It’s probably fair to say that last week’s episode of Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai was the weakest so far, but this one was a solid recovery.  That said, though, I have two thoughts predominating in my mind at the moment:

• Parents in Japan should never, ever get into a car or airplane
• Miyano Mamoru really needs to loosen up a little and not be afraid to go big

I had a feeling from the beginning where the “Ijuin Kaoru Show” was headed, but that didn’t stop it from totally working for me.  Friendship is something we sometimes take for granted and never should, and that we never appreciate so much as when we’re at our lowest point.  Tada-kun is if nothing else a stoic, and you have to wonder whether someone like that has a breaking point.  Holding it in all those years is hard, but maybe Kaoru’s general sense of goofiness acts as a kind of visceral steam valve for Tada – letting some of that pressure off without having to act in a way that doesn’t come naturally to him.

I certainly get why Kaoru could be a bit much for some viewers, don’t misunderstand.  There are many times I feel Miyano-san (and the writers) taking the schtick right to the edge of where it becomes grating, and sometimes they keep going one more step.  But I still feel he works much better as a focus character than Pin-sempai and Hina, at least based on the evidence of the last two eps (though as much as anything, I keep waiting for Nyanko-big to start talking again).  What Kaoru needs is a romance subplot of his own – whether he gets that with Alec remains to be seen, but she at least acknowledged (through her appetite) his cooking.

Romance has definitely been the side dish of this romantic comedy so far, but we keep getting little amuse-bouche tastes of it.  Who is the older girl (a bad omen for Yui-chan) Yamashita-kun is into, for example, and does Pin know Hina’s true identity?  The main course is obviously Tada and Teresa, and that got a bit of a nudge from Yui this week – there’s nothing like a hot public bath to loosen inhibitions.  Her pointed questions certainly caught Teresa off guard, and it’s pretty clear how Teresa feels – but something about the incident ten years ago is stopping her from acting on it.

The denouement of the episode – the flashback to 10 years ago and the first Ijuin Kaoru Show – is rather effective, a nice payoff for the ep’s buildup.  But it’s the postscript that scrambles the deck, because it finally introduces the blonde guy from the credits.  He’s Charles de Loire (Sakurai Takahiro, which seems to fit).  Whether he’s Teresa’s fiancee or merely a suitor we don’t yet know, but at the very least his presence is going to force Tada-kun to do something he doesn’t care to do – analyze his own feelings.  Drip by drip the truth is coming out, and Charles’ arrival may have been the event that finally opened the tap.