Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai! | Episode 9 and 10

Episode 9

We got to meet Uzaki’s mother. Upon hearing her voice, I immediately recognized the voice actor, the wonderful Saori Hayami, one of my favourite voice actors. With that knowledge, I knew I was going to be in for a treat. Episode nine’s focal point was for sure Tsuki and her first interactions and impressions with Uzaki’s senior, Sakurai.

Right off the bat, it’s what you’d expect. When your daughter tells you about this ‘senior,’ but you do not know anything about them. I assume Uzaki had left out critical information because upon finding out that Uzaki’s senior was a boy, Tsuki reacted in a typical motherly fashion by scolding Uzaki for hanging out with a boy, to the extent of staying the night at his house. Immediately you can tell that whatever Uzaki had told her mother about Sakurai, it certainly wasn’t enough as she was left in the dark on a bunch of details about this ‘senior’ of hers.

As I’ve mentioned countless times before, Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai!’s comedy stems from miscommunication and misinterpretation between the characters through dialogue; episode nine was a shining example of such. As we all know by now, Sakurai has this weird affinity for cats, so when one of Uzaki’s cats jumped onto Tsuki’s lap, Sakurai couldn’t help but smile and stare. Tsuki took it as Sakurai staring at her bust, and, of course, if you’re like Tsuki who also assumes that Uzaki’s and Sakurai’s ‘friendship’ can develop into something more profound than what it is currently, then I guess you can take it as Sakurai lusting over the two of them. This didn’t help that Uzaki’s choice of words during the whole scene only amplified Tsuki’s theory that Sakurai was into older, married women, ie. Tsuki.

A thought that is only amplified through Uzaki’s and Sakurai’s poor choice of words, which is cause for Tsuki’s blatant misunderstanding of the situation. To the point where Tsuki now thinks that her daughter is encouraging such a relationship, which without a doubt the weirdest assumption I’ve ever witnessed.

Episode 10

Tottori! The next adventure our two protagonists take together. A trip that we thought would just be the two of them, however, our two resident creeps, Ami and Itsuhito had to tag along. I personally didn’t think they needed to tag along, ten episodes in now, I feel like they’re unnecessary to the overall feel of the anime. At the time when they were both introduced, I thought they were going to be beneficial and would only compliment our two characters. However, I don’t think they accomplish either one of those two things. Yes, Ami’s presence is more significant as she’s the more ‘present’ one out of the two supporting cast. But when you put two creepily obsessive individuals two character and you get something somewhat uncomfortable.

Itsuhito’s obsessive nature to see Sakurai and Uzaki become a partners is actually very uncomfortable to watch as it’s coming off rather forceful when it shouldn’t be. The growth in friendship between Uzaki and Sakurai has felt very natural and organic, granted there may have been influences along the way like Ami giving the festival tickets to Sakurai and Akihiko helping Sakurai better understand himself at times. But otherwise, it’s been a natural progression, while Itsuhito has been the exact opposite. He wants to do everything himself that is push our protagonists towards his own ambition, which isn’t right in my opinion.

Luckily, none of Ami’s and Itsuhito’s plans have gone exactly was predicting (as expected by a comedy). Instead we’re treated to the chemistry of our main characters fighting it out with words at every turn. They’re like an old nagging couple who always find something to argue about, even if it’s the smallest thing. That is what I’ve enjoyed the most about this episode. Another aspect of the episode that I enjoyed was that we were also given a tour of Tottori in the process. As someone who has never visited Japan but wish to one day, being able to ‘visit’ a real place through anime, while also learning of the other attractions of Tottori, I thought was really cool. I wish more anime did that.