Streaming: Funimation
Episodes: 12
Source: Manga
Episode Summary: Futaba Igarashi is a sales worker who’s been on the job for several months, but it can be difficult for some folks reconcile that fact with her short stature and occasionally child-like mannerisms. Her Senpai, a large, loud-mouthed man named Harumi, often treats her like a kid sister, tousling her hair affectionately even as he’s also providing her guidance and advice around the job. Despite that, their relationship is generally positive.
When the time comes to present a big sales proposal, Harumi gives the responsibility to Futaba since she’s done the legwork and knows all the figures. All seems to go well… until the client uncovers some issues with the order form that Futaba assembled. As Futaba struggles to emotionally deal with her error, Harumi works long hours in the background to fix things. With things back in shape, the two go out drinking to celebrate – and the alcohol causes Futaba to be a bit loose about her feelings toward her senpai.
Impressions: Note – I use the terms senpai and kouhai several times untranslated throughout this post. While I suspect most people reading are familiar with that terminology, for the benefit of those who might not be, senpai indicates an individual who is higher-up or has a longer tenure of experience within an organization in comparison to the subject, while kouhai indicates the less-experienced individual in that relationship. It’s a relationship that’s difficult to translate into English in a succinct way within the dialog contexts that it’s often used, which is why the words are often left as-is. I’m sure some J > E anime/manga translators out there have some very interesting insight into this particular issue.
I have to admit, I was genuinely prepared to not enjoy this episode. Series like Hataraki Man and Aggretsuko have led me to an understanding of Japanese office politics that aren’t very complimentary to most of the people involved. The premise of this series introduces Futaba as someone who desires respect in the workplace but who is also continually judged by how she looks. Imagine wanting to be treated seriously and instead being constantly made fun of for some aspect of yourself that you’re unable to ever change? This is the constant struggle of so many people in so many facets of life, and I couldn’t see the potential benefit of building a comedy around such a thing.
The reality of the series seems to be both more nuanced and more kind-hearted than that, with the senpai in question seeming to really take pride in his kouhai’s successes and, aside from joking around with her from time to time, showing her respect and lifting her up with his advice and positive attitude. On the other side of the coin, he also shields her from the full consequences of her own mistakes, stepping in and taking responsibility for something that, from my decidedly Western perspective, he had little part in. Those sorts of situations, where the teacher takes responsibility for the trainee’s (or underling’s) errors, will always feel very strange to me; as someone from a culture that values independence (for good or ill), Futaba choosing not to run her work past someone else before submitting it is solely at fault, and yet that’s just not the way it works in this setting.
Of course, she suffers the consequences in her own way, feeling a responsibility for the extra work her error put Harumi through once she realizes he’s been staying late at the office to rectify it. In that sense, the indirect consequences of the situation might be similar or worse to the direct ones.
In any case, this series seems to present a much gentler, kinder version of an office workplace than some of the other aforementioned series, and that’s worth noting. While I’ll always be interested in series that are willing to examine the realities of what it means to survive in these environments, especially for women who often deal with discrimination on top of the regular, brutal amount of work, I certainly don’t mind when stories decide to focus on other aspects of the situation.
Pros: Futaba is a fun character with a lot of personality. Her struggle to acknowledged and respected – to be examined under the standards of the adulthood that those around her seem to have achieved with much less effort – while also clinging on to certain childlike desires (as many of us in the geek community tend to do) is very relatable.
Harumi is also likeable as sort of a cooler, brotherly counterpart to Futaba’s more wound-up, emotional character. He seems like a very positive mentor, one who’s never too harsh with his advice but clearly has the best interests of his trainees at heart. There are moments during this episode where he could have been frustrated or angry, and yet despite the extra work he ends up taking on, he never takes it out on those below him. This is the sort of thing that speaks to an empathy that comes from having fucked up similarly in the past; while there are some in this world who choose to pass on the abuse they received in response to their own past mistakes, there are others who choose to break that cycle and choose another way to teach their lessons.
There are several moments of very expressive body language throughout the episode which was a nice treat.
Cons: It’s Harumi’s position as a mentor to Futaba, however, that makes me wary of the potential for romance between them. The inherent power differential between the two based on their job positions as well as the currently-established relationship between them that really does read more like siblings, makes Futaba’s pseudo-confession while drunk a little bit cringe-y and strange. Add to that the general weirdness and ethical concerns of an inter-office romance (my own workplace has extremely tight rules about things like this and in this particular case, with two people in a direct-reporting relationship with one-another, they’d require that one of them either quit or move departments entirely if they decided to remain in a romantic situation) and I was definitely grimacing at certain points. I realize that this anime series and its characters aren’t real (before anyone snarkily implies anything, I do, in fact, realize what fiction is), but when my real working life has such strict standards toward the central conceit of this fictional series, it’s very difficult to set that aside.
Content Warnings: Alcohol use. Mild fanservice (mostly in the OP which plays at the end of this episode).
Would I Watch More? – I have at least one friend who’s been watching this series, and their reactions toward the character relationships have left me a little bit intrigued (it’s amazing what the enthusiasm of someone you trust will do in terms of cultivating your own enthusiasm toward something).