English Dub Review: Tomo-chan Is a Girl! “The Night of the Summer Festival / The Distance Between Them”

Overview:

Tomo and Jun go to see fireworks together. Also, Misuzu and Carol find themselves in some trouble.

Our Take:

Misuzu forces Tomo to ask Jun to go to the summer festival with her. The catch, of course, is that the two have to go alone. The two have fun and Jun helps Tomo out when some guys are bothering her. When Tomo gets the perfect chance to tell Jun how she feels about him, she decides it’s not the right time. It will never be the right time the way you’re acting.

Speaking of which, Jun starts acting weird around Tomo in the second segment. He’s not treating Tomo so rough anymore. She finds this creepy, so I guess it’s not exactly what she wanted.

Meanwhile, Misuzu gets cornered by the thugs that tried messing with Tomo a few episodes ago. Carol tries to help her, but then they’re on the run. Ultimately, Tomo, Jun, and even Misaki come to their rescue. Misuzu turns the tables on the thugs and tells them to protect her, Tomo, and their friends.

This episode is good, but it’s also my least favorite so far. It has a lot of funny moments as usual. My personal favorite is when Carol just pulls out a stun gun when she tries to help Misuzu. Carol, in general, is great in this episode as usual. It also has some touching moments, especially with how much Carol and Misuzu seem to mean to the others. Not to mention, Misuzu’s feelings for Tomo are coming out more with each episode and I’m curious what direction that will go in.

On the other hand, I’m getting tired of Tomo and Jun getting cold feet when the perfect opportunity arises to make a move. It’s not rushing eight episodes in, so I don’t know why it feels like they just stop every time they make a little bit of progress. It’s not like they’re in the same spot they were at the beginning of the show, but they still don’t capitalize on these moments as often as they should in my opinion.

Not only that, but the whole thing with a gang being created seems pretty random. It came out of nowhere and I don’t know what kind of purpose that will even serve. I’m not saying it can’t be a good plot point, but the relationship between Tomo and Jun should be top priority. There are only five episodes left, so we need to see more progression there and we need to see it soon.