English Dub Review: Convenience Store Boy Friends “June”

All a big misunderstanding.

Spoilers Below:

Mishima runs to a convenience store and then runs to the school gate. He stumbles into Asumi, who he notices has a bruise on his face. Asumi brushes him off, and the school bell rings. Honda runs in during the break, and tells Mishima that he’s seen Mashiki hanging out with another guy. Mishima isn’t too concerned, but Honda thinks it’s something serious.

Honda is avoiding doing paperwork with Mami when he notices the guy he saw talking with Mashiki walk by. He follows him to a classroom, dragging Mami with him in the process. They’re caught by a student, who brings them inside to the cooking society. She introduces them to the guy in question, Sanagi. He’s the president of the cooking club, and he shortly excuses himself. Honda drags Mami after him, and they end up in a hospital. They see him go into one of the rooms but are caught by him when he exits.

Meanwhile, Mishima stumbles across Asumi being heckled by his senpai on the track team. They criticize him for not being a team player, and the situation could escalate. A librarian interferes, purposefully dropping her books in front of the commotion. Mishima runs to help her, and the distraction breaks up the fight. The student council sees the commotion and takes Mishima and Asumi in for questioning. For disrupting the peace, they give the two of them time to a committee. While they work, Mishima asks Asumi about the fight, and Asumi says that the team isn’t happy that he’s not a team player. He wants to run because it feels nice, not because he’s on a team.

It’s raining, so Mishima goes to the convenience store for an umbrella. The cheap ones are sold out, and he doesn’t have enough for a large one, but Mashiki offers to pay. They walk home when Mishima drops some ice cream on his shirt. Mashiki tries to clean up the mess, but Mishima says that it’ll be strange doing that if she already has a boyfriend. She says that she doesn’t have a boyfriend. Later that night, Honda calls Mishima, saying that Sanagigoes to the hospital for checkups, and that it was all a misunderstanding.

Overview:

We encounter an age-old trope of anime slice of life romances– the miscommunication that the love interest is actually dating someone else. It’s dated, and pretty ridiculous. Moreso because there’s usually never any real evidence that the love interest actually wants to pursue a relationship with another person, not even an action that could be mistaken for being overly affectionate. Usually, the love interest ends up talking to someone of the opposite sex, which is something that can happen every day. Even in an overall conservative country like Japan, girls and boys talk to each other at school all the time; this isn’t anything phenomenal.

The same thing happens here. Because a girl can’t talk to a boy, right? A girl can’t be friends with a boy, they have to be dating. It’s a trope that’s way past it’s prime, and frankly, dull and boring.