Tsuredure Children actually got kinda serious this week, and demonstrated it can handle thornier dramatic territory just as gracefully as the fluffy stuff. There was plenty of fluffy stuff too though, making this an all-around excellent episode. Who would have expected Tsuredure Children to be one of the better character dramas of the… year???
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.
Motoyama, the No Girls Allowed guy
And Yamane, his friend
And Kurihara, Yamane’s potential girlfriend
I love this guy’s perspective
He’s a “girls are gross” guy, but he also cares about his friend and has fine emotional intelligence. He’s weirdly charming
He’s actually the closest thing to an audience avatar – someone who sees how frustrating the actions of all the cast members are
Goda and Kamine next
Once again returning to Goda’s perspective
We’re essentially getting their “conversations” one side at a time, through progressing scenes
Kamine is jealous!
Goda actually confronts Kamine when he thinks she’s angry with him! Huge progress!
Great physical comedy of Goda not paying attention to his surroundings
“Are you upset that I arm wrestled with Patricia?” “Patricia” is also just an inherently funny name
(as someone who’s seriously named Nick Creamer, I’m allowed to call out a funny name)
And in the end, Kamine also lets out all of her feelings
Chiaki and Kana, the joke couple
Them feeling intimidated by Goda and Kamine is perfect
Chiaki and Kana’s progression from friends makes their dynamic very different in an extremely clear and realistic way. It’s a good contrast
The contrast also reflects the fact that everyone’s a mess in their own ways
And after the shared segment, we get a dedicated Chiaki-Kana segment
Oh man, he actually fucked it up! And the show actually acknowledges that!
In the manga, Chiaki drinks a beer (and jokingly offers one to Kana). I guess it was censored into Red Bull for the anime.
I was annoyed by Kana’s behavior toward Chiaki, but after seeing the write-up I can see I was partially wrong. I thought Chiaki’s “Ha! I was only acting!” meant that he was only acting drunk as a comedy bit to help him work up the nerve to kiss Kana, but he definitely screwed it up in his drunken state.
Kana’s behavior afterwards still feels emotionally manipulative to me, though. Refusing to talk to someone until they have passed an arbitrary line of “sorry enough” is awfully shitty. Chiaki fucked up bad, but part of the reason was how much pressure she kept putting on him to make the first move. I don’t expect that level of empathy and understanding from a high schooler – particularly not from Kana – but this conflict soured their relationship for me all the same.
Good write-up as always. My opinion of the show is marginally improved thanks to that correction.