Highlights
- The second episode of Girlfriend, Girlfriend Season 2 dives into the history of Shino's character and her vested interest in Saki's relationship with Naoya.
- Shino's feelings for Naoya developed due to his sincere and determined nature, as well as his consistent confession of love to Saki.
- The episode explores the contrast between Shino and Nagisa, two girls with opposing personalities who both love Naoya, and sets up a potential face-off between them in the future.
The following contains spoilers for Girlfriend, Girlfriend Season 2, Episode 2, "Welcome, Shino-san", available for streaming on Crunchyroll.
The second episode of the second season of Girlfriend, Girlfriend sees Shino move into Naoya's house in order to put an end to the relationship. This episode also gave us the story on how Saki and Shino became friends, and how Shino came to fall in love with Naoya.
With its focus on the history of Shino's character, her vested interest in Saki's relationship with Naoya, and the feelings that have been brewing for a long time, Girlfriend, Girlfriend season 2, episode 2 brings a welcomed sobriety after the wackiness of the first episode, but still balances it out with some levity before ending it with a bang.
Nostalgia
Shino arrives at the Mukai household bright, early and determined to do whatever it takes to put a stop to the current dynamic of Saki's relationship. She enters the house and immediately starts picking up after the inhabitants – her need for order and discipline shining through as it did in the previous relationship. Seeing how different Shino and Saki are, Nagisa wonders how such polar opposites actually wound up becoming best friends, which brings Shino to tell the story of how she and Saki met. Saki says that they hit it off quickly, which is a show of her ignorance even back then. Throughout this initial phase, Shino was determined to show Saki how uninterested she is in becoming friends, citing their vastly different life trajectories and destinies as proof that they can't ever get closer. Eventually, Saki's straightforwardness wore her down. Regardless of how annoyed she got, Shino's kindness made her unable to continue rejecting the earnest attempts at establishing a friendship.
Upon hearing the story, Naoya observes that Shino has always cared about Saki. Shino asks to be shown her room, where she thinks back on first meeting Naoya and how she came to fall in love with him. Shino developed a curiosity in Naoya because of his sincere eyes, watching him earnestly confess his feelings to Saki every month without fail. Despite her sensible suggestion that he relent on confessing to Saki, his honest and simple resolve to tell Saki he loves her because he needs her to know becomes one of the first things to move Shino's heart. This episode was one of the examples of the way that Girlfriend, Girlfriend juxtaposes its ridiculous comedy with serious attempts at developing emotional standpoint of the characters, and how this is applied when it comes to Shino specifically makes her a unique tsundere character – one that is aware of her feelings, her position regarding her love interest and is hot-n-cold as a byproduct of her personality rather than her personality being built around that aspect.
Through Your Eyes
In middle school, Shino offered to help Naoya pick out a present for Saki's birthday. During their visit to the mall, Naoya repeatedly talked about Shino's positive qualities, like her kindness towards Saki (whom she admitted she only endures out of pity). Shino suggested getting Saki clothes from a store she usually buys from, but things get interesting when Naoya asked Shino to try on some clothes for reference, sincerely complimenting Shino on her appearance when she tried them on. When Saki herself showed up at the same store, Naoya ended up hiding in the changing room with Shino to avoid being spotted and accused of flirting with other girls or spoiling the surprise. Shino only sees herself as someone blessed with the capabilities to deal with other people's problems, but Naoya points out that her use of those capabilities for the sake of others is the very epitome of kindness, and tells her that he thinks she's wonderful because of that.
This moment is probably the main trigger of Shino's romantic feelings for Naoya, who also made it a point to thank her for her help, giving her the ribbon that she now always wears as a thank-you gift. Shino tries to cut contact with Naoya, saying that it would be problematic for her to develop feelings for him, but what becomes evident after the flashback to that outing is that Shino is aware: of her high capabilities and of her feelings, but she doesn't see her character as particularly brilliant or consider herself to be attractive. She gives up on Naoya before even trying, before Saki was even interested in him like that, which looks like a lack of self-esteem. In a moment of weakness, Shino tries to kiss a sleeping Naoya while the others were out, but Saki returns earlier than expected and catches her in the act. Shino uses a ridiculous lie to trick the suspicion out of the gullible Saki, returning the comedic atmosphere to the episode.
Face-Off
At dinner, Shino compliments Nagisa on the taste, but criticizes the lack of vegetables to balance the meat and oil in the meal, so she prepares two green-based side dishes. When Saki mentions that Nagisa put her all into cooking for Naoya's sake, Shino softens towards her a little but after hearing that Nagisa pursued Naoya while knowing that he's in a relationship with Saki, an indignant Shino reestablishes her hatred for Nagisa and steels her resolution to put an end to the relationship. She describes as being seemingly timid but obnoxiously resolute when it counts as Nagisa puts her foot down, refusing to leave Naoya.
On some level, Nagisa and Shino are presented as counterparts: two girls with contradictory personalities who both fall in love with Naoya – one chooses to stifle her feelings out of a habit of "kindness" while the other deals with the guilt of selfishly pursuing what she wants without fear of the toll it'll take on someone else. This episode was appealing in its willingness to explore Shino's significance to the current situation and might have just established her as a new main character while Milika saw a few crumbs of omake screentime as an interesting expression of her current exclusion from the group.