Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi – 01

OP Sequence

OP: 「アノーイング！さんさんウィーク！」 (Annoying! San San Week!) by (Futaba Igarashi (CV: Tomori Kusunoki), Touko Sakurai (CV: Saori Hayami), Natsumi Kurobe (CV: Reina Aoyama), Mona Tsukishiro (CV: Aoi Koga))

「お互いの歩幅」 (Otagai no Hohaba)
“Each Other’s Stride”

Work relationships can be hard, they can be even harder when romantic feelings are involved, Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi marks a blurry line between the professional and the romantic, but at the same time provides a heartfelt encounter of the two. What can I say, I really enjoyed this first episode premiere of Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi. Overall I liked that the relationships are already marked, and we’re starting to see them develop, something other show’s like Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai! and Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun would take upwards of four episodes or more to even show some type of forwardness in the characters. Meanwhile, Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi decides to full front the relationships between the main cast.

Of course, I’m talking about Igarashi Futaba (Kusunoki, Tomori) and Takeda Harumi (Takeuchi, Shunsuke). These two hit it off right off the bat! The story starts in media res with Futaba having worked already two years at Itomaki Trading, it’s a great excuse for the show to dive full front into the relationships, having already been developed, the characters can act with certainty, and charisma towards each other. Prominently shown by how Futaba doesn’t flinch or back away immediately at Harumi’s hair rustle. Even though she does, but at the excuse of being treated like a little kid, which makes it more believable since it probably happens every time Harumi rustles her feathers, it even happens a second time during the episode.

Thankfully Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi doesn’t really focus too much on the comedy side of things, people in this office actually do some work, this first episode main plotline featured Futaba making a small mistake when she placed a buy order for a client, and the gloomy feelings it brings with. Futaba cares about her job, and she cares a lot, especially how she’s pushing more work unto her fellow team members. It was especially fun to see how this problem brought her down, it made her a fully realized character in my mind. Of course, you would feel downhearted if you made a mistake like that in a corporate environment, she feels even worse when Harumi tries to cheer her up, and by coincidences of the storyline, she gets invited to rampage it out at the arcade, while having left her train pass in the office, when she goes back to get it, she finds Harumi sleeping at his deck, his back must hurt sleeping like that. But thankfully she leaves some post-it notes trying to cheer him, and his favorite beverage! Up with the promise to buy Udon next time they get a chance.

But this doesn’t mean the show is not funny, but maybe it’s not the type of laugh out loud kind of funny, I’m sure those moments are yet to come as these characters get exploited in their tropes, but as far as this first episode goes it was more wholesome-funny than laugh your butt off funny. It’s actually perfect because the tone this episode has set, has me hooked and wanting more, it’s not over the top per-say, but it’s not abundantly boring to the point where I’m drowsing off. Comedy is always a topic I find hard to explain, or talk about, because every show has its own tone, while there are rules to follow in how to set up a punch line, I feel sometimes doing whatever you feel is best. Hopefully, this show gives me the opportunity to dissect joke structure and talk about it in length.

By the way, are we not going to talk about how Tsukishiro Mona (Koga, Aoi) possibly maybe having an alcoholic problem, we’re not, okay moving on then…

The other pair of lovers this show is trying to pair up are Kazama Souta (Tsuchida, Reiou) a black-haired chill vibes type of boy. And Sakurai Touko (Hayami, Saori) a big type of onee-san girl. I have this feeling we will be getting to see more of these two as their relationship also develops and grows together with Futaba and Harumi. Because clearly Harumi and Futaba are into each other, with her cunning tooth out and a little bit of liquid courage in her, she asks Harumi ‘why can’t I be your wife’ a great way to end the episode as I’m wondering what his reaction is going to be.

Overall Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi proves interesting and I’m really looking forward to seeing Futaba and Harumi develop a relationship that can be something more than just friends, while avoiding workplace drama and slowly but surely build up a strong connection while being themselves in their whole extent.

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