Wotakoi is going in some interesting directions as we pass the halfway point of the series.  On the whole you’d have to say this was a pretty quiet episode (and Christmas eps when it’s 30 Celsius outside always strike me as odd, though it’s not like one cour spring shows have much choice if there’s a Christmas chapter to adapt).  Maybe what you take away from Wotakoi depends a lot on what you bring into it, but I could see a rationale for being a bit impatient with certain aspects of it (though I won’t necessarily include myself in that group).

Wotakoi has always had a hybrid quality to it – equal parts romance, slice of life and comedy.  It’s an observational series first and foremost, and in that sense this episode was right in its sweet spot.  Tarou’s otaku side shines through a little more clearly (he’s intent in getting an Eva Ichiban Kuji on the day it’s released) and his romantic radar is on-point too – he lends Hirotaka and Narumi his umbrella in the hope of sparking a little aiaigasa (for both couples).  But interestingly, most of the romantic development continues to flow to the “secondary” couple – who are getting almost as much screen time as the main pair, anyway.

This show is basically an outlier not only in that the couples are established in the opening episode, but that the focus is on “friends” couples.  But I do think there’s a qualitative difference between them, despite the fact that both are certainly friends first.  Setting aside the obvious great divide that one are literally lovers and the other (presumably) not, despite their friendship Kaoru and Hana act like lovers a lot of the time.  They fight, they make up, they’re pretty unabashed about physical intimacy of the non-sexual kind.  You don’t see a lot of that with Narumi and Hirotaka – at least not yet (and they have been together for a while now).

Maybe what this asks us is what measures we use to define romance.  There’s real-world evidence that couples like Hiro-Naru tend to be the ones that last in the long term – they share an intimacy of a different sort, I suppose.  They have a shared language and history, but it’s more like siblings than lovers – and the presence of Nao as a kind of mutual otouto (the whole Santa reminiscence is a perfect example) only amplifies this.  I think Hirotaka is everything Narumi wanted him to be when they decided to start going out – dependable, considerate, understanding of her proclivities.  So what is he missing that she’s looking for – if anything?

I don’t know the answer to that, but it’s interesting to ponder.  I don’t think there’s any doubt that Hirotaka has shown much more physical interest in Narumi than she in him.  Maybe he’s too comfortable for her.  Maybe she’s struggling to see him as more than the genderless buddy she had as a child.  Hirotaka continues to do romantic things – like the “photo shoot” he sets up with the reluctant Tarou when he notices Naru is depressed (over her favorite manga character dying – that’s so on-point).  And she appreciates it, no question – but still shows no signs that she wants to take things to the next level.  Maybe with relationships, as with Wotakoi, what you take away depends a lot on what you bring in.  I suppose we have five more eps to find out what Wotakoi thinks about that.