Tonari no Kaibutsu-Kun [Ep 3]

A chicken coop forges an odd friendship between Shizuku’s and Blondie’s respective groups while Shizuku herself mulls over Haru.  Meanwhile, the latter’s evil(?) twin appears.

Not Again…

Barely 1 minute after she says she loves Haru back, Shizuku has to go mess things up by saying she was lying… It’s frustrating, to be honest. If you’re going to make progress, then don’t sabotage yourself and restart the whole process again!

Granted, she’s still a bit unsure about her newfound feelings, but why’d she have to go back to square one and repeat the whole process? *sigh*

Thankfully, her feelings about her friends are a bit more steady. Like Haru pointed out, she actually agreed to hang out on a weekend instead of studying. Still, I’m worried about whether Shizuku will have trouble maintaining her grades with all the ruckus around her… Anyway, Sasayan seems to display a violent reaction to being called a ‘twerp’ (or ‘midget/dwarf’) while Natsume’s VA really shines in stressful situations (that ‘Mitty’ line really hit the mark).

On a side note, I feel that there’s some limitation on having the sole narrator be Shizuku. It’s a helpful when she moves the story along and gives us her hilarious take on situations, but I can’t help but feel a bit curious about how Haru truly feels about Shizuku. Speaking about Haru’s feelings…

A Wild Haru Appears!

We first see him as he casually strolls out with a wad of cash from the batting cage dude. Later on, just as things seem to settle down between Haru and Shizuku, he reappears again in the batting cage looking for Haru . This time though, he has a name-Yuzan.

His relationship with Haru and his motivations can only be guessed at for now. But I’ll toss my two cents worth anyway (Hint: I like creating mysteries when things get slow):

• Batting cage guy gets along fine with Haru but not so with Yuzan. Still, he maintains a reluctant familiarity with the latter. I’m guessing that Haru and Yuzan share blood ties since no two dudes from different families would look that alike.
• I’m curious about why Haru and Batting-kun want to avoid Yuzan. Perhaps this mystery dude brings up some bad memories for all parties? He himself doesn’t seem all that bad of a person, but his clothing and sly undertone just yells ‘black sheep’ or ‘evil-twin’. I’m betting his remark at the end (“You can’t run away forever”) has something to do with familial ties or some incident both of them were involved in.
• Batting-kun (Mitsuyoshi) is quite the enigma as well. Is he related to Haru and Yuzan? Or is he just a guardian? Why does he want to keep the two apart? Shouldn’t he be trying to resolve the situation as an adult? So many enticing questions, so few answers…

Henhouse Hoodlums

We meet the gang from the first episode again. This time, we firmly know that they’re harmless wimps with hearts of gold. A predictable development, but it’s funny to watch nonetheless.

I’m afraid I’ll have to eat my previous words here. Nagoya actually serves some purpose to the plot by uniting the Shizuku, Haru, Sasayan and Nastume. There’s also TEAMWORK with Blondie’s gang, so I’ll have to pack away the kitchen knives and prejudice towards animals in anime.

Also, Shizuku displays some neat ingenuity in convincing the gang to help out with the coop construction. I think leveraging the gang’s desires and Nagoya’s coop was an admirable feat given the tense and unpredictable situation (plus Haru).

Haru’s swift punches to Blondie (I forgot his name…EDIT: Ah-ha, it’s Yamaken) were definitely the most funniest moments in this episode. There’s something relaxing about seeing a metrosexual-looking teen getting socked by a jealous Haru. I’d watch gifs of that just to brighten up a cloudy day. XD

There’s one thing I don’t get though-everyone is surprised that Haru can toss a dude a few metres with a single hand. It’s clearly shown in the first episode that he can lift a teenage male with a single hand, so I don’t see what the fuss was all about. It’s jarring in this otherwise smooth episode.

So, will Evil Twin-kun pose a threat to our new couple? Will Haru be able to face said dude man-to-man? Shoot some hardware supplies and comments at me down below!

P.S. I seem to be having a bad day with names, so I hope you forgive my weakness and my impromptu nicknames. XD