Ore Monogatari!! Episode 2

So last week I saw a series that made me “D’aw” more times than a litter of puppies. It was a neat twist, the characters were great, and it was a great watch. However, now that we’re past the novelty factor, is episode two any good? Let’s find out.

So this episode picks up where the last one left off. Takeo has resigned himself to be Takato and Suna’s cheerleader for their relationship as he knows that there’s no way this girl will ever like him and she must be in love with Suna like every girl is. However, throughout all the time he’s been with Suna he’s never once talked about girls so he has no idea what kind of girl he likes.

Unfortunately, even after a lengthy dialogue, Takeo still has no idea of what kind of girl Suna likes and resolves to just try harder.

The next day Takeo receives a cutesy text from Yamato asking if she could bake him some more sweets. He accepts, thinking this is her shy way of asking Suna out without directly doing it.

Upon arriving, Yamato’s obviously disheartened that Suna came along too. Because it’s obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes that she has a crush on Takeo…except of course for Takeo.

Takeo then thinks it’s a fantastic idea to tell her all of Suna’s good qualities and how much he helped him in the past and how he is a really great friend.

Just as she’s about to leave, a giant steel girder is about to fall on her when Takeo jumps in the way and saves her.

However, he thinks that’s a reason right there why he isn’t qualified to get the girl. Suna goes to cover the girl, while Takeo ran to grab the girder.

See, this is a failure in logic here. If Suna just ran and grabbed the girl like that, they’d BOTH be squished. the only real two options were to grab the girder or pull her and run. So no Takeo, that was the smart move.

As the girder gets too heavy for him, he’s shocked to see that the other two begin helping him, and with their help he throws it off him.

and so the episode ends with Yamato asking Takeo if she can bring him sweets again, but she asks if this time they can just go by themselves. Thinking she wants dating advice, he agrees.

So basically, I only have one real problem with this show. It’s one of those “3o seconds of conversation could fix the entire problem” series. If Yamato was like “Hey, Takeo, I like YOU, not Suna” then everything would be fixed.

Of course if THAT were the case, there wouldn’t be a series, but I think there could have been a better premise than THAT of why they can’t be together.

Normally with me, when a show does this, it’s a death nail in a coffin that makes me pissed off and not want to watch the show. However….this show is different. It makes me irritated, sure, but… I just like all the characters so much that I can deal with. They’re not generic, boring characters who I don’t care about and therefore their stupid inability to communicate with one another pisses me off.

The twist they use is so simple, yet it just works so damn well. If it were two bishonen guys, I would not care about this series nearly as much. The annoyance factor is there just enough to make me roll my eyes, but not enough to make me stop caring. And that’s what’s important.

If you noticed, my recap was a little short. That’s because this is one of those shows like Girlfriend that’s hard to recap. It’s a slice of life show where not a lot of stuff happens, but the joy is in the moment. (Huh, maybe I SHOULDN’T have used Girlfriend as a comparison…)

You can’t really describe what’s happening because nothing really is, but you don’t mind as you’re lost in the simple things they do and the way the characters express themselves. You learn more about them in 20 minutes then you ever could with any shonen villain monologueing for an arc.

Suna is the epitome of the boring shonen guy. In any other series I would hate him. But in this show, I just can’t bring myself to do it. He’s a hilarious foil for Takeo and he’s actually kind of grown on me. Of course if he DOES develop a crush on Takato, I might have to beat his face in.

All in all, very cute episode and while I like where this show is going I hope they resolve the whole “Takeo is blind” thing. Still, REALLY looking forward to next week.

Episode 7/10

-Hideki