Zyl on June 12, 2010 · in Working!! Season 1

Summary:

Mahiru’s father has written her an apology letter but she starts to keep her distance from Souta so that she won’t hit him by accident. This makes her hero think that she is avoiding him as a crossdressing pervert and that being punched is the proof of manliness. He redoubles his efforts to help her with her androphobia and their walking home hand-in-magic-hand is seen by Nazuna who then joins the Wagnaria crew to investigate her oniichan’s girlfriend.

After witnessing Mahiru hit Souta and him not getting angry, Nazuna asks Mahiru if Souta likes to be hit. Mahiru mishears the question, thinking she is asked if she likes Souta, and her answer causes Nazuna to think Souta is a masochist but she will accept it anyway. Meanwhile there’s more Jun x Yachiyo tension with the latter depressed because Kyouko is away on a business trip. But just as Jun gets a chance to be closer to the girl of his dreams, by addressing her by her given name, the manager returns early. Which sets the scene for the focus of next week’s episode.

Reaction:

I was so excited by the preview that I tried to watch the raw but my impression, like my understanding of the dialogue, was that the episode was all over the place. Himatsubushi’s fansub was next and the hilarity of the translation lifted my feelings about the episode. And finally with the third watch on FFFpeeps’ fansub, I felt that the jumping back and forth of the various plot points were a good reflection of Mahiru’s emotional tumult which ended on a lovely calm and affirming note at the end of the episode, with Mahiru’s starring at Souta’s back and recalling his reassuring words even reminding me of Winry’s realization she had fallen for Ed scene in FMAB 20.

I was initially confused by Mahiru’s confusion about how she should treat Souta but rewatching twice allowed me to soak in the flavour of the dilemmas – she wants to be close to him but is afraid (hedgehog’s dilemma plus) of hurting her chances by punching him; the conversation with Poplar revealing that the line between hatred and love is a thin one and that she could have liked him all along but only now has found an identifiable reason; she wants to cure her androphobia so she can be close to him but fears that if she recovers, there will no longer be any reason for Souta to look after her (but then almost immediately realizes that there is only so much of her androphobia – and fists – that he can absorb). There’s a lot to this really interesting relationship and I’m looking forward, every episode, to see how it can develop further.

Most of the rest of the cast also had at least one moment that highlighted their comic charm. For Poplar, my favourites were her scream of DESPAIR when Nazuna confirmed she was still in elementary school and her Kotori-chan (Photo) Fascination. Aoi did well with her Kotori and Kyouko disguises. Hiroumi trying to be nice (?) by getting Kyouko to serve Jun in Kyouko’s absence. Yachiyo unknowingly but repeatedly stabbing Jun (in a figurative sense but no less sharp than her katana) with the F word. Jun’s ridiculous excuse about why he choked when Yachiyo called him “Jun” was also priceless.

Chain Reaction:

• Washi laments that: “Despite some really pleasant character development last week, [Mahiru]’s more or less back to her old self…” For the reasons outlined above, I disagree. For me, this was a good consolidation episode and I liked how we were shown how Mahiru was working though her feelings with help from Poplar and, of course, Souta.
• Kurogane is frustrated with this week’s Jun x Yachiyo; I doubt next week will bring much relief.
• Well, even Mahiru-hating Aroduc had something good to say about this episode (with opening reservation, of course): “This episode had a few issues with focus, but at least it didn’t suffer from the route repetition of the same joke over and over again that plagued the first few episodes.”
• LOL I have somehow managed to get this late late entry written before Josh this week.