Tonikaku Cawaii is so easy to overlook in a season like this one.  It’s a show that seems to exist always on the periphery of the spotlight, certainly popular enough (it got two OVAs and a second season after all) but never the “it” anime of the moment.  I myself ranked it in the mid-tier category (the top of it, but still) in the preview despite S1 making my year-end Top  10 list.  It comes down mostly to the sort of series it is, I think – romcoms always struggle to attain the stature they deserve.  ToniKawa makes it look so easy that it’s easy to think it actually is – and it isn’t.

These first two episodes of S2 have really been first-rate.  I think this show works best as a slice of life in the end, because the life it’s a slice of is such a charming one.  The first chapter this week finds a big name joining the fray, with Itou Kanae playing Nasa’s former teacher Yanagi Naoko.  She’s an overworked, stressed-out JHS teacher (in Japan, I don’t think there’s any other kind), bemoaning Nasa no longer being around to drive up her class’ test scores.  Test scores are even more obsessively prioritized in Japan than in the States, first of all.  And having worked with them I can tell you junior high teachers in this country are ridiculously overworked and underpaid.  I can’t imagine why anyone does it, frankly – and in fact the country is grappling with a worsening teacher shortage (as it should be).

I really appreciate the message Hata Kenjirou is sending here, because the attitude towards work-life balance in Japan is abominable and the more writers point that out, the better.  Nasa is a brilliant boy, and indeed he could join the corporate rat race and make a lot of money working himself to death.  But he’s very happy because he adores his wife – and his life.  I get Yanagi-sensei being suspicious of an 18 year-old former student being married, but what she’s seeing is no mirage.  They have enough to live, they have friends, and they have each other.  Why would Nasa ever want to mess with that?

Next up is another new character. Ginga Onimaru (another big seiyuu, Okitsu Kazuyuki).  He does a pretty good job of convincing Tsukasa and Kaname that he’s a yakuza, but he’s in fact a high school student with mafia chuunibyou (and his own horde of followers).  He worships his cousin Nasa and always turns to him for advice, and this time it involves an abandoned kitten he and his bros have picked up somewhere out there on the streets.  Since Aniki has a history taking care of cats (there seems to be a backstory there somewhere) Ginga turns to him for help.  The most amusing part of this is the kiss sequence, because it’s a reminder of what a horndog Kaname is.

It’s certainly not surprising that Nasa knows a shitload about cats, because he’s pretty much a walking Google.  It’s equally unsurprising to see the attitude he takes – the responsibility for looking after a pet is a serious one and should be treated as such.  “Humans can manage their health, but pets don’t have that option”.  It’s such a common sense thing you’d think people would accept it at face value, but then you remember – a lot of people are assholes.  I something wish you hade to get a license to have pets (or kids) because there are a lot of people who do who really shouldn’t.

Nasa takes change, scolding Ginga for not taking the kitten to the vet first, and then giving him a serious shopping list.  Tsukasa names the kitten “Toast“, and Toast is rather testy when he first emerges from his carrier.  But he soon melts under the charm barrage (who wouldn’t), and thoroughly embraces his new servants (albeit a bit conditionally in Nasa’s case).  Certainly no reason the world these two shouldn’t keep Toast – no cat will ever be better treated, you can bank on that.  And even if it causes a few awkward moments in the love nest, this couple has so much affection that having another family member to lavish it on can only be a good thing.