What They Say:
It’s a very rainy, windy day. Tomoko forgets her textbook, but she can’t bring herself to ask the boy next to her to let her see his, and she doesn’t have friends in other classes to borrow one from. She tries to erase her presence and go unnoticed, but the teacher spots her easily. Ruing her luck, Tomoko starts home in the rain, but another tragedy awaits as she stands over a flooded channel, watching the water lapping at the bottom of the bridge…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Having gotten to see how one of Tomoko’s friends from middle school has handled the transition to high school with a lot more ease than her, though at the expense of some of her passions, Tomoko has found herself again feeling like she just can’t do what’s needed to gain friends and become popular. Not that popularity really seems to be one of her goals in life, rather she just wants to have some friends and to not be completely alone in things, which is a pretty standard emotion among many kids as they struggle with so many things. For Tomoko, her struggles are exaggerated in a fun way just because of her actual personality and the kind of inner monologue that goes on at times as she views the world around her.
Unfortunately for Tomoko in her attempts to try and stay out of sight at times, she’s found herself in a bind in class as she’s forgotten her book and can’t bring herself to ask a classmate to look on, which leads to a rather strong dressing down from the teacher which just humiliates her even more. With a low social standing, something like this just crushes even more when it happens and adds to the strain she puts on herself. Things go from bad to worse for her as she heads home in the rain without an umbrella, gets a dressing down from a local police officer and even gets some grief from a couple of other kids that stumble into one of the covered benches that are along her route. Everything just piles up on her in a big way as she tries to ignore it all and just keeps finding things going wrong. Of course, the two boys aren’t really giving her grief, but being talked to on such a bad just has sets her against anyone, though one of them does something really positive for her.
The second half of the episode is a bit more relaxed in a way, though it has its fun moments as we see Tomoko struggle with an early gym class and her problems there with others, which leads to a hilarious comment on celibacy that almost comes out of nowhere. Tomoko is fun to watch in general and the way she envisions herself while playing a video game is amusing since it gives us another insight into how her mind works. But we do once again get a good look at Tomoko and the way that she is a good kid and helps out her mother by taking care of her brother some when he’s sick, such as feeding him and changing his towels. While there’s an ease and comfort about her at home, it’s amusing to see her get all tight and tense when some other girls arrive at the house to check on her brother since they’re interested in him. It’s the little things that can set someone off and having them going on with her brother just gets her to act out in an awful yet hilarious way.
In Summary:
As the series settles into its feel and flow with the third episode, we pretty much have a good idea who Tomoko is. What’s been interesting is that outside of her brother for some of it, we’re not getting introduced to an array of future friends that will help draw her out or build some bonds. While that may come as it progresses, it is a positive in that the show is being kept small and that she is struggling with so many people and not finding a way to break out of her shell. It’s also instructive to see how she handles being dressed down by authority figures since that plays into her mindset in interesting ways and that happens a couple of times here. But we also see other sides to her, and her confusion over some basic social graces, so it builds an interesting character to watch, and that makes the series worth spending time with.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
