English Dub Review: Uzaki-Chan Wants to Hang Out! “The Asai Family Wants to Look Out for Us”

Overview:

The stay-at-home recovery party begins.

Our Take:

This episode… actually works!

Thanks to Uzaki’s mishap, Sakurai has gotten sick in bed for a day and has to recover. From what he’s seen, his fever is really getting out of control’ he is bedridden for the entire day and he collapses as soon as he opens the door to let Uzaki walk in. This time he actually does need help. He won’t recover on his own, at least not in a short amount of time, so someone interfering will actually help him.

Why it works this time is that Uzaki keeps her snideness to a minimum and is working for the most part out of genuine concern for Sakurai. She is trying to be a good kouhai by helping Sakurai, and although her help ends up going in a different direction than she could have ever imagined. Her cooking isn’t very good, and she mixes a lot of stuff she shouldn’t into the broth, and Sakurai being sick can’t taste anything. Still, this is something she does out of concern for his health, instead of something she does to feel superior. She messes up because she’s trying to do her best and doesn’t know any better. Like, that’s good, that’s a good concept to work off!

The meat scene is also pretty funny, with the cafe family deciding whether to interfere with Uzaki and Sakurai or not. Even though both of them find the two to be amusing, the conversation interestingly, reveals a lot about Sakurai himself. He does find Uzaki annoying, but he also really does care for her and her reputation. In the end, he’s right, that people would speculate if Uzaki came over too much, especially because they aren’t really in a relationship. Sakurai is really a good guy. I still continue to feel for him all this time.

Lastly, Uzaki getting jealous shows that she isn’t just trying to mess with Sakurai, but she wants some degree of closeness beyond what they have. Her trying to hypnotize him and get him to call her by her first name is really funny as a result. It’s funny, but funny in the sense that she is trying for her own gain without trying to trample on Sakurai.

If the series continues with these kinds of gags, I will be much less harsh going forward. This sort of humor is the kind the show needs, instead of mean-natured stuff.