English Dub Review: Konohana Kitan “Waiting Lovesick”

I’m not waiting lovesick, I’m just sick of this episode of Konohana Kitan.

OVERVIEW (Spoilers Below)

With a series that opened up with a cute yuri romance between main foxgirl Yuzu and tsundere Satsuki this episode seems like a step back in a lot of respects. Today’s episode is centralized on the proper yet secretly short tempered Ren and her infatuation with the tomboy Natsume. That’s really all you need to know as the episode really just circles the drain in terms of inevitability. The romantic beats go exactly as it preordains and it is just draining to watch.

When we just got off on a cute relationship with Yuzu and Satsuki who have such diametrically opposite personalities but find common ground to start forming their relationship. You see the effort and heart that the story puts in to set up their budding friendship and soon I assume romance. The reason I am not feeling the same for Ren and Natsume is that you only get to know them on an archetypal level. We know the character archetype that both girls are and we don’t really see beyond that. Especially with Natsume who I praise Emily Fajardo for bringing some quality performance but her material is just flat. This is probably because this relationship at this point is stuck in Ren’s point of view, with us stuck in her head and her nonstop talking about how she feels in situations when subtext could tell us a lot more.

OUR TAKE

Ren could be an appealing character and so could Natsume but by shoehorning this setup together we don’t get to know any more about these two and their relationship. There may be a flashback scene but without forming a clearer and more tangible bond in the present it just feels like fluff. If we were to hope for a clearer bond between the two the writing should allow Natsume to have more of a presence, let the audience see what she is thinking as well. It doesn’t need to be as in-depth as Ren as narratively the story is pushing for Ren to overcome her stubbornness so she can be true to her feelings. However, we need to also see Natsume as a person before just Ren’s infatuation. Without that connection with Natsume the whole relationship, much less the whole episode comes across as flat and uninteresting.