I certainly think How to Become Ordinary is headed into the bubble/patron poll. But you can’t assume that with Yonezawa Honobu, who’s one of the odder writers in Japanese pop fiction. His series are such slow builds that the possibility of some sort of light switch, nexus point moment happening is always real. I wouldn’t bet my own money on it, and we’re not at the same level of progress we were with Hyouka (which also had more than twice the runtime to play with) after three episodes. But it wouldn’t be a shock if it did.
Certainly, this was this most interesting episode of the three so far (which is very in-character). The stakes were raised a little higher here with the matter of cheating on tests and Osanai’s stolen bike in the spotlight. But the characters themselves likewise took on a little more intrigue. Yann suggested in the comments last week that maybe the reason Osanai and Kobato are so desperate to be “ordinary” is because they’re the white wolves from the OP. I suspect that’s symbolic, but this episode – especially the conversation where Kobato rather urgently tried to sell Osanai on the importance of being ordinary – does make me wonder if they aren’t fully human, and trying not to be found out.
The main mystery of the week this time is a glass vase breaking in the supply cupboard of the Osanai’s classroom during a science exam. Kobato eventually deduces that this was done so that the students would have an excuse to turn around, giving the culprit a chance to look at the crib notes they’d attached to a neighboring desk. Except if they were clever enough to rig that, they probably wouldn’t just leave the evidence behind in plain sight. So maybe the real motive was to get someone in trouble. But the impact on Osanai is that her concentration is broken and she flubs an answer, causing her to stress eat at “Humpty Dumpty” – a tabihoudai cake shop she’d told Kobato she was never going back to.
Then we have the bike situation. Osanai’s stolen bike gets run over, and is later found when the driver complains to the school. Remember this is Japan, land of victim shaming, so what happens to Osanai’s stolen property reflects on her. Kobato pieces events together pretty easily, but the headline here is that Osanai declares she wants to make the thief “pay” for what he did (the tarts being the capital offense). This truly seems to alarm Kobato, setting off the aforementioned urgent conversation (where he seemingly fails to convince her).
I don’t know if I’m ready to say all this is truly compelling (okay, I’m not). But there is now a sense that it’s heading somewhere, and Yonezawa is one of those writers that can’t help but be a little interesting even when they’re writing about boring things. That gives me some hope that we’ve started the journey towards Shoushimin Series finding its groove, though I do wish it had a lot more time to find it. I’m looking towards next week’s episode (which actually isn’t airing for two weeks, presumably because of the Olympics) with more interest than I was thing one, anyway.
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