English Dub Review: Tamon’s B-Side “I’ve Made Up My Mind”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
As Utage tries to settle her feelings and distance herself from Tamon, Tamon learns of her quitting her housekeeping job and takes drastic action!
OUR TAKE
Every Idol Group needs a big finale! This, however, isn’t it. It’s not a bad finale at all, don’t get me wrong, but it’s more of an open ended one that resolves the current conflict and leaves plenty of room for a prospective second season to do more with an only slightly different status quo. In this case, while it kinda seemed like Utage quitting her housekeeping job would lead to some dramatic moment where Tamon races to her and confesses his own burning passion for her, we don’t get that. Which is GOOD! Honestly, if there’s one thing I’ve really appreciated about this show is that the characters are acting very sensible even when emotions are high. Plus, based on Tamon’s (understandable but rash) reaction to Utage’s sudden absence, it wouldn’t be good for either of them to get together with the way he is now anyway. But it would be safe to say that Utage’s overcorrection of trying to scrub all trace of Tamon from her daily life wasn’t the best option either. Tamon does end up tracking her down (by following her from school which is…not a great look) and gets to meet her twin younger siblings, who are also pretty sensible because they don’t give a shit if he’s hot or famous, just that he’s a weird guy who stalked their sister.
Tamon does eventually pass the sniff test by helping with chores, though that’s not enough to get Utage to talk to him again beyond protecting his character. So, it’s time for the big guns where Ouri, Keito, and Natsuki come to convince her to become his housekeeper again so that his anxiety won’t spiral out of control. You could look at that from a certain angle and call it emotional blackmail, but uh…it’s probably not! What I’m more concerned about is that Rintaro didn’t get to come along or do anything in this episode! He’s the real victim in all of this, and I kinda doubt they’ll make it to a second season for him to actually get some focus episodes. Still, while Utage does get her job back pretty easily, she doesn’t confess her feelings to Tamon, which is the right move for now. The main obstacle was simply coming to terms and being at peace with those feelings, so that now hopefully things will continue to develop naturally as Tamon gets on the same page about his own feelings as well. And Ouri will probably try interfering in that timespan, but for now, this was a perfectly okay finale! Here’s hoping they get more to do in a Season 2.
