Don’t forget about the little clueless transfer student.  So many good series this season, so many of them relationship driven – Saturday through Tuesday is a real murderer’s row of them.  This humble little adaptation about grade schoolers by a Pierrot (who basically hold the patent on unheralded great adaptations) spinoff doesn’t have a chance to draw as much attention as its competition.  But it does so many things incredibly well, this series.  It was never a sleeper for me because I knew how good the manga is, but it’s definitely one of this season’s stealth fighters.

As I’ve noted before Jijou Tenkousei definitely accents the “com” half of the genre tag.  By necessity – these kids are in fifth grade.  It leads with humor most of the time, but there’s an underlying bittersweet element that cuts through that even during the comic moments.  Basically, imagine what things would be like if Taiyou weren’t around – especially for Akane.  And the next thing you do after you imagine that is realize that was exactly what things were like for her before he transferred in.  For me at least that’s rather sobering, even as Taiyou is thrashing sadness to within an inch of its life with his fists of positivity.

Yes, this series can do serious – genuine seriousness, not bittersweet comedy.  This is the first example of it (at least this extended) in the manga, and while there aren’t a lot of them, it isn’t the last.  Akane is off to visit her Grandma (Itou Miki) in the inaka ((in Wakayama, judging by the cat train), and initially she asks Taiyou and Daichi if one of them can watch Kuro for her.  But they can’t – Takada-kun is off to visit old school friends and Daichi’s building doesn’t allow pets, only tank tops (though he did talk them into a hamster).  So she loads Kuro up in a carrier and he takes his first car ride (which, as with most cats, he’s not real thrilled with).

The first really heart-squeezing moment here is seeing how happy Akane is around her grandmother (that little spin, I could plotz).  She can be called cute and be unironically happy about it, she can finally talk about a friend and not be BS-ing.  However, Kuro gets out because Papa isn’t much of a cage-builder, and Akane blames herself because that’s what Akane does.  Eventually he’s found – by Taiyou, of all people.  Not only is his old school in Granny’s little town but she knows him (and has a very good time torturing Dad about Akane’s friend being a boy).  Taiyou was distracted from playing Pokemon Go by hearing Kuro’s name, and – as is his wont – immediately came to the rescue.

Sure, it’s a huge coincidence but I’d ride along with Akane (she just thought it, Taiyou blurted it out) on this and just say “fate”.  Honestly, Akane – loving her Grandma notwithstanding – has been daydreaming Taiyou the whole time so there’s no doubt the two of them are going to go off and frolic together.  At some point Dad seems to realize that Taiyou wouldn’t hurt a flea and passes his daughter off to him as they’re off to visit the family grave.  Akane takes Taiyou there later, where she impresses him with her knowledge of procedures (I never knew about that “don’t blow out incense” thing).  Then she drops the bomb – she’s mainly there to visit her mother’s grave.

All I can say is this – Taiyou’s reaction says everything you need to know about him.  His instant and immediate reflex is to he horrified that he’s been calling Akane “Grim Reaper” when she lost her mother.  I think he would be horrified to learn that he’d been causing pain to anybody, because he’s a bundle of pure kindness and the mere idea would horrify him.  That he was hurting his angel, of all people, just makes it unbearable.  Taiyou is no fool (as I often reflect when I watch him work) – his personality is genuine but he gets more than he lets on.  Akane is insistent that it’s fine, she’s never felt slighted by him in any way, but he’s so distraught that she basically has to lead him home by the hand.

That scene with the two of them walking home on dark mountain paths and streets – the fireflies, the street lamps, the stars – accompanied by an unusual inclusion of narration from Akane is really powerful.  This moment has brought them closer together than ever, there’s no question about it.  There’s still the question of that “Shinigami” nickname, which the other kids will keep using even if Taiyou foreswears it, to consider.  But this relationship has never been about that, so in the end I don’t think it matters all that much between the two of them.