English Dub Review: More than a Married Couple, but Not Lovers.: “”Already” has Passed, but Not “Yet.””

Overview: Jiro (Ben Balmaceda) and Akari (Lindsay Sheppard) spend some time at the beach together and, later, she confides in what she wants for their relationship. 

Our Take: Akari is still playing fast and loose in going from hot to cold in how she treats Jiro, which, still, varies in how gradually well executed it is. Her and Jiro’s beach time highlights how vexing she can be at times, but Jiro can be similarly so in how overly apologetic he is too, making them frustrating to watch at times. 

However, it is all about the impactful moments that make it worth it like Jiro growing his self-esteem and pulling Akira away from two jabronis hitting on her. Jiro and Shiori don’t get much time here, unfortunately, but their moment under the sand castle is sweet for what it is.

Getting back to critical moments, before Akari can make a major one in admitting her feelings of jealousy towards Jiro gawking at Shiori, it makes the opposite decision. It does the thing we all dread in romcoms in choosing the smallest of baby steps as opposed to a larger, more significant one. 

While it understandably drags things out and is irritating in its own right, there are more positive narrative aspects that come from that in taking the time to meaningfully build the relationship between Watanabe and Yakuin in her realizing that he is  attracted to her while they were getting hot and heavy hiding from Shiori and Mei. But more importantly, it pushes them to explore each other’s personality traits and who they are at the core, making for a good jumping off point for their romance moving forward.