My Clueless First Friend

Episode 5

Welcome back to another episode of Taiyou Takada: Unconscious Lady-killer. However, as we saw last week, he's not as unaware as he seems. So we have to question whether or not he was fully conscious of what he was doing when he slipped the "dark matter" ring on Nishimura's finger while commenting that he couldn't buy her a real one yet. (Kudos to him for finding the nerd booth at the festival.) This action has a potential two-fold purpose: he's reminding her of how much he likes her, and he's also sending a message to Kasahara that she's not the one he likes. The kids are all at an age where they may mimic things they've seen adults do without fully understanding the implications. At this point, I think we need to acknowledge that Takada isn't nearly as clueless as he appears.

It probably feels safer to Nishimura to assume that he is, though. She is very shaken by his tears when he realizes that he may have hurt her by calling her Grim Reaper. This is likely due to at least two factors. The first is that she's never found him using that term to be upsetting. He's always put a positive spin on it, so the connotations were different. It's like how when a bully started calling my sisters and me “the weird sisters”, we changed the spelling to “wyrd” and memorized the witches' lines from Macbeth; context is everything. But she's also afraid that in telling him her story and making him cry, she's alienated her one true friend. Takada means a lot to her, so when she doesn't see him after the crying incident, her mind immediately leaps to the conclusion that she's upset him so badly that he doesn't want to be her friend anymore.

That makes it even more impressive that she seeks him out. The Nishimura of four episodes ago wouldn't have had the courage to do that; she would have been more likely to assume that she wasn't worth it. But she values Takada's friendship, and he has given her the courage to stand up for it – even when he says he has plans with Hino, she has the wherewithal to take hold of his hand. It's an important moment because it shows us how comfortable Nishimura is in her skin now: she believes in Takada's friendship, and she deserves to have friends. She also realizes that if she doesn't explain things, she risks losing some of the closeness they've built up, so her simply reaching out and touching him shows her progress. He's worth taking a chance on.

And of course, he comes with Hino - the easy-going, tank-top-loving weirdo. He's so unfazed by Takada standing him up for their haunted shrine plans that it's almost a superpower; apparently, he just spent his time eating his way through a local festival. He never feels like a third wheel in the kids' adventures, either; he's utterly comfortable in pretty much any situation. As long as he's got snacks and tank tops, he's happy. (We should all be so easy to please.) His low-key support is an understated piece of the story, but it's also a nice one – between him and Takada's sister, good people are rooting for Nishimura and Takada, each in their special way. Even if their seats are moved next week, I think the kids are going to be okay.

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My Clueless First Friend is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.