English Dub Review: My Tiny Senpai “Even If We’re Just Playing, He’s My Kohai…”

Overview:

Sunpick is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a new hire contest. Shinozaki is determined to win.

Our Take:

There is a new hire contest as a part of the company’s 40th anniversary. The person who comes up with the best new product idea wins a trip to a luxury resort for their department. The chief of another department just so happens to be Akina’s rival. She makes a wager that if her protege wins the contest, Akina will be transferred to her department. Now Shinozaki has to win in order to get the trip and keep his manager.

Later, Shinozaki’s department goes to a preschool to have kids play with the company’s toys. The employees play with the kids themselves as well. This leads to Shinozaki and Katase playing house with one of them. It gets a little weird since Shinozaki is playing the dad, Marin is the mom and Katase is the cat. Despite that, it’s still a pretty wholesome game. It also shows that both of them are great with kids and they notice that in each other.

I’m still a little disappointed with how the previous episodes ended, but this one is a step up. It introduces the overarching idea for the rest of the season. At least, that’s how long I’m assuming this contest will last. I also like that there are high stakes for the contest. Shinozaki’s department would be very different if Akina wasn’t there anymore.

It’s also nice to see that Shinozaki’s and Katase’s relationship hasn’t gotten awkward since that conversation in the last episode. I still would have liked that to go differently, but there’s always a chance it could change.

On a side note, we see another magical girl short in this episode. It’s a neat idea, but I’m not sure why they waited until this long in the series to introduce it. I didn’t care for it as much in the last episode because I felt like that “confession” scene at the end should have been longer. I think it’s perfectly fine in an episode like this that doesn’t focus on the romance aspect as much.