Komi Can't Communicate

Episode 4

So suffice to say I actually did have a fair amount of manga readers warn me about this episode…and I can kinda see why. Episode four of Komi Can't Communicate embodies some of my least favorite aspects of this show, and I genuinely don't know what I'm supposed to take away from it at the end. I mentioned last week that I was a little bit concerned about the show's more mean-spirited characters, and one of the characters that worried me the most was Komi's number one fangirl Yamai. I give her voice actress a lot of credit for the speed at which she delivered these lines and her constant, split-second shifts in tone. The different ways her facial expressions are animated and the comedic timing revolving around these dramatic shifts in behavior can be funny. However, that's as far as I'll go to praise anything revolving around this character because I want to make something very clear: I do not like her at all and any attempt at evoking sympathy on her behalf is going to fall on deaf ears.

I understand that the show is playing with exaggerated personalities for the sake of communicating a point. However, I'm a little confused regarding what the message of this episode is actually supposed to be. The best I can muster is the realization that sometimes other people can pose a threat to your friendship if they don't approve of you for their own personal reasons. It was interesting to actually see Komi come to the realization that people might continue to hurt and harass Tadano if he continues to stay close to her, which we've already seen ample evidence of since the beginning. The fact that Tadano took her previous response about her having the power to choose her own friends and use it against her was not only a really nice dramatic payoff, but I can also buy it emotionally. Were those five minutes enough to save the rest of the episode for me? It could have – if the episode just ended right there and didn't keep going to reward Yamai despite her terrible behavior. Remember, she kidnapped Tadano while making repeated, open, serious threats to kill him and bury him in the woods. She's not even remorseful about her actions or her horrible personality; she's just upset that she got caught. Maybe that's the joke, but if the punchline is just “haha look how dangerous she is” then I think they took it too far. Even if I did find the character funny on her own, she completely clashes with almost every other aspect of the show.

How am I supposed to feel at the end when Komi basically says that she's fine with being a friend to someone like that? Someone who shows little remorse for their terrible personality and isn't really showing signs to stop? If anything, this should've been a lesson that not everyone should be your friend and maybe sometimes you need to make those tough choices. Damn, I really don't like that this character is potentially going to be in rotation with the main cast because I can already foresee the humor revolving around her not really going any further than what we saw in this episode. Maybe she'll get better as time goes on, but I just hope we're able to move on to bigger and better things come next week.

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Komi Can't Communicate is currently streaming on Netflix.