“The Nobody’s Gift”
What They Say:
Junta knows he’s invisible to others, so no one will notice if he peeks at a certain magazine, right? Unfortunately, the store clerk can see him just as easily as Kubo can.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The news that the series is getting pushed back after episode six until a spring re-launch is certainly disheartening since it was a rare show I had a lot of interest in. The manga has made me a fan and I was curious to see the adaptation. I’ve long since skipped a lot of manga because adaptations for me can be hard to match against the way my mind envisions and hears it, but this series is one where I didn’t start until about eighty chapters into it and never read the early stuff. So it’s able to survive on its own, which makes it weird because there are a number of times so far where Kubo feels more aggressive and almost like a bully than she does in my manga experience. It makes for a weird disconnect but also a chance to see if they’re able to soften it along the way while enjoying the dynamic between the two, especially as Shiraishi is seen more and more.
The show continues to have fun with Shiraishi’s being invisible as we see a moment in the winter where he’s out at the park with his little brother who is playing in the snow. Seita’s cute but a young woman comes by to talk to Seita thinking he’s all alone but Shiraishi is just right there, being so invisible until it’s just blatant. And he just thinks it sucks for Seita that people think that he’s out there alone and unloved because of it. Seita, to his credit, is adorable and having fun, but it takes an even more fun note when Kubo shows up at the park and sits with them. It’s an interesting bit in how Seita takes after his father whereas Shiraishi doesn’t seem to take after either of his parents. Seita’s pretty easily smitten by Kubo but Seita’s dialogue is just such a delight as it was in the manga that seeing Kubo’s first experiences with him only makes it all the more adorable. Seita seems like a kid and not just a really well-spoken young adult.
One of the other fun parts of this episode is one where on a different day we have Shiraishi going to a “far-off” bookstore in order to get a somewhat pervy magazine and has a lot of trouble doing so. He’s nervous as hell about it but it gets even worse when the woman who works there asks if he’s old enough to actually purchase such a thing. That it’s actually Kubo’s older sister – and her name tag puts him into a panic without realizing the relation – is so cute. What makes it worse is that he drops his student ID there and Kubo is asked to bring it back while knowing that he was there looking at a magazine of large-breasted women. Kubo’s so having fun with this and when she makes it clear the relation to the store, the way he pieces it together, and the way she asks him if he likes big boobs is just so cutting in such an adorable show. Playing with that while advancing the time period delivers for some really cute material as we see the slow evolution of the relationship between the two.
In Summary:
The latter portion of this episode takes us a few weeks before Christmas, noting that things are going by in a flash, but we also see how Shiraishi is still pretty invisible in class outside of Kubo. Her being close to him helps to bring him more visibility, but not completely. I like that they’re not making Christmas a super huge part of things and something big and important but rather a small first piece to a larger relationship. You can see more of Kubo’s interest in him growing in a clearer way while he’s still kind of oblivious to things and just struggling with all the attention in a more general sense. But there are a lot of really good moments between the two and separately as we move through this part of the year and the early stage of their friendship that is turning into something more.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: HIDIVE
