When this episode ended, the first thing I did was literally say “Hmmm. Hmm, hmmm, hmmm.” I genuinely wasn’t sure what to make of it. Or rather, I was – I liked it – but I was trying to figure out whether I should. That’s a dangerous road to go down, and generally speaking one should trust their first instinct on these matters. But our minds don’t stop processing things once that moment passes, and of course there are times when that first instinct can be wrong.
The gist of it is this: any time anime tackles gender politics, it’s a veritable minefield. That’s a function of what anime is, and also of Japanese society (still one of the least advanced in the first world when it comes to advancement for women) as a whole. When you’re talking about a premise where a professional woman has her sempai at the office tousle her hair and laugh at her incessantly, that’s the sort of scenario that’s rife with axle-snapping potholes. My gut tells me it managed to avoid them all somehow, but that could be my heart shouting down my head.
The woman in question is Igarashi Futaba (Kusonoki Tomori) and the sempai is Takeda Harumi (Takeuchi Shunsuke). The fact that she’s tiny and he’s a great bear of a man brings all this into focus, of course, but it’s also 100% integral to the premise. Why does she have to be tiny? I mean, why go there? Well, you wouldn’t have a story otherwise, not this story anyway. But that dichotomy brings an air of condescension to events that I can’t deny is very real. That the story manages to be quite charming anyway is something of a miracle but for me at least, it does.
Fundamentally this works for a few reasons. Most essentially the writing is quite good – the dialogue is snappy and often funny, and the sense of office politics is spot-on. As someone with some experience on that score I admit I’m a sucker for good anime with this setting, and there aren’t all that many. It also works because the relationship between Igarashi and Takeda is rather sweet. They genuinely like each other, these two, and it’s not (just) some plot-device romantic infatuation but a like that’s grounded in their everyday relationship. The fact is, a fictional relationship (and a real one I suppose) can be both sweet and condescending whether we like it or not.
Is all the stuff with Futaba heaping sugar in her coffee and liking oshiruko (sweet red bean soup) and falling asleep on the train strictly necessary? That’s an interesting question in its own right, and if the answer is yes, is that a demerit against Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi? I don’t know to be honest, but she’s undeniably very childlike and that’s at the heart of both the comedy and the more dramatic side of the series. As for Takeda, what redeems him is that he conducts himself as a good senior at work should – he teaches, he gives his protege opportunities to succeed (and fail), and takes the heat for them when necessary. He just also likes tousling his protege’s hair and laughing.
Takeda is a good bloke, really. And Futaba is not dumb by any means – she’s ambitious, she’s pretty competent (yeah she slipped up once but we all do that), and she dislikes having Takeda shield her too much. There’s also the inevitable angle which surfaces when the two of them go out for drinks after rescuing things post-screwup. She asks the burning question of why he’s so nice to her, and Takeda answers that if he had a wife and kid, he’d want the kid to be like her. To which she (half-drunk) replies, “Why couldn’t I be the wife?”
In a way, I’m glad they blew right past that time check in the first episode. As to the relationship itself, well – if you set aside the physical thing she’s probably 23 or so and I’m guessing he’s 30-ish, so that’s safely inside the touchline. But you can’t set it aside – the series makes sure of that. And it paints things in an interesting light to be sure. I’m not sure what to make of it and I’m not sure what to make of Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi, except that I like it – it was a sleeper going in, and the first premiere of the season that comfortably exceeded my expectations. And for now, I’m just going to have to go with that.
Snowball
October 10, 2021 at 10:41 pmThis was a pretty good premiere on the whole, perhaps my third favourite of the season. I like how it focuses on adults in a sales working environment and the dynamic between the two leads, but I do wonder why Futaba has to be such a loli, though not an annoying one.
Guardian Enzo
October 11, 2021 at 8:27 amI think it’s just a hook, plain and simple. You probably can’t get a workplace serialization these days without a tropey hook.
Nathan
October 10, 2021 at 10:45 pmI felt very similarly to you about this episode as well. I kept waiting for something problematic to happen and was happily surprised when nothing too bad actually did yet. I hope it remains charming and grounded throughout and this may become my anime of the season. (I’m also a sucker for a good office setting).
Guardian Enzo
October 11, 2021 at 12:38 amA big rubicon to be crossed is if/when they become a couple. That will obviously change the dynamic considerably. But for now, I was very entertained.
Nathan
October 11, 2021 at 1:15 amYa, that’s very much true. At least it seems like early next episode will address it or at least show us how it’s going to handle the potential romance and we will either like it or drop it.
sab0tender
October 13, 2021 at 5:19 pmHey Enzo, long time reader (I mean years and years, my guy) first time commenter. Apologies in advance for this Ted Talk of a comment…
I usually agree with your takes, and our taste in anime lines up well, but man, what happened here? haha.
After watching Uzai Senpai and Taishou Otome, I came over here for your first impressions and was stunned at how I’m on the complete opposite side of things with these two shows.
So here, we’ve got “a premise where a professional woman has her sempai at the office tousle her hair and laugh at her incessantly, that’s the sort of scenario that’s rife with axle-smashing potholes.”
Dude, those ain’t potholes, those are sinkholes that swallow up this whole dang show. In an office environment, the laughing isn’t so bad (some cases, still bad), but the hair tousling? yikes. I’d never tousle a female coworker’s hair in the office to “praise her” for doing a good job. It assumes that in the office, there is an implicit male-female power imbalance where males can get away with laying hands on female employees without reprimand. If he just put a hand on her back/shoulder and said “good job” I’d feel better, but hair touching feels like a line has been crossed. Off the clock, at the bar, sure, flirt a little. But given the power dynamic, for Tanaka to be doing that in the office, that’d be some kind of harassment in a North America for sure. And it should be viewed that way, females shouldn’t be subjected to that in the work place. Here, it’s played off as endearing. And really, we’re watching Futaba’s (somewhat tsun)dere reaction to being head patted, giving her more charm points for us viewers, and distracting from the power imbalance.
In Taishou Otome, you criticize the show for being sexist and worshiping at the alter of the divine loli, but if we look at Uzai Senpai, we’re still dealing with Japan’s unfortunate gender roles, and instead worshiping at the alter of the dojikko office loli.
“Why does she have to be so tiny? I mean, why go there?” Because she has to be for the character to carry maximum appeal given the premise of the show. Futaba is just as much an “unrealistic depiction of juvenile femininity” as Yuzuki is in Taishou Otome. That depiction of juvenile femininity is just different here. The choice for Futaba to be a dojikko loli sets her up as not-quite-a-woman and inexperienced, but with the potential to blossom that the male gaze is supposed to find attractive. Her diminutive frame is cute, child-like, and completely intentional to further hammer home the senpai/kouhai and male/female power dynamics of the show…
That said, Futaba is absolutely adorable and I love the character in isolation—she’s cute as hell, design is great—but here I feel more creeped out about how the viewer is supposed to read her. To me, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m supposed to think “I wish I had a kouhai that was this cute in my office…” she’s wish fulfillment, presenting the “perfect” working female that is cute, is in love with me, and I feel compelled to protect (as Tanaka even says!!!) because I’m a man, and that’s what men do, protect girls. As you point out, Tanaka does seem like a good dude, and like… I agree… but I couldn’t help but watch and think that Futaba is a bunch of tropes geared to appeal to men, male viewers are supposed to identify with Tanaka, and it makes it more worrisome because it’s set in a modern setting, it seems to be reinforcing the notion that this girl is the ideal—even in our current moment—and wouldn’t it be great if she showed up in your office. At least Taishou Otome can excuse its busted gender roles as being accurate to the time period.
Comparing Futaba to Yuzuki, I was on board with your read on Yuzuki until the back half of Taishou Otome’s first ep, when Yuzuki doesn’t sleep with Tamahiko and instead says “I want to see more sides of you, so that I can fall in love with you.” This shows you that Yuzuki is actually a character with more agency than we give her credit for. She is playing the role of divine perfect loli wife because her circumstances gave her no choice. Given the time period, her prospects were never great, because it’s Japan and gender roles suck, so she’s doing the best she can. She is competent at her “job” and through that flashback is shown to have had some kind of life that doesn’t revolve around men (though I’m sure girls schools at the time were mostly prep for housewifery). Yuzuki is someone who was admired by her cohort at her school. Though they do say that “she’d make a perfect bride,” Yuzuki doesn’t respond positively to that statement, hinting that she may have other ideas for her future. She seems strong to me, and her subservient ideal female role feels like an act.
Futaba by contrast gets flustered on the job (which is supposed to be cute), messes up an order for a client (giving Tanaka a hero moment to help her through it), and in the FIRST episode asks Tanaka if she could be his wife, which, for most Japanese women, would mean giving up her career to start raising kids while the man continues to work. Japan’s nationalist rhetoric still promotes motherhood as the ideal role for women in society, which is pretty brutal to hear in 2021 (not that motherhood can’t be wonderful and fulfilling as well), and I worry that Uzai Senpai sees motherhood as the only role for Futaba. Yuzuki is open to the idea of love, but doesn’t feel like she has to give it all up to Tamahiko as if she were owned by him or something. On New Year’s Eve, she could have easily said “Tamahiko-sama, I am yours, do with me what you will.” And he could’ve boned her right there, But that doesn’t happen.
Now, unlike Tanaka-senpai who is presented as condescending to his loli-kouhai, Tamahiko is somewhat in awe of this girl who is to be his wife, doesn’t know what to make of her (“why would she be so nice to a worthless guy like me?”), and is given more of a backstory in the first episode to give us a sense of where his head is at. We don’t hear any internal monologue from Tanaka, so we have no idea what to make of him, we’re completely focused on how adorable Futaba is. That’s all we have to work with. She’s the only character we’re supposed to feel something for, and based on how she’s presented, we’re supposed to fall in love with her because she’s so adorable. We at least get some character development for both the male and female leads in Taishou Otome to balance our investment.
Yuzuki certainly has cuteness tropes that undermine her, and it’s still trope-ish for a perfect female to come along and fix a broken man, but I dunno, I feel like Taishou Otome could potentially end with Tamahiko relieving Yuzuki of her duty to be his wife, or at least taking a much greater interest in her dreams, breaking down the “being the ideal wife is my dream” facade, and perhaps helping her reach a goal of some sort (she sings in ep 1, maybe she wants to be a performer? who knows). The end game for Uzai Senpai feels like Futaba gets to be a mother, and that’s it. I’d love to be wrong though! Maybe Tanaka gets to monologue in episode 2 and it clears up some of the hang ups I’m having.
So yeah, sorry for the huge ramble here. Keep up the great work!