English Dub Review: Tsugumomo “Memories and Childhood Friends”

Kids these days.

Tsugumomo is so fun, with its monster of the week and overarching storyline, and its unlikely friendships. Chisato and Kazuya were friends as children, but something changed on the way to high school. Now they’re back to spending time together, thanks to all the evil going on around them. “Memories and Childhood Friends” starts with Chisato on the school’s roof with a mystery boy. He asks her out and she rejects him because she likes someone else. Obviously it’s Kazuya, and obviously, he doesn’t know.

When Kazuya comes to school the next day, everyone is coupled off. After he runs into a girl and knocks her to the ground, a dating sim interface appears before his disbelieving eyes. This is fun and hilarious. All the power of obis, amasogis, local gods, and a mother calling out her support from the afterlife, and we’re taking a break to do a dating sim.

Kazuya seems to be the only one who realizes this isn’t right. Kiriha tells him this is the work of a gal game amasogi – the most endearing and appropriate name of the show so far. There’s actually one other guy in on this, and it’s the guy Chisato rejected yesterday.

To conquer the amasogi, Kazuya has to play the game. He successfully wins over Chisato, but the amasogi isn’t destroyed yet. And it isn’t destroyed until it’s just a little too late. They’re embarrassed by whatever it is that happened (it’s a secret!) but at least Chisato knows it was worth it. They got to remember the childhood times that brought them together.

The show is still coming in strong with a solidly written episode. It was funny and light, but still drove the story forward. Apparently, these monsters of the week don’t have to manifest as monsters at all.