English Dub Review: The Dreaming Boy Is a Realist “Aren’t You Way Too Guilty?”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Wataru works part-time at a used bookstore and Mina starts working there as a new hire. Mina is timid, so Wataru tries to give her guidance.

Our Take:
Wataru’s summer vacation was off to a rocky start in the previous episode. He hung out with a cute and mature junior high school girl, only to discover she was actually a middle-schooler. Yikes. Talk about having a cake and being thrown into the face with it. Hopefully, things will turn around for him as he continues to work hard at his part-time summer job. However, he’ll be getting an extra hand from a new employee, who happens to be an adorable yet bashful girl.
Mina Ichinose is another junior high school student who’s in the same class as Wataru. She is also a literature buff, which explains why she took a part-time job at the same bookstore as Wataru. However, despite her profound admiration for books, her shy and sensitive personality kept her from interacting with people. Well, except for the store’s manager and his wife, as she’s revealed to be a regular customer at the bookstore. So, Wataru would have to train her to run the bookstore before he quits soon. Unfortunately, it appeared much more challenging than he thought as he struggled to communicate with her. That is until Mina tells him why she wants to keep her job.
This might sound wild, but I may have found another episode that stands above the other mundane ones. One reason is its relatable plot involving job training. I’ve been a shift lead for a few years, so I can easily relate to what Wataru’s been going through, especially when he’s trying to communicate with Mina. One other example is when a weird customer frightens the poor girl, resulting in Mina learning how to deal with customers through online videos after Wataru screwed up in talking to her about it.
In other words, the episode showcased the crucial thing about training new employees: communication and listening. For the most part, it displayed this lesson well, along with Mina’s attempt to be more independent. Combine them with its solid humor and a “shocking” cliffhanger involving Mina’s brother, Yu, a member of the Moral Public Committee, and you have one of the series’ better episodes.