Zyl on June 28, 2010 · in Working!! Season 1

Summary:

Souta turns up for his date with Mahiru as Kotori; Aoi had, accidentally-on-purpose, spilt water on him and Hiroumi had prepared woman’s clothes for him to change into. A small consolation is that Jun prevents the gang from tailing them by bribing Poplar with food and Aoi with clothes shopping (at Hiroumi’s expense). Maya Matsumoto, and her struggle to maintain her identity as a normal person, is finally introduced. After a close call, Souta realizes that cross-dressing has its advantages; Mahiru is less likely to hit him and he can freely indulge in cute things.

Mahiru is pushed to her limits when Souta, trying to gauge her progress, asks her to hold his hand. Three attempts are successively interrupted by cute puppies, a stray frisbee and rain. Horrified that he is starting to think of Mahiru as a good girl and thus breaking his minicon mould, Souta reasons to himself that Mahiru is just a dog. Which she overhears but violence is averted when he tries to explain that she is (a) cute (but vicious dog) with Mahiru being struck dumb by the preceding unbracketed part of the aforementioned.  Back at work, everyone quickly settles back into their usual patterns; Mahiru, Souta and Poplar troop out to greet the latest customers.

Reaction:

Aoi and Hiroumi, good job! A very warm welcome back for Kotori-chan!!  A bit surprising that none of the NPCs that they met realized that Souta was a trap, especially given how he spoke with his normal voice and used the very masculine ‘ore’ pronoun. Oh, it would have been great if someone had commented about how they look like a yuri rabu rabu couple. But I suppose my only real gripe was I would have liked to have seen more extreme Kotori Fascination by Poplar. Jun was also outstanding with the way he singlehandedly foiled the plan to follow Souta x Mahiru and how the plan also involved handing out a JPY 50,000 (USD 500) fine to Hiroumi while also being able to enjoy teasing Poplar by ordering the kid’s lunch set for her.

The late introduction of Maya was also well executed and was fitting given how she refused to socialize with everyone else in an effort to maintain her sense of normalcy. But the paradox is that, in the long term, being the only relatively normal person in a group of lovably not normal people makes one feel out of place. And, of course, in the battle between DORAMAZ and normality, it’s hard to see how the docile grazers can stand a chance.

On the Souta x Mahiru front, it was lovely to see how thoughtful Mahiru was – bringing Souta to the toy shop so that he could enjoy the cute stuff that he normally wouldn’t be able to if he was unaccompanied by a girl. I also liked how Mahiru is starting to break through to Souta. Even though he realized it and tried to rationalize it away, for the first time, I felt there was a possibility – however minute – that he may, one day, be able to reciprocate her feelings. And not just as canine trainer. But given how the characters and their dynamics have been set up, I expect that any progress will be painful(ly slow). But as Mahiru has noted, she has made progress – the average number and power of her punches has dropped and she has been able to have more normal conversations with Jun and Hiroumi. I still really like the possibility of this pairing, partly because it was so surprising and how it brings out the best in the both of them and hopefully the best is still to come. Second season?

Chain Reaction:

There’s certainly the possibility of self-selection effect here since bloggers who really disliked the series would have not lasted all the way to the end with it:

• Aroduc observes how “unlike a lot of shows this season, this got markedly better for awhile after a very rocky and poor start. I’m placing that firmly on the shoulders of Yamada though” – interesting how Aoi, despite not having much screen-time, managed to partially cancel out his dislike of the show (mainly centred on Mahiru).
• kluxorious lists, as a con, how Souta as Kotori x Mahiru makes them lesbian; surely that must be a pro!
• Kurogane gives this series the high praise of having consistency and balance; earlier on, I would not have disagreed with his cry for MOAR Poplar but, post-Kotori Fascination, I find that Poplar Time for Poplar Cuteness’ sake just doesn’t cut the mustard anymore. Her perpetual cheeriness has actually threatened to make her less interesting so I would love to see more of that darker side of her which ruthlessly uses her cuteness to try to get more of what she wants (i.e. Kotori).
• NovaJinx calls “weaksauce” on the ending but is looking forward to owning the DVDs – overall “the strong point of the show lies definitely in its male characters and the clever use of romance elements to build up a rather hilarious farce”; the latter observation is a great insight for me since I have been privileging the romance over the humour but this points out how oft-used and cliched odd couple dynamics have been brilliantly employed in the context of Working!!