’m still not convinced. Yes he may have stood up, but as shown by his punch just after he’s more than willing to let Kazuya know when he thinks Kazuya is in the wrong. A failure to voice such concerns for anyone else during the previous scene implies he was tacitly fine with the rest taking advantage of both Kazuya and Chizuru. I do agree though that the show isn’t going for anything complex or thoughtful; if anything it was exactly that, showing Kazuya (in a ham-fisted way) to be utterly pathetic.

        Pancakes
        Reply

        1. I think it’s also the same as when a monster or enemy waits patiently while the good guys come up with their plan of attack. The viewer needs to know what to expect.

          Kibe did tell everyone to cut it out. And given the timing — immediately after Chizuru looked expectantly over at Kazuya, who ignored her — maybe he wanted to give Kazuya the opportunity to do something first.

          Mockman
          Reply

          1. He definitely could’ve and that would fit with his shown personality thus far. Might’ve been focused more on the fight afterwards personally, but in either case I expect a pattern to emerge regarding his actions soon enough. Kazuya after all is about to run into significantly more girl trouble lol.

            Pancakes

    1. I think that she´’s texting to herself, she doesn’t seem the kind of person that would show her true colours to somebody else.
      Regarding Kibe, yep, total respect. I hope we see more things like this from the secondary cast and the series doesn’t limit itself to MC + girls + random grandmother appereances.

      Abril Pinero
      Reply

      1. Nawh she won’t be texting herself, that’s a level of narcissism even psychopaths rarely stoop to. As shown last episode she has a gaggle of friends she chats with which is who she’s likely communicating with again.

        Pancakes
        Reply

          1. Could be that as well, although I think her friends have some inkling about her dark side. Remember how she reacted a couple episodes ago to them, that’s the sort of thing which stands out when you’re going all in on cute and innocent.

            Pancakes

  5. This episode exposed both Kazuya’s good points and bad points. Found it amusing when Chizuru became speechless when Kibe mentioned them. Everything is inline with what she’s experienced so far. She’s certainly a pro a dating, noticing subtle body language and all, but she still doesn’t know Kazuya enough to cover for him.

    I think Kibe’s a good friend. He’s only looking out for his buddy. I get the feeling that Kazuya knows that too.

    Also, I don’t think it’s a good idea to let your grandparents play gacha games. Same reason you might want to prevent your kids from playing them, but I think it’s much easier to control your kids than your grand parents. 😛

    theirs
    Reply

  6. Kazuya causes physical pain in me. It’s almost unbearable to watch when MC is so annoying. Whenever it seems I’ve got used to it, he punches me harder T_T
    Stopped in the middle of ep 4 for now

    nixx
    Reply

  7. That comment of mine over on the Summer 2020 schedule about this show not getting covered aged like milk… Oh well. Still glad to see KanoKari getting coverage.

    Kazuya’s grandma calling her grandson to mourn about getting her shipgirls sunk in a free-to-play game after spending 30,000 yen on it. LOL (“My Shimakaze… My Ikazuchi!“) Also leaning toward it being a KanColle reference due to her playing on a laptop (KanColle started as a browser game) and because Azur Lane‘s Shimakaze (bunny ears, red dots for eyebrows, apparently voiced by Saori Hayami) is only on Crosswave (a more traditional video game spinoff with DLC on PC/PS4) and is yet to appear on the original mobile game.

    On a more serious note… *sighs* F**k me sideways… Seeing Kazuya and Mami’s backstory reminded me of how I was back in 2005–when I was a younger, stupider third-year college student. I was hoping I’d forget about those days, but seeing Mami’s actions toward Kazuya reminded me of the first cut that cut me the deepest. The one thing that gives me more PTSD than “Call of the Witch” and 177013 combined. It’s basically my emotional equivalent of the reopened knife wound that eventually did in John “Soap” MacTavish in CoD: Modern Warfare 3. (Cue “Cringe Levels” shooting up to over 50%.) And I thought that wound wouldn’t reopen again after watching Haruka Morishima’s arc in Amagami SS, but here we are.

    Damn you, Mami Nanami. And now I have this desire to see her slapped harder than Ribbons slapping Wang Liu Mei in Gundam 00.

    Incognito
    Reply

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