“Time for Talk II”

I’m not sure why we’ve gotten two short chapters of Otoyomegatari in a row, but this one was (as the title implies) basically a continuation of what we got last time.  Which is to say, Umar and Pariya on (for her, at least) an extremely uncomfortable errand together.

The joke with Pariya is pretty much the same every time out, if we’re honest – comically overactive imagination and self-doubt.  But it’s a fairly amusing basis for a character on the whole, and of course pairing her off with Umar as a couple is the perfect catalyst to send Pariya on one of her doom spirals.  I’m not sure why there’s no concern over tongue-wagging in this situation (maybe because it’s a parent-sanctioned mission) but that seems to be the least of Pariya’s worries.

We get the usual endearingly futile attempts at social normalcy by Pariya, and a cute sequence where Umar convinces her to sing for him.  But plot intervenes when the pair of them stumble across a woman who’s collapsed by the side of the road – signalling, perhaps, the next major development in the story (an epidemic of some kind, perhaps?).  Or it could just be an opportunity for Pariya to show off how good she is in a crisis in front of Umar…