Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san | Episode Ten Review


A longer than usual wait later and here we are with episode ten of Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san and you know what? I thought it was one of the better episodes of the anime, allow me to share my thoughts.

Episode ten of Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san reminded me of that one episode from Kyoukai no Kanata where they went full on j-pop group. (If you don’t know that scene, then you don’t know anime).

The only reason why I say that episode ten was like this legendary moment because episode ten of Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san was the episode that showed selflessness. Similarly to Kyoukai no Kanata, they did everything for each other and practiced together in order to achieve their goal. In Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san‘s case, it was to win the boys and girls relay race.

Episode ten was primarily about friendship, both Izumi and Hachimitsu didn’t want to be a burden for Shikimori-san, Inuzuka or Nekozaki. So they practiced until they couldn’t practice anymore because they wanted to make their friends proud. They both understood how bad everyone wanted it and didn’t want to deny their group that feeling, this was all very admirable.

Did Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san have a feel good moment? Yes, I think the message of the episode was positive and very heartfelt because you could tell how much this win meant to all of them, especially Hachimitsu. However, apart from everything pertaining to the rally, the episode itself was pretty standard. Did I enjoy an episode where Izumi and Shikimori-san were not the center of attention for once? Yeah, I sure did.

You know me. I’ve always been a believer in developing characters outside of those you’d consider as the ‘main characters’. Like we probably would have never really thought about Hachimitsu. We wouldn’t have ever really known what she felt or what she thought if it weren’t for episodes like episode ten.

So while the episode was pretty standard, I thought the experience it provided was something I did enjoy. These friendship type episodes have always been ones I’ve enjoyed, and episode ten of Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san is one of those episodes.