My Senpai is Annoying 02 (Office Romance)

October 20th, 2021

AstroNerdBoy

My Senpai is Annoying 02
Senpai ga Uzai Kōhai no Hanashi 02
先輩がうざい後輩の話 Episode 02

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Futaba frustrated about her pseudo confession to Takeda-senpai. They end up going to an udon place, where she sets the record straight. He finds it all amusing and didn’t take it seriously since she was drunk. Elsewhere, Kazama is having lunch with two male coworkers, who speak of Sakurai. Kazuma has no interest in trying to ask her out since he finds her out of his league.

Meanwhile, Futaba realizes that folks probably see her as Takeda’s daughter rather than his kohai. Back in the office, Futaba notices how large Sakurai’s breasts are. She expresses her frustration, recalling how she’s always been small. Sakurai mentions that Takeda probably doesn’t mind small breast. Futaba protests that she’s not interested in her senpai.

After work, Futaba meets up with her friend Natsumi, who’s getting hit on. Natsumi harshly deals with the guy, then the two friends head to the arcade. While shopping, Futaba picks up a couple of small, teddy bear heads that have the right shape of falsies. As such, she attempts to see how she’d look with larger breasts. However, Natsumi catches her doing it and gets photographic evidence.

That evening, Futaba takes the train home, still wearing the bear heads as falsies. Takeda and Kazama get on board, much to Futaba’s chagrin. Futaba is depressed and calls her grandfather to talk about how Takeda didn’t notice her breast size change. The next day on another train, Takeda notices a pervert attempting to film Futaba’s crotch, so Takeda deals with him.

That day at work, one of the guys in the office hits on Sakurai, making her uncomfortable. Kazama calls her desk phone, giving her an escape. She realizes what he did and after work, invites him to dinner. He suggests ramen, which she happily accepts.

Thoughts/Review:

I remember some of the manga bits and pieces shown in My Senpai is Annoying 02. And I liked how they were used in this episode.

Continuing the Futaba Narrative

As I suspected, My Senpai is Annoying 02 picked up where episode 1 left off. And to be fair, that element was chapter 2 of the manga. However, the anime fleshing things out more made it more enjoyable for me. One thing the anime changed was Takeda expressing some relief that Futaba’s confession was just the booze. In his mind in the manga, he’s a middle-aged dude who’s too old for Futaba. In the anime, Takeda just knows and that’s that.

Still, the anime team successfully constructed a narrative about Futaba’s lack of self confidence. Futaba is jealous of girls like her friend Natsumi and coworker Sakurai having large breasts. She doesn’t understand her growing feelings for Takeda, but she is aware that he doesn’t see her as a woman. If anything, he does see her as a youngster. But, as she learns, Takeda does care deeply for her, as shown when he harshly dealt with the pervert on the train.

The episode managed to introduce Futaba’s best friend, Natsumi, to the story. I like how her introduction was done, more so in light of the narrative regarding Futaba’s self confidence. I’m glad the anime showed the two at the arcade having some fun.

And finally, the episode introduced Futaba’s grandfather. As with Natsumi, Ojii-chan’s introduction works with the narrative of Futaba’s lack of self confidence.

SAKURAI Touko x KAZAMA Souta

The introduction of the Sakurai x Kazama plot thread in My Senpai is Annoying 02 is different from the manga. However, I liked how that was played out as the B-story of this episode. Setting up Sakurai as the hot, office babe was pretty easy. I’ve known hot girls in the office who have all of the single guys (and some married guys) twisted in knots. Yet no one can get her to go out with them.

In that light, I could relate to Kazama’s attitude toward Sakurai. Yes, in his mind, she’s hot. However, she’s so hot, he cannot fathom her ever being interested in him, especially when she’s not interested in other, “better” guys. Still, Kazama was a man in rescuing Sakurai from being cornered by another guy in the office. And Sakurai appreciated that.

What’s more, even though Kazama couldn’t believe Sakurai was inviting him to dinner, he still got up to the plate and took a swing. And there was a cute moment when both of them blushed at the term “suki” being used. Obviously, that doesn’t come across so much in the English, but sometimes when folks confess their love, they simply say “suki”. So it comes across as if there’s some love confessing going on, and they both know it.