Lately, Tani has been wanting to share all of his experiences with his girlfriend, and this feeling continues well into this week’s episode. When his cousins can’t make the trip to his house, he wants to invite his girlfriend over instead. This means, however, finally telling his parents that he’s dating someone. Their reaction pretty much says it all. Welp, it’s now Suzuki’s turn to meet the future in-laws.
We actually know so little about Tani’s parents. It’s a shame how they don’t get as much screentime. Hell, his dad is just sitting there; he hasn’t said a single word. Then again, his mother noticed all these new changes in her son, but never connected the dots? She never suspected anything?
When Tani meets up with Suzuki the next day, we see that she has gone back to her natural hair color. Wait, her pink hair can’t fade that quickly. She must have dyed it black. When her mittens are off later in the episode, you can see the tips of her fingers being stained black. Sheesh. Girl, you gotta be yourself. You’re going to be meeting these people over and over. What are you gonna do? Change your hair color every single time? Wait until he puts a ring on it before letting it all hang loose? That’s not realistic. She then goes and faceplants within the first minute of meeting them. This is what happens when you wear clothes you’re not used to!
Apparently, Suzuki has been a nervous wreck ever since she got the invitation. Her mother being a worrywort didn’t help. They act like Tani and his family are super classy or whatever. He just seems like a normal kid to me. Having traditions for New Year’s doesn’t make you proper or anything. I never once got the impression that these two kids come from different walks of life, so this sudden injection of drama feels like it’s coming from outta left field. Suzuki is fixated on Tani’s mother’s reaction when they first met, but it’s probably because the girl went and changed her hair color! Every photo of hers has the pink hair! Suzuki did this to herself!
Tani’s mother likely sensed the girl’s discomfort, so when the kids return from the shrine, she offers to bridge the gap by showing off the family albums. Tani can’t cope as his girlfriend coos over pictures of his younger, more carefree self. In the end, meeting the Tanis ended on a good note. Plus, his mother finally explains why she had a weird reaction to seeing Suzuki for the first time: any photo Tani has of her would also include her goofy smile, a far cry from the fake, demure act she was putting on for most of today.
Shockingly, the Suzuki-Tani moments took up two-thirds of this week’s episode. Lately, it feels like they’ve been sharing the spotlight with the other couples in equal measure, so it feels almost odd to have such a heavy focus on the primary couple all of a sudden. But we now finally cut to Azuma, who’s just getting off from work. But we don’t focus on Tairazuma or anything. Rather, we quickly transition again to the entire gang meeting up for the first shrine visit of the year. Hm, do secular people do this anyway?
As always, the day ends with Taira and Azuma alone together. Mr. Catastrophize Everything will never get used to his one-on-one time with her, and that’s kinda sad. I mean, take away the romantic crumbs for a moment. Even then, he still struggles to be comfortable with their platonic friendship. He still worries about what others — relative strangers, mind you — might think. I find this all a little dismaying. What is wrong with two friends walking home together? This guy needs therapy. In the ideal world, him and Azuma might make a cute couple, but he needs to work his shit out before he can be a proper partner in a relationship.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— Suzuki and Tani have only been dating for six months — maybe seven months by now. As such, everything still feels new. She’s still figuring out what to do whenever a new season rolls around. Eventually, everything becomes a routine, but you never get to see that part in your average romcom anime.
— Our girl claims to have already loved Tani when she asked him for his contact info. What does she mean here by “love,” though? Because if she truly loved him, this sounds fairly ridiculous. Maybe she had more of an infatuation than a crush. Maybe she was “in love.” But she loved him when she barely knew him? Nah, that’s cap.
— Suzuki then asks Tani when he started to like her, and he struggles to come up with an answer. I think his response is fairly reasonable, though. Not everyone has that “aha” moment. For a lot of us, our feelings just build and build. Before you know it, you’re in love and can’t remember when the change happened.
— I’m amused when Suzuki bristles at Tani addressing her as Suzuki-san. It’s such a foreign concept. I can’t imagine calling my girlfriend Miss So-and-so for months and months on end before finally using her first name.
— Suzuki’s brain just left the premises.
— See, you can’t embarrass me with family photo albums, ’cause they literally don’t exist. My family is not particularly photogenic. I’ve taken two selfies in the past two decades, and I did it reluctantly for the company directory and LinkedIn. What about when I graduated from college? You think someone like me would attend his own graduation? Pfft.
— Look, it’s Google before they decided to shove Gemini down our throats.
— Yamada is normally so chill, it’s weird to see him act out like this. He should’ve just invited his girlfriend. Oh wait, he chickened out on making it official when they last met. Welp.
— Some heavy foreshadowing here.
— They should do a pure comedy spinoff for Nabe and her antics. Just look at what she’s describing here. How many adventures has she undergone on her own? But the mangaka is still working on The Ramparts of Ice, right? Eh… that show is just too dramatic for my blood.
— Meanwhile, the introverts huddle up on the side.
— Tsk, tsk… only two of the kids are in any decent shape. Can I do the same? Sure, a simple flight of stairs up to a shrine should be no problem. I worked for Yelp for a couple of years, and they used to have their office in one of the skyscrapers in the city. Not the tallest by any means, but still plenty of floors. During my lunch breaks, I would often climb to the top for funsies. Naturally, access to the actual roof itself was denied.
