In the realm of being a romcom fan, it seems to me that few phrases pack as much weight as “I really love these two idiots”.  The side characters here are great, don’t get me wrong.  They’re pivotal to the main plot in a really smart way, and interesting in their own right.  I’d even go so far as to say Carol’s arrival was the catalyst for the chemical reaction that made Tomo-chan really click as a show.  But Tomo and Jun are the whole point of this exercise for me, and ultimately the reason why I’ve come to love it as much as I have.  It’s going to suck when it ends because I’m seriously gonna miss it.  But at least we’re getting an old-school 13 episodes.

In looking back over my early posts on Tomo-chan (I didn’t much like the first episode), I find that the characters entertained me before I started to actually like them.  In short, I was (or so I believed at least) laughing at them in spite of my feelings for them.  But slowly and surely, that started to change.  It was Tomo and Jun first (I always kinda liked them), and it spread out from there  (I’m still a bit mixed on Misuzu if I’m honest).  I think this is really good writing, because even now it’s clear that these kids are (realistically) far from perfect.  They can be very selfish, they can be deceitful.  They can lack the courage to be honest with each other.

What happens, I think, is one starts to like them because of their flaws.  They are trying, all of them.  But being a human being in a society is hard, and being a 10th-grader (especially one in love) even harder.  This gang messes up a lot, they hurt each other, to an extent that’s sneaky dark for a series as superficially a madcap comedy as this one.  The fact that this is all adapted from a 4-koma manga makes the degree of depth and fluidity in the anime really astonishing.  When it comes to adaptations especially directors really, really matter – and Nanba Hitoshi is one hell of a good director.

Cue this episode, which I haven’t even talked about yet, and one which really moves the needle in critical ways.  There’s the play, first of all (with the major moms present).  Misuzu is a damn good actor, but it’s Prince Tomo that really steals the show.  The drama comes later, when it’s time for the usual culture fest courtship rituals.  Especially dancing around the bonfire, which seems to hold a lot of weight in the Japanese adolescent’s mind.  Jun asks Tomo to dance – Tomo accepts.  It’s awkward, but they (and we) are used to that.  Tomo jokes about how people might get the wrong idea, and Jun – finally – sees him moment arriving.  “It’s not wrong”  – three little words, but enough to change everything forever.

This frustrating moment is everything good and bad about Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko in a nutshell.  Tomo finally has what she wants – a confession, proof that Jun feels the same way about her as she does about him.  So what does she do?  She runs away, avoids the subject, goes all in on the “best buds” vibe, and gets violent.  I get it, this is kinda terrifying.  The whole irony of Jun having been very self-aware the whole time is rather overwhelming when you think about it.  And that Tomo needn’t have bothered with this whole charade about being more girly, because Jun never cared about that.  Misuzu has a lot to answer for, if we’re honest, but she’s just as weak as they are.

There’s a lot of apologizing in the second half of this episode, but it’s all pretty much plot-driven.  Jun’s apology to Misuzu was a testament to how much of a standup guy he really is (and I LOL’d pretty hard at who his hatsukoi was).  He doesn’t really owe Misuzu an apology (and he did give her one when he actually did, two years earlier).  Maybe he owes Tomo-chan the apology he gives her on the rooftop after baiting her up there with a challenge letter.  He was the first one to run away, after all.  And Misuzu certainly owes Tomo the apology she gives her for goading her into tying herself up in knots for absolutely no reason.  Tomo lets her off the hook pretty easily, but that’s the sort of person she is.

Kou-chan’s advice to Jun is probably the most grounded and sensible thing in the entire episode.  Jun-kun and Tomo are best served by playing it straight, but even that is hardly simple with the two of them.  With Tomo it mostly comes down to the fear of losing what she already has – her best bud.  Jun in afraid of that too, but seems determined to have his cake and eat it too.  Why can’t the two of them still be best buds, even if they’re also in love with each other?  Who says someone can’t be an osananajimi, a rival, a best friend, and a romantic partner?  Isn’t “all of the above” an option?

Well, that’s sort of an interesting question.  Is it?  On the one hand friendship can be a very solid foundation for love to build upon.  But love complicates things.  All things.  Maybe Jun and especially Tomo’s total cluelessness about what being lovers means and how lovers are supposed to act is a blessing – for now.  But eventually that lack of understanding is going to pose some hurdles, especially as things inevitably start to get really complicated.  It’d be fun to see how that plays out, though I don’t guess we’ll get much of that in a single remaining episode.