Summary
In a surprisingly layered episode, Tomo-Chan accurately illustrates how complicated friendships and feelings can be, even when everyone has the best intentions.
We recap the Crunchyroll anime series Tomo-Chan Is a Girl! Season 1 Episode 11, “My First Part-Time Job/The Abandoned Cinderella,” which contains spoilers.
In a surprise turn of events, Jun (Kaito Ishikawa) surprised viewers last week when he finally realized his attraction for Tomo (Rie Takahashi). While the realization may feel overdue, it’s the first step toward romantic progress. Knowing Jun, however, just because he’s accepted his attraction doesn’t mean he will act on it. It seems viewers will have to wait and see what this sudden revelation means for Tomo and Jun’s relationship if it ends up meaning anything at all.
Tomo-Chan is a Girl! Season 1 Episode 11 Recap
The episode opens with Tomo telling Misuzu she wants to get a part-time job so that she can buy Jun a birthday gift. Misuzu and Carol decide that if Tomo is going to look for a job, they’ll join her.
What kind of job does Tanabe offer Tomo, Misuzu, and Carol?
Overhearing their conversation, Tanabe tells the girls they should work with him at his family’s ramen restaurant: God Ramen Tatsumi. They get hired as servers for the weekend and start a few days later. Although there’s a bit of a learning curve as the girls figure out everything from uniforms to how to interact with customers, their first day starts surprisingly well, at least until Jun shows up for lunch.
Although she is embarrassed to be dressed like a maid, Jun tells Misuzu that he thinks Tomo’s uniform is nice. When Tomo goes to serve Jun his meal, she expects him to make fun of her, even asking him to get it out of his system, but Jun admits that he doesn’t think it looks terrible on her before promising to come back again the next day.
READ: Tomo-Chan is a Girl! Season 1 Episode 9 Recap
After their last night of working, Jun shows up to walk Tomo home. Tomo jokes about Jun visiting daily, teasing him for being bored. However, Jun tells her the reason he visited the restaurant every day was that she was there. He thought they might need someone to stop her if she got angry with a customer, but he says that, for some reason, the ramen tasted better when she was serving it to him.
What did Tomo get Jun for his birthday?
For Jun’s birthday, Tomo gets him a new watch to match the one she has. She also gets him a cake.
Why does Misuzu push Jun down the stairs?
When Tomo reaches out to Misuzu for advice on how to take her and Jun’s relationship to the next step, Misuzu suggests more physical contact. While Tomo isn’t quite willing to allow Jun to fondle her, they decide that the best route is to push Jun into her arms instead of casually.
Knowing how much stronger Jun is than her, Misuzu decides the only way she’ll be strong enough is to push Jun down the stairs, knowing Tomo is strong enough to catch him. When Jun arrives, Misuzu suddenly pushes him. At the last second, however, he avoids Tomo and accidentally grabs Carol’s chest to catch himself.
Why doesn’t Misuzu want Tomo and Jun to end up together?
After earning her “retribution” by tripping down the steps in Tanabe, Misuzu begins to feel like something is wrong. She admits to Carol that she must not want Jun and Tomo to end up together because she makes things worse every time she tries to help. She feels so bad; she does not show up to school, too afraid to face Tomo.
After three days, Tomo pops up at Misuzu’s house to check on her and drop off the script for the upcoming school festival play. However, things do not go well, with Tomo admitting she feels Misuzu does not want to be her friend anymore. As she leaves, Tomo tells Misuzu to say whatever bothers her, as she’s probably overthinking. Still, Misuzu feels she has done too much wrong to Tomo and Jun to deserve forgiveness.
Tomo-Chan is a Girl! Season 1 Episode 11 Ending Explained
Misuzu returns to school, only to find out she has been cast as Cinderella in the upcoming school festival production, while Tomo plays the prince and Carol plays the evil stepmother. After attempting a group rehearsal, Misuzu gets frustrated and drags Tomo off to practice alone instead. When Tomo admits that being cast as the prince doesn’t make her feel much like a girl, Misuzu soon begins to realize that over the years, she helped to perpetuate the idea in Tomo’s mind that she was not feminine enough, to start with, and vows to fix that. Seeing that she’s upset, Jun reluctantly tries to offer Misuzu some advice, telling her she should try talking it out.
The episode ends with Jun helping Tomo run her lines, awkwardly playing Cinderella in Misuzu’s stead.
While viewers could tell Misuzu had been struggling for a while, today was the first time she tried to understand what made her feel the way she was. As a female, I appreciated how the series chose to approach those feelings instead of using them to make Misuzu the villain of the series. She knows she hasn’t always made the best decisions but seeks to improve, and it’s nice to see those emotions explored. You don’t always get that kind of introspection in a high school romance anime, let alone the types of female bonds you see in Tomo, Misuzu, and Carol. Yet with all this going on, the show still managed to keep its fun, hilarious tone all season, showing just how versatile it really is.
What did you think of the anime series Tomo-chan Is a Girl! Season 1 Episode 11? Comment below.
