Six weeks and counting since a comment on a Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! post. I really shouldn’t care one way or another about such things, I know. But I’m cursed by a great distaste for not knowing things. It’s the same part of me that obsessively tried to figure out why Kimetsu no Yaiba was as popular as it was, when on the whole it was a series that elicited no strong feelings in me whatsoever. Is it the gay thing – are BL fans the only ones who comment on male-male romance anime? Is it just one of those series that speaks for itself eloquently enough that people just don’t have anything to add?

That run includes the Yokohama school trip episode, which may just be one of the finest romance episodes of any anime I’ve seen in years. Nakamura-kun is one of those adaptations where you can tell the staff really cares about the product and wants to do it justice. And that quality is infectious for me – it can do a lot to make even a mediocre series a lot more engaging and likable. And this show is not mediocre by any means – it’s quite excellent, all the way through to the EDs, which constantly bring a smile to my face. That bit with Icchan doing a wave and then making the love sign – ROFL.

It was a big day for school festivals in anime romcom. Instead of a maid cafe, this time we’re getting a butler cafe. And Nakamura is seriously hyped to see Hirose-kun in his butler duds. As such he’s bitterly disappointed to discover that Hirose has swapped out of the front of the house. And not only that, leaves early, with Nakamura stuck in the “kitchen” making the drinks. When he gets paroled Nakamura has an unfortunate (for him and us) run-in with the ever-unfunny Aokiyama-san and the occult club. They kidnap him once again – this time for a seance – and all he gets to show for it are some supposedly lucky prayer beads.

Once paroled Nakamura notices Hirose here and there in the crowd, but never quite catches him. He winds up in the art club room, where Hifumi (actually in the lit club) is helping out by drawing portraits (while fighting a cold). Nakamura asks her to draw a Hirose, which she does. Then he has a (literal) run-in with a beautiful young woman who looks eerily like Hirose. The resulting doki-doki causes him to ask himself “Am I bi?” This is not the last time that theme will arise this week. Finally Tamura-san corrals him to fill in for a sick performer in his play. This will turn out to be Hifumi – who was already filling in herself – and he accepts out of thanks for all she’s done for him.

That was a genuinely, unironically nice thing for Nakamura to do. And goodness has its own rewards in this case, because the leading lady of Tamura-kun’s “Starry Night” will prove to be none other than Hirose Aiki. And yes, Aiki is his first name – we know that because that lookalike turns out to have been his big sister (which is pretty much what I lamped the moment we saw her).  But what I want to know is, who the heck was the bear, and what was his deal?

This whole business of Nakamura wondering whether he was bi because he was turned on by Aiki in drag and his sister, or whether it was just because they looked like Aiki had me in stitches. And then, the aforementioned ED with Icchan and yet another classic 80’s pop hit (“Friends” by REBECCA). As best I can tell this series may be suffering a bit because it’s too mainstream for BL fans, and too many mainstream fans won’t tolerate any romance built around male-male attraction. But if that’s the case, a pox on both their houses. The reason this show is great is how universal it is – love is love, and Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! does a great job depicting our first stumbling attempts at finding it.