English Dub Review: Tsukigakirei “Spring and Hard Times”

Tsukigakirei sets out to tell an honest and dramatic tale of middle school relationships. It’s successfully realistic, but I’m not quite sure if that’s a good thing.

Spoilers Below

Akane and her friends are starting their last year of middle school when Akane realizes she doesn’t know anyone in her class. As she enters, her eyes meet Kotaro’s. He’s a nerdy, practically silent boy. They look at each other – this show involves a lot of looking.

Kotaro serves as the show’s narrator and remarks, “even in middle school, inequality is alive and well”. There’s no doubt that Tsukigakirei takes the plight of middle schoolers seriously!

The show features long, beautiful and serene shots of the school, including the library and track, where we see Kotaro and Akane living their separate lives. Little do they know those lives are about to come crashing together! That night, the two run into each other at a restaurant. They then look at each other without saying anything.

It sounds anti-climatic but it’s actually very dramatic, in an excruciating way. I’m starting to realize why there aren’t a lot of shows that are willing to take middle schoolers seriously.

Back at school, Kotaro returns as narrator to give the audience an update: He and Akane still haven’t spoken, but they’ve noticed each other a lot. This is so real it’s painful. Akane has been tasked with getting Kotaro’s number so she can send him the cleaning schedule for the equipment closet. Instead, she looks at him.

To further prove Kotaro’s quiet bookishness, he goes to a bookstore after school. He then leaves with a folk-rock album, a book that has a passage on embroidered underwear and supposedly explains the female point of view, and a magazine of girls in swimsuits. I think we’re to determine that Kotaro goes home and immediately becomes an expert in women. It’s kind of strange, but way easier to watch than his interactions with Akane.

Finally, the two meet at the school’s equipment closet and Akane offers to help clean up. She finally gets Kotaro’s number like she was told to, and immediately turns normal. The two start talking. And, boom – now they’re in love! Akane expresses this by staring at his phone number when she gets home, and Kotaro repeatedly punches a cord hanging from a light switch.

There were a lot of strange actions in this episode, but it delivered exactly what it promised. Set against a backdrop of falling cherry blossom leaves, “Spring and Hard Times” featured real middle school struggles aplenty. With the setup out of the way, I’m optimistically curious to see how in the world this relationship will progress.