Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie’sninth episode stretches the series' good run, and brings back a little more of the show’s characteristic lightheartedness. The episode opens with an interesting question: why does Shikimori seem to dislike Inuzuka, or become guarded against him?
The answer ismuch cuter than one would think, and the show does a little something to humanize Shikimori a bit on the tail end of her immense display of incredible, almost unintelligible levels of empathy for a romantic rival.
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The Rivalry
The context is fairly simple – Inuzuka suspects that Shikimori dislikes him, and has noticed her tendency to treat him like a romantic rival whenever he and Izumi are together. On this day in particular, Izumi happens to be sick, so he sends Inuzuka a text asking if he could take notes for him until he’s able to return to school. Shikimori is dismayed to find out through the grapevine that her boyfriend has fallen ill, and to make things worse, he didn’t ask for her help regarding something so important.
Shikimori often feels somewhat insecure in her relationship, especially when it comes to doing or being enough for Izumi as a girlfriend.His closeness with other people, Inuzuka in particular, triggers her possessiveness, something which can be considered an extension of her highly competitive nature. This is evident when hearing that Inuzuka will be taking Izumi’s notes – Shikimori is determined to make better notes for her boyfriend than she’d even make for herself, showing her resolve to lose to no one when it comes to “earning” Izumi’s affection.
After school, Shikimori asks Inuzuka if she could accompany him to Izumi’s house to deliver the notes for the day, and on the way, they stop by a convenience store to buy a few supplies for Izumi. While picking out cough drops and candy for him, Shikimori asks Inuzuka for his advice regarding what flavors Izumi would like best. While comparing different kinds, Shikimori accidentally calls Inuzuka “big brother”, which causes an awkward moment for the both of them, but Inuzuka doesn’t think about it too much.
As they leave the store, they run into Hachimitsu, who had been tailing them per Nekozaki’s request. She reveals an unexpected truth – Shikimori unconsciouslyassociates Inuzuka with her older brother, coming to the conscious realisation of their similar speech patterns and behaviour. It wasn’t that Shikimori disliked Inuzuka at all – seeing her boyfriend with Inuzuka brought out a sense of possessiveness borne from a desire for her brother’s attention. While a little embarrassing, Inuzuka doesn’t particularly dislike this adorable outcome.
A New Friend
The B part of Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie episode 9 is about a little outing with Shikimori and Nekozaki. With Izumi and Hachimitsu out sick, and Inuzuka at his part-time job, and Nekozaki’s basketball club off for the day, Shikimori and her best friend kill some time at the local mall. There, they run into Nekozaki’s basketball teammate, and one of the most significant characters of the past few episodes, Kamiya. Nekozaki asks her if she’d like to hang out for the day, ready to be gently turned down by Kamiya (again), but Nekozaki is delightfully surprised to have Kamiya’s company for the day. During their outing, Nekozaki notices that Shikimori and Kamiya are much closer than she remembers, and act like they are good friends. The two are in fact closer, with their relationship developing into a true friendship acknowledged by them both by the end of the episode.
Shikimori realizes more and more that Kamiya is just like her – they both have the same sense of nobility about them; they’re incredibly kind, athletic and physically attractive people who appear to be inhabiting an elite world of their own. In reality; however, they’re just high school girls who get insecure, lonely, and anxious like anybody else.
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Like with the last few episodes, we learn a bit more about Kamiya, but this time, through her relationship with Nekozaki, who recalls being consistently turned down by Kamiya whenever she’d try to spend some time with her. At some point during their activity-filled day, Shikimori, Kamiya and Nekozaki arrive at a basketball court, where they are challenged by a “gyaru” pair placed in a somewhat antagonistic yet wholesome position in relation to the episode’s main trio. This is where Shikimori’s friendship with Kamiya is solidified, as their teamwork enables them to coolly overcome their opponents. This particular event is also significant to the series because it is the opposite scenario toKamiya’s introduction in episode 2– on the basketball court, in opposition to both Shikimori and Nekozaki.
Nekozaki’s Promise
After winning on the court, Shikimori and Kamiya’s opponents compliment them on their teamwork, adding that such teamwork is only possible through the kind of deep understanding of each other that friendship elicits. This becomes the formalization of Shikimori’s friendship with Kamiya, but the episode was actually always about a much-neglected character: Nekozaki. When Shikimori leaves the two of them alone, Nekozaki immediately tries to understand the various behaviors and expressions that Kamiya presented throughout their day together, particularly because she had never seen Kamiya so expressive before.
Like her best friend Shikimori, Nekozaki is particularly perceptive and comes tomore closely understand Kamiya’s distancefrom a more empathetic standpoint than ever. Kamiya apologises for consistently turning down Nekozaki’s invitation’s to hang out; especially because it was never because she did not want to spend time with her. Nekozaki’s strength of character shows when she reassures Kamiya that she’ll be there ready to hear it when she becomes ready to express her true feelings about things without trying to kill them off first. Ultimately,Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutieepisode 9 rounds out the Kamiya arc with her establishing genuine friendships with not just Shikimori, but Nekozaki too.
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