Maybe I’m crazy, but the sense of denial I get from some Otagal viewers is really striking. Is there really any doubt who Takuya is into? I feel like the series is hammering the point home week after week, but I keep seeing comments about how “balanced” the series is where the two girls are concerned. In terms of screen time, sure. But the romance side of it seems so clear-cut that the disconnect is hard for me to rationalize. Like I said, maybe I’m crazy.
Our always entertaining tour through the romcom standards continues this week, starting with summer homework. We know the drill here – Kei and Takuya are slacker students (her worse than him), Kotoko is totally on-it. She actually blows off helping them, which is a little surprising. Then it’s time for a seat change, which finds Kotoko and Takuya wistful about “breaking up”. Again, the romantic subtext here is thick enough to spread on toast, but people see what they want to see. Naturally Takuya ends up behind Kei this time – equal time here at least.
Could one make too much of Otaku-kun saying he missed sitting behind Ichiji-san? Sure, I suppose. But it comes off as him blurting out the truth in an unguarded moment rather than politeness. He’s still friendly with Kei of course – they’re pals after all – which attracts the attention of the guys in class. This almost leads to an embarrassing moment (and Takuya’s demise) when he starts to out Amane-san’s interest in “Glittermon”. But he giri-giri safes it at the wire by blaming it on her younger sister.
As for Kotoko, we learn she was confessed to by a dude in Class 1-D – a “serial confessor” – and turned him down. More fuel for the fire, though admittedly nothing definitive. She also takes time to leave Takuya a “funny” note in his textbook. Nope, no deeper meaning at all, nothing to see here. Then the main romcom trope event of the episode (and beyond) takes over – the culture festival. This one is just as much of a standard-bearer as the swimsuit/beach episode so you knew they’d get to it sooner or later.
Cosplay is the theme here. Largely because the class rep has deduced that leveraging Kei and Kotoko is the best way for the class activity to rake in the cash. Many ideas are tossed around for the pop-up shop, and a maid cafe is settled on. Kei has other ideas of course, but they would mean revealing her dark secret. One which Takuya wears openly, leaving him free to pursue his cosplay dreams. He also has an almost normal conversation with one of the other girls in class, which is evidence that he actually is starting to change as a result of his friendship with Ichiji and Amane.
The kicker here is Takuya and Kotoko going to Gen’s empty bachelor pad to work on their costumes. Again, seemingly every overtly romantic step forward here has been with Kotoko. Even Takuya isn’t dense enough to miss the implications of this arrangement, though the jury is still out when it comes to Kotoko’s intentions in setting it up. The pattern of advances and denials is a little frustrating, but it’s still moving things forward – the only pairing in the series one could say that about, if you ask me.
