Yuki’s first job is one that doesn’t go quite as well as he’d hope.
What They Say:
Desperate to get his hands on a new game, Yuki reluctantly begins working at a family restaurant. Under the direction of his overenthusiastic boss, instead of doing a good job, Yuki serves another customer’s juice to his friends. In an attempt to cover up his mistake, Yuki prepares another order of juice while Yuta pretends to be his brother. Will their plan succeed?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One of the things we haven’t seen really used all that much in the series is confusion between the two brothers. There was some mild elements of it at the start, especially when Chizuru first got introduced to the group, but for the most part it’s been pretty tame. This episode makes it a bit of a focus though as it revolves around Yuki as the primary, with Yuta drawn in through an accident. What’s welcome is that we do see some of what a typical teen does in Japan when they want money as there are so many simple paid by the day kind of jobs out there. Yuki’s first foray into work isn’t that basic, but he’s the first of them to really enter that aspect of adulthood.
With Yuki eager, well, as eager as he can be, to get his hands on the new First Fantasy game that’s out, he’s looking for ways to make money easy. Unfortunately, there are no jobs that pay him to sit around and read or just smile at people, so he has to do a little bit of a hunt. Amusingly, Chizuru has a great vision of him as a host club guy which does fit pretty well. Of course, the reality is that he ends up at a basic all day restaurant as a waiter, though his appearance gives him some extra appeal to the girls, especially when combined with his style of speech. He’s able to make them blush easily and draw them in, though at least it’s not done in an overblown or goofy way.
Where the show gets a little awkward is when we meet Yuki’s boss who, as Yuki says plainly, is more like a gang boss than a work boss. The boss causes some problems as he steps into play and that forces the brothers to change places temporarily in order for Yuki to try and resolve it. It’s a bit more complicated than it needs to be in order for Yuki to do his job right after making such a minor screw up, but it fits his personality fairly well. Part of it is understandable overall because of the boss, and it’s fun to see the guys work together to try and help him, but it’s all kind of silly when you look at it as a whole, though perhaps it fits with “traditional” Japanese social politeness norms in a way I’m not familiar with.
In Summary:
You & Me has some fun with Yuki getting his first job and still needing his brother in order to help out when things go wrong. Naturally, there are moments where it’s charming and endearing even if it seems like it’s going further than it needs to, but by and large it seems to go against some of what the series has been like for the most part. You like Yuki as he goes through this and understand why he does what he does, but it’s also like his boss says towards the end that this is a learning experience. The boys certainly need it since they figured Yuki would have a decent job that wasn’t too hard, only to discover that there is certainly more to it. But it’s just kind of unusual and kind of off-putting events that force the show down a particular track that left me less than enamored with it.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
