I don’t think anyone would disagree that Kono Kaisha ni Suki na Hito ga Imasu is a workplace romance, genre-wise. We tend to focus on the romance side of the equation. And so does the series, to be fair. But the “workplace” aspect is really of equal importance. This is an observational show, and most of its observations about romance observe it in the workplace context. And it’s quite adept at musing on workplace culture generally, romance be damned.

As someone who’s never engaged in a workplace romance (though has been falsely accused of it) but has worked in myriad environments, I Have a Crush at Work resonates with me in this respect. It gets the details right almost all the time. This episode was all about that – specifically, the Japanese twist on it. In the land of “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down” stuff like what Yui was going through here is a common problem. I must admit I disagree with the course the series eventually took, however.

The driver of all this is Kiribayashi Hiromi (Miki Shinichirou), the 36 year-old director of the New Business Division (which he created). Miki is a lot older than that of course but he’s one of the best seiyuu that ever lived, and he can project the brash maverick energy Kiribayashi brings with no difficulties. Yes, it’s rare for a 36 year-old to be a director in a Japanese corporation. But Kiribayashi is a guy who does his own thing. A hotshot in the sales department, promoted young, making a big noise at New Business. And he’s interested in Yui as a potential candidate to join his team (for reasons which, if we’re honest, are a bit nebulous based on what we’ve seen).

I found his interactions with Yui and the Planning Division quite fascinating. Frankly, I sided with Kiribayashi about almost everything in this ep. He dares to call out the ponderous collaborative process by which Planning (and most every department at every Japanese corporation) is run. Seriously, this is the land of groupthink and the amount of time spent in meetings – and preparing for meetings, and meetings discussing what was said in meetings – would sound almost unbelievable to an unknowing Westerner. Goc forbid someone like Yui should want time to work on her own projects (and try to make a splash), because it might have some impact on her being a servant of the team.

My view as someone who isn’t 27 or Japanese is that Yui should have snapped Kirabayashi’s hand off accepting his offer. I totally get why she’s hesitant – she feels loyal. She doesn’t want to abandon all the hard work she put in trying to advance at a sloth’s pace. But also because that’s been hammered into her brain since she was a child. The nail that sticks up gets hammered down. Better to fail the proper way than succeed improperly. And because Yui is Yui (and I totally get this) she overthinks everything. She stresses non-stop over it. It’s nice that Masugu can be there for her as a supportive sounding board, but this week is really all about her.

I pretty much assumed Yui would turn Kirabayashi down, because this is a Japanese series. I feel like the writing is trying to have it both ways here, with Yui standing up for herself and getting a bunch of what she wanted while still subverting herself to the group. And having Kirabayashi let her join the study sessions – run for the benefit of his department succeeding where the other’s fail – was a pretty big cop out. Yui had a huge decision to make here. I happen to think she made the wrong one, but irrespective of that – for me their needed to be consequences either way, because there are. So letting her have her “darz” cake and eat it too is a pretty big cop-out.