Komi Can't Communicate Season 2

Episode 19

OK be honest: when the narrator started talking about what a narcissist was, who else immediately thought of Yamai? This episode introduces two new characters that have apparently been around this entire time – we just haven't seen either of them before despite them having distinctly obvious quirks. This lack of attention seems to be part of the joke; at least with Katai there was the excuse that he wasn't in school for a long time. Naruse is basically the protagonist of a different romantic comedy trapped as a side character in this show. He's so over-the-top and obnoxious about how much he loves himself that no one wants anything to do with him. It appears that his only friend is Chushaku, a kid who seems to prefer staying in the background and just narrating everything that's going on. I like the little detail that his speech bubbles are similar to the text boxes that the actual narrator in the show uses and that his name could be read as “to comment”. Kind of makes me wonder if this character is going to take over as the new narrator or at least when the characters are in a school setting. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The beginning and end of the episode definitely hone in on that Komi and Tadano dynamic that has been built up before. We got a follow-up to the previous episode regarding Tadano getting sick and Komi holding his hand in a moment of weakness. How scandalous! Then again, someone as withdrawn as her is bound to think that showing any type of forward desire or interest is something terrible, and seeing her obsess over how to potentially explain herself to Najimi without stopping to think whether or not they actually know what she had done was adorable. However, the real highlight of this episode was at the end when Komi and Tadano have a genuine heart-to-heart. Komi explains that she finds certain events like school field trips difficult because, in the past, her communication disorder made it hard for her to really accept and appreciate people around her. It got so bad that her default was to assume that people hated her even if that might not have been the case. I really like how the show refrained from clarifying how her classmates actually saw her just to really get us wrapped up in her mind. Tadano making it more and more obvious that he really wants to spend alone time with Komi was great, and a part of me wishes that we got more of that instead of the school field trip. But I also recognize that the show has really sold on why that is so important to happen now outside of obligation. School field trips can be fun, but being in an unknown territory with a lot of people and a lot of moving parts can be scary on its own – doubly so for somebody who has trouble acting out on their own and communicating without assistance. There's a lot of good potential in this next arc and I look forward to what the characters are able to get out of it.

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Komi Can't Communicate Season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix.