Tomo-chan Is a Girl!

Episode 9

If there are any parents reading this review, never tell an impressionable child that they should always smile and always appear happy, even when things are really difficult. I know the show doesn't dwell too much on it, but Carol's mom really screwed up there, and it's weird that she seemed to notice this was an issue but didn't really do anything about it. That little plot point aside though, I like how Carol and Kousuke's relationship seems to mirror that of Tomo and Jun's. Kousuke has a very specific impression of Carol due to the fact that she pretty much forces herself to always smile and appear cheerful, even if she might not want to. That made him feel intimidated and like he wasn't good enough to be with her. It's a sign of Kousuke's humility, but it also means that he's putting her on a pedestal and isn't really paying attention to who she really is or what her feelings are. Not only does this take a funny quip about a character and turn it into a neat bit of characterization, but it's also similar to how Jun struggles to see Tomo for how she wants to be looked at versus the vision of her he has stuck inside his head.

I like that we don't entirely focus on Kousuke and Carol in this episode, as Carol struggling to deal with her insecurities actually ends up leading to her taking advantage of what she knows about Jun and Tomo's relationship. Honestly, one of my favorite scenes in this episode is when Jun just went to Tomo's house and gave her a hug and an apology because Carol gave him a devilish kiss on the cheek. He's acting like a boyfriend that cheated on his girlfriend and I don't even know if he realizes that. I also like how self-aware everyone is in this episode; there were a lot of moments where boundaries are crossed, but the characters did admit that they feel like terrible people, which kind of makes them feel more real and desperate in the end.

The way that this episode was written really has me curious about how the remaining couple of episodes of Tomo-chan will go. We definitely need to have a Misuzu-focused episode because it's hinted that she is experiencing a similar type of insecurity and guilt. There were even some moments in this episode that felt like an explicit cry for help as she tries to play the maniacal supervillain role. As for Jun and Tomo, I wonder what the final push for the two of them is going to be. Kousuke was able to accept Carol for who she was after someone forced her to drop the façade, but you could argue we have the opposite problem here with Tomo and Jun.

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Tomo-chan Is a Girl! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.