After watching the first episode, I decided to try reading the manga of Shikimori-san. And I’ll say I’m not too pleased with how the manga went. My problem with the manga is that for most of its chapters, it follows a very repetitive pattern of Izumi commenting Shikimori is cute but also cool after she defended him or did something to get a praise from her boyfriend. I am glad that the anime so far doesn’t follow this repetitive pattern.
This episode, like the first one, sure brightened my day as I went through my fasting month. While it still revolves with how Izumi found his girlfriend cute and cool at the same time, it didn’t present it the same way as the manga did, thus, avoiding the repetitive comedy that may tire you out. This episode showed how both Izumi and Shikimori supporting each other in their school sport festival. Of course, Izumi, being a misfortune magnet, sucks at sports, while Shikimori is better at it. Nevertheless, Izumi and Shikimori didn’t mind by the fact about their sport skill as long as they can have fun and cheering for each other to do their best.
For Izumi, instead of being bothered that his girlfriend was much competent than him, he was determined to cheer for his girlfriend whom he knows would be good at the sport she’s playing, wanting the best of her. Similarly, Shikimori was concerned for Izumi and didn’t care much for the match, only when she received encouragement from her boyfriend that she went all out in her match all so she could make him proud, which consequently resulting with her getting instant popularity among the girls in her school that she has difficulty approaching her boyfriend. And again, neither Izumi nor Shikimori let her newfound popularity to affect their relationship. Izumi was still devoting himself to his girlfriend in any chances he can and Shikimori still prefer to spend times with her boyfriend than her swarm of new fans.
This episode also highlight more on Izumi’s bad luck and how he felt about it. Izumi has accepted the fact that his misfortune won’t make him do well in his match, which was proven true when Shikimori’s attempt to give him her support accidentally distracted him and ended up with him being sent to the nurse’s office. It’s revealed here that Izumi’s misfortune was much worse than I imagined.
Izumi had resigned to be victim of misfortune, but then his problem lies in the routines where his friends must went through the trouble of saving him, even if they were happy to do so every time. Izumi felt guilty for what his friend must go through for his sake and as the result he put himself down too much for something that was beyond his control. He’s worried of the harm that will befall on his girlfriend and friends due to his bad luck, especially that he more than once has experienced a life-threatening situation.
I love how this episode explored Izumi’s relationship not just with Shikimori, but also his friends. In spite of his bad luck, if there’s one thing Izumi was very lucky to have are girlfriend like Shikimori and friends like Inuzuka, Nekozaki, and Hachimitsu, all who accepted him without minding about the possibilities of misfortune that may befall on them for getting close with Izumi, and still choose to continue sticking with him even after getting involved in the said misfortune. The point of this episode was, regardless of whatever they were good at or bad at, Izumi and his friends would still be there of each other. It’s touching and heart-warming.
With this episode focused on Izumi’s personality and background, I hope the next one would explore Shikimori’s character more than her just being a “perfect girlfriend” for Izumi.
