Filthy Casual for Life

Genre: Slice of Life, Romance
Where to Watch: Netflix

EPISODE 1: RINTARO AND KAORUKO

There are two groups of boys arguing over who bumped into who first. Here, we meet Rintaro. Our male protagonist. He’s tall, blonde and a bit intimidating. So much so, the other group of boys ran off at the sight of him. We learn that Rintaro attends Chidori Public High School, a bottom-tier public school.

As they are about to enter the building, two girls engaged in a happy conversation suddenly turn quiet and cold. They’re from the school next door. Kikyo Private Academy for Girls High School. One of the boys bends down to pick up a handkerchief that one of the girls dropped, but she tells him to throw it away. You can tell they hate the boys that attend the public high school.

School is over and the group of boys want to go to karaoke after school. However, Rintaro has plans. He runs to a patisserie in the rain. We learn that his parents own the patisserie and he had to help out at the store. He asks his mom if it is okay for him to run the front since he is so scary, but his mom assures him that there is only one customer and it should be slow because of the rain. Rintaro goes to the front and finds a girl with multiple empty plates in front of her. And, as predicted, he scares her.

After fetching her some water, she immediately tells him it was delicious and runs away. When the store closes, he is talking to his mom. He learns that she’s a regular and that her name is Waguri.

The next day at school, Rintaro is still feeling bad about scaring Waguri away from the patisserie. His classmates feel like he’s being distant.

After school, Rintaro is at home. His mom comes rushing up to his room to tell him Waguri is there wanting to see him. When he goes to the store, Waguri tells him she wants to buy him some cake.

Rintaro is convinced the girl is in middle school and is wondering if he should allow such a young girl to buy him a cake from his own cake shop. She explains that she is sorry that she ran out on him. He declines the cake and notices she is staring at it. He pushes the cake toward her and she can’t resist it. After eating the cake, she introduces herself and finally learns his name. Then, she admits that he didn’t scare her. Instead, she tells him he made her heart race.

Rintaro offers to walk her to the station, but she declines. She then tells Rintaro she never once thought he was scary. As she walks off, he runs up to his room and is confused. Before he could think any further, his Mom bursts into his room with the cake container Waguri had. Rintaro immediately heads out to find her.

He overhears a conversation. It’s the boys his classmates were arguing with. They have Waguri trapped and are telling her that Rintaro is a delinquent. Instead of being scared, she finds the courage to defend Rintaro. One of the boys gets tired of her backtalk and reaches back to punch her, but Rintaro gets in the way. He bashes his head on the wall and is bleeding. The boys realizing who he is immediately run off. Waguri immediately runs over to render first aid apologizing for everything.

Rintaro is still hung up on being scary, but Waguri does her best to make him realize that she doesn’t see him that way. She thanks him for helping her. He walks her to the station and as he is walking away, she calls to him and tells him she will come back to the shop so they could eat cake together.

Rintaro doesn’t sleep that night and gets to school early. As he is sitting in his desk, he looks over to the girls school that always keeps their curtains closed. He notices the curtain rustle. The curtain opens and there staring back at him is Waguri.

THOUGHTS

I think this one will be very heartwarming with a lot of character development. At least, that is what I am hoping. So far, I really like Rintaro. He’s hung up on being scary and she’s just what he needs in his life to turn a different corner. He needs confidence in himself. I think I will continue to monitor this one. I hope it fills in some tokidoki moments for me!