The following contains spoilers for Episode 4 of Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, “How They Each Feel at the Start of Summer,” now streaming on Crunchyroll.
The popular deredere Shikimori enjoys a wholesome relationship with her gentle boyfriend Izumi Yuu, and for the most part, fans agree she is the stronger of the two. Unlike the clumsy and unlucky Izumi, Shikimori is confident, popular, athletic and highly skilled — but as Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie Episode 4 shows, this relationship isn’t so lopsided after all.
In many anime romance pairs, the narrative will find ways to put the two lovers on even ground even if one appears to be dominant, and Shikimori finds a few small but meaningful ways to pull it off. That puts it in the same league as Komi Can’t Communicate and My Senpai Is Annoying, among other titles.
In Episode 4 of Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, the narrative once again portrays Izumi as the gentle one who needs protecting; Shikimori passes on having a classic beach episode in favor of going to the river instead, so she can suit Izumi’s preferences. She can protect her boyfriend in all kinds of ways, and it seems Izumi owes her a lot of favors by now. He sometimes repays her with romantic gestures such as their informative date in Episode 3, but Izumi has other ways to level the playing field.
Nekozaki notes that Shikimori has Izumi in the palm of her hand as she humorously pressures him into buying a swimsuit for the upcoming river adventure, even if he’s not too keen on the idea. However, Episode 4 reverses this when Izumi teases her about buying a stylish swimsuit, even if Shikimori nervously tries to hide that fact. He can read his girlfriend like a book when he teases her, which prompts Nekozaki to say that Shikimori’s the one in Izumi’s hand instead. The teasing goes both ways, and this might continue in future episodes. Izumi’s arms and legs may be clumsy, but his tongue proves rather smooth.
Later, Episode 4 balances the young lovers even more when Shikimori and Izumi have a pleasant chat that evening. They both look at the North Star through their bedroom windows, then realize they wish they could see each other’s faces as they say goodnight. When they hang up, each loudly says how they want to see the other’s kind face, and that prompts someone in their respective households to comment on how noisy they are being.
When Shikimori and Izumi are separated, their feelings of longing are perfectly even; neither can protect or tease the other about it. When it comes to the most intimate and important matters, the powerful Shikimori and her boyfriend are 50/50, which explains how their relationship is still going strong.
The events of Episode 4 may remind Shikimori fans of similar scenes in other recent rom-com anime where a seemingly one-sided relationship is balanced out when the two characters focus on what really matters. An example is My Senpai Is Annoying, when Futaba and Takeda exchanged favors after each of them caught a nasty head cold, which evened the playing field after Takeda had been established as the stronger, more confident lover. He was seemingly perfect, until he fell ill and took his turn as the one who had to be nursed back to health.
Another example is Komi Can’t Communicate, the high school rom-com where the gorgeous and ultra-popular Komi was, in any social setting, much stronger than her plain friend Tadano Hitohito. But when they talked on the phone one evening, they spoke as equals with none of Komi’s admirers to get in the way. Then, like Shikimori and Izumi, both Komi and Tadano reacted with noisy glee when they got off the phone, happy at having their first real conversation out of school.
That exchange balanced them perfectly, and Episode 4 of Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie imitated that scene just right, down to the use of cell phones and noisy exclamations of happiness after hanging up. It’s a good sign moving forward.
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