Unlike the previous episode, which told one story over the course of its runtime, this episode was comprised of several vignettes. It'll be interesting to see with future episodes if they will focus more on the vignettes than on overarching stories.
Over the course of these vignettes, we are introduced to two new characters. The first is Hino, one of Nishimura and Takada's classmates, and he has an interest in both the occult and tank tops. I believe we actually saw Hino briefly in the previous episode, but he gets more of a focus here. And we see that, unlike most of the other kids in the class, Hino doesn't seem to have a problem talking with Nishimura. Then again, it probably helps that his interest in the occult makes it so he's not afraid of her so-called "curse." My guess is that he avoided her before Takada transferred into their class because he didn't want to be ostracized, but after seeing Takada interacting with her, he sees less of a stigma about doing so.
The other new character introduced in these vignettes is Takada's older sister, Yukiko. When Takada brings Nishimura over to his house, his sister gets the wrong idea about the two of them. The humor in her introduction derives from how she misunderstands her brother's interactions with Nishimura. Unlike Nishimura's peers, though, Yukiko thinks Nishimura looks adorable. In another vignette, we see Yukiko giving Nishimura some of her old clothes, which are more cutesy looking than what Nishimura normally wears. When Nishimura explains that no matter what she wears, her classmates will still call her the Grim Reaper, Yukiko gives Nishimura an encouraging pep talk and says that her brother will step up for her if their classmates tease her. And as we see at the end of the episode, he does when the popular girl and her friend make fun of Nishimura. The popular girl scowls when her teasing backfires, but we don't see any hints of the crush she seemed to develop on Takada in the previous episode. Maybe that crush has already dissipated after seeing how much time Takada spends with Nishimura.
One of the vignettes focuses on the students having to pick their favorite word and doing an art assignment with it. When Nishimura explains that she likes words that aren't associated with her, like "light" and "sunshine," the subtitles make it clear that "taiyou" (Takada's first name) is "sunshine" is Japanese. This is the perfect name for a kid like Takada. Of course, when Nishimura makes the connection, she bashfully tries to claim that "taiyou" being one of her favorite words has nothing to do with Takada. I thought that this was an adorable moment in the episode. But poor Nishimura spends a lot of time in these vignettes blushing.
In the previous episode, we met a group of three boys who are the boys in the class who tease Nishimura the most. Last week, Takada pointed out a flaw in their logic when it came to their teasing of Nishimura. In this episode, Takada does this again with the same group of boys. I have a feeling that this is going to be a running gag in the series.
With these vignettes, we can see that Nishimura's world is starting to expand. While I don't think Hino would call Nishimura his friend yet, he's at least willing to talk to her and interact with her, unlike the other kids in the class. And the introduction of Yukiko gives Nishimura an older girl she can go to for guidance if she feels she needs it, although I think Yukiko's help will be more like she did this time (giving advice even though Nishimura didn't ask for it).
After watching this episode, I thought the interactions between Nishimura and Takada continued to be quite sweet. It seems that My Clueless First Friend is shaping up to be a rather wholesome show.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to watch the next episode of My Clueless First Friend when it goes live on Crunchyroll next week. Because of this, there is going to be a noticeable delay in my writeup for the next episode. I apologize for the inconvenience that this may cause.
Additional posts about My Clueless First Friend:
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