Otaku Central

Episode six of Tsurekano was an interesting episode to say the least. If I were to compare episode six to the one that came before it (episode five), episode six was a little bit of a disappointment. Allow me to share my thoughts.

Academic rivalries is something we see everywhere, you’ve probably see it play out. Where too top students battle it out for who gets the top score. I’ve seen this type of thing play out in high school many times, I guess you could say I was able to relate to this episode. However, I’ve never seen an academic rivalry play out between two siblings; which is what we have today.

I thought episode six was interesting because we have two different sides to the story. Yume, the try hard who believes that being on top academically contributes to her wider reputation within the school. Then we have Mizuto the person who puts minimal effort but still is able to be the best of the rest. However, unlike Yume, Mizuto doesn’t care if he’s on top academically because he doesn’t care.

That’s where the whole ‘interesting’ part is factored in. We have an academic sibling rivalry, between someone (Yume) who believes that her image and reputation is built on being the best. While the other doesn’t care whether or not he’s on top academically because their image or reputation isn’t built on academics.

I’ll be honest, watching this all play out was rather frustrating because you have Yume being all aggressive with Mizuto because he isn’t trying nor does he care about their midterm exam. Which she thinks is a slap in the face to her because Yume believes that her academic success’ directly contribute to her image and reputation. Which was we know (in the real world) that this is just bullshit. I understand why Yume acts this way, when the person that beats you is someone that doesn’t care nor try; while you care and try will always be frustrating. Especially when that person is just handing you first place simply because they didn’t feel like answering the questions that had the most marks attached to them.

It’s a slap in the face because if you’re competitive, it’s insulting to your ego knowing that you would’ve lost if they had answered that one question. But they decided not to just to give you the top spot. But anyway, the forced this rivalry was suddenly forced upon us as viewers felt out of place. Especially since it’s something very one-sided, I don’t think it was a good episode for Yume. That’s for sure.

But hey, now we have a new character in the form of Higashira. A new friend to Mizuto who so happens to be a girl. Higashira is a refreshing character because she seems to be the only one who seems to get along with Mizuto, who has a character has always felt out of place. Having Higashira there will be nice because I think it’ll make Mizuto feel like someone part of the story rather than someone who is just there.

But yeah, episode six was interesting to say the least.