It’s incredible how the latest episode of TONIKAWA can be about 95% comedy plus 5% earth-shattering revelation and still manage to work. The grim opening, with a crying child wandering around the ruins of a war-torn town, made me seriously wonder at first if I had clicked on the wrong show. But no matter. “A Summer Day” succeeds as an engaging, occasionally eyebrow-raising change of pace after the last few episodes, which were maybe a bit too slow and quiet for their own good, even by TONIKAWA’s standards. The return of Yanagi gives the episode some nice laughs, while a major hint about Tokiko’s past adds a big dash of substance.
To be sure, a good chunk of the episode continues to develop some of Nasa’s core character traits, which we’ve seen much of already. The early scenes where Nasa uses his mechanical skills to help Tsukasa with her TV and phone don’t do anything new for the character, but they still effectively reinforce how Nasa’s blunt, cerebral side doesn’t always take Tsukasa’s feelings into account. If something makes sense in his head, he tends to blurt it out, which inadvertently comes across as condescending. As smart as he is, it’s evident his obliviousness is an area he has to keep working on.
Still, “A Summer Day” also makes it clear there’s no malice in Nasa’s bluntness, since his dedication to Tsukasa and need to please her is also on full display this week. This time, it’s played for laughs, as Nasa realizes he’s been enjoying Tsukasa’s cooking so much, he’s put on some extra weight in the few months they’ve been married. It’s charming how both of them blame themselves for Nasa’s predicament: Tsukasa thinks it’s her fault for making too much food, while Nasa insists he should pay more attention to how he eats. Nasa’s solution, on the other hand, is an absolute scream, as he resolves to run ten kilometers a day until he loses the weight.
Like his wedding plans at the start of Season 2, this is Nasa to a “T”—perfect in theory and in his own head, but completely unrealistic in practice, and when Nasa is wheezing from exhaustion almost immediately on Day One, he’s the only one who’s surprised. Tsukasa’s deadpan, fourth wall-breaking zinger as she watches Nasa struggle just makes it that much funnier. But credit to the episode for inviting us to laugh with Nasa more than at him. As disastrous as Nasa’s attempts at exercise may be, the fact that he’s motivated by a desire to make Tsukasa happy, and to be his best for her sake, means his efforts come across as much more endearing rather than plain stupid.
While Nasa is the focus of many scenes, “A Summer Day” also benefits from the presence of some of the supporting cast. Kaname has emerged this season as one of the show’s most consistently entertaining characters, and while she has very little to do this week, it was good to see her again. More notable is Yanagi, who visits to announce she and Taniguchi are engaged (my reaction: “wow, you two work fast!”) Yanagi is naturally excited, but also nervous and confused since she’s continually learning about Taniguchi’s unique habits as they grow closer and spend more time together. Case in point: she recounts a recent incident at dinner when Taniguchi ordered a beef bowl and topped it off with an absurd amount of red ginger. It left her so intrigued, she had to try it herself the next day.
It’s a cute moment on its own, and an amusing depiction of a couple discovering each other’s oddities, but it’s also significant because it highlights how different Yanagi and Taniguchi’s more “adult” relationship is from Nasa and Tsukasa’s. Yanagi and Taniguchi are getting into nitty-gritty territory now, revealing aspects of themselves that they would never openly admit to anyone else, and even sharing in each other’s quirkier sides. In contrast, Nasa still knows very little about Tsukasa’s family, her past, or her preferences, and vice versa. In many ways, they still live in their own worlds, and they don’t understand each other as completely as a more mature couple would.
The most substantial parts of “A Summer Day,” though, involve Tokiko, which reveal some details about her relationship with Tsukasa that raise some big questions. Tokiko’s blunt and teasing personality has added some spice to the season, and she’s no different here as she randomly pops in (seemingly from out of nowhere) to have dinner with Nasa and Tsukasa. And her desire to go camping because she’s “fallen down a camp video rabbit hole on YouTube” is somehow 100% relatable. But Tokiko’s visit takes a more serious turn when she suggests Nasa and Tsukasa actually go on a camping trip, attempting again to push the young couple closer together. It’s here that we learn that her connection to Tsukasa is more than it seems—somehow, they have apparently known each other since Tokiko was a child, and Tsukasa looks exactly the same age as when they first met.
The two flashbacks that reveal this are some of the most imaginative bits of storytelling I’ve seen in a while. In the pre-credits teaser, shot in monochrome, we see a child walking alone through the burned remains of a town—perhaps the 1940s, during the War. She’s greeted by a young woman, whose face is hidden by her bangs, but with a distinctive red pin holding her hair in a bun (the only color in the shot, and eerily reminiscent of the famous red coat scene in Schindler’s List). After the woman offers the girl some food and assures her everything will be okay, the scene immediately fades to an older Tokiko in the present, wearing the same red pin and hairstyle. From the start, then, we naturally assume Tokiko must have been the young woman.
But at the end of the episode, we learn the truth in a second, more expansive flashback: Tokiko was actually the young child, and Tsukasa was the woman with the red hair pin, somehow looking exactly the same as she does in the present. The flashback even complements the reveal of Tsukasa’s face by suddenly changing from monochrome to color mid-scene, showing her pink hair and red-orange eyes as well as Tokiko’s almond-brown eyes and pale hair. As little as we know about Tsukasa’s past, this moment does a wonderful job revealing a crucial detail that upends the whole series. Is this one of Tsukasa’s ancestors? Is this Tsukasa herself, and if so, how? All I know is, this is the best kind of hook a show can pull off, and I want to keep watching until I find out more.
This week’s outing might be called “A Summer Day,” but that title greatly undersells how much ground it actually covers. It achieves an excellent balance among the characters, continuing to develop Nasa and Tsukasa’s relationship while juggling Yanagi and Tokiko’s own story arcs, and the final scene is as good a cliffhanger as one could hope for. No matter where things go from here, after “A Sunny Day,” one thing seems certain: all the light, fluffy rom-com stuff before this was just a prelude, and Nasa and Tsukasa’s marriage is about to get much more complicated.
You can watch season 2 of TONIKAWA: Over the Moon for You on Crunchyroll, and vote for it in our weekly poll.
©Kenjiro Hata, Shogakukan / Tonikaku Kawaii Production Committee
