Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san | Episode Eight: Overly dramatic and for no good reason.

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I’ll be honest, I thought the eighth episode of Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san was overly dramatic and for no good reason.

I’m not saying that what Kamiya expressed wasn’t something to be emotional about. Falling for a person who already is in a relationship is and will always be a feeling that no one likes. Overcoming those feelings is something that takes time accept especially if the person you’ve fallen for makes you feel comfortable and appreciated. It’s a feeling that cannot be shaken easily and is something you cannot deny or suppress without feeling some sort of emotional burden.

The problem that I have was that everything that happened during the episode was a one-off thing. What I mean by that was we didn’t really see a buildup with Kamiya. We only saw her a few times here and there, but nothing significant. We only really found out about her feelings for Izumi this episode and as quickly as it was brought up. It was quickly concluded.

In many anime where there is a, for lack of a better term, one way love. You tend to see little glimpses of this one way love from the individual whose love won’t ever be realized by the person they’ve fallen for. You see a gradual buildup of sorts. You understand and feel the weight of that character knowing that their feelings for that person won’t ever be realized. Having that build up allows the viewer to connect and understand. The biggest factor of course, in order to fully appreciate that character they need to be built up.

A prime example of a one way love, or a scenario very similar to Kamiya is Hinata from Horimiya. Granted these two are vastly different characters in every shape imaginable. However, the biggest defining characteristic is that Hinata is an overall way better built up character and her love that won’t ever be realized was something that developed as the episodes went by. It was because of this build up that when it came to Hinata realizing that her feelings won’t ever materialize into anything and broke down crying that I felt that on a personal level. I didn’t get that feeling here, although it was emotional, that building just wasn’t something we got Kamiya in Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san.

Do not get my wrong, the episode was good. For what it’s worth, episode eight was the outlier in the anime. It was an episode where we didn’t spend the whole duration having our lovebirds gush over each other. Instead, we were given something else, a curveball. But for me, I thought that the episode itself was overly dramatic and for no good reason.