The only word that insistently pops into my mind after that episode is “shameless”.  It suits Atarashii Joushi wa Do Tennen to a T – and that’s fine.  It’s a “to thine own self be true” kind of thing.  This series makes no bones about what it’s about, and folks can either take that or leave it.  There are moments when I feel like it’s too over the top, but interestingly they always seem to happen in the first half of the episode.  By the B-part I’ve usually given up resisting and just gone with the flow.

So in that light, introducing a kitten into the mix is the least surprising thing in the world.  Making it a tsundere one voiced by Shimono Hiro just gilds the lily.  The truth is many cats are, to an extent, tsundere – that’s part of why we love them.  This one has good reason to be, having been first figuratively and then literally abandoned by its previous owner.  As with the black company thing, Atarashii Joushi actually goes pretty dark with this syndrome in its stealthy way.  There are a ton of horrible cat owners out there, and the whole “cats are independent” myth can suck a sock as far as I’m concerned.

Naturally Momose and Shirosaki both love cats.  The wrinkle here is that cats always hiss at Shirosaki (via Hakutou we learn it’s because he has cat eyes in a giant human body), but this one winds up warming to him after a slashing incident.  Having always wanted a cat but never found one that would accept him before, Shirosaki-san immediately moves into adoption mode and the first stop is the correct one, the vet.  Momose-san is moved to tears by all this but his boss convinces himself it’s because he actually wanted to adopt the cat himself.

That leads to perhaps the most shameless moment in an episode full of them, when Yuusei gives Kentarou his house key on the train, unsurprisingly utterly clueless as to how this would be perceived – perhaps it’s a little surprising that Kentarou seems just as oblivious.  The series isn’t even bothering to deny it now, and with the whole office gossiping about it, seems likely it’s going to be acknowledged even more directly in future episodes.

Then we have that whole tanuki story with Yuu’s grandma (now a YouYuber).  That’s funny, but of course in real life if you tried to pick up a wild tanuki like that it’d rip your face off.  The tanuki naming experience with Grandma (“Yuba”, which also means tofu skin) leads to Hakutou getting his name.  So our two lads have now exchanged house keys, and named their pet a combination of their two names.  I mean, it’s pretty much just a matter of choosing the rings at this point.

Lastly, we have Sugita’s boss character, Aoyama-san, whose abandonment issues seem as if they’re going to be playing a role in the story going forward.  Nobody at work seems to notice him, his wife left him, and he goes home every night and cuddles with a giant stuffed bear named “Kumotte”.  We know his own forgiving nature led to Shirosaki being the good boss he turned out to be, so I assume he’s going to get drawn into the circle of positivity at some point.  His isolation could be used as a running gag, but Atarashii Joushi wa Do Tennen doesn’t seem like that sort of series.