Oh no, Kamegawa is sick? He’s gonna call out, right? Well, not exactly. Bro actually says he’ll try to make it back by the afternoon. First the typhoon, and now this. I mean, if he’s legitimately sick, then he’s just going to spread his germs everywhere. But again, I don’t know what the work culture is like in Japan. They do wear masks a lot more willingly than we do. But while I’m thinking, Man, Kamegawa better be reasonable and not come into work, the gears are already set in motion for Kannawa to crash his apartment.
Naturally, Hotta and Kankaiji are the ones to suggest the idea (read: peer pressure), but Kannawa happily runs with it. Even so, how could I forget! It’s the classic “let’s take care of the sick person” episode that you see in every romance anime! She’s gonna make him rice porridge, right? With lots of leeks (hopefully not up his butt)? But if she goes over there now, she’ll bump into the other woman, i.e. his sister. Which, of course, leads us to another matter: have you ever had a superior show up at your door because you called out from work? Of course, Kannawa is doing it out of compassion because she luuuuuurves him, but still! I would fire off an email to HR so fast if my team lead or manager ever randomly knocked on my door.
Well, the show doesn’t hesitate to spoil the surprise, because right off the bat, Kannawa learns that the other woman is just his sister Yuki. Kannawa is trembling as she introduces herself. Sheesh. I mean, I’m an introvert too, but meeting new people is not that scary. The sister then proceeds to tease her brother right in front of his mentor. I guess everyone in this universe is just cool with people potentially dating their superiors at work. Practically everyone is rooting for Kannawa and Kamegawa to hook up. But even though this is an anime about adults, you know that’ll never happen.
Even so, this “let’s take care of the sick person” episode is kinda weird, because Yuki is practically third wheelin’ her brother. Usually, the love interest does the cooking. Afterwards, they may or may not personally hand feed the sick person. But nope, both girls are gonna try to do the cooking for some reason. It’s… rice porridge. Hell, some rice cookers have a setting to do it automatically. To top it all off, both women are a disaster in the kitchen, so the sick guy eventually has to step in.
This is so awkward, man. Why are they sitting together like this with one bowl of food for the one sick person? In fact, why are they even sitting this close to a sick person? After all, he has to take off the mask in order to eat, so masking up in the first place was pointless! Then he takes a bite out of the apple first. Who eats an apple before their rice porridge? I’ve never seen this before! Kannawa then asks him how’s the freakin’ apple. You ask people how their food tastes if you make it. But this is a fruit! You picked it out at the store! You didn’t birth it! All you gotta do it is peel it, and you barely did that correctly! What is this scene I’m watching?! Yuki immediately goes back to teasing her brother, but she’s kinda right! Who gets this happy over a peeled apple?
Yuki proceeds to show Kannawa photo albums from her and her brother’s younger days. They always do that, don’t they? Whenever your family meets a potential girlfriend or boyfriend, they love to overshare. Sometimes, they’ll even go too far and start trying to embarrass you. It doesn’t seem like Kamegawa minds letting Kannawa see his old pictures, but I would. But I’m the weirdo who isn’t particularly close to my family. Also, I don’t have pictures of my younger self anyway. I refuse to let the camera steal my soul, and my precious memories are tucked away safely in my memories.
Yuki eventually leaves in order to give her brother (awkward) time alone with his precious senpai, but this scene is still a disaster. In fact, it only gets worse from here. The couple try to address the elephant in the room, but no adult talks like this.
“When I saw that, I had the misunderstanding that Yuki-chan was yer girlfriend! And…”
“Why would you feel weird if I had a girlfriend, Senpai?”
“Wh-Why?”
Huh, why would I?, Kannawa thinks to herself.
I’m sorry, but I imagine you have to be pretty inexperienced with relationships to conjure up a scenario like this in your head. I actually can’t help but be reminded of a scene in Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro where the eponymous character teases her senpai for writing a corny romance scenario. This scene feels similarly ludicrous. Then Kamegawa goes and offers her some coffee. Barley tea and coffee?
Nevertheless, coffee time leads to Kannawa spilling her guts about how she only acts mean as a defense mechanism. Y’see, her brusque demeanor keeps other people away, so her awkward self doesn’t have to actually interact with anybody. Sure, on the one hand, we have two love interests sharing a tender moment; she feels secure enough in his presence to open up to him, rendering herself vulnerable. Obviously, she thinks he’s boyfriend material. On other hand, your superior shows up to your door because you called in sick. She tries to make you food, but fails so you have to do it yourself. She then tells you it felt weird to see you with another woman, who was just your sister. You offer her coffee after the meal — a meal in which she didn’t eat because she’s not the sick one — so she proceeds to trauma dump on you. All this because she wanted to thank you for buying her a matching cat-themed coffee mug, which could’ve been weeks or months ago. Then your mentor kneels beside your bed and sings you a lullaby. Like… what? Is this a fever dream born from his illness? This whole episode, I feel like an alien watching a weird, exotic species interact for the first time and just scratching my head at what I’m seeing.
She’s still there! Go home, lady! He’s literally sleeping!
You’re just now asking to be friends? Oh lord, help me.
Yeah… yeah, you’re right, lil’ sister.
Stray thoughts & observations:
- So Hotta and… uh, what’s their name again? The other person… ah, yes, Kankaiji! I mean, they were just introduced last week. I’m juggling like a billion anime, so you can’t blame me for not remembering every little character. But back to my original point, Kankaiji and Hotta are only now friends, which implies that they weren’t friends before last week’s episode. Which also means they didn’t plan a spa trip just to get Kannawa and Kamegawa together. But then who just decides to go on an impromptu spa trip with their coworkers? One of the weird things about this show is how these people don’t seem to have a social life outside of work. With Kannawa, I can sorta understand it; she’s the socially awkward one. But what are the others’ excuse? Where are their non-work friends? Sure, in life, you’ll bump into that person who’s all about work, but you don’t bump into four of them at the same time. But you never see Kamegawa hang out with anyone but Kannawa and (recently) his sister.
- Is Kannawa really getting on Kamegawa’s case for getting sick? I know she’s hiding her feelings for him, but geez, people can’t help getting sick. That’s why it’s called the common cold.
- This is supposed to be a bunny? I thought she mangled the poor apple.
- This rice porridge looks kinda chunky. Well, it was made by a sick person on medication.
- He cried over FF7 Rebirth? Well, it’s not that weird. Kamegawa’s probably a filthy Aerith x Cloud shipper.
- Man, where did all those friends go? You gotta keep in touch with at least one or two of them, right?
