Funny, I made the rough draft of this post while I was in the land of European efficiency, and reliability; I finished polishing this bloody post in the land where inefficiency, disorganised, libertarian wetdreams, arbitrary welfare, crappy ISPs, and disrespect are defined as ‘fun’. In fact, I’m disrespecting a whole bloc of ideologies in that snarky paragraph. Anyway, this particular episode of Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun is something that uses the typical writing conventions and also delivers some good narrative and entertainment.

This one has a nice work on showing how Shizuku develops from an anti-social snob to a social girl. We’re introduced to Natsume; a girl who’s only interested in socialising and improving her looks. In this episode, she enlisted the Haru’s help in preparing her for the retests so she would be having remedial classes. These remedial classes would prevent her from joining the meet-up of the online community she joined. She was able to pass the test enough that she’s excused, and on the meet-up’s day; Haru ruined the fun by starting a fight with the male members. Since this episode mainly shows how Shizuku develops, her internal monologues are all about her wondering about what she’s experiencing. At the episode’s end, she resolves the feeling by telling Haru that she’s grateful of him and that she loves him.

Episode Entertainment Factor Rating (EEFR): 100/100

Images Used are under Fair Use.