It’s a truism of fiction that people whose lives are screwed-up are much more interesting subjects than those that are happy and well-adjusted.  The latter are boring, to be honest, and tend to make a lot of audience members/readers feel resentful.  Be it hard drama or romantic comedy, any series built around human relationships pretty much follows this model.  And it certainly applies to Nami yo Kiite Kure.

No question about it, Koda Minare is a walking dumpster fire.  Not all of those are fascinating but she is, in no small measure because she has a modicum of certain self-awareness about it (which is what makes her a compelling radio personality).  And there’s no small measure of irony in her reasoning for rejecting Nakahara-san, which is that he isn’t a walking dumpster fire.  Deconstructing the psychology of Minare’s life generally and this element of it specifically would be no small task, because I think it’s pretty complicated.  But that’s part of the reason why this series exists in the first place.

Mitsuo is at the heart of all this Minare dysfunction of course.  And he’s at the heart of her next broadcast, which Matou-san is putting together based on her (almost 9-hour!) recording of their date.  To that end he calls in Kakoton and Kakoen, a couple of sound-effects masters from the glory days of radio drama (almost).  It’s with stuff like this that Samaura betrays the fact that he must be a huge fan of radio, because this is such an affectionate and nostalgic take on the business.  The hilarious duo shows off some their skills and “equipment” for the enthralled youngsters and waxes nostalgic about the old days – but they have a few tricks up their sleeves, too.

Kakoton and Kakoen are great, but I think my favorite scene of the episode takes place at Voyager.  Minare receives a call from Matou-san and Chuuya hears her recounting details of their day together – culminating in her “poking into his hole”.  As if all that weren’t enough, she rejects Chuuya on the grounds that he cooks and cleans for himself.  This is classic Minare – she’s a huge mess, but she likes being with a man who’s an even bigger one because it forces (allows) her to be the mature, nurturing one.  She understands this about herself, but seems unable or unwilling to dig any deeper than that.

Makie’s intervention was long overdue if you ask me.  Matou-san is happy to let Minare be a force of destruction because it suits his purposes, and Mizuho-chan isn’t the confronting type.  She doesn’t seem to have any close friends.  So she keeps on using people and hurting them and herself – and having Makie call her our for it was refreshing (even if she has an ulterior motive, at least she’s not hiding it).  Minare’s cruelty towards Chuuya – a thoroughly decent guy who’s been honest about his feelings for her – doesn’t reflect well on her at all.  It’s thoughtless and petty.  She doesn’t owe him her affections, but she does owe him decent and respectful treatment (which he always gives her).

That takes us to the radio drama – and that’s a fascinating nesting doll unto itself.  Kakoton and Kakoen aren’t just horse noises and gag whistles – they’ve changed with the times.  And they take what Minare gives them and use it to simulate Mitsuo’s voice for an original script.  This finds Minare and Matou (making his dramatic debut for this series) burying Mitsuo’s dead body in the woods on a rainy night.  The most interesting part of this is that the two of them end up kissing (for 50 seconds!) and making plans to go to a love hotel.  Matou wrote this script after all, and I wondered if we might see some exploration of the sexual tension that subtly suggested itself between these two.  He can pass this off as just drama for the sake of it if necessary, but I’m not so sure.