No question about it, Misuzu is the most difficult character in Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko.  Difficult to like, difficult to figure out, difficult to ignore in terms of how much of a trope she is.  The thing is, this series basically trades on doing tropey things in an entertaining and original fashion.  And that’s mostly been the case with Misuzu, especially since Carol was added to the mix.  Plus, it’s interesting to have a character of such murky moral and ethical standing in a series like this (and to an extent, Carol is another).  But she still does stuff sometimes that just makes me shake my head.

But that’s later in the episode, mostly.  First is the better of the two chapters, as Tomo-chan decides to get a part-time job to raise funds to buy Jun a birthday gift.  Misuzu may have been literally being truthful when she said she didn’t trust Tomo to go off on her own and not cause a disaster, but we all know the real reason is that she loves controlling Tomo’s life as much as possible.  Her getting into a relationship is obviously a threat to that (among other things), but her getting a job is too.  Anything is better than Tomo becoming an independent woman as far as Misuzu is concerned.

This is also Tatsumi’s meatiest role to date, as he talks the girls (Carol tags along despite being obscenely rich) into working at the family shop, “God Ramen Tatsumi”.  That also means wearing the uniforms he picked out – except the one he really wants to see in it refuses to wear it.  This experiment goes  more or less at you’d expect: Tomo-chan is stiff and nervous but works her way into it, Carol is utterly useless, Misuzu is a model of efficiency and professionalism.  And when she turns Carol into a shop girl God Ramen gets what’s probably its biggest influx of customers in years.

The one customer Tomo is concerned with is Jun, however.  He’s a regular but not as regular as he gets when he finds out Tomo is working there – he stops by every day she’s working and waits to walk her home.  He also tells her the costume is “not bad”, which is enough to cause a small volcanic eruption.  With her earnings (damn right they deserved a bonus) she buys Jun a smart watch (it matches hers – how adorable is that) and brings over a cake.  But Jun declines to have a party at his place with his parents out, which should tell you the level of self-awareness he has about this relationship even if Tomo doesn’t realize it.

That B-part, though…  Tomo coming to Misuzu for advice on romance and Jun is certainly nothing new.  Sometimes the advice has even been right.  But this business of pushing Jun down the stairs – that’s just sick.  I get that this is a comedy but it’s not Osomatsu-san or something, and that stunt really crossed the line.  Even Misuzu realizes that, though that’s not much good when it happens after she’s already committed the psychotic act.  Yes, she should have realized sooner that she doesn’t want the two of them to get together, but denial is more than a river in Africa.

Misuzu getting roped into playing Cinderella (though Carol wasn’t thinking in those terms) while she was out faking sick rather than face Tomo was exactly what she deserved.  OK, she knows she fucked up and that she is fucked up – now she has to prove that matters.  Tomo is her friend and she should care if her friend is happy, period.  It’s rather than ironic that Tomo gets jealous of how close Misuzu and Carol have become even as Misuzu is pushing her away.  Jun as Cinderella is way more amusing than Misuzu, actually…