Aww, this was a pretty sweet episode! Utage has more or less has become Tamon’s proxy manager because they are a small agency, and they just don’t have the resources to take better care of him. And since his manager already has his hands full, he was quite happy to pass it off to Utage after seeing how much Tamon has improved since she started working as his housekeeper. It was funny to see him justify “taking pets out for walk” and “getting groceries” as the same thing as going out and eat, and shop for stuff for work. At least that’s something that can work in their favour should anyone ask what their relationship is.
That said, Utage has done a lot to help Tamon, and in return he’s very upfront about how thankful he is for it. In-fact, it’s not an exaggeration to say Utage really has taken up the mantle of the proxy manager with how her faithful note-keeping and archives of all of Tamon’s magazine interviews, blogs and interact articles she has saved over the years. While this could be seen as simply insane and downright creepy for some, not only is this actually useful for their case, but Tamon was also genuinely impressed and actually found it incredibly helpful in maintaining a consistency in his character. This is especially true considering Tamon doesn’t remember half of the things he says when he’s in his wild and sexy idol mode. It gives him back control over a character type he had been playing the part of on the fly, which in turn should help boost his confidence when he needs to flip that switch when interacting with fans.
However while Utage has taken on this role, she’s been very careful about crossing the line she had drawn the line between them. She understands the importance of maintaining a healthy distance as a devoted fan and housekeeper/proxy manager/stylist, because she fears what will happen if she becomes greedy and want him all to herself. She has already caught herself feeling a bit jealous when he interacts with other fans, and she knows how wrong and dangerous that is.
…On the other-hand, we’re seeing that Tamon doesn’t want a line drawn between them. To him, Utage is already at least a precious friend, and he even went as far to say she’s special. However I think we can all agree he’s in what I would call a clingy phase, and this episode certainly helped put things into perspective as to why he’s like that.
For Tamon, Utage appears to be really his first friend in this lonely world of an idol. Not only did he come to Tokyo on his own when he was only sixteen, but we see how he misses and longs for the life of normalcy. Having friends, and being able to go out to eat together on the fly, these things are difficult to do now that he’s a popular idol who’s under constant scrutiny of his fans. And since he doesn’t appear to really have much of a relationship with his fellow idol members, Utage’s the only one he feels comfortable enough to turn to and ask for help. She’s been a huge confidence booster for him, and one of the things he really wants her to be able to do is see the fruition of their efforts to achieve such. That’s why he’s willing to take that extra risk to seek her out himself.
But considering how he doesn’t want to see her get hurt (though it was used in a comedic situation where Utage’s head is combusting because of how powerful his fanservice is), we can be certain that also applies to more serious situations. Tamon would feel incredibly guilty if Utage were to be subjected to harassment because he’s not more mindful of people who’d brew up a scandal if even one picture of the two of them together were to be posted online. Heck, with the way he blatantly kissed the necklace she had picked out for him when putting together several outfits for him, I’d be shocked if we didn’t see fans kick up a fuss and speculations about the significance of the necklace.
In-fact Utage witnessed her exact fears with her own friends, when the discussion came up about how his popularity means an increased risk of paparazzi following him, and how his viciously fans would react if they saw him with a girl, regardless if that girl were only a friend. Two of her friends thought “Murder” and that’s when she was reminded that she would be the one subjected to such harassment if she’s not careful about it.
Bearing that in mind, I would like to hope that the manager has the foresight to counteract such claims with addressing that she is beside him as an employee, and the agency has hired her to do such. While it’s not quite the truth, it isn’t far from it either, so perhaps it might offer her a little shield if anything. Still better than nothing at all, but we’ll have to see how it pans out should it (and I expect it at some point or another) come down to it.
And finally, we did actually get some background as to how Utage became his fan in the first place! Seeing his work hard at his auditions and his music has really helped her during the period of her life where she wasn’t good at conversing with others, and it put her in a tough spot. So we can really see how in this moment, with Tamon struggling to interact with others due to the fear of falling short of their expectations, while Utage is a fan, she is still paying it forward by helping him in a way he had helped her overcome her own hurdle when interacting with others.
