It’s hard to overstate just how effortlessly charming this series is.  This is true slice of life as I crave it in anime – character-driven, with stuff actually happening, but the sort of stuff that actually happens in real life.  I don’t see the appeal of shows that obsess over lolis doing nothing, quite frankly – without a little character tension, what does any of it matter?  In Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi you have a mixed-gender cast, enough romantic spark to keep the kettle on, and lots of relationship variety.  That’s a winning formula.

It certainly doesn’t get more tropey than the beach episode, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be great. This succeeded by a fairly  conventional but very challenging route.  Which is to say, it had a little fanservice but not so much as be crass, and it used the fanservice for plot progression and comedy.  It utilized all the cast members just about equally.  And the humor was in classic Senpai ga Uzai style, cheeky but not too mean-spirited.  And when it was over, all of the relationships had gotten a solid nudge forwards.

I did say “all”, and not “both”.  And I think we officially have a “C” couple now, though the nature of Natsumi and Yuuto’s relationship is somewhat complicated.  The occasion here is a beach trip with Yuuto and Futaba that Touko takes it on herself to invite Takeda-san and Natsumi along for as well.  Takeda kind of steals the show here for me, because his fecklessly direct persona never misses a beat.  His “You’re quite an eyeful!” response to Natsumi and Touko and “There’s not much to see.” to Futaba were a bit cold, but not intended that way – this guy is just relentlessly honest.  We all know where those three sets of eyes were looking – why pretend otherwise?

It’s still hard to see Harumi and Futaba as a couple, both because of the comic size difference and because she comes off as such a child.  But they do  grow ever-closer, and as hard as Harumi is to read there’s no doubt he considers her a very precious person in his life.  For Touko and Souta it’s much simpler, they’ve got everything but the hanko at this point.  I certainly don’t deny that she’s a blatant nadeshiko character, but I can’t help but like her in spite of that.  These two are bread and butter, mac and cheese – they just go together naturally.

Then we have Natsumi and Yuuto, who are in many ways the most interesting pairing of the lot.  I still don’t know how old Yuuto is – he looks about 14 but my gut says he’s like Futaba – but whatever it is he’s obviously too young for her by miles.  And she slips neatly into the big sister role, offering sage advice and gentle (mostly) ribbing.  But it’s pretty much impossible for a pubescent boy to spend close time with a woman like Natsumi and not be smitten, much less on a beach in bathing suits.

The thing is, though, I think Natsumi kind of likes Yuuto in that way too (she did blush as well, you’ll notice).  She likes being someone seen the way he sees her, at the very least.  When they were talking about whether it was weird for a boy and girl to be friends, they may as well have been talking about themselves.  I get Yuuto’s conundrum here, and it’s really accentuated by this beach trip.  Everyone (including the pretty onee-sans) thinks he’s adorable and spoils him, which he kind of likes – but he also hates it, because it makes him feel less like a man.  I think it’s no coincidence it was Futaba defending Yuuto when the teasing got out of hand – she understands his dilemma better than anyone.

There were all sorts of charming and funny moments scattered through the episode, like the ebiten avalanche, and the cicada causing Souta to pass out.  I also liked how everyone cooed over Harumi and Futaba falling asleep in each others arms at the ryokan, only have them return the favor on the train (and the episode made pains to pair the three couples off very specifically, not just two).  Making it look as easy as Senpai ga Uzai no Hanashi does is actually one of the hardest things for a series to do, and often one of the most underappreciated.