It’s true that if it does only run for one cour, Suki na Ko ga Megane wo Wasureta won’t feature the best of this relationship. Romcoms (good ones anyway) are always a matter of development. But this one perhaps more than most really needs time to achieve its full splendor. It reminds me a bit of Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san in that sense – a long time setting up a hook, then a gradual process of transcending that hook and becoming something much more. I think a lot of anime-only viewers would have had a very constricted view of what that series is if the adaptation had only run one season.

That said, the first season of Takagi-san was certainly entertaining for what it was. And so is this early material with The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses. What becomes apparent is that the hook isn’t so much Mie-san forgetting her glasses, but her glaring lack of social awareness – and the impact it has on Komura-kun. After the brief scene in the art room, the meat of the story begins with a variation on a theme. That is, Ai forgets her glasses at school this time, rather than at home.

Now, Komura certainly could have left the glasses there – she’d have been sure to have them on Monday, if nothing else. But he is a responsible lad, and taking them home seemed like a good idea at the time (especially after she approved it on LIME). But alas, having Ai in his bedroom – in a manner of speaking – proves a little too much for Kaede to handle. And it’s not like he can just stick the glasses in a drawer or something, because that would be like sticking her in a drawer and it’s not like he can do that…

Ai is really at her best this week, like that line she uses about whether her glasses are being good or not. She has no idea of the impact they’re having, of course, because she seems to have no idea of the impact that she herself has on Kaede.. Back in school the next incident comes when she leans in too close and falls right on top of Kaede. Not satisfied with that, she regales him with the tale of how she once did that and touched lips with someone. And even after she clarifies that was with her dad, the mood is considerably shifted. Especially when she expresses concern that he not view her as a bad girl for that incident.

Bed head incident aside (Komura-kun knows exactly why this upsets her so much), next comes a shoulder rub. And here again, Ai really should know that doing that in a classroom is a bit iffy for middle schoolers, even if she is really good at it. It’s just Ai being Ai though (“How’s that, Grandpa?”), right up to when she slams her forehead down on her notebook and makes a note of shoulder rubs as something she can do for Kaede even if she forgets her glasses.  Of course, she promises with characteristic tone-deafness, she can do anything for him when she actually remembers them.

Finally, it’s one last case of Ai being Ai, this time when Komura-kun falls asleep at his desk. Being as she’s wearing her glasses today, Mie-san decides this is a good opportunity to “get a good look at him” for a change. That’s one thing, but she quite brazenly picks up his hand to examine it closely – as if that wouldn’t snap him to attention. And then gilds the lily by offering him the opportunity to examine her closely too. There are hints that Ai is starting to become conscious of how she looks at Kaede (and he at her), but her default mode is still ingenuousness – and that’s the real hook of these early episodes.