In this instance you have to take “First Impressions” with a grain of salt. I’ve talked about Super no Ura de Yani Suu Futari plenty, actually. We did a podcast episode about it – that was a Patron Pick choice, in fact. There’s also the fact that something like half the anime got released a month early in 15 minute chunks, which strikes me as very weird but whatever. I made the choice to cover the series on its actual release, for better or worse. Some of you will already have seen most of it but this is what gives me half a chance to keep up with the workload. And I’ve always hated dump releases, for anime or otherwise.

Interestingly we have two shows this season releasing on the same day from the same studio with the same director. That would be Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You and Reiwa no Dera-san, from studio Asahi and Suzuki Masato. When that happens you can bank that one of them has been finished for a while, and that’s very like this one given that early release. It also figured to be the higher priority of the two series, with the bigger budget – it won the Next Manga in 2022 and has been nominated for the Manga Taishou, and sells quite well. And while Dera-san looks perfectly fine, I would say the evidence supports that theory.

The premise of this series is extremely simple at the heart of it. Downtrodden salaryman Sasaki (no first names are used in this series to my recollection) soothes his soul by visiting his favorite checker at the 24-hour “S” Supermarket, Yamada-san of register two. You might say there’s some romantic element to this in a very innocent way, but he really does just like to bask in her positivity and youth. Sasaki-san is a heavy smoker, his boss is a hard-core black company pig, and his diet seems to consist of prepared slop, beer, and mochi chips. I have no idea how this guy is still alive.

One night after checking out he’s about to light up in self-pity since Yamada-san isn’t working, but can’t find anywhere to do so. A sultry voice and hand beckon to him from a nook by the loading dock behind the store, and a young lady named Tayama-san tells him he can smoke there, no one cares. Tayama is a bit of a bad girl fashionista, and clearly loves to yank this Oji-san’s chain. But she tells him she’s glad he’s not just another creep getting trying to get into Yamada’s pants.

There are a few conceits you sort of have to accept in the interest of suspension of disbelief if Super no Ura is going to work for you. First of all, that Sasaki-san wouldn’t be able to tell that Tayama and Yamada are the same person (which the narrative really makes no effort to hide). I also found it pretty annoying how everyone – crucially Tayamada and Sasaki himself – act like Sasaki is some sort of dithering old geezer. He’s 39 FFS. This is a common trait for animanga of course, but it’s really played to the hilt here.

Then we have the smoking, which to me is sort of the elephant in the room. It’s obviously indispensible to the core premise, and narrative fiction has no obligation to conduct itself like a PSA. That said – smoking is incredibly bad for you. It’s bad for everyone around you. I’m not sure how I feel about a whole series built around it with basically no one ever talking about how neither of them (but especially Sasaki) should be doing this. Those are really the main reasons I liked the manga rather than loved it.

That said, I do think this is a very good series all things considered. Sasaki and Yamada are a very winning pair no matter which face she’s wearing, and Sasaki works as a sympathetic protagonist. He’s got the sad sack thing down to a science – abused and taken advantage of at work, lonely, almost totally lacking in self-respect. But he’s a good dude – he takes care of his kouhai, he treats people way better than they treat him. And Yamada/Tayama seeing that- and that contrast it obviously presents o most of the men in her life – is an emotionally engaging process to watch. I like some of the side characters too, a group we get only the smallest taste of in the premiere. There’s way more good than bad with Super no Ura de Yani Suu Futari, and the best is yet to come.