Hatsukoi no hito

This episode had lots of action as well as fun character dynamics that made it a very enjoyable watch. There was a lot of developments between Okarun and Momo as well which I thought were very important in setting up their relationship in the future. When it comes to the animation I noticed that the lighting in this episode was spectacular, especially in the final scene of the episode. This is probably my favorite episode behind episode 7 and I thought it balanced the comedy and romance the best out of any episode so far. This episode was one of the best examples of how DanDaDan expertly mixes humor, action, and romance to create a very unique viewing experience compared to other anime. Another great episode from DanDaDan, especially for a setup episode like this one.

The love triangle trope is so overdone and is probably going to overshadow the original charm of the series. We definitely need more time spent on the core trio rather than adding new characters. Jiji's sudden involvement completely slows down the momentum of their group's development together

I really think the show does excel in blending comedy with its themes, but the "humor" in this episode feels so excessive. I get that it's just Jiji's character, he's just really god damn annoying. The plot also really feels like it's taken a backseat especially this close to the end of a series like what are we doing.

And the same goes for Aira too, as far as I'm concerned.

It's really quite a pressing matter in my mind that the watchers of this show see Aira and Jiji as bad characters. It says a lot about anime fans in general. It says to me, number one, that if a person if genuinely nice to you, that doesn't mean anything. Jiji has done NOTHING but be nice to Okarun and I'm seeing complete hate for him. Secondly, people are genuinely intimidated by Jiji in the writing? I mean come on there is no way this guy is a serious threat to the main romance which the show is building around, but people are genuinely not comfortable seeing their self-insert shy main character not effortlessly date a conventionally pretty character while bringing absolutely nothing to offer and having no resolve to push forward for a relationship themself. Jiji and Aira don't get in the way, they PUSH THE TWO MAIN CHARACTERS TOGETHER BY FORCING ACTION, AS YOU COULD SEE IN THIS EPISODE. Third and finally, a statement a chimp could conclude from my previous 2 statements: people are just illiterate to writing. This needs more context.

Jiji is a carefree and positive character despite the adversity he is facing. He's energetic, sociable and a complete contrast to Okarun, but an all-round nice guy. His seemingly more matching personality to Momo and general good-lookingness is there PRECISELY BECAUSE WE NEED TO GROUND OKARUN AS A CHARACTER. There is nothing worse than seeing a completely logic-less romance story where no trials, ups and downs face a couple. For us to build Momo and Okarun properly, there needs to be characters like Jiji. He's also there for cast range: we need another type of character! We haven't seen much of his background or life, but I'd assume more comes together about his experiences at some point either in the next episode or Cour 2 of Season 1, but he's already offering comedic value, a good friend for Okarun, a main Deuteragonist role, But he's there both to flesh out the plot and to be his own character. I cannot believe that people cannot see this, it takes only a semblance of media literacy to understand a character like Jiji because he is meant to be simple.

This was a great episode, and I've really enjoyed seeing the Okarun-Jiji dynamic establish itself. That's all I have to say about the plot of this episode, and I think this was a really good episode to build the romance in the show.

9/10, a really good and very necessary episode which fulfils fleshing out the characters without completely stopping the plot. If Shonen fans can't keep up with that romance side of the plot I'd advise they just walk away.