I speak from experience when I say older siblings can be truly terrifying when you’re a kid. Even so, the examples in Kao ni Denai Kashiwada-san to Kao ni Deru Oota-kun are bad enough to take the series into “not funny” territory. Kashiwada’s older brother is just plain creepy and psycho. With Akito’s sister, it’s more a general slow-build of bullying. Again, I know this is played for laughs but that doesn’t mean it works. That’s how it is with comedies.
As is often (probably usually) the case with series like this, KashiOota is best when it focuses on the main pair. They remain both charming and funny, and drive the engine here for the most part (though Sada and Tadokoro are both major net-pluses). Once more we spin the wheel of romcom standards, and this time it stops on “beach episode”. And because this show loves those tropes so much, it manages to leverage three out of a single episode – logically adding “shopping for swimsuit” and “test of courage” to the brew.
Oota-kun is realistically a middle-school boy – clever about some things but lacking even a dash of common sense about most. I’m not convinced Sada-kun didn’t intentionally lure him into going to the swimsuit shop (that’s the sort of low-key troll he excels at) but either way, all Akito had to do was just tell the girls why he was there. But no, he hides in a forest of bikinis and one-pieces and stammers his way through excuses when he’s finally caught. And, as Sada points out, he could just have waited outside for the girls to come out.
The beach itself is Onee-san at her worst (older siblings, man). Her trolling has none of the elegance of Sada’s – she’s just an ogre. None of these gags really worked for me to be honest. I did think we were going the indirect kiss route on that beach ball, but that was a feint. Still, it was an interesting moment – rather than take the schoolboy route Sada expected, Oota just calmly helped Kashiwada-san out. Reflexively he’s slipping more and more into boyfriend mode, it seems. And not a moment of snark when she handed him the seashell she picked out.
Speaking of boyfriend mode, Akito observing that Sada and Kashiwada were getting “chummy” was obviously a huge tell. Sada has the secret sauce that not even Onee-san can break – he just lets everything wash over him and makes wry observations. The big jump scare (no, not the konnyaku – why was Akito even carrying that?) that sent Kashiwada-san running off into the woods was another relationship-advancer. When she’s scared, she looks for Akito – and when he finds her, he just takes her hand and accepts her hug. It’s all but official at this point (and older siblings should just butt the hell out).
