The library is set to close if they can’t get more people to visit it. A horrible situation for this friend group and in particular, for Pansy.
So of course, everyone sets off to work to help. Himawari has the tennis team to ask to visit, Sun-chan the baseball team, Cosmos can hand out flyers and get official permissions, and Tsubaki can tell the students that visit her shop. Joro, has nothing. He doesn’t have any friends he can ask for help or contribute much to the situation. So he sort of ends up being the odd one out.
Though, as he is heading home and hoping for some kind of convenient person to show up and help him. He runs into Yasuo, who has dealt with this issue before as the library aide at his own school.
You know, I had Yasuo pinned wrong. I skimmed a spoiler saying that he was someone from Pansy’s past and painted him as something of a stalker. That assessment of him is wrong. Yasuo is an interesting character not because he’s a bad person with ulterior motives but because he’s a genuinely good person.
However, that isn’t always a good thing. I saw a lot of confusion in the comments section this week about what exactly it was that Yasuo did wrong. He’s not a toxic person because he is a bad person, he’s a toxic person because he doesn’t understand that he is stifling people with his kindness.
If someone does something kind for you, you should feel happy and you should appreciate them but this isn’t always the case. However, what are you going to do? What are you going to say? Do you want to come off as mean and selfish? You can’t, and that stifles you. Just as he stifled the two girls who clearly love him but feel like their emotions aren’t right because they should be focusing on his happiness. Because he’s a good person because he’s kind to them. Despite everything, they’re trapped.
In a way, it’s a form of unintentional gaslighting. That’s why Pansy doesn’t like him, that’s why Pansy is scared of him and scared of the people trying to push her and him together into a relationship.
So I apologize to Yasuo for thinking the worst of him. He’s not bad, just unintentionally cruel and that’s honestly something I can empathize with on a certain level.
Honestly, it really understand the feelings of all of the girls involved with him as well.
Anyway, with his help they get things all sorted out to save the library and things are looking up. Joro has a talk with Pansy about why she seems so uneasy around Yasuo and the reasons above are stated and Joro understands and is willing to help her. With his help, she’s willing to stand up and speak her mind at last after all.
The episode ends on the musing that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Which really calls back to the themes we’ve seen in this show so far.
The most concerning bit of content in this episode though isn’t the behavior of the two girls who love Yasuo or even Pansy’s blatant uncomfortable reactions to Yasuo. Instead, it’s the after-credits scene, where we double back to Sun-chan. He asked Pansy to stay behind and wait for him and she did. Then, he says that he thinks it’s just about time and smiles wickedly. I honestly can’t help but be more than a little concerned given what we know about him from way back in episode three.
I don’t know where this build-up is leading but it leaves me with an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. It makes me question why we were all so ready to forgive Sun-chan and not give any more thought to his dark nature after the make-up scene.
I could also be totally paranoid and this could be one of those light things that is covered as dark to mislead you things too. Who knows? Does anyone really know with Oresuki? This show has jumped into places and made me consider a lot of things I haven’t before and honestly it’s not just the stand out comedy of Fall, it’s a hidden gem in general.
I’ll be sad to see it end next week, but alas, time marches on.