There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless...

Episode 7

There is a lot to unpack here, and arguably a lot of it isn't good. However, I'm torn because a lot of it is also hilarious. We finally have the fateful confrontation between Mai and Satsuki, and it is every bit as toxic as I was expecting it to be. These two are having a hilarious crash out where they are completely missing the point of the other person, and Renako is stuck in the middle of it. Honestly, I was genuinely feeling bad for her, because there comes a certain point in the conversation where it's clear that these two aren't thinking about Renako as a person; they just see her as a tool to either validate themselves or to use against the other person. Despite claiming that they care about her and want to be good partners for her, they are not listening to her input at all, not really respecting her autonomy, and just completely disregarding her until she finally stands up for herself to redirect the competition. That is arguably a good character moment for Renako, considering that her main issue is dealing with her crippling anxiety and passiveness that arguably got her into this situation in the first place. The second half of this episode just felt really uncomfortable in a genuine and entertaining way.

It's entertaining because we're reaching ludicrous levels of character logic here. A lot of that comes from Satsuki, who keeps flipping back and forth between seeing Renako as a tool while also showing that she is still willing to put in the work to be a good partner. She might still be trying to rationalize their relationship as that of a business transaction, but she is willing to put her money where her mouth is and take full responsibility for the situation. In some ways, she's not much better than Mai because she is, arguably, prioritizing herself over Renako's feelings. But she at least recognizes when she goes too far and apologizes. I will take Satsuki over whatever the hell is going on with Mai. I don't think you need to psychologically break down that much to get a firm understanding of why Satsuki is so angry with Mai in the first place.

Mai, where do I start with you? I gave you the benefit of the doubt when you owned up to the fact that you screwed up by rushing physical intimacy with Renako. I think the show glossed over it a little bit too much, but at least it was addressed. I am shocked that we have not addressed just how badly Satsuki has been treated. Mai is making it seem like this is a very petty squabble that can easily be resolved with a conversation, when the irony is that there are layers to how badly Mai has done Satsuki dirty without ever actually having a conversation with her. I thought Satsuki was just pissed off because Mai was acting like a big baby and was throwing a pity party at Satsuki's place after the whole altercation with Renako. Satsuki even makes it clear that this isn't the first time something like that has happened. Satsuki has basically needed to be the one to constantly pacify Mai, and I got the sense that Mai has just accepted that as a natural part of their friendship. I'm not saying that it is wrong for friends to be there for each other in their time of need, but clearly, the extent to which they interact is very lopsided. I don't blame Satsuki for being stubborn, because she's trying to teach Mai a lesson that she isn't mature enough to recognize through simple conversation.

But there's more! That's not even getting into the fact that Mai arguably treated Satsuki like garbage the last time they interacted. The whole situation with Mai asking Satsuki to embrace her was a step further than all the other times that she needed to be pacified. There might've been an issue with the translation that I watched on YouTube, because I saw “embrace” and just assumed hug or hold. But there's a chance that Mai was probably asking Satsuki to sleep with her or to be physically intimate with her as a form of punishment, and the only reason she thought it would be punishment is because she fully believed that Satsuki had feelings for her. Whether or not that's the case is up to interpretation, but whether Mai is right about Satsuki's feelings doesn't matter. It is such a messed-up thing to request somebody in that context with that assumption, and Mai dares to take the moral high ground during this conversation like she's doing everyone a favor. I don't know how a character recovers from acting like this or how we resolve the situation.

I'm curious what the show is planning to do with this competition between the three of them, but there's a part of me that doesn't think that they're going to be able to redeem Mai because it doesn't feel like she's learning as much as she should. Even if Renako walked her through everything, she still wouldn't be able to grasp the situation. In any other show, I feel like Mai would be a villain, but the show doesn't really seem to be vilifying her that much, which makes me wonder what the whole direction is going to be.

This isn't even getting into the stuff Ajisai did, which was funny and arguably the reason why these three ended up having this conversation in the first place. Renako, I know you're not that bright, and a lot is going on, but surely you must recognize the fact that you practically confess to Ajisai at least once. Ajisai is admitting that she's making an effort to come out of her shell, more specifically, so that she can be a good partner for Renako. It's funny how these two are having seemingly normal conversations and reading completely different things from each other. At a certain point, I feel bad for Ajisai because she doesn't know everything that is going on. Still, Ajisai might be the best partner for Renako, both as a friend and as a girlfriend. I doubt the show will go that direction, but I wonder how much this misunderstanding will drag on.

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