Filthy Casual for Life

Genre: Slice of Life, Sports Romance
Where to watch: Netflix
Episode Count: 25

Episode 1: Chinatsu Senpai

Our protagonist, Taiki, runs towards school with only one goal in mind. To make it to the gym where his crush Chinatsu is practicing basketball. Taiki goes to an elite sports high school where he practices with the badminton team. He’s a run-of-the-mill player while Chinatsu is the future star of the basketball team.

The gym is bustling with activity and Taiki is talking to his friend Kyo who points out the obvious gap between Taiki and Chinatsu. However, Taiki is undeterred.

We meet Hina, a childhood friend of Taiki. She senses something on Taiki’s mind. He asks her, hypothetically, what someone can do to attract a girl.

She immediately goes into hyper mode and gives him a list of lofty qualities he needs to meet. And the body of a Greek god to boot.

The next morning, Taiki arrives at school to find Chinatsu reading a book. He deduces that the gym doors must still be locked. He sees his opportunity to introduce himself, but chickens out. He decides to stand there quietly. That is until Chinatsu sneezes. He immediately offers his scarf…then his tea…then his hand warmer and gloves. He realizes he’s gone overboard, however, Chinatsu has a smile on her face.

Taiki lets out a sneeze and Chinatsu ties his scarf back around his neck. She calls him by his name. Startled, he asks her how she knows his name. She answers he has a good mom. He realizes that his mom wrote his name on his scarf tag. How embarrassing!

It’s the end of the day and all of the clubs are going home. Taiki notices he left his towel in the gym. Inside the gym is Chinatsu still practicing. When he asks her what she’s doing, she comments that she didn’t like the way she practiced. Somehow, they end up playing a game of one-on-one and she totally beats him. They have a conversation on why he enjoys badminton. Then, he tells her about a moment he first saw her practicing at the gym. Her team had narrowly missed the Nationals and she was frustrated and crying. He admits that seeing her work so hard made him want to work hard, too. For a split second, she looked like she was going to cry, but they’re interrupted by the coach telling them to head home. As they’re cleaning up, they both reach for the same ball and have a moment.

The next morning, Taiki learns that his mom and Chinatsu’s mom played on the same team. His mom tells Taiki that she heard they’re moving overseas. He immediately runs to the gym. Chinatsu is there and he tells her she has to go to Nationals. She interrupts him to tell him that she decided to not go overseas. She tells Taiki that he reminded her not to give up on her dream.

It’s Sunday morning, and Taiki remembers how much he embarrassed himself in front of Chinatsu. He comes to the realization that its the first time he doesn’t want to see her. As he goes down the stairs and enters the kitchen, standing before him in Chinatsu. His mother and her mother come in and announce that she will be living with them in the spring.

THOUGHTS

This had a few really funny moments. It also had a few heartwarming ones. I love how he word vomits all over the place. It’s endearing. Despite that, his crush on her is profound. He saw her at her lowest point, but recognized her strength. It was that strength that motivated him to work hard. That’s pretty sweet. I’m looking forward to how this romance will bloom. Or will it? Will they just be distractions to each other? Will continue to monitor.