Just when I think Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You has turned every stone built into its premise, the anime finds new ways to be fun and surprising. In exploring both Sasaki’s overwhelming career and shaking up Tayama/Yamada’s persona swapping shenanigans, this fifth episode cuts to the core of this series’ heart and humor. As it does so, this episode weaves together its narratives more cohesively than any episode prior, while also using its ambience and relatable characters to make-up for its limited animation.

Beginning ominously with the date “June 15” displayed over a sunny day, the episode opens on Sasaki having a stretch of rough luck. Not only is the AC out in his company’s only indoor smoking room, but he also gets drenched by Goto as the manager is hosing down the smoking area at the back of his local supermarket. Though this does turn into a sweet conversation where Goto gets even more of a feel of Sasaki’s golden-retriever earnestness, and Tamaya reveals that she’s twenty-four to the forty-something-year-old.

A lot of people, myself included, were worried that the age gap between Sasaki and Tamaya/Yamada would be a point of fetishization as Supermarket Smoking went on, and I’m thrilled that this topic was addressed so deftly and cutely. While it’s clear that Sasaki does feel some kind of way about getting attention from a woman (or women from his POV) that are younger than him, he doesn’t reduce Tamaya/Yamada to her age, and instead appreciates the charm points tied to her personality and values. Especially in an age where loud voices on the internet are quick to conflate “age gap relationship” to “bad and exploitative,” I appreciate a more holistic and thoughtful depiction of this kind of relationship and the joy it can bring the people in it.

This is the only reprieve Sasaki will get for a while, though, as he enters into his busiest stretch of work for the year, made all the worse by his boss traveling abroad and several coworkers being out of office. I don’t know if this scanned for folks who don’t work in or adjacent to Japanese companies, but a lot of them actually start their fiscal year in July, making the back half of June and the first two weeks of July super hectic and logistically involved. From his personal life and space deteriorating, to work piling up just as he starts to get a handle on it, and even the struggle to wake up to his (growlingly set for a later time) alarm, Supermarket Smoking expertly captures what it’s like to be in the shit with this sequence.

As someone coming off of my own busiest professional stretch of the year, I cannot fully express the catharsis I felt watching Sasaki hang out with Tayama and do something as “non-productive” as drawing. Rarely do I find myself wishing that I was a fictional character or in their circumstances, but this moment in Supermarket Smoking summoned that feeling and made me want to live inside of this show for just a moment.

The third act in this episode features Tayama/Yamada approaching Sasaki in her customer service Queen Yamada persona, and the older man quickly shakes off his surprise and unknowingly charms her even more with his respectful and earnest admiration. It might be a little misogynistic of me to even think of it in these terms, but Supermarket Smoking has big “look at the baddie I bagged by being nice” energy, and I love it! As someone who has never been able to relate to other people’s frustrations with the concept of dating because I genuinely like talking to and forming a connection with other people, Supermarket Smoking feels like it’s tapping into how some of my most meaningful romantic relationships took shape.

None of what Supermarket Smoking is doing in this (or any other) episode will probably hit for people who aren’t at least in their late twenties, but if you’ve been where these characters have been, this anime will quickly find a place to live in your heart.

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Lucas DeRuyter is your one stop shop for smoking hot anime takes, and you can read the best of those by checking out his portfolio. You can also catch him filling a double shift as a columnist for ANN’s recurring This Week in Anime segment, where he shares his insights into that week’s news, trends, or special topics.

Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

This episode really highlighted the bubbling frustrations that come with being a new talent who struggles to really put their work out there. It’s the day that the girls end up going to Comitia and while a lot of the narrative plot beats here were pretty predictable, the groundwork that was established still allowed these moments to hit really hard. I’m glad the girls were able to sell their manga together and celebrate. After watching episodes of them learning how to do everything together after weeks of preparations, that felt very earned. However, I also related a lot to Yasumi’s frustrations with the manga that she did completely on her own not selling, even if her friends and teacher admitted that it has a very likable charm.

Yasumi’s manga is still all over the place with very poor art. It would be interesting if Yasumi takes the time in future episodes to actually develop her own artistic skills, especially if she wants to eventually put out a manga all on her own. Everybody she knows buying up her limited stock was a really beautiful gesture, and one that I think a lot of people could relate to. But that alone is not going to fuel the burning desire to put your work out there. This was a necessary frustration for her to go through, but how she processes this frustration to create something even better moving forward is what’s really going to separate her from Miss Teshima.

Speaking of Teshima, while the flashback in this episode didn’t really highlight anything new, I do think it hammered home what her big problem was as a creator. I think it really just came down to the fact that Teshima really was her own worst enemy. It didn’t seem like she was receptive to criticism, or it looked like she was seeking a very specific reaction so when she didn’t get that reaction from her editor, she immediately interpreted it as her work being looked down upon. She was so wrapped up in her own head that she wasn’t even listening to her editor breaking things down during meetings. I do like the fact that Teshima and her past editor seemed to still be on good terms, implying that she has matured since and recognizes some of her own shortcomings.

It’s clear that the creative spark in Teshima isn’t completely gone and in fact, this episode even gave me a glimpse into the fact that it’s still buried beneath the surface. It’s clear that she’s trying to suppress it for the sake of not getting hurt again, but I wonder what working with the students is going to do for her. Is she going to realize that she needs to learn to have more fun with the creative process? Is she going to learn that there were more things that she should have listened to when she was developing her past manga? I’m very curious, because it’s clear that Teshima is supposed to be the secondary main character of this series. I like the way that the show highlights Yasumi’s growth and as a mirror to Teshima’s. Ideally, by the end of the season, the two will end up meeting in the middle to eventually create something that not only they are satisfied with, but something that other people will buy as well.

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Bolts also streams regularly on Twitch as the indie VtuberBolts The Mechanic where they talk about and play retro media!

Draw This, Then Die! is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

It’s as if the Elusive Samurai gods have been reading my reviews and decided to answer my prayers. Just one week after comparing the Hojo-clan Gang to those zany felt weirdos from The Muppet Show, what does this anime decide to do? It just up and transforms into a live-action puppet show for no reason whatsoever in the middle of the opening scene where the kids reunite with the very much alive Mochizuki warriors. Just like with every other modal switch we’ve seen this season, the only excuse that the creators of The Elusive Samurai seem capable of mustering is, “We’re doing whatever the hell we want with this show, so shut up and enjoy it.” You won’t find me complaining. This is an iron-clad rule that applies to literally all stories told across every medium humanity has yet conceived: Everything is better when you add a bunch of goofy puppets.

As tempted as I now am to abandon this review completely so I can go marathon Thunderbolt Fantasy, there are battlefield escapades that we have yet to unpack. While up and abandoning the fort might seem like the work of cowardly fools, we all know that the father of Ayako is no damned fool, and it turns out that falling on the sword to defend such a meager encampment would probably not have been the best way to counteract Ichikawa’s assault. That said, our heroes have still left Shinomiya in the lurch, so haste must be made to bolster the supporting troops.

I have to admit that, while my appreciation for narratives that indulge in the grander stratagems of ancient warfare has certainly grown over the years, this episode of The Elusive Samurai started to lose me a little with how much time we spent on all of the maps, charts, and meetings that are meant to help us make sense of this battle. I’m used to having a single gravelly voiced Dan Carlin type usher me through the ins and outs of the battlefield with a bit more dramatic aplomb; by comparison, this is The Elusive Samurai at its fuddiest and duddiest. That’s not to say there aren’t still some laughs and cheers to be found, but this arc of episodes has me checking my watch more than usual. Now, if all of this exposition was being delivered by adorable little yarn puppets, that would be a horse of an entirely different color…

The highlight of the week is the arrival of the titular Shinano Mask, who is obviously just Yorishige in a bright pink mask that in no way obscures his flamboyant real identity. It’s a funny bit, since the tactic amounts to little more that acting so brazenly stupid that Ichikawa gets psyched out enough to retreat, but I won’t pretend that I wasn’t expecting something a little more exciting to serve as the climax of the episode. I can appreciate how this leads to Tokiyuki’s emotional outburst, where he tells his mentor that he wants to be more proactive and useful to the army. The show has spoiled me too much, though. Even though we have a perfectly heartwarming ending to this mostly transitionary episode, all I could think was, “Damn, this would be so much better if everyone was still a live-action puppet.” I will try to compose myself enough to appraise future episodes with as much fairness as I can muster, but CloverWorks can’t just give this puppet-junkie a free fix and then decline to sell me more of its product. I still have plenty of equity that I can borrow against, CloverWorks. I’m sure my wife won’t mind if we have to sell off some of those precious earrings that got passed down in her grandmother’s will. I can scrape together however much cold, hard cash you need if it gives me another hit of that puppety goodness.

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The Elusive Samurai Season 2 is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.