Streaming: HIDIVE
Episodes: 12
Source: Manga
Episode Summary: Urushi is the leader of her school’s shogi club, but unfortunately it’s not quite a club since there are only two members – herself and Ayumu. Both of them love playing shogi together, but it’s obvious that their matches contain a significant amount of emotional subtext. Love may be in the air, although neither of them is confident enough to come right out and acknowledge it.
Ayumu is a master troll, constantly complimenting Urushi in ways that can only be construed as distinctly romantic. Urushi is more than happy to call him out, although when she does he never acknowledges his motivations as anything other than pure respect for his senpai. The two even find themselves sharing an umbrella on the way home from school one afternoon – are they really being truthful with one-another and themselves?
Impressions: It can be difficult to admit that you have romantic feelings toward someone. If you’re not sure that the two of you are on the same wavelength, the potential for disappointment or even embarrassment could be quite staggering. Usually by the time I’ve had feelings toward someone the attraction has been mutual; for me, if the level of emotional intimacy has reached a certain point, feelings are all but assured. But I know that’s not the case for everyone.
However, throughout this episode, it’s painfully obvious that the two characters have romantic feelings toward one-another. Unlike many romance-focused anime, they essentially come out and say it multiple times in multiple different ways. They participate in very obvious “couple” rituals (like the shared umbrella) and compliment one-another in ways that mere acquaintances would never dare. So what’s the issue here?
This series forms itself around the idea that love is kind of like a tactical game – the point, as in shogi, is to make more calculated moves and clearly best one’s opponent using logic and know-how. We can argue about how fundamentally flawed this viewpoint is all day, but either way that’s the stance this rom-com is choosing to take. The problem is, in a tactical situation it’s generally considered ill-advised to show your entire hand to the opponent at literally every turn, over and over again. There’s probably something to be said regarding sending one’s opponent off-balance by constantly complimenting them, but using the same move over and over again is generally considered bad form, no matter what the move is.
This episode is very cute. But it also tests one’s suspension of disbelief at every turn. The two characters are already in a relationship, no matter whether or not they choose to call it that.
Pros: The two leads clearly care about one-another and their personalities mesh well. I personally enjoy Ayumu’s extreme dead-panning, especially since those kinds of reactions are the basis for much of my own sense of humor (if you can truly call it that).
Cons: The whole “will-the-or-won’t-they” game is severely diminished by the obvious outward intensity of the feelings the two characters display. There’s a complete lack of tension, which is then replaced mostly by feelings of annoyance toward the two of them for simply choosing not to take the next step.
Content Warnings: Jokes about stalking.
Would I Watch More? – I feel as though this series mostly played its entire hand in this one episode, and watching more would simply emphasize that it doesn’t have much of anywhere to go from here.