Komi Can't Communicate

Episode 11

The beginning of this episode isn't the most comfortable due to the fact that it sort of reinforced how much more work we need to do just so that Komi can actually be regarded as a person in the eyes of a majority of the people who interact with her. A lot of her classmates still revere her as some kind of deity that needs to be worshipped and not someone with their own desires and agency. It's a good thing that Komi is such a passive, kindhearted person that she doesn't seem particularly annoyed at those who think that all she wants to do is sit around and have people make decisions for her. However, I do like the payoff this intro leads to in the following chapter.

While every other character was introduced with some kind of crazy fanfare, Kaede Otori's gimmick seems to be that she is this really slow space cadet that's prone to getting lost. Because of this, she doesn't seem particularly tuned in to everyone else hyper-fixating on Komi. It was nice that all she needed to do was ask Komi if she could help her go get supplies, both because it's not that big of a deal, and because Komi admits that she does want to play a more active role in helping everyone out. The moment they shared in the hardware store was actually very sweet and the fact that the two established a rapport almost immediately to the point where Komi felt comfortable enough to actually speak was really nice.

The rest of the episode focused on the culture festival and it seems like the event is going to carry over into the final episode next week. There are some cute gags peppered throughout, like the whole maid expert guy who walked around with a sense of self-importance when in reality he's just a timid and shy nerd. Also, running into both Tadano and Komi's siblings was fun when you consider that they have completely opposite reactions to this type of setting. The episode ending on an awkward moment between Komi and Tadano with the latter crossdressing feels surprisingly natural as well. My only complaint is that I could do without some of Yamai's perverted aggressiveness throughout the episode but thankfully that was more relegated to background gags. Next week the show is coming to an end for global audiences, so here's hoping that everything wraps up on a high note!

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Komi Can't Communicate is currently streaming on Netflix.