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This Week in Anime
Komi Can't Communicate Season Two is Even Better

by Jean-Karlo Lemus & Monique Thomas,

If you bounced off the first season of Komi Can't Communicate, you might want to give it another shot. Jean-Karlo and Nicky discuss how the expanded cast and friendships in the series really work together to make Komi's journey feel less co-dependent on Tadano.

This series is streaming on Netflix

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.
Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.


@Lossthief @mouse_inhouse @NickyEnchilada @vestenet

Nicky
Hey, all you faithful readers of This Week in Anime. Did you miss us? We had to take a vacation to deal with all these hot new anime but now we're back and ready to enjoy the full swing of summer in style!
Jean-Karlo
In style, I said!!

Okay, well maybe I didn't exactly communicate that correctly. Actually, we're still waiting on all those fresh summer anime to cool off before we dig into them, so instead we've gone one final show from the spring season to talk about, and it's a returning favorite. This is the second half of Komi Can't Communicate!
The hotly-anticipated Komi Can't Communicate adaptation really burned up the charts last year. Folks were thrilled to finally see the heartwarming gag comedy about a girl two steps from a coronary caused by social anxiety and her gaggle of misfit, freakish friends (and Najimi). The second season was also hotly anticipated, and for better or worse: it sure is more Komi!
Some of you may recall that Netflix had half abolished their jail policy so this show has actually been simulcasting and we've been trying to savor it. And it was definitely worth it! We've had rom-coms all season but there's still definitely something still unique about Komi even if having a lot of comparison points now can make an anime's strengths and weaknesses more noticeable.
While I can think of some shows we covered for TWIA that would be outright unbearable as weekly releases (God, I shudder to think of having to wait for more FREAKANGELS episodes), a show like Komi Can't Communicate is definitely best savored on a weekly basis. I've said it before for other comedies like Daily Lives of High School Boys or Vladlove, but comedies don't really work when you binge them. The jokes blur together into a blobby morass, and the good stuff just doesn't stand out enough. Was that one good joke from the first episode or the seventh? Even when I take notes, my memories of binged comedies blurs. So with all the stuff Netflix is messing up (and there's a lot), thank goodness for the small favor of them actually releasing episodes of Komi week-to-week. Here's hoping Stone Ocean's second season gets that treatment.
I think this is very true as someone who had to binge both Aharen-san and a good chunk of Komi, (though I am a binge monster and ended up liking both shows) however I think Netflix should also be better about advertising if they want people to tune in every week. I was very worried this second half of Komi might've been overlooked despite many people who enjoyed the first half, simply because it's not as easy to remember a show when all your other anime simply exists practically in one place, right?
That's for sure. But with that out of the way, let's set the stage for newcomers: Komi Shōko is a pretty high schooler who is feared and beloved by her classmates for her elegant, demure demeanor. Thing is, she's not a cool beauty: she just suffers from extreme social anxiety (such that her name is a pun on the Japanese phrase for "communication disorder"). The painfully-average Tadano makes friends with her and resolves to help her make 100 friends. One by one, Komi and Tadano make friends with all the sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, and dickheads at their school.
The thing is their whole prep school is full of weirdos! Almost every character has some sort of gimmick or wild eccentricity, and usually some sort of ridiculous pun-name to match. Can Komi become the Communication Master and collect them all?!

Well, in the first episode of the new half we document all the friends we've made along the way so far, and it really seems like Komi still has a long way to go.
In a weird way, the first friend we're introduced to isn't really a friend for Komi, but for Tadano: it's Katai. Like Komi, Katai has an impenetrable demeanor that masks a very shy personality. Unlike Komi, Katai isn't conventionally attractive. He's built like a delinquent to end all delinquents and his attempts at speaking come off as threats more than anything.
I think Katai is also definitely my favorite new character. He's basically a male equivalent to Komi but he's actually got this extensive high-pitched inner monologue that's super moe compared to his outer puberty-deepened voice. He seems scary but he's an earnest and considerate fellow, and it's very fortunate for him that Tadano has an incredible near-psychic ability to read people and sees him for what he is right away. He develops a very sweet bro-crush on Tadano and accidentally mistakes Komi as a communication master after an anxiety-riddled showdown.
If either of those two knuckleheads could talk, they'd have a lot to talk about!
But I really like that Tadano has another friend to work off of that's not Komi or Najimi (who is everyone's agendered best friend). Actually, the fact Komi and Tadano spend quite a bit of time apart in this half as they branch out and grow closer to other people is one of the stronger points of the season. We didn't get a whole lot of time with every character in the first season and as Tadano and Komi's romance continues to bud, it's important that they're not too co-dependent.
It's definitely a good wrinkle to the formula. Going into this second season, one thing that disappointed me was that much of the show was still the same. And it's a good formula, but the rules of romantic comedy shonen manga dictate that the relationship between your romantic leads doesn't really advance. And after Horimiya, that doesn't cut it for me—especially since everyone else can see that Komi and Tadano are pretty much made for each other. So at least Tadano has Katai so he has more to do than be Komi's guardian. And with Komi making more friends on her own, she's not just an accessory for Tadano.

We also see a bit more into Komi's family—like her younger brother, Shosuke. Apparently, everyone in Komi's family is somewhere along the intersecting spectrum of "tall, dark and attractive" and "quiet". Shosuke also has the quirk of being completely donion rings with Komi's social struggles.

We also got a bit more of her cousin, and her grandma! But It's funny that you mention "how much of the show was the same" being the disappointment. I'm personally unbothered by the unhurried way Tadano and Komi are going, and I think their time apart actually emphasizes their shift from being friends to romantic interests more than when they're together. It helps that everyone with eyes can see that the two are made for each other. Even the tour guide could see it.

But there really is one ongoing character that I really wish there was less of, and it's Yamai, Komi's creepy mean-girl stalker.
I already hated Yamai back in the first season; her shenanigans crossed the line from "quirky classmate" to "inductee into the FBI watchlist." This season seems to really ramp up Yamai's grossness with making her sexually obsessed with Komi, too. There are moments where she's going out of her way to snap a candid photo of Komi's underwear or trying to touch Komi's body with ulterior motives. It would be one thing if Yamai's shtick was just being a bitch in sheep's clothing, but she's just a weird, creepy sex pest and with how blatant she is I reiterate what I said about her last season: Komi's not so hard-up for friends that anyone should tolerate her shenanigans. It's just not funny.

It wouldn't be so bad if "creepy obsessive lesbian stalker" weren't such a reoccurring "comedic" stereotype. I still remember Chizuru from Bleach, she wasn't funny either.
And I still stand by what I said from last time. I have no problem with Yamai's crush on Komi because there's a lot of other characters that show similar interest in Komi where it's not as weird. It doesn't really shame her just for having those desires, but it uses her actions for humor ALOT, maybe even more than the first half and it's already old. All her segments are really long and over-the-top too, but they're never quite funny because it's too soft on her? Even when she's covered in mud, it never quite feels like she gets punished enough for being obsessively creepy and she never learns despite her failures. I want to see this girl get ACME'd like Wile E. Coyote!

Yamai is much funnier when she's just straight up antagonistic and mean, actually. I liked her little rivalry with chūni girl or stuff like how she friendly fired everyone on her OWN snowball team so they wouldn't hurt Komi. But these are more rare and her other segments are so frequent it really does make the show hard to tolerate sometimes.
It's nice to see those alternate sides of the cast. Like when the boys in class come together to fantasize what it's like to be in a relationship with some of the girls in class! These are a lot more innocent and down-to-earth than what you'd expect; I would have been ready for them dreaming of jumping Agari's bones or something, but instead they come up with cute day-to-day-life daydreams with their classmates. It goes a long way in showing that these people are all friends with each other and not just in a vague social group that clusters around Komi. Also, Komi is so pure (read: they know so little about her) that they can't really come up with any kind of fantasy about her.
These segments were nice cuz it really got the team to flex their skills. Komi is still one of glossiest looking shows out there and that remains true. There's a ton of interesting cinematic effects here from a complete change of lighting and altering the camera into a soft filter. It also helps show the appeal of each girl (and Najimi) besides Komi, including some of the more unconventional ones like the competitive Yadano, even if it's all just fantasies and doesn't totally reflect their actual characters.


Tadano listens in the whole time of course and even has a small domestic fantasy about him and Komi when the others can't. Though the follow-up outcome of the boys only being able to imagine Komi as a cool historical badass and then not being able to come to a conclusion in fear of having their male-bonding ritual found out by a girl after she walks in was pretty good.
I also wanna underline the visual creativity of the show through this one bit: earlier in the season, Tadano asks Komi to hang out with him over winter break. A later episode actually has the flashback playing in the screen of a TV behind him. That is seriously good. Suffice to say, the gags in the new season are good, but they're supported by visuals that are just as good.
I still think in terms of inventiveness Kaguya-sama has a leg above it due to its sheer chaos but the Komi team doesn't slack. Every episode has its own bit of flourish and even the standard scenes look rather clean. The new OP and ED also have some creative licenses with the ED showing the whole class in a kind of singular and blocky rotoscoped shot as the school day ends.
I especially like the ED sequence because of how it really represents the class as actual teenagers; they don't have "anime" mannerisms, they're all gossiping and shifting on the balls of their feet like actual people. It's like a rotoscoped effect with all these goofy weirdos like Najimi's pink helmet-hair or that one girl with the knight armor because of course she'd be allowed to wear it (and she should be).
There's a lot of characters we haven't really been introduced to yet either! We still don't exactly know armored girl's deal even though she's a friend and I have no idea what the guys in the front are about.

Which is why every time I get another goddamn Yamai segment I'm all "I could be learning about armor girl RIGHT NOW" or thinking about how I could be spending time with some other character I like better.

Oh, but we do learn about this guy: Naruse! He's a narcissist (as his punny name illustrates), and he tries all kinds of weird schemes to get Komi's attention because it pains him that she has more of a crowd following her around than he does. But he's otherwise dull; his shtick isn't very funny either.
Speak for yourself I really like him. Mostly because he's a narcissist who's just entirely in his own head and nobody gets it or gives him the time of day and yet he's always followed by booming EDM fashion model music. Secondly, because they did one of the best episode previews I could think of which is just constantly repeating the words THE TIME HAS COME really got me.
See, that's the kind of preview you'd give, like, Bond from Spy×Family. Shout out to Bond from Spy×Family.
Like, it's just great to see the show play into his own hype and then underscore it completely. I also like his friend who constantly gives commentary about how he's a loser and eventually starts giving occasional comments about other things providing another element of meta in an already hella meta adaptation.
It's a good gag. He pops up in the funniest of places, and it's cool to see him continue to show up and explain the other kids when Naruse isn't around. I bet he's related to Inez Fressange.

Other new classmates include Kato and Sasaki, Komi's travel buddies for the class trip to Kyoto. Neither of them know what to do with Komi, being that she's so distant, but they endeavor to make her trip as fun as possible. Even though they only get, like, two episodes to really settle in, they feel wildly fun as characters.
School trips are another high school anime staple but it works to have Komi be pretty out of her element with some of her more mundane classmates. Initially, the girls don't really know how to break the ice with the seemingly impenetrable face of Komi but they have a good attitude.

The first day of the trip we see more of the class together split by gender. The girls (and Najimi) have fun having pillow fights and the guys....well the guys end up doing this!
The anime takes great advantage of the school trip. I love this bit so much because we get to see Tadano bond with his fellow classmates in the holiest of male bonding rituals: boys being complete dumbasses. It's infectious, I tell ya. It even awakens something in Komi—though what, I can't imagine. The dawning realization that the guy she likes is nevertheless a guy? I'm a guy, I'll admit some variants of "guy" are just plain weird. There's the guy that doesn't have furniture, the guy that doesn't sleep with sheets on his bed, and the guy that freelances for Anime News Network™.

It's nice to see Komi get some bonding with female friends as well. Earlier she went to the cat café with Onimine and here the resident big-sister type helps her overcome her anxiety about being naked in a public bath by telling her to wrap herself in a towel. Again, I can't stress how important it is that Komi has peers like this to help her on her communication journey. And that's where day two of the field trip really comes in. Komi didn't spend a lot of time with her assigned group the first day, but the second day she gets a full-packed vacation thanks to one of the girls' plans. They end up going to TWO theme parks, Nara, and grow closer in a way that's really organic.
Kato and Sasaki also get some development; while one had scheduled the trip down to the last second, the other just wanted to see the sights and enjoy herself. They're able to bury the hatchet once they realize how much spending time with them meant to Komi.

Also, it nets us a very cheeky Sukeban Deka reference, and I'm all about those kinds of deep cuts!
And while Kato and Sasaki are seemingly the most normal members of the class they still have their own gimmicks. Kato's dream is to become a competitive shogi player like her grandfather before her and Sasaki is secretly a demon with a yoyo and ends up saving Komi from ninjas (park actors) in the middle of movieland wearing an oni mask. (Though she's embarrassed about it after).

But it's great to see how they gradually warm up to Komi and realize that she's not that intimidating, and Komi has genuinely grown at being able to handle dealing when a group goes sour despite her limited range and experiences. There's also....the coveted Girl Talk!!!
So, newsflash, Komi likes Tadano, and even the misdirection from Komi's panicked writing of the letter H can't get her new girlfriends off of her tail. But it's a fun bit of bonding between them, and the girls even prank each other later to give each other a shot with their paramours.

There's been a bit of emphasis on Komi's feelings for Tadano so this isn't a surprise to the audience. She took care of him when he was sick and even tried to sneak a (warning: lewd) hand-holding, only to feel immediately guilty when Najimi shows up. And another bit where she gets privately flushed over the "I love you" game, in which Tadano immediately bungled his attempt by getting nervous.

But again, it's great that she's starting to build this genuine support network where people don't idolize her and she can feel comfortable.
Back in our column for the first season, that was something I knocked this show for: as someone who's had to go through the embarrassing situation where people confused my neurodivergent traits for snobbishness, it was discomforting to see Komi in such a state over her peers when they were all acting like she didn't put her stockings on one leg at a time. And this time around, while Yamai still is really gross about that, everyone else is starting to treat Komi as more of a person than as some weird deity in their classroom. And I like that. It goes hand-in-hand with Komi and Tadano growing closer. As Nicky points out, Komi having a wider, healthier social net means it's easier for her to express herself—like when she finally gives Tadano some Valentine's chocolates.
Y'know after she gave chocolates to all her friends and even had to go over to his house in the middle of the night and had to work up all that courage. But she's getting there!

She's also gradually speaks a little more but really only around Tadano. They actually still share quite a few heart-pounding moments together and he's still supporting her even if it's solely to help her branch out and not to his benefit at all. You can tell he truly cares about her and "gets" her in a way many other Potato-kun's don't ever try. Including picking out the best gift for her birthday/Christmas. (the most cursed of birthday days, if you have this birthday you better demand double presents).

Oh yeah. I remember when My Dress-Up Darling was coming out and folks were bemoaning all the shows about bland guys and their manic pixie dream girlfriends. And it really does feel unfair to lump Gojo and Tadano with those folks. Not a lot of people would go so far as to know what their girl likes, and Tadano knows Komi really well.
And it's that kind of understanding that puts this show above par, despite all it's faults. Though it definitely seems to having more sensitive dudes is more norm now. This show definitely has it's fumbles, not every joke or character will land, but it's still a very pretty, sweet, and kindhearted show when it wants to be. Whether it be laughs or love I can never say that the show doesn't put its whole heart into it and that's been worth it enough to keep watching.
I really do hope that folks give Komi Can't Communicate's second season a shot. When I was thinking up this column, I was worried about how to present it as "more of the same" without being too negative on it. The show's well-meaning tone and creative flourishes really do come together, I just hope folks haven't completely forgotten it in the hustle and bustle of keeping up with the newest stuff.
Turns out that it's still not bad to get more of a good thing even when some parts aren't-so-great. I complain about Yamai but I could NEVER complain about getting more Najimi. I adore this little chaotic gender-troll too much!
Make way, waifus and husbandos. This pink-haired troublemaker has your number!
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