English Dub Review: My Senpai is Annoying: “Someone Who’ll Be By Your Side”

Overview: Futaba (Risa Mei) catches a nasty bug and must stay home from work, causing Takeda (Patrick Seitz) to visit and cure her back to health. 

Our Take: Being there for one another when they need you most is one of the sweetest ways to show someone that you care. Takeda and Futaba continue their simple yet heartwarming back and forth with that slice of life goodness you’ve come to expect.

With Futaba down with a cold, it is Takeda to the rescue. Overall, it’s the pure wholesomeness of Takeda curing her loneliness, cooking her a hot meal in udon and tucking her in that is the heartwarming food for the soul. But Takeda’s caretaking of her also allows him a way into understanding Futaba’s personality more with her pictures with Natsumi and her adorable girly side with her stuffed animal collection. 

Takeda getting rid of his ancient relic of a phone is another way the show puts their cute chemistry on display. With Takeda being completely clueless as to what kind of phone to purchase and how to even use it, Futaba showing him the ropes of operating a modern day cell phone is a fun way to show the big guy’s naïve charm and one of the reasons she likes him. When Takeda gets sick, it allows for Futaba to get the same kind of intimacy he got with her in seeing how much of an accomplished judo master and how he cares about being physically fit. But also just how much she really likes him and her adorable tsundere disposition. A great example of that is highlighted in this episode, and previous ones, in how easy it is for Sakurai to read Futaba’s emotions, despite how she tries to hide it. 

With some teasing from Sakurai to end the day, it was a classically enjoyable romp that doesn’t stray from the formula with much, if any deviation, once again. However, it continues to execute that tried-and-true roadmap with such ease in these everyday activities showing Futaba’s growing feelings for Takeda that it doesn’t matter if you are merely looking for some plain warmth.