Tanaka-kun is Always Listless

Episode 9

In this episode Tanaka-kun meets his ultimate nemesis: a milkshake. Apparently this is the extra thick variety, because trying to drink it nearly brings him to ingest his own cheeks, he's sucking on the straw so hard. What's particularly great about this whole milkshake thing is that at first it looks like Tanaka is just sucking that thing down in one gulp – when you realize that he's actually barely moving the shake up the straw, it's hysterical. I don't think we've ever seen him expend so much effort for something, not even to get to Ohta-kun's house last week. That it's a fast food shake is somehow even better because he spent the first few minutes of the show telling Ohta how he and fast food places just don't mix: everyone there is just way too energetic for him and he feels pressured to move more quickly. He never mentions the milkshakes being too hard to drink as being part of the problem…

So yes, this week's episode is all about Tanaka-kun going to a WcDonalds, or “Wac.” The restaurant on his way home from school (which is across the gallery from a shop called “WildCow,” that makes me very curious) is having a limited edition dessert involving cherries and strawberries, and Ohta really really wants one. Tanaka himself is indifferent, if not semi-actively anti-Wac…until he notices that one of the toys in the kiddy meal is a mini-Roomba. As much as Ohta wants that dessert, Tanaka seems to want the Roomba even more. Why? Who knows? Possibly because it will save him effort, maybe because he just really likes little robot vacuums; whatever the reason, it's enough to motivate him to actually stretch out an arm and grab Ohta when he starts to walk away. Again, much more energy than we've seen from him in a while (or ever), even if the grab is slow enough that we can see each stage of the movement.

Although the entire episode takes place in essentially a single location, it follows the usual format of a few smaller sub-plots within the half hour. Probably the best is Tanaka and Ohta's inadvertent terrorizing of a WcDonalds employee, who misinterprets their blasé facial expressions (and Tanaka's sucking-down-a-frappe face) as threatening, and she's pretty positive that she's about to die at their hands. For many other viewers, the appearance of Ohta's little sister Saya will be the highlight, as she and her best friend, Rino Tanaka, bump into Tanaka-kun at the restaurant.

In keeping with the general absurdity of the show, no one knows that both little sisters and big brothers are best friends. rino has no clue that her beloved Saya is the sister of her greatest “rival,” and Saya doesn't know that that guy her brother is always taking care of is rino's brother. In fact, she thinks of her brother as a gorilla (a three on the five-point gorilla scale, which is how I'm going to describe people from now on), and Tanaka's bemusement when he figures out that Ohta is who she was talking about is quietly amusing.

The downside of this episode is the more aggressive, or at least noticeable, return of rino's brother complex. If you're not yet tired of this trope, this may instead be a highlight, because rino is seriously unhappy when Ohta comes back to the restaurant at the end of the episode. But if like me you've had enough of this particular device (or never liked it to begin with), it sours the episode at its finale, feeling like a cheap and easy way to wrap things up. Not that the whole show is particularly highbrow or innovating in its gags, but Saya having the exact same reaction to how much the Tanaka kids resemble each other (and that poor employee thinking it too) is more natural in the flow of things than rino suddenly announcing that it's time for dinner so they should all leave. On that same theme of slight cheapness, the animation is not quite as good this week (Tanaka's face and grabbing Ohta aside), and profiles in particular don't look all that good. It also feels as if there are more long pauses in this episode than we've had for a while, which again feels a bit like a short cut.

Not every episode can be a winner, and this is the first we've had since the premier that has felt like it dragged. Perhaps there just wasn't quite enough material in a fast food visit to fill an entire episode. Whatever the case, while this is still fun, it isn't quite as good as we've been getting.

Rating: B-

Tanaka-kun is Always Listless is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.