The following contains spoilers for Episode 2 of Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie, "Wind and Clouds, Ball Sports Tournament!," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
The second episode of Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie fleshed out the relationship between Yuu Izumi and Micchon Shikimori a little more, as well as giving viewers some more information about the characters themselves.
Be that as it may, the second episode seems to have suffered the same pitfalls as the first, with Shikimori's inherent coolness being sold at every turn but only to be found severely lacking. Let's find out if the second episode of Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie has any redeeming qualities.
Shikimori's Not Just Athletic
One of the major aspects to Shikimori's personality that is given the most weight with regard to her inherent coolness is her ability to do really well in sporting situations. The first episode of Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie showed us the effect of Izumi's cheering on Shikimori, especially when it comes to sport. Hearing her boyfriend cheer for her from the stands gives her a shonen-esque boost in confidence and ability. Last time around, Izumi's cheering dissipated her anxiety and gave Shikimori the confidence to bowl a perfect score, something that should be difficult for even the most seasoned bowlers. This time around, Shikimori's grade is having an inter-class athletics competition in which the boys played soccer and the girls participated in a heated volleyball match. This match is the arena where Shikimori unleashes some of the coolness that she supposedly exudes from time to time. While her performance in the match after Izumi cheers is good, and she helps her team to a comeback victory, there's something rather one-note about another bout of sports-related Shikimori coolness.
The series seems to try very hard to convince the audience that she's outrageously cool, and while being athletic definitely earns one cool points (especially in high school), it is rather disappointing that thus far, Shikimori's coolest moments have arisen from her athletic ability which leaves much to be desired regarding the character. After the thrilling match, Shikimori's stock in the school goes up exponentially, and she starts getting noticed by some other students, especially the girls, which then gets in the way of the time that she and Izumi can spend together. This presents the first actual problem that they face in the course of the series, and it sets up some cute emotional scenes.
Not the Most Convincing
One of the growing problems with Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie is how much it tries to get viewers to invest into Shikimori's coolness, but offers very little return on that investment, playing it much safer than most anime in this particular stream or genre would. The better scenes in the show are the ones where we see Shikimori's vulnerability, as those are also given a lot of attention as far as animation goes. In episode 2, Shikimori and Izumi have a conversation at the stairs where they admit to missing each other in the wake of Shikimori's greatly engorged fame at school. Shikimori's vulnerability in reaction to that of her boyfriend seems to put the series in a much better position than its running gimmick.
The events of the second episode all happen within a single day, and at first glance the overarching idea doesn't rouse much interrogation, until one considers that Shikimori's skyrocketing fame came in the aftermath of a mere match between classes, which can be impressive, but perhaps not to the point of one becoming the school's hero. Despite Shikimori's supposedly newfound fame, at some point when Inuzuka is hit in the face with a volleyball and Izumi helps him back onto his feet, she is unable to comb through the crowd of concerned classmates to reach him or get anyone's attention to let her through, which contradicts the aftermath of the volleyball game. The image of Yuu helping Inuzuka fills Shikimori with envy, and this scene produces one of her characteristic close-ups, so it's clear that the random event of Inuzuka's classroom injury had no greater purpose than to create some kind of perceived distance between Shikimori and her boyfriend. However, the events of the episode seemed too contrived and too rushed, and as a result, the arising problem or conflict that Shikimori and Izumi needed to resolve didn't have the impact it could have had.
All things considered, Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie is just starting out and while it has been a bit one-note regarding the use of its main idea, there is a certain likeability to the main couple when the series isn't overtly trying to set them up as such. Their moment of emotional vulnerability and honesty after an intense day of not being able to be together had more impact than her great volleyball game. The series may need to really go big with the concept of the character's coolness, or face being rather one-note.