English Dub Review: Yowayowa Sensei “Weak and Wimpy Blackmail”
Overview:
Blackmail is such an ugly word. Kuguri prefers to think of it as getting the photography club up and running.
Our Take(Spoilers):
Blackmail is an ugly word, and to be fair to Kuguri, she doesn’t keep up that pretense for long. She shows Abikura that what she really wants is for Abikura to join her photography club and for Hiwamura to be club advisor. This leads Abikura to invite Yukishita into the club, but she immediately butts heads with Kuguri. Kuguri thinks that Yukishita’s methods lack elegance, and to be fair, that’s true. Snapping a photo of someone naked doesn’t immediately make it artistic or anything, but Kuguri isn’t much better; she just has Hiwamura wear more clothes.
One thing that is fascinating to me is that Kuguri wants Abikura to be involved because it gets the best reactions out of Hiwamura. I was hopeful for this line of thinking because I thought this was going to lead to more romantic developments. That was kind of true because Abikura admits that the reason he’s become such a better student is because of how hard he’s falling for Hiwamura. But Kuguri was suggesting that Hiwamura might have feelings for Abikura as well, but I’m not so sure that’s the case now.
While Abikura is given an award by Hiwamura, a couple comes out to where they are, so of course Abikura and Hiwamura hide. While hiding, they notice that this other couple is partaking in their first kiss. Hiwamura starts to freak out because, of course, she’s never been kissed like that before (why is that always the case?) and needs to be helped up off the ground. While Abikura helps her, she becomes very conscious of how close he is and freaks out. So, at the very least, if she is romantically into Abikura, she’s way too inexperienced to realize it yet.
I think Kuguri will be a good addition to the group, and now I think that the photography club will be where everyone meets to help Hiwamura. Kuguri is voiced by Katelyn Barr, who also voices Mizuki in Hana-Kimi. You might know that I hate that show, but it’s not Katelyn’s fault. I think it’s really cool that she’s voicing someone in another show that airs the same day. I’ll be able to compare and contrast, and I have to say that I like how she’s approached voicing Kuguri so far.
