Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutiefinally delivers something not just decent, but good in its third week. The third episode of the series adapts certain early chapters of the manga with some revision, but it lives up to the example set my the original work.
The third episode ofShikimori’s Not Just a Cutiecomes as a much-needed rescue of the adaptation of the manga by the same name, and this is primarily because for the first time, the anime focuses less on trying to sell Shikimori as a candidate for this season’s unofficial award of “Best Girl”, and more on the romantic relationship of Izumi and Shikimori. For the first time this season,Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutiesimply tries to be a romance and the episode stands out because of the focus on the more emotional aspects of their relationship.
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The Movie Date
The episode begins with Inuzuka giving Izumi movie tickets because he can no longer go, so naturally, Izumi asks his girlfriend if she would like towatch a movie together. Throughout Inuzuka’s interaction with Izumi, Shikimori glances at them from time-to-time, barely hiding her interest and eagerness to be invited out by Izumi. This part is especially cute because Shikimori tries to pretend that she wasn’t eavesdropping, but she can barely contain her elation when her boyfriend asks her to go with him.
We later see Shikimori working very hard at selecting the perfect date outfit to make the strongest impression, and a little into her home life – Shikimori’s not an only child. When the day of the date arrives, Izumi wonders what kind of movie she’d like to watch. This scene reveals something about their relationship that the series never highlighted – Izumi, like the viewer, knows very little about his girlfriend, and wishes to know her better. He’s a bit dismayed to find out that she’s into horror movies, but he’s relieved to know that even though she likes them, they still scare her. However, theITspoof they end up watching proves to be too powerful for poor Izumi to get through bravely like he thought he would, and he ends up being comforted by Shikimori instead of the other way around as he wanted.
The Relationship
Throughout the episode, Izumi’s objective is toshow off his cooler sideto Shikimori, while Shikimori’s objective, like in other episodes, is to appear cute and desirable. Their expectations being subverted becomes the central theme of the episode, as Izumi fails to remain steadfast at the movies and is calmed down by Shikimori; he drops his wallet despite taking care to tie it to his belt strap, but the string breaks. When they run into Izumi’s parents and have dinner all together, Izumi falls asleep immediately afterwards, missing out on most of the time he could’ve spent together with her at home. Izumi recalls Shikimori’s gracefulness in the wake of his propensity to consistent misfortune, and hopes to repay that with an incident-free movie date, but that’s simply out of the question for someone as clumsy and unlucky as Izumi can be.
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The climax of the episode comes in during Shikimori’s visit to the Izumi household, where after her boyfriend falls asleep, Shikimori gets ample time to get to know his parents. After dinner, Shikimori helps Mrs. Izumi with the dishes, and they have a heartfelt conversation about Izumi, and about the relationship. Mrs Izumi notes being perpetually worried about her son who has inherited her misfortune, and she humbly asks Shikimori not to lose her patience with him, prompting Shikimori to drop one of the series' most heartfelt moments, telling Mrs Izumi that his misfortune is what enables him to be so compassionate, because “Izumi understands pain better than anyone”. Shikimori’s cool moments in this episode are finally ones that aren’t an attempt to exaggerate her abilities or make her seem perfect, but they’re the times when she shows her feelings for her boyfriend without shame or fear.
A Truly Cool Shikimori Emerges
Holding Izumi’s hand as he screamed in the theatre; helping his mother with the dishes and reassuring her when she expressed worry about their relationship over time, and being as honest about their connection as she was encapsulated the energy of the original panels in the manga. It is these honest moments that show how much Izumi and Shikimori care about each other. Shikimori isn’t really cool because of her MVP sports moments, or because of hershonen-esque facial renders, but because of how deeply evident she makes it that she is in love with her boyfriend. Despite all attempts to keep it within reason, she simply can’t help it when it comes to him. Regardless of what people say, even his parents, Shikimori’s heart is set on Izumi, and their mutual affection for each other being central to episode 3 is what makes it a marked improvement on the series' first two episodes.
