The formula for this show (apart from the mystical MacGuffin) is so bloody simple, really.  Two people in love, finding new ways to express that without annoying the censors.  I adore these two (as I do pretty much every couple in this couples-driven season), so what could or should be annoying is simply charming.  Is this all realistic?  It plays almost as a wish-fulfilment scenario by design (I certainly wish I were Nasa-kun), but in some ways I would argue surprisingly so.  Even taken as fantasy, though, it’s a pleasure to watch play out.

Nasa-kun is 100% too selfless for his own good, that’s for sure.  In his own way he’s every bit as idealized a mate as Tsukasa, a sort of male nadeshiko.  He’s brilliant, incredibly hard-working, and selfless.  He befits the term the Japanese consider the highest praise – sasuga (reliable).  And as Tsukasa says, the Japanese definition of reliability is basically doing things for you without expecting any reciprocity.  Whether that be fixing a vacuum (because he can) or tutoring a high school student despite never having attended high school (because he can) Nasa-kun is always happy to do it without expecting anything in return.

We’ve already seen the positive spin on Nasa this season, to wit his lack of interest in chasing “success” when he loves his life (and wife).  This ep makes you think of the flipside a bit – he’s a lad who absolutely could achieve notoriety and greatness in life if he were more ambitious.  There’s another side too, his lack of self-regard.  When I was managing cafes and bookstores I always used to tell my kids that their physical well-being was like a bank account.  Everyone is born with a different balance, and for most people it’s enough to get them through young adulthood without being overdrawn.  But every time you do something stupid (like a twist-and-lift) you’re making a withdrawal.  And eventually you’ll go to the ATM and have nothing left in the account.

So the massage was a nice idea on Tsukasa’s part – he sure needed it.  Of course with these two everything has an erotic edge to it, and I wonder if that whole sequence didn’t leave Nasa more stiff rather than less.  Naturally Nasa has no interest in accepting an act of kindness himself without reciprocating, so he’s uncharacteristically forceful in urging Tsukasa to let him return the favor.  In RL there’s no question where this would lead, but in that respect at least this series remains a fantasy (or at least it does as long as the cameras are on).

This segues naturally into kissing, courtesy of Kaname.  As ever she’s ridiculously horny, and flat-out asks Nasa how often he and his wife kiss every day.  During one of her presumably nightly porn searches she’s stumbled across a YouTube kissing video, and now compiled a kiss chart (helpfully illustrated on-screen by Hayate and Nagi) for Nasa describing what a kiss to various body parts means (kinda don’t need a chart for that).  Unbeknownst to him she’s also given it to Tsukasa, which has put the both of them in a certain frame of mind even more than usual.

On a stroll through the park after dark on the way back from the supermarket, the pair of them stumble across the teacher couple, who’ve clearly elevated their relationship to the next level.  Nasa is of a mind to do some public kissing himself, but Tsukasa’s views on this are on-point.  So they defer until back in the relative safety (with Kaname-chan around, it’s only relative) of home, at which point that chart gets put to good use.  I think we can assume at this point Toast gets put in the other room, and things take a more realistic turn (even if it is off-camera)…