English Dub Review: Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! “I Want to Watch Fireworks Together!”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After her birthday things seem a bit off with Uzaki and Sakurai notices it as she tries to pay him back for the ruined futon. He goes to Ami and her dad for advice and Ami tells him to take her to the fireworks festival and when he does they have a good time at the stalls. However, it’s just on the surface that they’re cheerful so Sakurai compliments Uzaki’s yukata and accessories. It starts getting to the point where she gets embarrassed and knocks him out cold.

The episode transitions to when Sakurai first interacted with Uzaki back in their high school swimming pool. He helps her improve on her swimming and on the walk home they pass by the fireworks festival. Then the episode shifts back into the present as Sakurai wakes up on Uzaki’s lap just in time to see the fireworks show. Sakurai admits that he did find it annoying at first, but deep down Sakurai found that hanging out with Uzaki was really enjoyable and helped him with social stuff. The two watch the fireworks together and make plans for tomorrow.

Our Take:

This series does a great job at the beginning with the misunderstanding surrounding Uzaki’s birthday antics. Surprisingly she’s remorseful about it to the point where she offers to pay him back. By now Sakurai knows something is wrong with her despite his repeated attempts to reassure her that it was fine. It’s the first time that we’ve seen her like this and Sakurai isn’t used to that side of her therefore he seeks advice from Ami and her dad. Meanwhile, Ami and her dad are just eating it up and Sakaki is hilariously missing out on the important development. With a tiny nudge from Ami’s dad with the voucher for the fireworks festival and Ami’s advice on complimenting Uzaki, they help Sakurai cheer Uzaki up later.

Their highschool interaction is wholesome with how he helps her improve on her swimming form. At first glance, Sakurai may appear intimidating, but with his actions, Uzaki understands him a bit better. Furthermore, they went to the firework festival twice and it shows how much they’ve grown closer in comparison to when they went during high school. The fireworks scene is a classic heart-warming rom-com scene, and it brings up a good point that Uzaki’s actions may have been annoying to some but Sakurai didn’t truly hate it. In fact, she got him to be more social and experience a lot of things that he didn’t do before. It’s the culmination of the progress from all the previous episodes so far, and it is glorious to see it all come together for them.

Overall the episode does feel like an ending episode however there’s still the aftermath from the fireworks scene to consider along with their reactions from their friends. Sakurai and Uzaki are almost ready to step into the realm of something more than friends on the friends to lovers spectrum. We’ll have to see how their relationship progresses from here and I hope that Sakurai and Uzaki can come to terms with their feelings.