This episode ofUzaki-Chan Wants to Hang Out!begins with Uzaki telling Asaiabout the humble beginningsof her relationship with Sakurai in high school. Via flashback, viewers see Sakurai explain the difference between “splishing” and sploshing when swimming. After some swimming practice with just them two, Uzaki comes for Sakurai’s teaching skills since he’s so graceful with swimming, but hasn’t been able to improve her swimming after three sessions.
Unlike their current dynamic, where she would playfully tease him about it and derive enjoyment from his shame or frustration, she apologizes for possibly crossing the line. Instead of his usual blowup, he apologizes for not being able to teach her better. They talk about different things for a while, but nothing truly meaningful or new, except for her realizing for the first time how nice of a guy Sakurai is in spite of his menacing demeanor. Back in the present, Uzaki gets lost in the sauce, complimenting and simultaneously berating Sakurai’s physical skills as she nurses her beer. Sakaki’s enjoying Uzaki talking so openly about Sakurai. Even Asai literallycan’t hold back her drooland has to wipe her mouth clean with a napkin, but not before viewers get a little bit of drool ASMR accompanied by a closeup of the drool on her face. The feeling of disgust it managed to summon was too real. Still, it was humorous enough to produce a chuckle.
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The Judo Kid
Back at Sakurai’s family home, he and his sister are interrupted from their babysitting session by their father. He takes plenty of pictures, much to Sakurai’s annoyance. Later on, Sakurai and his father have a judo sparring match in their dojo. Sakurai can’t keep a grip on his father, who tricks him into letting his guard down and slams him on the mat pretty quickly. Although “trick” might begiving Sakurai’s father too much credit. He literally just walks up to Sakurai with his hands down at his side and used Sakurai’s excitement against him when he stuck his arm out.
He challenges Sakurai to throw him before being thrown ten times lest he tells his fathereverything about the supposed girlfriendwho spent the night at his place. Sakurai’s father starts to get a little judgemental about Uzaki and Sakurai defends her honor before getting caught by another sneak attack.
As Sakurai struggles to stand upright, his father argues that it’s not that Uzaki is the issue, but that if Sakuraidoesn’t “do things right”, then people are going to talk about Uzaki. Before Sakurai’s father can toss him like a ragdoll again, Sakurai’s mother barges into the dojo andfolds them like napkins. As they lay on the floor utterly defeated, she says they stink like sweat, and she goes to reheat dinner.
Asai drops Uzaki back off at her home, and before she leaves, Yanagi questions her about any progress in Uzaki and Sakurai’s relationship. She doesn’t have any news to share, but her face contorts into creepy mode as she thinks about what she got out of the evening. Even in front of the younger Uzaki child, Asai’s “creeper face” knows no bounds.
Help Me, Help You
From here, it starts to get really stale and retreads old ground. After Sakurai eats dinner with his family, the next time viewers see him is when he’sworking back at the café. At the café, one of the gym members reunited with the café owner, and they regale Sakaki with tales of their past since they knew each other from back in school. Meanwhile, Sakurai wipes a table, completely lost in his thoughts and thinking about his father’s advice to “do it right.”
Sakurai thinks about what he should do next and even acknowledges his own indecisiveness. As Fuji asks him about what’s on his mind, the other guys are instantly hurt that Sakurai felt comfortable enough with him to ask for advice back when they first met. Sakaki jokes that they were only partly kidding, but everyone knows that somewhere far away there’s a tiny violin playing for Sakaki’s broken heart.
All the guys start giving Sakurai advice about how he should move forward, ending with him needing to think more about his end goal and what he really wants. The café owner ends up giving some pretty insightful advice that impresses everyone.
Stuck in Place
The next day as Sakurai walks alone on campus, he thinks about everything Uzaki has done for him. Just as he’s lost in his thoughts, Uzaki shows up, and he starts to thank her, but she cuts him off to tease himabout not having any Christmas plans. Her friendsinvited her to a Christmas party, which she says she can’t really blow them off for, but she would if he really wanted her to.
Cut to Sakurai’s face, with deep anime marks of frustration under both eyes.
He snaps at her and walks away, at which point she whines a little and follows after him. Later on, she waits outside his door,pawing at it like a cat. As the narrator mentions, the banishment stands and leaves viewers wondering: what will come of Christmas?
So far, this season has been a constant road of one step forward, one step back. Every time it feels like Sakurai may have come to a realization, that revelation fails to make a lasting difference in his behavior or even what viewers can see as his internal struggles. Sakurai usually comes across as a meathead of sorts with no real sense of how Uzaki feels about him or how he feels about her. Then, there are episodes like this one, where Sakurai acknowledges that there’s something between them and that he’s being either too hesitant or too oblivious.
While it’s fine for him to have these internal deliberations from time to time, it seems like he forgets them by the next episode, if not later on in that same episode. So, it’s lacking in any significant progression. That wouldn’t be as much of an issue if there was more humor, character development, or interesting characters in general. Like the other “mid” episodes of this season so far, this episode ofUzaki-Chan Wants to Hang Out!is just “there” without being very enjoyable to watch or adding anything of note.
