English Dub Review: Convenience Store Boy Friends “January”

Without you.

Overview:

Mashiki’s health forces her to take a leave of absence from school. In the meantime, Mishima contemplates his feelings for Mashiki, and after much pushing decides to confess to her. They finally meet up in the convenience store, and Mashiki ends up detailing how much Mishima means to her. Before Mishima can do the same, Mashiki collapses.

Our Take:

This episode highlights a lot of what’s frustrating about this show: Mishima. As the main character, one would expect him to be the most dynamic, or the most proactive. Even if he has a more muted personality, there should be more substance to him.

There isn’t.

Honda is the more dynamic of the two of them– based on personality alone, he’s far more outgoing and determined, he has plenty going on in the background with his home life, and there’s a lot of tension between him and Mami. Over the series, he’s grown a lot, and grown as a character. Comparatively, Mishima is rather bland. His biggest traits are his friendship with Honda and his crush on Mashiki. The former involves Honda, who overshadows him, and the latter he utterly refuses to expand upon. Mishima is the hesitant protagonist, which would be alright if it wasn’t two episodes from the finale. He’s since failed to confess his love multiple times, enough that Honda constantly teases him about it. Most of the time its Mashiki advancing the relationship, and she isn’t the main character.

Mashiki explains her hesitance to be in a relationship: she’s ill, she doesn’t think much of herself, and she doesn’t want to put people in a position to care about her too much and he hurt if her health fails. She daydreams a lot, and dreams of love, even if she’s hesitant to act on it. She has motivations and wishes Mishima to be her boyfriend even if it’s impossible. Comparatively, Mishima has his childhood affections and then that’s just about it, and this whole episode barring the last ten minutes focuses entirely on Mishima.

Mishima’s a weak protagonist, and the story suffers because of it.