Two jaded-looking adults chatting as they smoke caught my attention when I saw the announcement of this anime adaptation. As a working professional, I'm more inclined to watch a slice-of-life anime that features characters around my age group over an action title, especially one that features conversations I've had with other people word-for-word. Who can't relate to a lonely, tired office worker these days?

As a slice-of-life and romantic comedy series, there's a healthy buildup of the characters' friendship as the foundation for their relationship. The humor goes hand in hand with the comedy, as Yamada/Tamaya's ability to fluster the gullible Sasaki does. Much of the romance is understated and in fleeting moments, which is a refreshing expansion into the leads' growing chemistry. Their interactions came off as more natural and comfortable for me to watch as a viewer, in contrast to After the Rain, which was between a forty-five-year-old man and a high school student. Unlike that series, which has an inherent power imbalance, the two leads in Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You are given more equal footing as the narrative gives them autonomy and insight into their lives and inner thoughts.

Sasaki maintains a level of respect and distance when interacting with either Yamada (Tamaya's customer service persona) or her real self (which he's oblivious to), but she'll push his buttons by playing with his serious sense of responsibility. Tamaya—a pseudonym that Yamada uses when she interacts and plays around with Sasaki—comes off initially as a manic pixie dream girl, a person who was conveniently there for Sasaki when he was hitting a low point. But I knew she would break out of that impression, since she's a multifaceted character with her own problems.

After all, she creates an identity to mess with Sasaki—who is too oblivious to figure out they're the same person. But this comes back to immediately annoy her when this bit works too well, and he treats Tamaya and Yamada as two actual, different people. This illusion creates much of the story's tension and drama. It's akin to situations where a simple lie could've been cleared up at the start, but becomes increasingly awkward to come clean about over time. I started to question if Sasaki would eventually figure out that they're the same person, but perhaps he's just waiting for her to tell him on her own.

The Japanese voice acting is so impressive that I didn't realize who played the two protagonists, even though I know their other work. I held off on looking at the credits until after I finished the first half, and I was shocked by how the actors changed their usual tone and cadence for these characters. As a fan of both Takuya Satō and Seena Hoshiki, I see them in a completely new light. Satō is known for roles as Ryunosuke Tsunashi in IDOLiSH7 and Harald in Vinland Saga, but sounds almost unrecognizable as an average salaryman. Hoshiki, who voices the cheeky and childish Riamu Yumemi in The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls, flexes her vocal range playing the cool, smoking Tamaya and the ideal employee with Yamada. I would love to hear more women play characters with a deeper range and vocal fry.

However, one aspect I must bring up is the unusual release of the first six episodes of this anime series. Its odd promotional mini-episode debut initially undercut my interest. ABEMA, a Japanese ad-supported streaming platform, announced the early streaming schedule for Smoking Behind the Supermarket at the end of May. Premiering twelve mini episodes for its premium members, where the season's first six episodes are cut in half, nearly a month before its full-length Japanese TV broadcast in July, is highly unusual. June's schedule for free users on ABEMA will stagger the release of three episodes a week and feature different opening and ending songs than the eventual TV broadcast. It's a promotional pre-release strategy that divides the format into short ten-minute chunks to give viewers a digitally optimized preview. Obviously, this wasn't done with the international audience in mind. U.S. anime fans can watch the twelve-episode batch on Crunchyroll.

That said, this lends well to the webcomic's format, where each chapter has a self-contained story. The first six mini episodes (or three regular-length ones) ease the viewer into Sasaki's lonely, overworked life and his fleeting interactions with the upbeat Yamada. Towards the middle of the season, the short format begins to grind on the story's pacing, particularly when the opening and ending cut in during a forced transition. This leads to lopsided episode breakups, as episode nine contained only six minutes of new material beyond the opening and ending sequences. There are moments that undercut the emotional buildup of Sasaki and Tamaya's individual character development due to the episode's brevity. The story's direction becomes incomplete because it's missing the second half, which is an aspect that will be cleared up during the actual premiere. In other words, the mini-episode premiere serves its purpose of slowly feeding the viewer, but it starts to destroy the overall flow as the story develops.

Despite these problems, Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You is a must-see as an upcoming summer release. The relatability of the lead's relationship makes it easy to watch after a stressful day of work.