Kiyoko, the class president, finally notices that her classmate Yano is always showing up injured in some form or fashion. He practically has an eyepatch over his right eye at all times. I don’t think we ever see him without it in this entire episode. Curiosity gets the better of Kiyoko, so she follows him on his way home one day. As it turns out, he’s just a major klutz. The two kids end up having a conversation for the first time, and somehow, this is enough for her to develop a crush on Yano. He literally stun-locks her with a single compliment. Huh.

Again, Yano is truly just clumsy. For instance, he was about to get isekai’d at one point, so he quickly ran to the other side of the street. The problem was that he kept running right into a wall. The guy’s kind of an idiot in that sense. But more importantly, he’s also kind of disappointing. This whole setup is a little boring, isn’t it? If he was getting injured because he kept trying to help others, that might be an interesting quirk of his personality to explore. Like does he have a savior complex? At first, Kiyoko thought he was being bullied, but I’m pretty tired of bullying storylines in anime. She considered domestic violence next, but that is a little too dark. Nevertheless, both of those options would at least give me something to work with. Just a clumsy guy, though? Meh.

What’s Kiyoko’s deal anyway? Why does she instantly like this guy? She has to care for her two younger siblings to the extent that she even totes around a first aid kit at all times. So I dunno, maybe he triggers her maternal instincts. Like with Yano, it might have been interesting if there was a twist to her character. Like maybe she suffers from the Nightingale effect, i.e. if he’s not injured, then she cares less about him. You could still do a light-hearted slice-of-life series around this quirk. For example, she starts out this way, but eventually learns to like him for who he is and not just how his injuries make her feel needed and important. But no, Kiyoko is as ordinary as Yano is clumsy. When Yano shows up one day without his injuries — still got that stylish eyepatch, though! — she realizes that he’s actually pretty darn handsome. So yeah, she’s a little boring too.

The rest of the episode is more or less standard. Kiyoko wants to get to know Yano better, so she and her bestie try anything but the most direct option, i.e simply talking to the damn guy. For instance, she tries baking a bunch of cookies to hand out to the class. Her hope is that word of mouth would pique Yano’s interest, which would lead him to ask her to try some. Unfortunately, the cookies end up being too delicious, so she runs out of them. I mean, you didn’t think to stash a baggie away inside your bag or something? C’mon now, I expect my class prez to be a little more clever than that.

Kiyoko’s other attempts end up injuring Yano even more. In the end, she has to settle on the tried-and-tested method of literally just talking to the guy. Gee, what a concept. In fact, who has ever gotten injured from just talking? Anyway, I guess this is where the two kids officially become friends. She asks him if there’s anything he wants to do but hasn’t due to his injuries, and he replies with a simple enough request: a normal school life. Translation: we’ll go through the gamut of slice-of-life tropes, but through the lens of a clumsy person. Yay…

If you couldn’t already tell from my tone, I don’t think there’s much to work with here. Maybe future episodes will unveil hidden depths behind the characters and their interpersonal relationships, but the first episode isn’t promising. And look, I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad show. There’s just nothing to talk about. It’s all mood and vibes so far, which are admittedly the dominant traits of any slice-of-life series. My point is, the story plays its premise completely straight, so there’s nothing for me to talk about.