Well, this is kinda what I’ve been wanting from Skip and Loafer.  A little grain of sand to form the pearl.  Not every show has to have conflict but this one strikes me as having really needed some.  It doesn’t directly involve Mitsumi much, of course, but that’s actually something I’ve kind of come around to.  It sounds worse than it’s intended, but for me she’s kind of the weakest link of the series.  I like her plenty and she’s obviously cute and funny, but she’s just a little too emotionally indestructible to have anything really interesting develop around her character.  A good anchor, a steady heart – just not compelling in the way a truly great protagonist can be.

In point of fact, the character that’s doing the most for me at this point is Egashira Mika.  She sort of reminds me of Kawashima Ami from Toradora, who likewise for me ended up being more interesting than the protagonists (and a lot more likable than the female lead).  I disliked Ami at first, and while I didn’t dislike Mika, she didn’t immediately endear herself to me.  But she’s real in a way some elements of Skip to Loafer aren’t.  Her problems can seem petty to us but to her they’re monumental (which is adolescence in a nutshell).  And, most in contrast to what usually happens in this series, they’re persistent and not easily dismantled with charm and cuteness.

Sosuke’s problems have staying power too, of course, but they’ve mostly been danced around to this point.  That’s starting to change, which I’d consider another positive.  As he and Mitsumi go off on their zoo date, Mika decides to stalk them (and it’s exactly as lame as she admits to herself).  She finds an unlikely partner in Nao-san – in male trappings for the first time in the series – who’s concerned about some city boy toying with her little girl’s heart.  Mika doesn’t let that stand – she knows Sosuke’s not that kind of guy, and it’s to her credit that she defends his honor.  In doing so she has to admit not only that were all the things she was telling herself about Sosuke and Ririka nonsense, some of them were self-directed.

Skip and Loafer (I mean, I’m assuming the title has to refer to them) have a very nice date, no matter what anyone decides to call it.  But the heat is a bit much, prompting Sosuke to call if off early before Mitsumi succumbs to Japanese summer.  The gift shop is another little crack in his facade – he tells her that he has a three year-old brother, but it’s pretty obvious that there’s not much of a relationship there.  His family life is obviously very complicated, though the details behind that are still largely a mystery.  As to those matching chains Mitsumi bought for them, There’s just a little part of me that wonders if she knew exactly what she was doing.

Mika and Nao certainly make an odd couple, but this relationship actually gets a bit more oxygen here.  When the girls have a pajama party at Nao’s apartment, Nao takes the opportunity to observe, and it’s clear Mika stands out as someone she recognizes elements of herself in.  Mika plans to leave early on a trumped-up excuse about having dinner with her family, anxious to avoid the awkwardness when the conversation inevitably turns to boys (and Sosuke).  Nao sees through that, and gives the girl a firm but gentle push in the opposite direction.  This isn’t going to be easy for her to work through – either the Sosuke situation or her hangups generally – but that’s why she stands out in a good way in this narrative.

As for Sosuke, it now becomes clear that he was involved in an incident with Ririka four years earlier.  Apparently he pushed her to go drinking – that’s the story she’s pitching, anyway – and it proved to be a disaster when she was found out.  Now she’s applying something in-between blackmail and a guilt trip over it to keep Sosuke under her thumb.  And to be honest it seems pretty clear he doesn’t especially enjoy being with her (especially when she refers to Mitsumi as a “circus act”).  I did say I wanted some conflict here, and this certainly seems to be the prime candidate so it might seem ungrateful to nitpick.  But Ririka is coming off as a bit of a stock villain and dramatic device more than a character at the moment, so I hope if she remains a central figure her character gets fleshed out a bit.