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Last episode of Komi, we met one of Tadano’s childhood friends, the ever ambiguous Najimi. Although it didn’t go the best at first, with a little help from Tadano, Komi and Najimi became quick friends. The kind of friends you force to get you coffee wherever you want. True friends, yeah?

First Impressions

We start by seeing Agari Himiko, a green-haired girl that has popped up a bit in the last two episodes. That’s one thing I like about Komi, how the characters are foreshadowed, pretty much. She has extremely low self-esteem and becomes unable to do anything when people watch her, which makes it even more difficult since Komi is glued to her.

In the library, the toilet, wherever, Komi is following her for some unknown reason, which is scaring her half to death. Najimi made a list of all her childhood friends that would be the best candidates for Komi’s friends, and Agari was at the top of that list for obvious reasons. That’s why Komi turned stalker. Though, two people with trouble communicating won’t get along as well as she thinks.

Because Komi was actively terrifying her, Agari managed to talk to her whole class without getting nervous, even if that was only because her fear overpowered her shyness. Either way, she feels grateful to Komi, and Tadano suggests they become friends like the smooth guy he is. But Agari’s a masochist or something, so she’ll be her dog instead. I told you nobody is normal here.

Komi is now slightly more normal, at least in the eyes of the general public as she has a phone. She never needed one before, but now she has friends. You still need to contact your family and stuff, so I think she should’ve had one sooner, but what do I know? Anyway, Komi want’s to get her friend numbers, but she wants Tadano to be first, though he’s too dense to see that. Eventually, he puts his number in her phone and dies a little inside from her charm.

We then rapid-fire three scenes, one where Tadano becomes class president, and I honestly can’t remember if they ever do anything with that. The much better one is where Komi accidentally calls Tadano on the phone. It’s one of the sweetest moments in the actual manga, and it’s one of the first times we get to hear Komi’s voice for a good few sentences. Very nice, and her voice actress is doing a really good job.

Finally, we end with everyone playing a bunch of weird games with questionable rules, the last of which is meant to force Komi to do a kissy face in front of everyone. Tadano sacrifices his dignity to make sure that doesn’t happen and wishes he was dead. The end. Don’t we all sometimes? 

My Thoughts

This episode really started to show what I mentioned last time. The chapters in the Komi manga are very short. They’re often connected to each other, but sometimes they’re not. We had three whole segments at the end here that weren’t, so everything came quick. Bam, president, bam, phone, bam, weird games for a kissy face. Rapid-fire stuff.

That does make writing these a bit awkward. It doesn’t make much sense for me to talk about all of these things one after another, but that’s the way it plays out, and I’d rather not mess with the timeline of things too much. That’s why these will probably be shorter on average than other reviews. Now, if only I could make these ones regular. Well, we’re getting there—curse you, Netflix.

Anyway, this episode had one of my favorite scenes in the series in it, the good ol’ phone call part. Komi and her lack of communication is an important part of the series, to say the least. So the moments she actually says something have a lot of impact. I’ve said it a few times but bravo to all the VAs. Even Agari’s. It’s a very fitting voice for her. These are all the canon voices the characters would have in my head now. Fujii Yukiyo does a mean masochistic high school girl. Though, I’m not sure anyone wants that compliment.

I have mixed opinions about Agari. I like Najimi a lot. I think she’s fun and brings lots of chaos, but I can’t really say the same about Agari. Having a random self-deprecating fetish character seems odd to me in Komi. Not really the series I expect it. I also don’t find her that funny because she works in too similar a way to Komi. Loud Komi, pretty much. Maybe that’s why they made her a masochist, so she’d be different in some way.

Regardless, she’s here now, and I did like this anime version of her more, for what that’s worth. And if you don’t like a character, I have good news, Tadano, Komi, and Najimi are the main ones. Everyone else kind of gets passed around and has occasional cameos for a panel or two. The goal is to make 100 friends, not get three and hang out with them, you know?

The anime is structured much the same way the manga is, with these quick sections, but it feels a lot faster in the anime, which makes sense. It’s just kind of jarring. It makes the whole thing feel incredibly fast and makes the episode go by in an instant. But when I actually see where we are in the story, it feels like we’re not going too fast. It’s weird.

Maybe it’s too early to think about this, but I wonder where the series will end? My guess is around the festival stuff. That’s a pretty common ending for a lot of these kinds of series, and it’s lined up about where the end of 12 episodes could be. Only time will tell, just like if I’ll get episode 4 of this out when I want to.

Thank you very much for reading

What did you think of Agari? She’s…ok.