Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi – 04

「そばにいてくれる人」 (Soba ni Itekureru Hito)
“Someone Who’ll Be By Your Side”

This episode basically confirms Futaba and Harumi to be together, or at least romantically interested in each other. As per last week, Futaba struggled to find a nice present for Harumi, something simple yet endearing, she settled on a tie, which I was later informed, (because I didn’t know this) gift-giving a tie, signifies something deeper between those two persons, it’s a much more personal gift, something that’s more akin to a fiancé. I believe this was done on purpose, the show tries really hard to. It’s clear as day as this point.

The series is very adamant about giving that role to these two, it’s really setting it up so that these two fall in love through a well-paced and soft romance, while they both try to figure out the in’s and out’s of their relationships, while still being professional at work. It’s honestly the most endearing show I’ve watched in a while, it’s mature, grown-up, and is not afraid to show things for what they are.

This time around instead of a new years episode, we got an allergy season episode, where both Harumi and Futaba catch a cold in the same episode. Harumi being the sweet guy he is goes to Futaba’s house and brings something to eat. He doesn’t want to overstep any boundaries so he just leaves the food and decides to leave. But it’s Futaba the one who has to pull him inside and ask him to cook for her. A favor she later returns in the episode. I believe Harumi’s naiveness and polite demeanor was the thing that was keeping him from going inside Futaba’s house.

Once Futaba is all cured, Harumi’s cellphone issue gets resolved, thanks to Futaba being a good sport and accompanying him into the cell phone store, she does get mixed as Harumi’s child, which of course makes her mad. It happens a lot actually. As they leave Natsumi is also walking the streets and sees them from behind, she takes note so that she can later tease Futaba about it. I like Futaba’s personality a lot, she’s not exactly tsundere but still holds some of that Uzaki, Nagatoro charm, sharp tooth, and everything. She’s calm, but when it comes to an embarrassing stop she can’t help herself but rush red.

After Futaba eagerly awaits a text from Harumi but doesn’t receive one, not because Harumi doesn’t care, but because he literally is technology illiterate, it’s thanks to Souta watching over him that he’s finally able to text Futaba a thank you text. But turns out Harumi is the one who comes down with a cold this time around. They both find themselves in the same situation, as soon as they have to go out to buy some food, the other one is at the door ready with groceries. Futaba’s cooking is extremely delicious and again with the wife thing, I mean if they’re into each other they should just date or something, but at the same time, the show is really trying to build up that soft-pastel romance between the two, which is totally perfect.

On another topic, I started reading the manga, I’m not up to date or above the show, but I can say this anime is doing extreme justice to the manga, the direction in the anime is far beyond what the manga has to offer. The manga itself feels a little bit more like a 4-Koma, while the anime is able to adapt all of the daily live hijinx into a cohesive and understandable plot that is easy to follow. With the anime, we’re seeing the things that go on between the unseen pages of the manga so to speak. In other words, it’s great! It might not have the popularity, or animation, like say Komi-san, but it’s certainly interesting; The things the anime is bringing to the table, it’s a great adaptation that deserves attention either way.

I can’t help but subscribe to the idea that the mangaka is seeing his characters come to life in a superb adaptation that goes above and beyond, it could have easily adapted the manga as is, but instead, it adopted the route of threading a plot between the implied actions of characters. The manga so far is short and sweet, a snapshot into the characters’ lives, but we could say the anime is a live window into them. I’m really enjoying Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi!

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