One of the questions I’ve been asking about Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! is, how do you turn one volume of manga (even two, if they include the sequel) into a full cour anime? The answer, apparently, is to move things around and add a lot of new material. So I hear from manga readers, anyway. Not all of them are pleased, but manga readers rarely are even if changes are for the better. Obviously not having read the manga I can’t speak to the question myself – all I can do is judge the anime on its own terms.

Those terms were quite positive after the double-premiere, which I gather was more faithful. They’re even more so now, as this was easily the best ep so far in my view. Maybe that implies that the changes are improving things, but that’s not for me to decide. This was a pretty radical departure from last week in that much of the episode shifted away from Nakamura-kun’s perspective. And to whom? That would be Kawamura Hifumi, the bespectacled art whiz and self-described fujoshi.

She and her friends Okuda and Hamaoka (who couldn’t possibly look more like they were lifted from Rumiko’s sketch book) are in fact pretty hard-core fujoshi. They lovingly ship the boys in class, talking of tops and bottoms and bicycles (though the latter was a subbing choice – I confess it’s a term I hadn’t heard before in this context, LOL). And because Hifumi is such a good (and freaky fast) artist, the other two frequently ask her to draw scenes of their favorites pairings. Given the central premise it’s not hard to see where this is going.

Cue art class, where today’s assignment is to sketch a student model and Hirose-kun draws the short straw. Hifumi is fine with this of course, but it’s Nakamura-kun who’s over the moon. He gets to leer at Hirose all he wants, and he fancies his sketch to be the best in class. That is, until he gets a look at Kawamura-san’s. One notable moment here, I think, is that Hirose is obviously creeped out by Nakamura’s unvarnished adoration. I think an elephant in the room here is that Hirose is being objectified in a pretty big way. It’s innocent enough given the ages of the people involved, but it’s not fair to him – he’s a person. I kind of wonder whether that’s something the narrative is going to address at some point.

The upshot of these events, though, takes things in a totally different direction. Hifumi is initially creeped out by Nakamura’s interest in her sketch (she’s an introvert after all). But when he declares himself a fan and asks if he might have the drawing, she practically swoons. She’s an artist – “I’m your fan!” is the surest way to her heart. So at once she’s nursing a massive crush on Nakamura, not realizing that he’s more a fan of the model than the artist. Her wingwomen get hold of this and run with it, pushing her to confess to Nakamura. That would have ended disastrously if he was who she thought he was, but instead ends with him commissioning her to draw he and Hirose-kun as friends in his notebook.

Hifumi overdelivers, writing a whole manga about the pair of them. But she still harbors her crush, despite Nakamura looking like “someone drew a face on a mushroom”. When the three of them are locked in the storage room together after gym (entranced by a nursing mama mouse and her pups – that’s what they’re called, look it up) the dynamic changes yet again. After some small talk and weak-ass shiritori, Hirose and Hifume both nod off in the heat. Nakamura-kun indulges in a sniff of and adoring gaze at Hirose-kun, and Hifumi-san witnesses it. So does the asshole phys ed teacher, Niou-sensei, when he finally lets them out, which is worrying.

Bottom line – all this is pretty great, really (including yet another retro ED). It’s about as well as I’ve ever seen the same-sex romance angle handled as the center of a mainstream anime, and Hifumi’s inclusion makes things even more interesting. Given her hobby shipping Nakamura and Hirose should be gold for her – but she fell for Nakamura herself. And what of Hirose – his feelings have barely been explored, except his brief assertion that he isn’t crushing on anyone. Funny, charming, cheeky – all the boxes you’d like a school romcom to check, Ganbare Nakamura-kun is pretty much checking them. Is it any wonder it got a category entry?