An interesting question was running through my mind while watching this (excellent) episode of Tonikaku Cawaii.  Is this anime’s greatest season for couples?  It’s a damn good season generally – the best in a few years for sure, though I still think a notch below the true titans like Spring 2007 and Spring 2012.  But I don’t recall another strong season where so many of the top shows were romance-driven, and features such tremendous couples.  There are easily five or six anime couples this season that would normally be the best of the season, and contenders for best of the year.  It really is an embarrassment of riches for romcom.

This was such a fun and sensual episode.  Those are two things Tonikawa does exceptionally well, and it works so beautifully in these slice of life moments.  It’s also a good showcase for Kaname, who’s a funny combination of troll and wingman for Nasa.  Her obsession with sex (I’m surprised she didn’t say “be as loud as you want”) is a constant, but some of her academic knowledge isn’t far off the mark.  That whole “purring cat” thing was an interesting analogy, and it certainly caught Nasa-kun’s attention.  He may be a bit unpolished but he’s always thinking about how to be a better man and husband – and I think Tsukasa knows how lucky she is to have someone like that.

The thing I find so adorable about Nasa is the way he applies his scientific method to everything, including things which simply won’t be unlocked using it.  He’s so earnest, so dedicated to his personal belief system.  He overthinks, but not in the neurotic and self-destructive way of someone like Ichikawa from BokuYaba – in the end he has faith that he’ll get there (and usually he’s right).  Turning to shoujo manga as a means of sharpening his communications skills is very on-point for Nasa (and that observation about him being the only one who could tell Tsukasa he loves her very observant from Kaname).

This also gives Hata-sensei a chance to play with shoujo tropes, and we all know how good he at at playing with tropes.  And Tsukasa-chan a chance to play with Nasa, which she’s likewise good at.  He really is so majime, I know it would be hard to resist messing with his head a little.  This is all building towards Kaname’s big gambit, suggesting that the pair of them get into the women’s bath together.  She does this while in the men’s bath herself, and it should be noted that female employees going into the men’s bath at a sento happens all the time.  It used to freak me out (even though it’s usually a frumpy obaa-san – I can’t imagine what I’d have done if it was someone like Kaname) but I got used to it.

It’s funny how Tonikawa sometimes make it seem as like Nasa and Tsukasa still haven’t consummated their marriage, and then at times like this it appears that they’re routinely intimate with each other.  Each of them is in their element here – she’s oddly bashful in the circumstances, and he’s relentlessly over-analytical in the circumstances.  Eventually Tsukasa pops for a change of venue – to the sauna.  Sentos sometimes notoriously have crazy hot baths and saunas, and if I’m honest I’m with Nasa on this – those really boiling ones are too much for me.  But being in the sauna in a situation like this?  I can’t even imagine what that would be like.

As a fellow “amateur” I sympathize with Nasa here, but as is her wont Tsukasa is a sauna otaku.  She relishes the battle while he just suffers.  But he wants to uphold his duty, and 110 degrees C or not his libido is fully engaged.  We’ll never know what would have happened if cousin Ginga hadn’t fallen asleep in the men’s sauna (which is actually super-dangerous, by the way), but Nasa musing on how sexy his wife looked drenched in sweat makes one think possibly a lot farther than they did.  I would imagine that’s probably super-dangerous too, but it’s probably better not to put that to the test.