At this point the only question with Super no Ura de Yani Suu Futari is whether I’m going to put “Season Finale” in the title line if we don’t get an announcement next week. A second season is coming, bar some sort of inexplicable Nozaki-kun mystery. This series has proved extremely popular, which to an extent I get (the manga was already quite a good seller). But I do think the reaction reflects a certain lack of critical discerning in a lot of the anime audience. This series’ flaws are pretty glaring – so are its charms, fortunately – but it seems like they rarely get pointed out.
Rarely has a magic bullet seemed so obvious. Smoking needs to acknowledge what’s obvious to everyone and move on, and everything would change (I would argue for the better). The smoking thing would still rankle but that’s priced in at this stage. But that would mean it has to let go of the hook, and prove it can succeed without it. And yeah, that’s a hard step for an author to take. The hook is a drug, a crutch. Yamamoto Souichirou did with Takagi-san, and it allowed the series to really take off. I think the same would happen here. But it’s a leap of faith, both in yourself and your audience.
New Year’s holidays are here, and even Sasaki-san gets a few days off. Yes, most supermarkets do close over the holiday – anywhere from 1-3 days – and Super S is no exception. But Yamada-san is absent for even longer, as she comes down with an anime cold. Gotou-san has to basically force her to leave, and we end up with the counter chief and even Obata-kun facing customers (poor guy, that’s a stress bomb for him). Tenchou-san gets sick too but – despite lecturing Yamada over it – keeps working. And Yamada feels guilty for not doing more to keep her from getting sick.
When Sasaki-kun stops by to buy his basket of beer and mochi chips and offer Oshougatsu greetings, Gotou ropes him into calling “Yama” to guilt her into staying home. At this point he’s basically on-staff. This leads to the funniest moment of the episode as Yamada has a queasy “which one?” moment – who did Sasaki think he was calling? Fortunately Gotou has named her “Yama” which works either way, but she doesn’t know that. Initially she assumes it’s a call for Yamada because Sasaki is being polite, but he bails her out by using “Tayama-san” in the conversation. And the ploy works, though she’s 100% right to call out the hypocrisy of Sasaki of all people lecturing someone on taking time off.
While out, Yamada has a fever dream where she’s talking to “that tall customer” in front of the store and he has Sasaki’s voice. And she still doesn’t put it together, ROFL. It’s almost down to self-parody at this point. In fact there are times where I wonder if the “almost” is correct, but in the end I don’t think this is intended to be as ridiculous as it seems. In any event Sasaki heads home to Mie for the holiday and immediately slips into his Mie-ben. Of course he draws a “bad luck” omikuji, but he reflects on the “people” he got to know during the last year and notes that the same fortune didn’t seem to do him any harm last time.
I talk about the mistaken identity thing a lot, but of course even correcting that wouldn’t rectify another major issue with Super no Ura – to wit, Sasaki continuing to let his life be ruined by his black company and cretinous boss. Sadly a lot of workers in Japan never do get past this so it’s not like it’s unrealistic, but it’s still a bit unsatisfying. Even getting a few days with no badgering from his boss or customers he’s consumed with worry about what will happen when it all starts up again (that’s how it works). If Yamada-san can do anything for Sasaki, I hope it’s to convince him that it’s not worth letting his life be ruined by a nightmare job.
