Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You ‒ Episode 10
Oh hey, the cute guy from the OP finally showed up in Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You!
…
Oh no! The cute guy from the Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You OP is a yells a lot, flustered, soft-boi character!!! That's a bummer for me personally as I find Sasaki's exaggerated reactions, comical social ineptitude, and wholesomeness to be just about the limit on how much I can stomach from these kinds of characters. Even though this episode is plenty of fun, a great reminder on why you shouldn't idolize people you admire, and puts even more wind in the sails of the Sasaki x Tayama/Yamada ship; I would have liked it more if there was 50% less yelling.
This episode begins with Sasaki realizing that he's been so busy with work that the end of year holidays snuck up on him (mood), and connecting with produce manager Obata behind the supermarket while the latter struggles with prepping tangerines for the upcoming sales rush. The two bond over their shared golden retriever energy as Obata reveals that he deeply respects (and is lowkey crushing on) store manager Goto. As Sasaki recalls that a different grocery store used to be at this location and confirms that it was him that inspired Tayama/Yamada eight years ago, the young woman appears in Yamada-mode to grill Sasaki about his exchange with Obata. Of course, Sasaki ends up charming Yamada, while sending her Tayama persona into a tsundere spiral.
For as much as I find Obata to be annoying, I will say it is fun to see Sasaki fill a kind of mentor role to the young man and it's nice to get confirmation that Sasaki that inspirational figure from Tayama/Yamada's flashback.
The rest of the episode is an examination of why Obata finds Goto so impressive and attractive — TL;DR, she's a business baddie — and working up the nerve to talk to her after he sees her having an uncharacteristically emotional reaction to something at her desk. Turns out she was just in her feels about a new development in a manga she likes, which leads into a conversation about how, even if her background is impressive and her attitude inspires confidence, Goto is still just a person who's in need of support and comradery. There's not a lot of media that manages to ground exceptional people in the more difficult trappings of personhood in a way that feels true to my own lived experience, so it was some kind of validating to see this hit the nail on the head from my purview.
All of that being said, while I still liked this episode, I hope the show turns down the volume on Obata in every regard in the few episodes left in this season.
Rating:
Lucas DeRuyter is your one stop shop for smoking hot anime takes, and you can read the best of those by checking out his portfolio. You can also catch him filling a double shift as a columnist for ANN's recurring This Week in Anime segment, where he shares his insights into that week's news, trends, or special topics.Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
discuss this in the forum (32 posts) |
back to Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You
Episode Review homepage / archives
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.