Kubo-san is yet another one this season that would be right on the bubble for me – if it weren’t going on a season-long hiatus in two weeks. I liked last week’s episode quite a bit, this one not as much. There’s certainly a lot here to like but the total package is very hit and miss. Some shows we like more than it feels like we should, others not as much. And this is one of the latter, so far anyway.
It’s simultaneously interesting and annoying to wonder if Kubo-san (the character) is problematic. I’ve pretty much accepted at this point that she’s thoroughly cloaked in cute girl armor and intended to be taken as a perfect Goddess, and that Shiraishi-kun should consider himself lucky for any attention she lavishes on him. The church of the divine schoolgirl anime trope is very much in effect here, but I find a lot of what she does to be kind of disrespectful to Junta. And that’s laying aside the question of whether she’s an actual stalker (speculation this episode certainly doesn’t discourage).
The “transform!” bit with Seita was cute, but Nagisa just happening to be at the park and recording him was frankly kind of creepy. The bit with the socks, well…. Again, it’s kind of a violation of Junta’s personal space for Nagisa to pull up his pant leg like that. Maybe she’s just trying to send him a(nother) signal or maybe she’s acting like he’s her property (again), but it’s not like these two are dating – if he did that to her, I think the reaction would be pretty different.
Then we have the konbini drinks chapter, which was amusing in showing Nagisa’s odd fascination with this incredibly mundane phenomenon (for Goc’s sake, keep her away from the drink bar at Saizeriya). But it managed to irritate me twice, first with Nagisa taking a bite out of the nikuman uninvited, and then with yet another gag based on Shiraishi’s abjectly silly character trait. I can’t get past how much I dislike that pretext and how much better this series would be without it.
Finally, Valentine’s Day, as much of a staple in anime romcom as there is. Here, the problem is Junta having to be whacked pretty hard with the stupid stick in order for the plot to work. At this point is he really, really not able to make the connection and realize who left the cookie in his desk? It’s not even obligation chocolate like he says – it’s clearly and endearingly homemade. I get that Junta has a major self-esteem problem – that’s one of the more interesting avenues the series can explore. But he’s not an idiot, clearly. There’s just no way he could possibly be that dense (even before the conversation where Nagisa all but confirms that she left the chocolate).
Maybe the essential problem here is that Kubo-San wa Mob wo Yurusanai just asks me to accept too much silliness at face value. That, and I’m still not sure whether I like Nagisa or not. This ep was definitely way too Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san for comfort – most of these gags could just as easily have come from that series. It’s fine when Yamamoto does it, but that’s that and this is this. I am still more than vested enough to stick with it for two more eps, but what happens when we get to the theoretically jam-packed spring season is another matter.
