My ship may be sinking…
I gotta say, Seihantai na Kimi to Boku has to be one of the most relentlessly positive shows I’ve ever watched. That can be problematic, like a dessert that only has sweetness going for it. But somehow it manages to thread the needle. It’s substantial despite fixating overwhelmingly on the positive aspects of adolescence. It’s never insufferable in its positive messaging. It never crosses over into “healing” (as the lack of deployed barf bags by my desk after each episode attests). It mines the natural indignity of high school for good-natured laughs that are shared by the cause of them. It’s a damn impressive feat to pull all that off (and the stellar adaptation doesn’t hurt).
Those sorts of good-natured laughs are very much the theme of this episode – the A-part anyway. The pattern is now indisputable – the first chapter focuses on the supporting cast (who are great), the B-part on the main couple (who are also great). Every episode has layered in another cast member or two, and indeed a pair make their spotlight debuts here. We have Honda Rikako (Kusuniki Tomori) and her seeming best friend Nishi Natsumi (Oomori Kokoro) from Class 8. They’re an “opposites attract” sort of pair, and indeed that too is a theme this episode makes clear is going to be put to the test.
We’ve seen both these girls on the fringes of the narrative, especially Nishi-san. She’s the giggling library girl, and laughing at things others say and feeling embarrassed about it is her primary activity at school. Yamada-kun is a cut-up – getting laughs is his social currency – and having this quiet and shy girl laugh at his antics is a turn-on. He and Honda-san are friends from middle school (Nishi was there too, but they apparently never interacted much) and Yamada uses her as a pretext to strike up conversations with Nishi.
Nishi is a familiar archetype in animanga, neurotic and anxious. The laughing thing is the twist with her. It’s actually Tani-kun who’s caught her eye, because he seemed to be the same as her but as it turns out actually isn’t shy, he just doesn’t talk unless he has something to say. Yamada’s true intent is obvious to Honda-san (and us), but Nishi doesn’t pick up on it. He goes to his friend group for advice on how to get her contact info, and Taira is predictably astonished at this development. Lots of bonjers ideas are floated, but in the end he takes a very Kentarou-poi approach – he just asks her for it.
So then, we have our official B couple. Poor Gapacho – but I knew from the OP this is where library girl was destined to wind up. The B couple gets the A-part and the A couple the B-part. Things are progressing fine with Yuusuke and Miyu. Which is to say, basically clueless but overall into the moment. Miyu is still the main instigator of their social engagement, and she invites Yuusuke to study with her on Saturday. The idea is to do so at the library, but when they arrive it’s a full boat (library AC feels great). With no cafes in the area this is quite the conundrum. And becomes an altogether different one for Miyu when Yuusuke invites her over to his house.
Initially Miyu is in a panic at the idea of meeting Yuusuke’s family (that bit with her midriff had me in stitches). But she flies into a different sort of panic when he says no one is going to be there. But of course, he has no ulterior motive here – it’s just a place to study. Given that this is what Suzuki likes about Tani pretty much, she can’t be too stressed about it. After lunch she invites herself to his bedroom when he says he has to grab a textbook, and is struck by how “stoic” it is. Again the contrast between the two of them is striking – she’s thinking about the implications and subtext of everything, and he’s very focused on the literal.
Miyu meets seemingly her only Tani family member, Tempura. But then Grandma comes home (if she was playing golf with Dad, why did she come home first?) and Yuusuke spills the beans. The lack of drama attached to this is very Seihantai – he just says it and that’s it. It’s more complicated for Miyu, as her mom is the only one she feels comfortable letting in on the secret. Do things move unrealistically easy in this series sometimes – and are the interactions at school unrealistically free of cruelty and sharpness? Yeah, no question. But that’s what this series is – it wouldn’t feel natural if it were any other way. Great romcoms come in many different styles, and that diversity is one of the genre’s strengths.
