Seiren pulled off one of its best episodes this week, demonstrating the unique mix of weirdness and naturalism that can occasionally make it a pretty solid show. I’m still not actually invested in this romance, probably because I just can’t bring myself to care about Shoichi, but I can at least believe in it, which puts it ahead of the first two arcs. Baby steps, Seiren.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.

Three months have passed

“Hand-Me-Down”

They’re making a cooked venison stand for the festival. Okay

Hikari gets roped into cooking it, even though she can’t

“If you had joined the summer course, you might have gotten close to a cute girl, too”

I like how Tsuneki has shifted from the actual romantic focus to this distance, unreachable ideal. Kinda emphasizes how she was always out of his league

The disciplinary committee chair has leverage over the home ec club, so she forces them to work on the decorations for the christmas tree for the Founder’s Festival

Shoichi stops by and finds Kyoko sleeping in a cosplay outfit

“I guess I’m cake fatigued.” This is another of the show’s smartly grounded conversations

There’s even a reasonable version of the tripped-and-fell-into-him trope – her shoes are obviously ridiculous, and both of them react reasonably afterwards

Shoichi thinks about asking her out, but doesn’t

He asks Tsuneki for a date idea

He googles “adult Christmas” and gets a bunch of love hotels, and Tsuneki bluffs that she’s totally familiar with that stuff. Even Tsuneki gets great character work in this arc

Their proposed christmas tree design is pretty solid

More outfits for Kyoko

Trying on Shoichi’s old clothes. A smart application of Seiren’s general emphasis on strange intimacy

“Let’s have Locust Mask reincarnate into tree decorations and make the kids happy.” Those goofy lines that actually do make sense in context

And of course, the girls go to Tsuneki for dating advice