It’s funny, but what occurred to first me in watching this week’s Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai was exactly the same phrase as last time – “litmus test”.  That was actually my tag line in last week’s post but I didn’t even remember that – it’s just that it fits as perfectly with this episode (if anything the impression is cemented).  This show is going to appeal to a certain type of fan and not appeal to a different type of fan, and there’s no two ways about it.  One isn’t any better than the other – it’s just a matter of sensibility.

I will say this much.  Where sensibility is concerned, I think Tada-kun is a bit of an anachronism.  Wotakoi, for an example, is much more in tune with where anime romance is these days (and that’s limiting ourselves to the good end of the spectrum).  I’m not saying that makes viewers who like Tada-kun anachronisms themselves (ourselves), but maybe we have old-fashioned tastes when it comes to romcom.  This series is an unapologetic flight of fancy – I was thinking Cage-Ryan but hell, Doris Day would have been perfect for the Teresa role.

The decision to give Nyanko-big a voice and make him a POV character – that in itself is a pretty polarizing one, I would think.  Making that voice Ootsuka Akio, however, was a stroke of pure genius.  Nyanko-big’s day is kind of Tada-kun in a nutshell – unapologetically silly and fantastical in a way that (theoretically) makes you feel better about the world.  I have had many cats that used the Nyanko-big approach when they wanted me to wake up in the morning.  I think it’s also very typical to see older cats who can’t quite accept that they aren’t the olympian athletes they used to be, and get in trouble as a result.  There’s a kind of gap moe at work with Nyanko-big, especially with Ootsuka-san (brilliantly) voicing him.

Again, the scene where Teresa and Alec help out at the kissaten – really charming for me, but maybe not for everybody.  I loved Nyanko’s observations (wry but naive).  I loved the way Yamazaki and Nakamura used the generational aspect – the old couple who could order for each other, the young couple nervously on their first outing together.  I loved the way the “8 second rule” (which is a Japanese tradition I wasn’t aware of) was applied here (and later in the episode).  I also thought it was kind of interesting that Tada-kun was totally oblivious to the indirect kiss trope despite being Japanese, but Teresa was obviously well aware despite being a gaikokujin.  A bit of a character reveal there for sure.

Then we have Nyanko-big’s “patrol”, which soon intersects with the Shasshin-bu’s outing at the park.  Along the way a bit of exposition about the past – Tada-kun’s father was a famous photographer, he’s always performed the “good boy” role.  Also the fated meeting of Tada and Kaoru (the Yin-Yang of Miyano on full display this weekend) – it’s hard to overstate how deeply ingrained the kappa myth is in Japan. and how much it’s used to scare children into behaving.  Again, a bit of character reveal – Kaoru (and Teresa) are romantically inclined to believe there’s something to it, but practical Tada-kun with have none of it.

The extent to which this series remains a light-hearted fantasy and how much it knuckles down on actual romance is probably the largest single question outlying.  I don’t think we’re going to see much change in tone or style – either this works for you or it doesn’t.  But whether we get serious about melting Tada-kun’s heart (and Cherry’s), and whether Kaoru and Alec give it a go will have a lot of impact on what sort of series Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai turns out to be.  In the end I suspect it will be something of a hybrid of both, which would be perfectly fine with me – I’m just enjoying the easy charm of this series, and I don’t think it needs to try too hard.