Review: My Teen Romantic Comedy Too!, Episode 7: Yet, That Room Continues to Play Out the Endless Days

Screenshot taken from: http://www.crunchyroll.com/my-teen-romantic-comedy-snafu/episode-7-yet-that-room-continues-to-play-out-the-endless-days-678751

Review:

Hikigaya’s frustrating school council experience continues as the date of the event looms ever closer with no concrete plans set in place. This episode does serve to reintroduce Tsurumi Rumi (a season one character) back into the plot, albeit with very little function or influence on the overall progression of the plot, although there is a bit of enjoyable interaction between her and Hikigaya in one scene. For the most part, the episode continues to focus on the continuing stress of the student council situation and Hikigaya’s relationships with the people around him. It is particularly interesting to watch his interactions with Iroha, as the potential for another love interest is clearly cropping up.

My Teen Rom-Com (OreGairu, in its Japanese abbreviation) continues to be an interesting creature, because despite its title, there is still very little comedy to be had. Outside of Hikigaya’s banter with Komachi (which may also be the most genuine emotion we see from him) and his meal with Totsuka, there really isn’t anything “comedic” about this episode, just as there hasn’t been for pretty much the entire season. What the show excels at is weaving the overall thread of the show just below the surface of the present story arc, so that the viewer’s attention is kept on the problem at hand while simultaneously never being far from the problems that have developed amongst the three members of the Service Club.

For maybe the first time in the season, we also see Hikigaya begin to question the effectiveness of his methods, and to wonder if perhaps he is not going about things the wrong way. This type of gradual self-realization is another high point for the show, as it doesn’t force character progression (lets not forget that we have a whole season plus seven episodes under our belt at this point), but it also doesn’t keep characters as they are simply to milk whatever comedic aspect it can. A good example is the ending of this episode, which finally takes all of the underlying pressure that has been building between Hikigaya and Yukino and puts it into action. Granted, like anything else in the show, it gets a slow start, and probably won’t come to a head until later in the series, but the progression is there.

OreGairu continues to be one of this reviewer’s top shows for the Spring 2015 season. The combination of likeable characters with a genuinely interesting plot makes it something that you will want to come back to week after week in order to see what happens next.

A Christian Perspective:

At one point in this episode, Hayama comments that he isn’t the good guy that Hikigaya thinks he is. At this point in the story, we really don’t know what that means, but that statement made me think of the Pharisees. In Matthew 23:27, Jesus say, “”Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” Despite looking good and righteous on the outside, the Pharisees were really anything but. Their holiness was only skin deep. Whether or not Hayama’s true stripes are as bad as the Pharisees is as of yet unknown.

Content Guide:

Spiritual Content: None

Language: 1 “h*ll”, 1 “p*ss”

Alcohol/Drug Use: None

Nudity/Sex/Fanservice: None

Violence: None

Blood/Gore: None

Other: There is a scene with Hikigaya having inappropriate reactions towards Totsuka